Good morning, Berlin. Let's see if today is going to be less hectic than the past 7 days.
If you happen to be around at the a4uexpo affiliate marketing conference in London next week, this one might be of interest for you:
On Tuesday between 2pm and 4pm you’ll have the opportunity to get some free one-to-one consulting on mobile marketing and mobile advertising. You will be able to find me in the expert surgery zone. Details can be found on the a4uexpo blog.
Just read the news on Google’s blog: They are introducing postview tracking.
Google call it “view through to conversion”. And as far as I understand them, this is going to be available on the content network only.
They are using a 30-day cookie for postview. I hope nobody optimizes based on these numbers 
German affiliate network SuperClix has openly rejected the use of post-view tracking. Marcus Lutz, the owner, even sent out t-shirts to make his point. Thanks for that.
I am not against post-view per se. I think this is a good approach to rewarding affiliates that provide advertising value even without producing clicks. But the way it is being conducted by most affiliates and networks these days is NOT how it was originally intended to be. Currently it does more harm than good. That’s why I support SuperClix fully in this regard.
In theory, post-view tracking is supposed to reward affiliates for sales that originated not in clicks but in impressions of creatives. For example, a user would see a banner and a couple hours later go to the merchant’s website because he remembered the ad. In this case it would be absolutely fair to pay that affiliate a commission for a sale because he contributed directly to the transaction.
In today’s practice however, I would say that there is little connection bewteen the impression of the ad and a post-view sale. Most transactions that are considered post-view sales are purely based on cookie-spamming. Why?
Post-view affiliates know that they can’t make money legitimately. That’s why they create multi-merchant banners, displaying say three ads (and dropping three cookies) at one time. And to make this even worse, these banners contain rotations, so that new ads are being shown every ten seconds (thus new cookies are being dropped). And the smaller the ads are the less likely they are going to create a real advertising effect.
So merchants, don’t get fooled by what networks, agencies and affiliates tell you. At this stage, post-view tracking is still a rip-off and a bunch of crap. There are no standards yet, it’s the wild west days. These days you will not make more money just because of post-view tracking. The opposite is true, you will end up spending more.
For a while YouTube has been making its videos available as downloadable MP4 files. Here is how you can change a regular YouTube RSS feed into an MP4 video podcast.
You will need a server or webspace that supports PHP. Create a PHP file containing the following:
<?php
if ($_GET["source"]=="youtube") {
if ($_GET["user"]!="") {
$url = "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/".$_GET["user"]."/uploads?alt=rss&v=2&orderby=published";
} else if ($_GET["q"]!="") {
$url = "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/videos?q=".urlencode($_GET["q"])."&alt=rss&v=2&orderby=published";
}
}
if ($url!="") {
$xml = file_get_contents($url);
$items = explode("<item>",$xml);
$output = $items[0];
for ($i=1;$i<count($items);$i++) {
$tmp = explode("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=",$items[$i]);
$tmp = explode("\"",$tmp[1]);
$tmp = $tmp[0];
$output.= "<item><enclosure url=\"http://www.youtubemp4.com/video/".$tmp.".mp4\" type=\"video/mp4\"/>".$items[$i];
}
echo $output;
}
?>
Video podcast of a certain YouTube user:
http://your.file.name?source=youtube&user=USERNAME
Video podcast based on a search on YouTube:
http://your.file.name?source=youtube&q=SEARCH+THIS
This script makes use of a site named youtubemp4.com which spits out the MP4 file of any given YouTube video.
dmexco is the new major conference for online marketing in Germany. It’s supposed to be the continuation of the former OMD.
While planning this event, the organizers apparently forgot that another great trade show is taking place at the same time: ad:tech London.
I will be exhibiting with a booth in London, so I’ll have to give the German show a miss. Sorry, maybe next time.
I had a problem with a color laser printer from Samsung and opened an online support ticket on Wednesday night. On Thursday afternoon they called me to get more details about the problem. A package with a new imaging unit arrived on Friday afternoon. That’s what I call customer service!
I’ve just heard the news about eBay pulling their affiliate programs in German-speaking countries out of Affilinet next month. eBay has done this in most countries before already. It makes total sense as they are now able to customize everything to their needs and switch to a performance-oriented click commission (away from pay-per-sale).
However, what struck me is the fact that Affilinet will continue to the following things for eBay here:
Now, isn’t this what we usually describe as “affiliate agency services” or “outsourced program management” (OPM)?
Granted, all networks are more than just technical solution providers. They try to push their affiliates into the most profitable programs, share data, and so on. Everyone is out there to get the most out of things.
However, networks must maintain a minimum level of neutrality. I think with Affilinet openly providing full service to a single merchant they’ve lost their neutrality. I’m a strong believer in the separation of powers between merchants, affiliates, networks, and agencies. Fishy stuff will happen whenever you mix up the roles.
Ask yourself: If you were a merchant, would you run an affiliate program on a network which is also the full-service agency of your competitor?
I’ve just returned from Leipzig where I attented the Affiliate Stammtisch. This networking event took place at the Moritzbastei in the city center, a medieval fortress-like building which looks like it was part of the ancient city wall. Wardrobe and restrooms probably used to be dungeons. At least they’ve kept the metal doors from back then. Nice location, perfect for the size of the event.
Affiliate Stammtisch was organized by Martin Dorst’s online marketing agency. They’re based in Leipzig and serve not only national retailers but also work for regional and local clients which I find great. Many agencies compete over the same clients, usually the large enterprises. But I believe the small and medium-sized companies are a huge market too.
I liked that they didn’t have a formal agenda for the evening. People go to networking events because they want to talk and not because they want to listen to lengthy presentations. Some of the sponsors didn’t even show up, probably because it was a Friday evening.
But most importantly, I really liked the fact that Martin wasn’t trying to turn the evening into a self-promotion show for his company. You know, at similar events organized by agencies they’re just using this for hardcore selling. Some companies don’t realize that they need to build reputation by action and not words. Martin understands this concept very well and I’m sure he and his team got something out of their work without having to push hard.
So thanks to Martin, Alexander and the rest of the team. I’m looking forward to next year’s event.
Lately I’ve checked out a number of (mostly American) CPA networks and realized how old-fashioned most affiliate networks turn out to be. Here is why I like CPA networks much better.
Programs vs. Offers
Affiliate networks are usually about merchants. Some of the programs bombard you with every possible banner, link and product feed they have and don’t really help you much in making a choice. CPA networks on the contrary are usually about landing pages. A CPA offer may have a couple of landing pages, but that’s it. Lately the affiliate networks have adopted the CPA trend and started what they call campaigns. They’re basically integrating landing-page-only programs into their portfolio.
Direct Relationship vs. Blind Network
In a traditional affiliate network the merchant (or the agency) has direct contact to the affiliate. In a CPA network the affiliate talks only to the network, not the merchant. Usually the merchant doesn’t know the identity of the affiliate either.
Approval Process vs. Instant Start
Most affiliate programs have an admission process, many of them approve affiliates manually. In a CPA network you have no direct relationship with the advertiser, so there is no approval process. Affiliates can start right away and pull their codes. Don’t you hate how long some affiliate managers sometimes take to approve you?
Open vs. Confirmed Transactions
Probably every affiliate network can assign leads and sales a certain status: unconfirmed, confirmed, denied. I can understand the point of the merchants as they only want to pay for transactions for which the customer has actually paid. But affiliates, especially those that do media buying, need to know their final revenue by the end of the day. They can’t do effective media buying if they don’t know much money they actually made the previous day. So it’s no surprise that most CPA networks don’t get into this. They solve this for example by paying for every transaction but with a lower payout.
Secrets vs. Transparency
There are still a number of affiliate networks that keep the performance of their programs secret. On the other hand, CPA networks are usually brutally honest and give you access to the metrics. Not only that you see the stuff in the interface. The other day I received an email from a CPA network with a list of all eCPCs for their search offers. I’ve never received this from any affiliate network before, even when I asked them for it.
Conclusion
Very simple. If you are a content publisher, stay with the good old-fashioned affiliate networks. They provide you with all the fancy ads that you can throw on your sites. Also, the really big brands want to be in control of their affiliates so you won’t find very many of them on CPA networks. However, if you are a media buyer who wants to drive hardcore sales, go for the CPA networks.
Shawn Collins recommending resources for mobile affiliate marketing on video:
Check out my Mobile Space podcast on GeekCast.fm!