3 Comments

Affiliate Spam and Industry Self Regulation

Dec 28, 2007
by

There are obvious semantic implications we need to consider when invoking words such as “spam,” but I completely agree with Jason Calacanis in his assessment of the need to self-regulate ourselves in the affiliate industry (from this year’s LeWeb conference) before either the users get fed up with pollution or the government steps in:

Shawn Collins also has a post on Calacanis’ remarks, and it will certainly be interesting to hear Jason’s remarks about affiliate marketing during his keynote at the upcoming Affiliate Summit in February.

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing + Security Issues
  • http://www.revenews.com Sam Harrelson

    Thanks for the link to UnethicalAffiliates.com, Michael. Looks like this is geared more towards "outing" suspected or evidenced affiliates who are doing bad things.

    While that sort of thing is needed, I guess, I do think it could get real ugly real quick (especially given that not everyone who participates regularly on ABW, or any forum, has the purest of intentions) because we still haven't set rules and policies in place (beyond common sense) for what is being an "ethical" affiliate.

    I think if the UnethicalAffiliates forum followed this thread more closely, it could do more good than just having yet another place for affiliates to "out" one another.

  • http://www.amazing-bargains.com Michael Coley

    There’s been quite a bit of discussion on ABestWeb.com about the need for industry self-regulation recently, as well. Networks seem reluctant to do much regulation, primarily since they profit from all affiliates whether ethical or unethical. Merchants are reluctant to publicly out unethical affiliates. The site UnethicalAffiliates.com is a new venue that will attempt to help in that area.

  • http://www.cumbrowski.com Carsten Cumbrowski

    This reminds of something :(