Inspiration from CJU Shining through Industry Haze

Since I’m a little late journaling about Commission Junction University, first, I’m just going to point out some colleagues journals and then add a new perspective to the chorus. While, I found CJU inspirational as always, I came home to disheartening Industry news. It was interesting to experience these events back-to-back, and the mull over the repercussions for the Industry.

Three colleagues, out in the Blogosphere, journaled about the conference:

Wayne Porter
CJU Recap and Observations

Todd Tweedy
James Martell: Affiliate Rock Star
An Interview with Jeff Pullen, General Manager of Commission Junction
CJ Panel: Launching Successful Search Marketing Campaigns
Commission Junction University

Adam Viener
Commission Junction University Kicks Off
CJU Day 2
CJU Final Day

My overall reaction to CJU is the Industry has matured. There was a lot more gray hair this year. Gone are the days of the 22 year-old dot-comers. The people at CJU were professionals in their late 20s, 30s and even 40s. The industry has come of age.

Speaking of coming of age, I ran into Celine Takatsuno, a CJ employee who I knew when she was one of the very few CJ merchants back in 1999 and CJ was a small player. The CJ/BeFree merger crowned CJ the dominate Network in the affiliate game — CJ has certainly come a long way. (Yet as a note, it did feel like I entered the Twilight Zone seeing the old BeFree gang at CJU: Craig Palli, Neil Karasic, Scott Jangro and others.)

Also of note is that PPC affiliates are now king. While there are many affiliate channels and they all produce sales volume for advertisers, it’s always interesting to see which channel emerges as the power player at CJU. Back in the early days, it was content and niche sites which yielded to the dominance of email affiliates. Then, shopping, loyalty, and coupon sites rose to the apex. Last year, the natural SEO content and data feed sites ascended to the top, and this year the PPC affiliates reign. I predicted the PPC players would rise to the top last year. This year, I’m placing no bets on the next big thing.

While industry watching is entertaining, the most important reason I go to CJU is to be inspired

While networking and the content is very useful, I find it exciting to see competitors help each other. Seasoned publishers and advertisers ante-up trade secrets to help each other and their neophyte brethren — this generosity strengthens the Industry. The theme of my journal entries is building trust between publishers and advertisers because I think this is the biggest and toughest challenge we all face in our daily work. CJU embraces this challenge by providing a forum for open discussions between advertisers and publishers. CJ did an outstanding job on this front from my vantage point.

After CJU, James Martell is now my affiliate marketing hero! Here is a man who shares all his secrets as opposes to horde them. The sprit, trust, and good will that James radiates has helped the industry has a whole. And his students follow his generous lead. The all are positive, friendly, and focused publishers – and they are making a ton of money too! Everyone was buzzing about James (And if you have not checked out James’ book, you should do so.)

Yet my favorite conversation of the conference was actually chatting with two publishers late Tuesday night after most people had left. One was just helping the other learn the industry and I was explaining the merchant’s point of view on some issues. For that hour, the experienced publisher and I were focused on the newbie’s success.

James and these other two affiliates is why I always go to conferences: trust and good will is what makes affiliate marketing healthy, vibrant, and an exciting way to earn a living.

However, after I got off the plane Wednesday night, I turned on my laptop, checked my email and received a depressing one-two punch.

First, LinkShare again picked a winner for its quarterly Titanium Award. Last time, the winner was cookie stuffing. Once this issue was pointed out, LinkShare placed the issue under a magnifying glass, and then did the right thing by revoking the award.

This time around, they gave the award to a site with a shopping, software, toolbar, download that is installed by drive-bys. The Desk Top Shopper won and here is the scoop on the issue. (By the way, people are waiting for a response from LinkShare, but the thundering silence from lower Manhattan is absolutely deafening.)

Then, a friend emailed me Todd Tweedy’s blog, Insight from Mr. Nobody on Affiliate Marketing. Todd posted a brutally, honest, anonymous email he received. In summary, an insightful publisher wrote that you can’t trust anyone on affiliate marketing: other affiliates want to steal your ideas and your commissions, merchants are just out for themselves, and the networks don’t track correct. (My quick advice to this publisher is find some affiliate managers who you like and trust and just work with them. Affiliate marketing can and does work when both parties treat it like a business development partnership)

Between these two events, my heart sank that night…so much for being inspired after CJU.

I spent two days mulling this over. Every attempt at a trade association had fallen flat — Affiliate Union, Internet Affiliate Marketing Association (iAfma), etc. People trying to do something for the common good get burned by politics and never try again.

This is a field full of very independent and entrepernual people. Publishers want the freedom of being self-employed, so the Space does not lend itself to some type of trade organization.

But the more I thought about it, the more the inspiration from CJU kept shining through the thunder clouds. This issue might work itself out on its own because the industry is maturing.

Advertisers are shying away from all the affiliate trickery because it increases their costs of doing business: the downloads, the cookie stuffing, the parasites, etc. In fact, one big branded merchant, at CJU, told a parasitic publisher to take a hike in front of me. This was a manager that a year ago would not have.

As for the publishers, James Martell said it best with a huge smile on his face as we talked before the conference began, the power balance is changing: publishers are starting to understand their leverage and how to use it. And we all know he is correct. The good publishers will bring this issue up with merchants and drive the issue home.

CJU provided some guiding light to remember why I work in affiliate marketing. The implied overriding message of CJU is that publishers and advertisers need to trust each other and work together, so we can all succeed. Once again, they drove the message home as we all networked by the beach in Santa Barbara last week.

About Beth Kirsch

You can find Beth on Twitter @bethkirsch