Affiliate Blog

Correcting False Rumors

Kris Jones from Pepperjam reported on his blog yesterday that "Google has or is in the process of closing down Performics, Doubleclick’s (DCLK) Affiliate Marketing Network."  We are not sure how or where this rumor started, but it's completely false and inaccurate and therefore merited the following response from our president, Stuart Frankel, earlier this morning:

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I am writing in response to your recent post speculating that Performics is in the process of dissolving the company and terminating its employees. Your comments are false and are potentially damaging to Performics’ business and its employees. Since the announcement on April 13, 2007 that Google and DoubleClick have entered into an definitive agreement whereby Google has agreed to purchase DoubleClick, we have consistently and repeatedly communicated to our clients, publishers and employees that it is business as usual at Performics. Let me make this absolutely clear. We are not dissolving or shutting down or significantly altering the Performics business. To the contrary, we continue to actively build our core affiliate and search business units. In fact, we are currently recruiting for 25 open positions across all areas of Performics. In particular, our affiliate business has seen dramatic growth in 2007 and as a result, DoubleClick has accelerated its investment in this area of its business. We are a large supporter and participant in industry forums and we support an open and active dialogue regarding the affiliate marketing industry. Your comments are irresponsible and therefore I am requesting that you immediately retract them. We are proud of what we have accomplished thus far at Performics and look forward to aggressively and responsibly continuing to run and grow our business.

Stuart Frankel
President
Performics

Getting Links Gets Easier

This past weekend we rolled out another set of enhancements to ConnectCommerce.  I'm going to introduce one of them here today.

Publishers can now download links from ConnectCommerce without having to generate each link one by one.  The links are delivered in an excel spreadsheet.  You can also download all the links you've already generated if you want them for reference.  Look for the "Download these Links" in the top right hand corner of the links tab when you are viewing an advertiser's links.

This feature is available for all of your joined advertisers.  It will be especially useful when you are joining a program, migrating links for one of your existing relationships, or catching up with an advertiser you've been neglecting for a while.

As always, please let us know how we can continue to improve.

Happy linking,
Larry Adams
Affiliate Product Manager

Affiliate 2.0

A strange new vocabulary has been introduced into the world of online media, thanks to the “Web 2.0” phenomenon that’s covered by virtually every trade publication today.  User-generated content, blogs, social networks, mashups, widgets, wikis, podcasts, RSS…..for most marketers, it’s difficult to keep up with the dizzying pace of change, let alone determine if and how to leverage these new and emerging platforms.   While much of hype about Web 2.0 is just that (hype), there are clearly companies like MySpace, YouTube, and Friendster who have helped to redefine the medium and empowered consumers like never before.  How do marketers – particularly retailers and direct marketers – test the Web 2.0 waters without committing large branding budgets?  Affiliate marketing may hold the key.

In the past year, we have helped a number of innovative and entrepreneurial companies discover that affiliate marketing can be a powerful way to marry what they have –- an online community and/or content -– with commerce.  Publishers like Kaboodle, ThisNext, Like.com, MyPickList, Hawkee, and hundreds more are using tools like product data feeds, web or subscription services (like Performics' OrangeLinks) to monetize their content and audience with relevant products and offers from different merchants.  And this is just the beginning.

In the next 12 months, we expect that Web 2.0 and affiliate marketing will intersect in an even more significant way when one or more of the largest social networks integrates loyalty marketing into their community.  Clearly, the loyalty model is proven in the affiliate channel, with loyalty publishers among the top tier of affiliates for online merchants.  Now imagine if an already-established community of 50-100 million consumers were to be rewarded for shopping – or having their friends shop – from their favorite (affiliated) merchants.  It’s a powerful concept that we believe will be proven out in 2007.

Affiliate marketing may be one of the most “mature” areas of online advertising, yet as the original performance-based marketing channel, affiliate is arguably better positioned to tap into Web 2.0 than any other.  With a new generation of internet users in control of the Web like never before, marketers can tap into some of the most innovative, new and emerging business models through the affiliate channel.

--Dan Chiss

Performics Enters Blogosphere

Greetings,

It's hard to believe, but Performics has officially entered the blogosphere and I'm excited to be part of it.  We want to use this forum as a way to communicate news, happenings, product releases, and thought leadership from the team at Performics, as well as receive your feedback on areas where we can improve.

Part of our company's mission statement is "to be easy to work with" for our customers --- both advertisers and publishers.  While we think that being down-to-earth Midwesterners gives us an inherent advantage (!), we continue to strive to improve the ways in which we interact with our customers, and hope this forum provides yet another communication touch point.  We're also putting a lot of focus around making our platform and tools easier to use, particularly for the "power users", affiliate publishers.  And since it's the publishers who ultimately drive revenue for our advertisers, it's our goal to help them be as productive as possible.

Stay tuned for many exciting announcements, insights, and innovations ahead....

Regards,

Dan Chiss

Senior Director, Affiliate Strategy & Network Integrity