Accusations of click fraud are nothing new in affiliate marketing, but the volume of complaints about Facebook recently has raised more than a few eyebrows. Now even the social networking gorilla is acknowledging “suspicious” activity. Facebook aims to nearly double its revenue this year to about $550 million, including a big boost from CPC ad sales.
As Michael Arrington points out on TechCrunch, scores of outraged affiliates have been venting their rage on WickedFire (forum membership required), claiming the number of clicks reported by Facebook is much higher than the number showing up through tracking tools like Prosper202/Tracking202. “Tracking 202 is telling me 11 clicks…Facebook is telling me 145,” notes one affiliate. Another writes, “There are lots of places to buy traffic, some that will even actually give you the traffic you are paying for. Facebook is never going to admit to what’s going on. I can almost guarantee you that.”
The network is asking affiliates to provide documentation of any problems they’ve observed. A Facebook spokesman says, “Over the past few days, we have seen an increase in suspicious clicks. We have identified a solution which we have already begun to implement and expect will be completely rolled out by the end of today. In addition, we are identifying impacted accounts and will ensure that advertisers are credited appropriately.” Stay tuned!
If you are involved in building websites or landing pages than you can’t help but be familiar with WordPress. While Bloggers have been using this platform for years, it has become more and more popular for all kinds of websites as recent releases have made it even more flexible and user friendly.
One of the keys to getting the most out of WordPress is selecting or designing a “theme” (i.e. a structural look and feel for the site). While many companies provide pre-packaged themes for marketers who don’t want to design their own site or pay for a custom theme, few of them focus on the Affiliate Marketing community.
Recently, we saw a demo from Unique Blog Designs for their new product – Affiliate Theme. This is an impressive tool that was designed specifically with Affiliate Marketers in mind. It provides a very simple and user-friendly (but also very robust) interface that makes it easy to set up WordPress sites quickly, test different design variables and focus on revenue generation.
Affiliate Theme also includes an in-depth Resource Center with step-by-step video tutorials, a support forum and a variety of exclusive podcast interviews with top Internet and Affiliate Marketers. Affiliate Theme has gained the attention and support of a number of successful online marketers and is well worth a look if you are planning on building any websites or landing pages through WordPress.
affiliate.com Affiliates can take advantage of an exclusive 15% off coupon code when they order Affiliate Theme. Simply enter 7DD6678012 in the coupon code box on the order form, which can be found here.
Google’s I/O event kicked-off yesterday (a soccer related metaphor for those of us still mourning the result of yesterday’s Champion’s League Final) with an announcement of a new set of social media widgets: Google Web Elements.
These new widgets allow publishers to easily add Google’s most popular products such as Maps, Calendar and Search, to web pages without having to delve into the Google API.
Eight are available with immediate effect:
Calendar - set up a custom calendar for your visitors
Conversation - provide a visitor comment capability
Custom Search - simple search of your web site;
Maps - help visitors find a location;
News - select topics and display related Google News articles;
Presentations - embed Google Docs presentations directly into your site
Spreadsheets - allows current reports and other info to be displayed
YouTube News - simple YouTube embedding
None of these are world-shattering but they leverage Google’s technological resources to expand their reach even further, while the Conversation widget not only utilizes Google Friend Connect but will additionally help it to recover from a somewhat rocky start.
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Many people in the Affiliate Marketing industry make their occasional trips across the country for Affiliate Summit, ad:tech, Search Engine Strategies, LeadsCon, this year’s inaugural Affiliate Convention, or one of many other trade shows or conferences. These events give attendees the chance to sit in on panel discussions and check out different companies in the exhibit hall. However, one of the biggest benefits of hitting the trade show circuit is the opportunity to network with other people in the industry. Whether it is building new business relationships, learning from your peers, or just sharing experiences and meeting new people in the business, there is tremendous value in networking.
While you may have no problem jetting off to Vegas for a conference a few times a year, what are you doing about networking closer to home? With the rise of Facebook, LinkedIn and other online networking sites, more and more local networking groups have appeared in all sorts of industries. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t miss the Affiliate Convention, designed specifically to meet the needs of all affiliate marketers. Revenue subscribers receive a $100 discount on registration.
The convention is free for all working affiliates with sessions planned to help grow your affiliate business. With a diverse line-up of speakers and workshops selected to appeal to the grassroots of the affiliate marketing industry, the inaugural Affiliate Convention promises to be an interesting and inspiring event. For tailored exhibit and sponsorship opportunities please contact Caleb@AffiliateConvention.com. For more information or to register, please visit, http://www.affiliateconvention.com
Last week, Google announced a major change in their policy regarding the usage of trademarks in AdWords. With effect from June 15th, they will allow certain categories of advertisers to not just buy keywords containing trademarked terms, but also to include those trademarks in their advertisement text.
This new policy has an official explanation, a more-likely-but-unofficial explanation and a whole bunch of stakeholders in the AdWords process who are going to be affected. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s funny how most people see the affiliate marketing space as something independent of search. True, the ones who don’t fall into the “most” category are well aware of the benefits of the search industry to solid affiliate marketing. People like Jeremy Shoemaker (a.k.a. Shoemoney) and Rae Hoffman (a.k.a. Sugarrae) have taken advantage of this for years.
Affiliate marketing and paid search also share a lowly position in the marketing efforts of most Fortune 500 companies and largely for the same reason — it seems like a lot of work for a little return. Where they differ is most search people don’t mind that the large companies aren’t there raising the cost of clicks, whereas affiliate marketers would love them to enter the fray so they could have more well-branded products to market. Read the rest of this entry »
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(forum membership required), claiming the number of clicks reported by Facebook is much higher than the number showing up through tracking tools like Prosper202/Tracking202. “Tracking 202 is telling me 11 clicks…Facebook is telling me 145,” notes one affiliate. Another writes, “There are lots of places to buy traffic, some that will even actually give you the traffic you are paying for. Facebook is never going to admit to what’s going on. I can almost guarantee you that.”