Jesse Willms Loses Everything to FTC

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2012-02-23

The FTC has basically destroyed Jesse Willms, the famous Canadian Acai peddler. In a settlement order, that is part of the FTC’s campaign on affiliate and online marketing scams, basically bans Willms from ever operating in a similar manner in the US. His offer, including a penny auction scam, ran on dozens of affiliate CPA networks.

The settlement also fines him $359 Million in cash, which will be suspended as long as Willms turns over pretty much everything that he owns. The order requires him to sell his house, close and sell all his companies, cars, furs, and expensive artwork.

The Willms settlement order also permanently prohibits Willms from ever engaging in any business that works by:

debiting consumers’ bank accounts without first obtaining their express verifiable authorization;
misrepresenting any product or service or the terms and conditions associated with any offer, specifically including claims of “free,” “risk-free,” or “trial offer;”
failing to clearly disclose the terms and conditions of any offer, including refund terms, before requesting consumers’ payment information;
making misleading or unsubstantiated disease-prevention, weight-loss, and other health-related claims;
using false or deceptive endorsements and testimonials;
failing to monitor the activities of marketing affiliates and affiliate networks involved in the marketing of any Willms product or service; and
making misrepresentations in order to obtain services from payment processors, banks, and other third parties.

The fact that almost four million consumers fell prey to the lure of these ‘free trial’ offers is a stark reminder that ‘free’ offers can come at a huge price,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC has stopped about $1 billion in online marketing fraud during the past two years by shutting down operations like this. But consumers still need to beware, because scam artists are constantly coming up with new ways to deceive people online.”

According to the settlement, Canadian Authorities including the Canadian Competition Bureau were involved in the investigation against Willms.

“International collaboration is increasingly important for enforcement agencies combating deceptive practices online,” said Lisa Campbell, Deputy Commissioner of Competition for the Competition Bureau. “The Bureau worked with the FTC as part of our ongoing investigation into alleged misleading representations by Mr. Willms and his companies.

10 Great Women of Affiliate Marketing

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-23

33

Today in my Google news alerts came a story that claimed there were no women in the industry. The writing was a bit on sexist side, claiming that women aren’t in the industry because it’s a high risk industry, and basically that they are only good for being pretty affiliate managers. This is not only untrue, but is based on a limited viewpoint from the industry: the guys who flash their bling on their website and pretend to be online thugs. That’s a very small (yet vocal) part of the industry and does not make at all the majority of the industry, let alone anywhere where the income comes from.

I’m note even going to link to the blog and provide traffic, because frankly I find this type of linkbait offensive, disguising and completely immature.

The problem is that that part of the industry has no idea how all these women network, how they influence—which has a lot less about displaying “bling” on their website, or talking about their stripclub adventures, but more about doing real business. While I’m going to piss off some people saying this, all of these women can teach the entire industry not only how to network, but how to have a more stable income and more fulfilling life.

So, without much-ado, here’s a list of 10 great women in the industry, all of them who have made significant impact. There is no rhyme or reason on the order, except for #1, and I apologize for missing some. And yes, it became eleven women, and I wanted to add more.

11. Erin Cigich
http://www.clickbooth.com
Erin is the President of ClickBooth, one of the top CPA networks in the world. She’s the woman in charge of over $100M of income generated by Integraclick, and someone who everyone knows in our industry.

10. Trisha Hawthorne
http://www.cuttingedgeoffers.com/
@ trishacemedia
Trisha has been with Cutting Edge Media for almost 15 years, and has been a part of this industry since its started. She basically runs Cutting Edge Offers, one of the top 10 networks in our survey. Not only is she born on the same day as me, but she’s equally as amazing and smart.

9. Jennine Rexon
http://www.rexdirectnet.com/
@rexdirectnet
Jennine is the CEO of RexDirectNet, the parent company of RexTopia. Don’t know them? Well, through RexConnects they are one of the top pay per call networks out there, and RexTopia is a major lead gen and coupon type network. She’s managed to do this with half a dozen children (ok, only 4)

8. Kirsty McCubbin
http://www.affiliatestuff.co.uk/
@AffiliateStuff
She’s a full-time affiliate marketer probably making more money than all the boys out there. Instead of talking about it all the time, she’s out there actually making it a very nice full time income.

7. Linda Buquet
http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/
@lindabuquet
Her affiliate blog is consistently names as one of the top blogs in the industry, and has been on every major list of bloggers known to man..um.. womankind. She’s considered one of the evangelists of the industry and someone that everyone listens to.

6. Tricia Meyer
http://www.tricia.me/
@sunshinetricia
Tricia is a well known affiliate with a lot of love for the industry. She talks on her blog a lot about not only her business, but her loves for causes. The only boobies you’ll find on her site are those fighting breast cancer.

5. Deborah Carney
http://www.affiliateabcs.com
@loxly
She owns one of the most respected affiliate management companies, and like many of the women here, speaks at every single Affiliate Summit. She’s also the administrator of the official Affiliate Summit forum

4. Rebecca Madigan
http://performancemarketingassociation.com/
Perhaps one of the most “influential” people in our industry, she’s been the executive director of the Performance Marketing Association since it’s founding. I’ve gotten to know her over the last few years and can tell you that her hard work is one of the reasons our industry is growing and not facing serious taxes everywhere.

3. Lisa Picarille
http://performancemarketingassociation.com/blog2
@lisap
She’s an all around writer, former editor of Revenue Performance, and the Content Strategist for the Performance Marketing Association. She writes a load of articles a week that appear everywhere from Revenews to the PMA blog.

2. Rae Hoffman-Dolan
@sugarrae
http:// www.sugarrae.com
One of the top bloggers in the industry, for both affiliate marketing and marketing in general. She started in this industry years ago and her blog, Sugarrae. She’s also one of the most quoted, most interviewed people I know and someone that everyone needs to follow.

1. Missy Ward.
http://www.missyward.com
@Missyward
Not only a strong woman, but someone who has one of the most significant impacts in the industry for women. She’s the co-founder of Affiliate Summit, Founder of Feedfront, Founder of… hell, she’s founded a lot of things. She’s energized women in the industry and many people in this list have called her their inspiration, why they are involved in causes and most importantly, why they are proud to be in our industry.

As a note, wanted to mention Missy’s new Forum, Women Online Marketers United http://joinwomu.com

Leaked Facebook Ad Document Here

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-22

3

Here are the leaked Facebook ad platform update documents, as mentioned in our article on New Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads Will be Gone As We Know It.

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-22

4

A leaked document, available here on Performance Marketing Insider Leaked Facebook Document, has suggested that Facebook may soon be introducing changes to its premium PPC ads.

Facebook’s PPC platform is already a very popular one, with businesses around the world using it to gain insights into how far their advert reached and just what kind of people clicked on it. Marketers and Affiliates have all tried to learn how to turn Facebook ads into money, and it’s one of the most popular mechanism for affiliate marketing

Now, Facebook appears to be lining up one of its biggest ad updates in recent memory; with the its premium ads seeing something of an evolution.

Whilst nothing has yet been confirmed by the social networks, the leaked document states that in the coming months, businesses will be able to target the friends of those who already like their brand; potentially opening the advert up to a much larger audience.

This is also set to give the ad more gravity, as users may be more likely to pay it attention if their friends have already registered an interest.

The leaked document, printed on cnet.com, reads: “Post on your page and reach 16 per cent of your fans. Make 1 post/day into an Ad to reach 3-5x more fans. Run expanded Premium Ads with a 20-30x frequency to reach friends of fans and your target audience.”

How these Upgraded Premium Ads work?

Make a page post: There are 6 kinds of page posts to choose from: status updates (text), photos, videos, links, questions, and events.
You can turn your page posts into ads, Anything you can post on your page can be turned into an ad. These ads can targeted to anyone on Facebook.
When the person seeing your ad has friends who are fans of your page, Facebook will automatically expand the ad with enhanced social context about those friends, at no extra cost to you.
When fans see your ad, they’ll see an expanded interface below the ad that lets them like or comment on the posts directly from the ad.

It goes on to claim that users are four times more likely to make a purchase when they see a friend has interacted with a brand.

Whilst not yet confirmed by Facebook, an announcement is expected on February 29th.

Luke Kling #1 Affiliate Manager in the World

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-21

14

We are delighted to announce that Luke Kling of PeerFly has been voted as the #1 Affiliate Manager in the World as per our Winter 2012 Survey. One of the interesting things to note is that he actually received more votes than PeerFly itself, which was voted as the Top CPA Affiliate Network for the Winter 2012. This means that while some people voted for another CPA Affiliate Network, they still voted for him as the top affiliate manager. I think that says a lot about the loyalty of his affiliates and how he interacts with them.

We sat down with him briefly after telling him the good news that he was getting a $1k gift card from us, plus that out of thousands of votes, he was considered the top affiliate manager.

How does it feel to be named the #1 Affiliate Manager in the entire CPA industry?
I am very proud and excited to be named the #1 Affiliate Manager. I take my job very seriously and really enjoy working with my publishers so I find this as the ultimate pat on the back.

How did you get started in this industry?
When I was in high school I built and sold websites on DigitalPoint and SitePoint. Building websites has been a hobby of mine for awhile, but I was never really good at monetizing them so I just sold them to make money. My sophomore year I sold a website to Kevin De Vincenzi, the owner of XY7.com. Kevin and I stayed in contact after the sale and he seemed pretty impressed by me and hired me to manage his portfolio of websites. He explained to me how he wanted to monetize them using affiliate marketing and although I was not completely new to affiliate marketing, he was a network owner and experienced marketer so I “picked his brain” for everything it was worth. After a few months Kevin offered me a job working for XY7 as an Affiliate Manager and I happily accepted.

I worked for XY7 on two separate occasions from my sophomore year of high school until my sophomore year of college. During my sophomore year of college I accepted a new position as Affiliate Manager at PeerFly and the rest is history 🙂

What do you do special to keep in touch with your affiliates?
I manage our entire publisher base at PeerFly and we have over 25,000 active publishers. Keeping in touch with everyone is probably impossible, but I have been able to manage these accounts successfully by myself for over two years now. Our custom system at PeerFly helps a lot by automating many of the tasks I would normally have to do manually. For example, if you sign up as a publisher, but do not complete your application within a week you get a nice email from me offering to help you finish your application. I automatically send out hundreds of these emails every week and although I do have to follow up with publishers needing assistance, our system helps out a lot. Besides automation, I use social media to keep in touch. I have over 6,000 followers on Twitter (@LukePeerFly) and I tweet with publishers all day.

Over the past year I have also started my Affiliate Manager Blog (http://www.lukepeerfly.com). With my blog and my new newsletter (Affiliate Manager Exclusive: http://www.lukepeerfly.com/affiliate-manager-exclusive) I am able to assist and help publishers on a mass scale.

I’ve read that you provide a lot of training and advice to your affiliates. Can you give me examples of what you teach them about the industry that is different than most AMs do?
Providing training and advice for my publishers is a huge deal for me. Their success is my success. I do my best to provide them with the information they need to be successful and I do this a few different ways.

WarriorForum
We are probably one of the best represented affiliate networks on the WarriorForum. We are very “noob friendly” and our custom interface is easy to use so the affiliates on WarriorForum enjoy working with us. Of course, it’s a forum for affiliate marketing so there are a TON questions and ideas being thrown around. I try to be as active as possible in the discussion and provide any information I can to lead everyone in what I belive is the right direction.

LukePeerFly.com
I started my blog so I could help my publishers on a mass scale. I have covered pretty much every PeerFly related quesion a publisher might have, I am releasing case studies and landing page examples, and I am always covering different traffic sources that we are seeing success with.

What forums do you use? Which forum do you recommend for a beginner and which forum for veteran CPA affiliate?
I am currently active on 3 different affiliate marketing forums. The two I would suggest for beginners are WarriorForum.com and CPAFix.com. CPAFix.com is new, but new members are joining daily, other networks are getting active in the discussion, and a lot of good information is being shared.

Novice and experienced marketers need to join IMGrind. It’s a paid private community, but it’s owned by two guys that know their stuff and full of experienced marketers sharing high quality information. As I mentioned in my IMGrind review (http://www.lukepeerfly.com/imgrind-review) I used the information I found on one thread in IMGrind to make about $2,000 in just a few weeks after joining. It’s well worth the price.

What tool would you like see developed that would help your job as an Affiliate Manager easier?
I have been bugging Chad (PeerFly CEO) for a tool that will allow me to mass email my publishers by their ID, but haven’t gotten that one yet 🙂 Really, I just need a few more hours in the day. One of the things that really pushed me to start working for PeerFly was the custom interface. As a programmer, I know the power of being able to build your own tools. Our PeerFly team is dedicated and we have some of the best tools available to get the job done and the ones we don’t have are being created for us each day. When someone messages me on our live chat or calls my phone I have their information from their account in front of me before they even say hello. These tools make my job a lot easier, which is why PeerFly is probably the only network our size with one Affiliate Manager and why we have grown so quickly.

What type of offers would you advise affiliates to start focusing on and why?
Anyone who has heard of PeerFly knows we have email and zip submits. We have about 1,300 active offers and half of them are email and zip submits. We continue to add these offers daily because they are easy to get conversions on whether you are brand new to the industry or an experienced affiliate. However, we are continuing to diversify our offer selection outside of email submits. Our business development team is working hard to build great relationships with new clients on a daily basis. Some verticals we are focusing on are weight loss, dating, and insurance. People are always trying to lose weight, find a partner, and save money 🙂

What do you think that Peerfly offers that no other network can offer?
The industries #1 Affiliate Manager 🙂 But seriously, our growth has been tremendous since we first opened our doors just a few short years ago and we are continuing to grow at such a great rate because of the success of our publishers. We have a great team, a well built network, always pay on time, have a large amount of quality offers, and the support of the entire industry. I have a great relationship with a lot of our competitors, but I cannot say there is a single one that has the combination of great qualities I find in PeerFly.

What are you going to do with the prize money from the contest?
I told my publishers from the very beginning of this contest that I was going to take part of the money and use it to invest in testing new traffic sources so I can provide some case studies for them. I plan to do a few giveaways on my blog also as a way to give back. With the rest, I’ll probably take my wife out to dinner and put it towards my taxes from last year 🙂

Official Top 10 CPA Networks Announced

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-21

49

Performance Marketing Insider is proud to announce the results of our Top 10 CPA Networks Survey for the Winter 2012. This survey is a continuation of the survey that has been done for almost 10 years, first with ADBUMb then ADOTAS.com. The industry has obviously made some huge changes, and with that every year those changes become more apparent based on who leads the industry.

CPA Networks have become one of the cornerstones of the Performance Marketing Industry and has provided income for hundreds of thousands of people acting as independent small business professionals. This has occurred even while our economy has suffered, making the enormous growth we’ve seen even more remarkable.

This was one of the biggest surveys that we’ve had, with thousands of affiliates, marketers and industry executives voting for their favorite CPA network. Here are the results of the 2012 Winter Survey of the Top CPA Affiliate Networks. -0-

10. Affiliate Venture Group
http://affiliateventuregroup.com/
By far the “smallest” network on our list, it has become a boutique network run by Ricky Ahuja who has made a name for himself and his blog. While he’s not the biggest in the industry, he’s definitely one of the most liked.

9. CrushAds
http://www.crushads.com
CrushAds was just launched this year, a spin off of the major lead generation and mailing company BMI Elite. After buying the entire data and lead generation business from the guys who own Cake Marketing, they decided it seemed smart to open their own CPA Network. Already they’ve hired the best talent in Florida and are making waves.

8. MundoMedia
http://www.mundomedia.com/
MundoMedia is know as the preeminent mobile performance network. They are know as having more mobile offers than anyone in the space. In addition to this, Mundo is also a one-stop-shop for some of the best converting offers in the performance space.

7. MaxBounty
http://maxbounty.com/
Despite a well publicized battle with Facebook that was settled outside the Courts eventually, Max Bounty has bounced back bigger than ever. Located in Canada, they work every single American Holiday, and are one of those companies that have stood the test of time since 2004.

6. Cutting Edge Offers
http://www.cuttingedgeoffers.com
Don’t know these guys? Well, if you are running a biz-opp offer on another network, it probably comes from them. Formerly known as the BizOpp Network, Cutting Edge Offers is a division of one of the longest running companies in our industry, Cutting Edge Media. For almost 15 years they have been a key part of the industry.

5. CPAWAY
http://www.cpaway.com
We aren’t sure what they are doing at CPAWAY, but its definitely making them money. CPAWAY has expended in the last year to include a new division focused on Incentive Marketing. They’ve also been the biggest sponsor of almost every conference, every major publication and magazine – and their logo is everywhere. They’ve made it clear that the way is definitely focused on them.

4. Neverblue
http://www.neverblue.com
Neverblue is one of those companies that everyone knows in the industry. While it doesn’t exactly specialize in anything, everyone knows that it’s a stable company with the ability to provide service to affiliates and always pay their bills on time. That’s helped them slowly grow since 2004 from a small company run by four guys to being sold and being one of the biggest companies in our industry.

3. Adscend Media
http://www.adscendmedia.com
Adscend Media has helped bring the content locking industry to light, and with that has made huge noise about this innovative technique of promoting offers. While not everyone has gotten on the content bandwagon, they’ve been out there pushing it as one of the most cost effective techniques in the industry. Depsite some negative news this year also, they are still growing in leaps and bounds.

2. ClickBooth
http://www.clickbooth.com
ClickBooth is the 500lb Gorilla in the Room, and always the company to beat. Last year they were ranked #1 and are considered one of the most stable, long lasting companies in the industry. This is a company that almost every “Super-Affiliate” mentions time and time again, and they are rumored to pay out over $100M a year to affiliates.

1. Peerfly.
http://www.peerfly.com
Started in 2009, Peerfly has become one the biggest success stories of the past year. Even though they are a small company compared to many on the list, they have perhaps one of the most loyal audiences. If you ask anyone in the industry about Peerfly, they will tell you they are a one-stop shop for everything. More importantly, they have some of the most knowledgeable and well-liked affiliate managers, including Luke Kling, our top Affiliate Manager of this year.

Scrubbing is a Scam. Shame on You.

By

Kevin De Vincenzi

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2012-02-21

15

There are all types of crafty names “Optimization adjustment”, “Throttle”, or good old “front end scrub”

Being a media buyer I find this nothing short of thievery and feel it should be exposed. It all started back in the early stages of coreg in 2004. Many of you remember the first wave of one field offers out there free $10 Burger King Card etc. when the RPU (revenue per user) dropped below a certain level the advertiser started scrubbing or not reporting all pixel fires, A terrible dishonest practice which has now evolved into tracking systems like Hitpath, Cake, Hasoffers and others adding “adjustment buttons” which allows networks to pay any rate they want and then scrub it down to make it profitable.

Shame on you guys.

As one guy I will leave nameless said on one of my private discussion groups “A performance based industry has got to operate in a completely ethical manner that is beyond reproach when otherwise you have nothing left.”

This new unscrupulous business practice creates a whole new set of problems as unrealistic CPA’s have now hit the market combined with turbulent EPC’s that literally move quicker than Victor Cruz down the field. As the market gets tighter and more and more companies that should not have ever been in business struggle to make ends meet (or a Lambo payment) they result in just re brokering other peoples offers and paying out a astounding rate and then scrubbing it. Shame on you guys.

What does this mean to legitimate Marketers?

Stay sharp, know your metrics and do not be fooled by some B.S. bait and switch payout. This is your livelihood. Every marketer needs to understand that just because someone is a “Network” does not mean they can pay their bills nor has money to pay bills. Just look at the over 2 dozen companies that have gone out of business in the past year leaving Affiliates high and dry on millions on dollars, many to reopen their doors (sometimes simultaneously under a new name)check out helloperformance.com (same owners as COPEAC) or how about Tattoo media?..Sold for 60 million in “assets” and new owner did not take on any of the old “liability” i.e. publisher money they owed. There is still a ton of opportunity out there in this growing space I urge you to choose your partners wisely. Ask for financial statements or payment references. There are great resources out there. On Facebook check out the “Internet Advertising – People Who Don’t Pay” group. It is always full of dead beat listings and real accounts of people not paying publishers.

MailGen Ranked Top Email Service Provider by Commission Junction

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-21

2

Email service provider and leading provider of web-based email marketing software Mailigen greets new success. Mailigen’s affiliate program now ranks 1st out of all other email service providers and in the top 100 out of 3,439 affiliate programs run by Commission Junction.

A growing leader in the email service provider (ESP) industry, Mailigen, announced today its affiliate program is ranked #1 among all email marketing service provider affiliate programs with Commission Junction, the global leader in affiliate program management.

Over the last three months, Mailigen has held an overall ranking from Commission Junction of first out of eleven total ESP affiliate programs. In all 3,439 affiliate programs run by Commission Junction, Mailigen ranks 74th. Commission Junction ranks affiliate programs based on their payouts and success rates. These are also key attributes of the Mailigen affiliate program. Affiliate payouts from Mailigen are in excess of $142.50 earnings per click (EPC) for high volume affiliates or per 100 clicks on CJ.com.

“Affiliate marketing is an important way for Mailigen to extend our customer base and increase our brand recognition. We reward our partners by supporting their efforts to generate sales, and value their contribution to our program,” said Janis Rose, CEO of Mailigen.

Affiliates can readily access updated banners and marketing assets provided by Mailigen. The company recently announced changes to their affiliate program so affiliates can get the most out of their relationship with Mailigen. The company recently added an exclusive $6 per lead offer to compliment the up to 40% commission based on performance for affiliates. Mailigen also invested in creating more tools and content for new affiliates to get started and access to experts for support.

Rose says, “Mailigen is a great solution for individuals and corporations looking for an easy to use Email marketing tool. We are very honored to be recognized by Commission Junction as powerful provider in this space.”

Microsoft Goes Full Ape On Google Apps

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-21

0

In perhaps the strangest, but funniest video I’ve seen in a long time, Microsoft has gone after Google Apps with a great new video.

Of course, what makes this really funny is that it’s hosted on YouTube, and that it has a lot more dislikes than likes. In fact, most of the comments are actually against Microsoft, bashing the daylights out of them.

New Facebook Want Button Rolled Out

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-21

2

The CEO of AddShoppers, Jon West, emailed me yesterday to inform me that they have officially announced the first integration of a Facebook “Want Button.” This is pretty cool new feature that they have rolled out which allows anyone to click on a “Want” or “Own” button that will be integrated into the Open Graphs section of Facebook and appear on user’s timelines.

Track Wants and Owns to revenue & conversions
Pinpoint top performing products to market on Facebook
Reward customers who share
Easy 5-minute installation
Free!

AddShoppers bills itself as a one-stop place where merchants can effectively measure ROI and also reward sharing. It allows retailers to determine who among customers are doing the most sharing, and in theory then target them for more deals and other ways to make them promote products more often. The reward system allows those who promote more to get coupons, deals and special tips.

New Facebook Broad Targeting Rocks

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-21

1

Affiliates rejoice, Facebook has a bunch of new targeting options that rock. If you’ve ever tried to create targeting segments, you know how difficult it is, especially in starting new campaigns. Well, the new targeting options are really, really cool including some really amazing new features.

The broad category options are basically demographic and lifestyle options that are based on how a Facebook user registers and what they are doing.

For example, there is the “Recently Moved” Event Category, which allows you to target about anyone who has changed where they live on their Facebook profile to another city or locale. This is great if you want to pitch anything that has to do with a new location, such as coupons.

The other really cool feature is the “away from Family” or “Away From Hometown.” I’m not sure how this is done, but I believe its done by check-ins, if someone posts from an IP elsewhere, or posts an update in a different city. This is a really, really cool feature because you could target anything from cheap hotels, flower services, or even adult-escort dating.

The broad targeting options are also based on likes of a user. While before broad targeting, there were keyword-targeting options, this allows you to target a bit more effectively than looking for keywords on a page. If a user clicks on “Like Call of Duty Modern Warfare” this is a lot more proof that the person is into video games, than someone who wrote “Anyone who likes to play video games are losers.”

The real interest here is being creative. For example, by mixing and matching gender, age and interests you can reach people beyond the obvious targeting. Younger people who are planning to buy a car, might be interested in a lower-income loan possibility. Younger people who are engaged, could be looking for a loan also to buy a wedding ring. The possibilities are endless and thinking outside the box will always make you a more successful marketer.

Mobile Facebook Ads Equal Amazing Revenue

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-21

1

Despite in their IPO filings, they mentioned that they had nothing whatsoever planned for mobile monetization, Facebook will be making an announcement on February 29^th in NYC that they will indeed be involved in mobile facebook advertising.

With over 425 Million of the users accessing Facebook via their mobile device, this is a sure fire moneymaker. They have already signed a deal with Bango PLC, a London-based firm that provides mobile payment services.

“There has never been a media property, to my knowledge, with 400 million users and no revenue model,” said analyst David Berkowitz, the former founding editor of Emarketer and digital strategyist for 360i. “The only form of media that has come close is the Bible, but at least that gets you to church to pay dues. Facebook will undoubtedly pursue other revenue streams, but mobile advertising will need to be one of them.”

This is really cool news for marketers, because it will allow eventually anyone to target people on the go. Most people see that at some point, Facebook will give an option for anyone to market to someone based on where their mobile device is. Imagine being able to push a store or a sale in the area, based both on interests and where the person is. For affiliates, the possibilities are beyond endless. Combine it with the new targeting features and you have a money maker.

Facebook Destroys Power.com in Court

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-02-20

1

Facebook has won a major lawsuit against Power.com that was filed in 2008. According to the lawsuit, Facebook had accused Power Venvutes of using Power.com to spam Facebook and then steal data from the network.

US District Judge James ruled that Facebook had proven its case, and that they could seek damages against Power.com. “The undisputed facts establish that defendants circumvented technical barriers” to access Facebook’s site, Ware wrote in a 19-page opinion.

Power.com had billed itself as a one-stop storage place for social network users, but Facebook had argued that accessing its site without permission was essentially nothing more than hacking and a violation of the terms and conditions of Facebook. Facebook claimed Power Ventures sent more than 60,000 unsolicited commercial messages to Facebook users and intentionally circumvented measures that Facebook put in place to block Power Ventures’ access to the site.

Power argued that all they were doing was allowing users to access mutliple social networking accounts from one place, and that Facebook was doing nothing but being anti-competitive.

Craig Clark, the attorney for Facebook said, “We are pleased that the court ruled in our favor. We will continue to enforce our rights against bad actors who attempt to circumvent Facebook’s privacy and security protections and spam people.”

Power.com unfortunately is basically out of business, and is on the sales block as noted on its front page.

Steve Vachani, the founder of Power.com (and the guy behind FreeLotto.com) responded to the lawsuit loss, with the following statement, claiming that this was a dangerous precedent.

Today, Facebook has established a dangerous precedent for the future of users rights to own and control their data.

Power, together with unwavering support from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has fought tirelessly over the users rights to truly own and control their data. This decision dangerously manipulates and broadens laws so that that millions of users who want to access their own data or tell their friends about new services could now face criminal liability.

With this decision, ironically Facebook could now face billions of dollars in damages and endless lawsuits and criminal damages over the tools it has provided hundreds of millions of its users tools to import their contacts and invite nearly 1 billion of their friends into Facebook.

Our commitment to fight for users rights to own and control their data will now only get stronger and we intend to aggressively continue this fight to ensure that Facebook will eventually be held responsible and accountable for the damages caused its systematic suppression of startup innovation that threatens its business interests and for its ongoing history of gross abuses against the rights of its own users.

Please also refer to the Electronic Frontier Foundation comments on this issue.

On June 17th, the Electronic Frontier Foundation clearly articulated just how dangerous this decision could be to the future of the Internet

“Facebook wants to prevent users from choosing follow-on innovation that it doesn’t like, so it’s asking the court to broaden computer crime laws in ways that would let it manufacture and cherry-pick lawsuits against users and competitors,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann.

“Facebook’s position would create legal uncertainty for tech start-ups everywhere, stifling innovation and competition. No one would want to challenge a behemoth like Facebook with the specter of criminal charges looming over interoperability.”

Pinterest Will Make You Money

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2012-02-20

0

ADOTAS – Talking about an online social network where users share interests undoubtedly sounds kind of redundant nowadays. But it is true that the great success of Pinterest shows that surfers apparently have a need that still hasn’t been adequately satisfied by the web’s most popular social networks.

This social network, based on its capacity to share images and content available on the web in a practical and simple way, has just been singled out by the specialist media site TechCrunch as the best new startup of 2011, and it’s threatening to become the new shining star of the social networks. Even so, its co-founder, Ben Silberman, doesn’t want to talk about the figures that show the growth of the platform, and prefers to underline its design and capacity to unite people according to their interests as the reason for its success.

An image is still worth a thousand words

The new web that has its finger on the pulse of the evolution of social media is a platform that consists mainly of links and images, an eminently visual tool with an emphasis on photography. What does the name mean? Share your interests. Ben Silberman says, “Pinterest is a site that connects people who are passionate about the same things. In the same way that people use Facebook are excited to connect with people they care about, people on Pinterest are excited to be inspired by people with similar tastes.”

Returning to the images, the idea of Pinterest is very simple. The site is a kind of virtual pinboard, where users pin an image, a product or content that interests them.Then it’s published on a kind of online-advert noticeboard and can be seen by other users. The user can pin web content or repin what other Pinterest users have already shared so that it forms part of their own interests. “It’s like storing favorites on your computer, but in a public way,” explains one fan of the new platform. There are no walls, no friends, or anything remotely similar. Images and interests are shared revealing a common link between two people, without the need to leave a message, although you can if you want.

With a simple glance at the home screens of different users one can find out about their passions and interests and recognise people who have the same tastes as us. The new platform’s public is mainly female. This is what TechCrunch says, citing that 59 percent of Pinterest users are women between the ages of 25 and 44, mainly arts and design professionals. According to the online-traffic measuring site Alexa, Pinterest occupies the number 26 spot on the list of most-visited sites in the United States, and number 126 in the world.

The value is in the generation of traffic

It is true that Pinterest has become more than just a relevant site for the recommendation of services, businesses and small companies. Its simplicity and user-friendliness are undoubtedly factors that favor its rapid rise and adoption. But the real value of Pinterest lies in its demonstrated capacity to send traffic to other websites. According to a recent study by the company Shareaholic, in July 2011, 0.17 percent of internet traffic came from links shared by Pinterest. By January 2012, the figure had risen to a surprising 3.6 percent, a volume that exceeds the total traffic redirected by sites such as Google+, Linkedin, MySpace and Tumbir combined.

To all this has to be added the fact that Pinterest is so far an invitation-only site to which you can only have access if you receive an invitation from another user, which means its expansion potential still hasn’t reached its peak. Of course, the platform has already attracted the attention of the big brands that see the tool as a powerful way of marketing their goods and services. The idea of selecting content, filtering, organizing and sharing it online with a click takes online viralization to its maximum simplicity. Pinterest has already won the Crunchie Award for Best New Startup of 2011, and clearly its recent expansion appears to be beginning. If it manages to consolidate its growth and continues to be an effective tool for sending visitors to other websites, it’s possible that it could convert itself into an essential platform for any online marketing and communication strategy.

UrbanObserver

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