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Affiliate University - How to Succeed as a Publisher Online
Is Contextual Advertising About to Rock your World Wide Web?
by Mike Banks Valentine

The role of a trusted third party to handle the complexities
of affiliate marketing is a hotly contested market niche on
the web. The players range from very large and complex (like
LinkShare and beFree) to small programs for small business
like MyAffiliateProgram.com & even affiliate tracking built
into simple shopping cart software such as 1ShoppingCart.com.

Commission Junction is an affiliate program administrator that
operates on a complex business model acting as a middleman
between advertisers and web site publishers in the affiliate
marketing arena on the web. They most like to refer to them-
selves in this scenario as a Pay-For-Performance company.

Regardless of how you define CJ in this role, they feel it's
important to teach everyone who works with them, in either of
these capacities, how best to use the CJ system to make more
money with their web site. Commission Junction University 2003
last week was the fourth annual event held near company head-
quarters in Santa Barbara, California September 21-23.

CJ mediates between 1200 Advertisers and 100,000 publishers to
collect commissions for sales generated through links FROM the
publishers TO represented advertisers. CJ then pays affiliates
for the advertiser sales that are tracked to affiliate links
from the publisher web sites.

Companies from large to small, eBay to Shoes.com contract with
CJ and others like them, to manage payment, track clicks, serve
ads to affiliate publisher web sites. Commission Junction sees
the players in this scenario as "Advertisers" and "Publishers"
where eBay would be an advertiser and a small collectible doll
web site that carries ads for eBay would be known as publisher.

The CJU is very clearly divided into "Publisher and Advertiser"
tracks to train representatives of either camp in effective
methods of dealing with the other group. Publishers are taught
how to increase visibility of their web sites, how to use the
Commission Junction tools available throught CJ's complex web
interface and how to choose and promote the best programs that
are available from among those 1200 advertisers in the program.

Advertisers are taught how to recruit effective publishers,
how to maximize returns from their own affiliates and get the
opportunity to hear from the big boys of affiliate marketing.

Speakers at CJU 2003 included Jeff Housenbold, VP of Business
development at eBay and Paul Schulz, Senior VP of Marketing
at Overture. Tiffany Shlain, founder and director of the well
known "Webby Awards" spoke on the broader topic of "Blueprint
for a Better Web" with a fast paced view of the short history
of the web seen through the lens of Webby Award winners.

CJU was attended by fewer publishers than advertisers due to
the disproportionate number of representatives sent by large
advertiser companies. Publishers are often small businesses
and most often have single representatives, even the company
owners attending the event. Total attendance was given as 260.

CJU also offers a popular "Lab" where either advertisers or
publishers have the opportunity to meet CJ representatives
one to one in an on site computer lab where their questions
and/or problems could be addressed.

Much of the discussion at Commission Junction University 2003
focused on search engine marketing, the portion of the industry
that use pay-per-click advertising to drive pay-for-performance
results in a rather incestous circle where ebay might outbid
their own affiliates using Google Adwords and Overture ads to
drive traffic to specific auction categories. The rather odd
way that affiliates end up bidding through PPC search engines
both against each other and against the advertisers they are
representing seems awkward and ineffective for publishers, but
a goldmine for advertisers.

Search engine marketing, both Pay-Per-Click and organic search
engine positioning play a vital role in the affiliate marketing
industry. In fact, many search engine specialists and SEO firms
are active players in pay-for-performance marketing as both
affiliate publishers AND consultants to this niche market that
has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry.

SEO firms know how to rank well in search engines through
optimization of their clients web sites (or their own sites)
for search phrases that can be very competitive in pay-for-
performance marketing.

One CJU session was entitled "Search Marketing and Affiliates
Unite" in a panel format where Jupiter Research Analyst Gary
Stein quizzed panelists including Noel McMichael, CEO of SEM
firm Marketleap and Mondy Beller of Shoes.com on issues only
advertisers could love. Branding, affiliate terms of service
and the above mentioned PPC bidding wars between advertisers
and their affiliates were batted about. These concerns relate
almost not at all to publishers except those who run afoul of
advertisers stated policies. Advertisers fretted about lost
income due to overly restrictive manufacturer limitations on
the use of trademarked terms in search marketing campaigns.

Publishers concentrated on more practical matters however in
a session called "Live Message Board" where pre-submitted
audience questions were answered by Commission Junction reps.

One interesting question submitted included the following:

"When will CJ be able to automate the entire process of
affiliate marketing in a contextual manner? Ebay has a
product that does this, so does Google and Overture. If
I give CJ complete run of my site - Put Content relevant
ads from relevant advertisers on my site."

The moderator of the session, Todd Crawford, VP of Sales
and Business Development grinned while reading this
volatile question and asked a couple of panelists, both
CJ staffers, "That sounds interesting, what do you think?"
Both of them grinned in return and one answered, "Hmmmm,
we'll have to consider that and get back to you on it."

Asked directly about the possibility of contextual ad
placements in affiliate publisher sites, Elizabeth
Cholawsky, CJ's VP of Product Development answered in
much the same way, "Give me a call in a couple of months."

This sounds to me like a potentially huge announcement is
looming on the affiliate marketing horizon by the end of
the year. Contextual advertising products from Google and
from Overture are currently rocking the online advertising
industry. In a recent article, I addressed the possibility
of Google Adsense killing affiliate programs. Now it seems
another shot is about to be fired across the bow in online
advertising, this time from the affiliate marketing ship.

http://searchengineoptimism.com/Google_Adsense_affiliate.html

Contextual affiliate links vs contextual advertising would
be an odd kind of competition for publishers choosing which
of these teams to support on their sites. Adsense pays its
publishers for clicks generated from Google ads, CJ affiliate
links pay for "sales". While the two products seek different
end goals, the winner will be the team that produces the
highest publisher income.

Stand by for some advertising upheaval from Commission
Junction before Christmas!

The next CJU is schedulted for Sept 19-21, 2004.

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Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
Specialist practicing ethical SEO for Online businesses
http://SEOptimism.com

Take our Search Engine Quiz to test your Skills Level
http://SearchEngineOptimism.com/search_engine_quiz.html
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