Web Hostgods

I just received the following announcement - somewhat expected, and very interesting!

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As a valued client of Be Free/Commission Junction I want to let you know about a milestone for our combined organization. Since late last year we have been working as a unified force and effective immediately, we are adopting Commission Junction as the unified brand for our company. Our name represents two industry powerhouses, and our identity and culture will continue to reflect the positive characteristics of our teams in Marlborough, New York, Pittsburgh, London, and Santa Barbara.

Our continued focus is to provide the best performance marketing solutions anywhere. The combination of BFAST®, CJ Access™ and CJ Vantage™ brings to market capabilities that are unparalleled in the industry today and we are making great progress with the integration of these offerings. Of course, as we continue this important effort, we will ensure that all of our current solutions remain fully operational and supported to ensure nothing but continued growth and success for each of our clients.

We will be making this announcement to the public with a press release tomorrow and adopting a single Web site at www.cj.com. From the homepage of the newly combined site you will be able to login into all of your accounts including the CJ Account Manager for advertisers and publishers, BFAST, and the BFAST Partner Gateway. Look for other developments on this site during the coming months.

Our team is focused on driving results for our clients and I remain very excited about the increased capabilities that we can bring to you. I would like to thank each of you for contributing to our strong foundation and the momentum that has propelled us to this significant event. I look to the future with anticipation of even greater success.

Regards,
Jeff Pullen
General Manager
Commission Junction, a ValueClick company

According to a thread on Webmaster World, Yahoo is kicking out lots of affiliate sites who use merchant product data to create doorway pages.

It seems that Yahoo is penalizing or banning domains with duplicate content or affiliate links. While there is certainly some junk that needs to be cleaned out, I am concerned that there will a fair share of collateral damage from this - the removal of top notch sites that have some affiliate links.

I’m not sure of the criteria being used by Yahoo, but this is a good wake-up call to evaluate which affiliate links are working for you, and dumping those that are not providing a decent ROI.

It’s a general rule that a relatively small percentage of the affiliate population delivers the biggest chunk of sales, and those top-performing affiliates get extra assistance from affiliate network service providers to push sales even higher. But affiliate service providers who don’t look beyond top-line numbers in deciding what—and how much – help to extend to top affiliates are missing the boat, contends LinkShare Corp.CEO Steve Messer.

Top–producing affiliates that merit the affiliate network’s extra attention are generally distinguished first by the volume of sales they generate, but exclusively so. They may qualify for very different tools, services and programs from the network, depending on the affiliate’s business model, size, rate of growth and other factors. And because the extra services and attention may draw on the resources of the network, its merchant partners, or both, it’s the network’s job to invest them where they’re most likely to have an impact.

Click here for the complete article in Internet Retailer.

I just heard that Andy Rodriguez, Haiko de Poel, Jr., and Mike Mackin are launching TrueTracker.com, a ParasiteWareâ„¢ FREE affiliate program network.

According to the site…

“TrueTracker is a new innovative network created to further the evolution of ethical and controlled affiliate marketing. With access to over 10,000 active, enthusiastic and pre-screened revenue producing affiliates. Featuring ParasiteWareâ„¢ FREE merchants, accurate monitoring of affiliate traffic with real time reporting and aggregate payments TrueTracker expects to be the network of choice by both Merchants and Affiliates. We provide all the tools and services needed to create, run and manage a successful affiliate marketing program, including Outsourced Program Management and Full PPC Campaign Management for participating merchants.”

Good luck, fellas!