The formation of an industry requires the development of a group identity. Often that development is neglected because group members are focused on growing their business. Over the last year the affiliate industry has been experiencing growing pains in the…

Yes, opportunities presented by social technologies are exciting but the task of shifting gears (staffing, allocating budget, re-training, prioritizing tactics) is daunting for most marketers.  So what can be done today?  How can “believers” in social media/networking/marketing work within the…

I went to Sacramento yesterday. The State Assembly’s Revenue and Taxation Committee was scheduled to discuss and vote on AB178. I went to testify along with Overstock, TechAmerica and Commission Junction (our own Kerri Pollard).

Both Kerri and I had a…

There has been a long running debate in the performance marketing industry about what permissions a company should offer their search partners. Should we allow our search partners to link directly from their Google PPC ads to our site through…

The ad:tech exhibit hall was an interesting place. There was a booth filled with 2,000 plush purple octopi (that were all given away), a booth with (possibly – and intentionally) offensive t-shirts, and of course a ton of the usual…

Zango Goes Under: No one sheds a tear

Zango, aka the spyware company formerly known as 180Solutions, is no more. According to Chief Technology Officer Ken Smith, 100% of Zango’s assets where purchased by video company Blinkx. Ken also wrote an interesting…

Spare Change, the self-described “first and largest micro-payments system for social networks” will be acquired by PlaySpan, which monetizes virtual worlds, online games, and social networks and gonna be a micro-transaction party.

While the acquisition may seem to be an odd move…

Using customer data to improve a company’s marketing is nothing new. This strategy has been a staple of direct marketing for decades. But the way data is being used today in the online world holds great promise, even for small…

Online advertising/marketing practices tend to evolve according to a very specific life-cycle. This pattern applies to markets in general (i.e. regions), verticals within those markets, and even particular products within those verticals. Understanding where on the evolutionary scale your target…

After the first day of ad:tech I thought things were going pretty well for the industry.  Day two gave me time to make some more sessions (I live twittered them) and spend some time on the two levels of the…