Affiliate Marketing Organization Initiative

Don’t be scared. It is a long post but very important and worth your time. There is also the chance to win a price (+ $100 value) so bear with me ,

There are increased positive trends in the Affiliate Marketing Industry. I would like to provide some thoughts, comments, ideas and offer help that this positive trend continues and also continues in the right direction.

To skip the background information and jump to the Initiative, simply click on:
I hate long Blog posts, summary please! .

Affiliate Marketing Resources
Past, Present and Trends

The Past
Affiliate Marketing and Internet Marketing Resources are always in high demand.

Everybody I know has at least one Forum Account and also reading forum discussions from time to time and often also posts a comment or starts a new topic.
Affiliate Program Directories like AffiliatePrograms.com are around forever and heavily frequented, especially by Newbies.

Other resources were harder to come by but the availability, quality and quantity increased steadily over time.
The wide spread use of Blogs and their social effects contribute to the fact that news get around quicker, “secret Tips” being told to everybody who wants to hear about them, Step by Step how-to guides, Personal experiences and mistakes are shared openly. Issues are discussed more openly and more people than ever take part of discussions and contribute ideas and solutions for Issues that surface.

Present
Publishing is easy and low cost or no cost thanks to Wikis and Open Source Blogging Software and other CMS Solutions.
The number of Resources collections increased and also the depth of their content.

The Nature of Affiliate Marketing Resources
Most Resources in the Affiliate Marketing Industry (with a few exceptions) are provided for free and without the intention or real ability to monetize them.

Don’t say “AdSense”, I know from my own experience that AdSense of Pages that are targeting Affiliate Marketers are not performing very well, unless the page is a diversion and does not provide itself the content that the user is looking for. Why? I just have to look at myself to understand the why. I am sure others can attest to that.

The cost for the creation and maintenance of the resources is measured in time and effort and not dollars. They are basically a “hobby”.

Who maintains them and why?
They are most times maintained by somebody who is already active in the community and willing to provide free advice and tips for Newbies or anybody who asks, be it at Forums, Networking Sites, Trade Shows or if you simply seek contact via Email.

The people doing this do it because they want to help. This does not make anybody who does that a saint who should be blessed for his self sacrifice. The beauty is, that by providing the resources and helping people to find the right tools, services or information are you gaining a warm and honest thank you, yes, but also benefits down the road.

AM to Affiliate
If you are an Affiliate Manager you are eager to to provide your Affiliates with information about Tools and Services, Learning and Self-Training about how to design websites, use datafeeds, Web services etc. Why? Because an AM wants his Affiliates to be busy promoting his products and services to other people rather than struggling with technology. Everything that makes the Job for the Affiliate easier or the Job or Affiliate itself more sufficient is a good investment of time and money.

Affiliate to AM or OPM
As Affiliate you are eager to educate the AM about new technologies that allow or improve access to information and content related to the Advertisers offerings. If you are a “White-Hat” affiliate, you want that the AM is being alerted and informed about dirty tricks and methods used by black-hat affiliates, spyware, cookie-cutters and typosquatters because they damage not just the Affiliates business financially and directly because of losing commission that was rightfully earned but not paid. They also damage the reputation of Affiliates in general as they are perceived by Advertisers and Consumers which cause damage and other problems in the long ground.

See, it is in the interest of every marketer that good information are easily accessible.

Note: Sorry for the use of SEO Slang Terms like White-Hat and Black-Hat. I couldn’t find better words.

Step backs
Okay, resources are plenty available, growing in quantity every day. This caused new problems, mainly the “information overload” that results from the “over availability” of information.

Books and eBooks are now often being published and bought because they are aggregated, consolidated and optimized Information which by itself are plenty available for free all over the Internet.

eBooks that sell “secrets” are on the decline, because there are not many real secrets that were not published freely somewhere. I am not talking about the “get rich quick” scams. That kind of scam is here to stay forever.

People that sign up as Students for Affiliate Classroom should not require to to learn how to find resources for the industry nor buy an eBook to get the information needed in an efficient manner.

The same is true for resources for AMs and OPMs. This is not in conflict with the need for Affiliate Manager Training Classes like the Affiliate Manager Boot camp or Self-Training-Kits like the Affiliate Manager 1.Edition.

New Trend
Over the last month appeared several new type of resources which are maybe best described as “niche” within the “niche”. Specialized Resources focused on one specific Topic only and nothing else.

This is a positive trend which I do personally support.

To avoid the waste of time and resources because you have an Idea which you believe to be something new and great, but was in fact done or started to work on already by somebody else and to avoid misunderstandings that happen, if this is found out about efforts should be made to coordinate those efforts.

Reinventing the wheel (or reverse engineering it) is something that is okay and normal for things that are commercial and competitive and not for public efforts that benefit the community.

Projects should become shared responsibilities and should be supported by everybody who has an interest in the availability and quality of the free resource.

I would like to see that projects utilize the shared resources in time and technology to make them even better and also release some burden from the one who maintains it.

The ability to provide access to add and maintain resources to somebody who is not part of your business is not too difficult to accomplish. The results of joined efforts by 2 and more people with the same goal are always better than the results each individual who is part of the team would have been able to produce all by himself.

It also makes it easier to be accepted and acknowledged by the community as what it is.

Where does all this come from?
I know exactly what I am talking about. I just have to look at my own “Pet Project” at Cumbrowski.com.

Its hard to do everything by myself. I pay for things out of my pocket. I am not Bill Gates who has any money in the world to buy whatever he wants. I can’t do/invest what I would, if it is a commercial project with the goal to make profit and pay my bills. I have to push the commercial side at least a bit to be able to recoup some of the cost at least what will not reduce my investment but allow me to grow the project.

It is also hard to advertise unless you are Seth Godin or Oprah Winfrey. Working on Cumbrowski.com actually made me think a lot more about the whole thing which at the end lead to this post.

Rules required
Shared Projects need rules that are not required for personal projects that don’t have to obey any rules. You can do whatever you want, if it helps the original purpose or not is a different story.

Instituting transparent Guidelines about what information, products or services should be included or not should be created and made public. The means to allow anybody to recommend resources that are missing should be provided.

The resource should not be located at a website where the site itself is also a resource that is listed in the resources collection to avoid giving it a competitive advantage over the others.

Domains that are primarily used for business or commercial purposes should also not be used, because it would help in more than one way to promote the commercial business and cause envy, hate and malevolence among other Marketers.

Putting AdSense up and also “sponsored by”, “hosted by” , “supported by”, “donated by” references are okay and only fair. It is also only fair to give others the ability to contribute to the cause and being recognized for it.

Contributions could be time spent on the project (programming, provided content, system maintenance etc.), knowledge (usability, content that helps to leverage the resources or explains how to use them), unpaid services (hosting, Advertising), and products (Web Analytics, Tracking, Tools etc.) and even flat out cash contributions (to pay the bills and maybe advertising, but nothing beyond tha to avoid potential abuse (bribing)).

The individual projects should help each other by referencing to each other.

The MOST Important Part – The Initiative

The New
Affiliate Marketing
Organization Initiative

The previous part talked about collaborations and shared projects to provide affiliate marketing resources in a more efficient and beneficial way, but let me take it another step further.

Affiliate Marketing needs representation again in form of a non profit organization. IMA, AMA and IAB does not help us, they are too broad.

Search Marketing has SEMPO and SMA-NA. Affiliate Marketing used to have iAfma. I know that I am not alone with this Idea nor the one who had it. People are thinking about it for several years now, but nothing was done.

Affiliate Marketing outgrew its humble beginning are became more professional, but has not what any other professional Industry has, at least one neutral focal point to learn more about the industry and explain what it is and what it is not. Benefits and Issues.

I stumbled across this interesting post from last summer.

Did I miss something or did nothing happen since then?

Enough of the dreaming of it and talking. Lets get started!

Step 1.

Step 1 – All it needs for a Fire is a Spark
Okay, here is the spark.

• I will personally sponsor the Domain Name (10 years, the .com and .org domains) and as much time as I can sacrifice.
• I also offer any content from my Resources Site to the new Organisation and its Web Site.
• Initial Hosting for the Organisations Website is offered by Mediapolis, Inc., for as long as it fits on their dedicated servers or a better or more suitable location becomes available.

I was thinking to just go ahead and come up with a name myself, get the domain name, put a page up and point to it, but I don’t think that it would not have been a good Idea.

A community effort should start with the involvement of the community.

The name should be suggested and then decided on by the community and its members.

Just make a suggestion for a chance to Win useful Stuff
Please provide suggestions for the possible name and abbreviations of a Non-Profit Affiliate Marketing Organisation that caters to Affiliates, Advertisers, Networks and Agencies (OPMs) alike.

The Organization should start as a resource for new and veteran affiliate marketers and people interested to learn about it.

The organization will may be and actually should extend its mission in the future to discuss, define and agree on standards for the industry; Ethical or Technical.

However, it should not be part of its mission from the start unless a strong movement is created because of this that would put the organisation in a strong position from the beginning and not an “empty shell” with standards nobody will follow.

A negative conceived thing that happened this year, CJ’s Link Management Initiative (LMI) showed that the Affiliate Marketing Community is more than just a bunch of lone-wolfs that either talk gossip or complain about their misery on Affiliate Marketing Forums and AM’s that see every other AM as the enemy who will try everything to hijack top earning affiliates.

There is a community and affiliates can and should have more options than “just vote with their feet and leave” and AM’s should be able to talk openly with each other about issues.

Example 1:

The personal Initiative by Scott Jangro, The Commission Junction Javascript Link Petition did not make Scott win the suggested CJ Horizon Award, but 440 signatures and comments from fellow marketers. 373 of them were presented to CJ in person by Scott himself on 7/7/2006.

Example 2:

40+ Threads with LMI in the Title at the ABestWeb Forums and “No LMI” Buttons for a $1.25 cost sharing fee say a lot. But Members of the Forum took the campaign offline this time and made Mom and Dad, the 1960s activists, proud. Buttons were designed, created and handed out for free at the Affiliate Summit East 2006. Yes, Buttons without the name of the sponsor on it and no, it wasn’t a buzz marketing by a clever affiliate. It was honest and without making commission on it (directly).

The Price

To make it a bit more interesting and worthwhile for everybody to participate, am I offering a price for the organization name that will be chosen as the winner.

I offer a free eComXpo University pass for the upcoming winter semester (October 24th, 2006 to February, 24th 2007), which is a $99.95 value and courtesy of eComXpo.com the Virtual Trade show for Internet Marketing. Attending the Show is Free. Between Tuesday 10/24 and Thursday 10/26/2006 will eComXpo.com be transformed to a virtual Exposition Hall filled with thousands of Marketers. Make Contacts, Socialize and attend the also free Learning Sessions Live. About the Conference is reported live at WebmasterRadio.FM. If you can’t make it to the Show, tune in instead.

It also comes with an optional and free one year subscription to Revenue Magazine (digital format), a $25 value and Search Marketing Standard Magazine (print magazine), a $10 value.

If that offer is not good anymore at the time you register for any reason, let me know and I pay for the subscription.

Deadline for Submissions
Deadline for Suggested Names and Abbreviations is next Friday, October 27th 2006, 12:00 pm PST (Pacific Time).

Please send suggestions to NewAMOrgInitiative@gmail.com and don’t post them as comments at this blog. Every other comments are of course welcome and encouraged.

Conditions
Important condition. The Domain Name of the Name or Abbreviation of the Suggested Title for the Organization must be available at least as .org and .com, but it would be the best, if it is available for all domain types (.net, .info, .mobi, .ws etc.).

The decision making
I would like to have a public vote to pick the name, but I don’t know how to make sure that there can’t be cheated and more important, how to be able to prevent somebody from registering the domain names for top candidates to cash in on it by holding the domain names ransom.

If there is a way to solve those issues let me know A.S.A.P.. Thanks for contributing.

If that can’t be done, I will have a number of selected people vote instead and register the domain name before the winner is announced. I hereby state in public that I will transfer the ownership of the domain to the legal entity the organization will hopefully become, free of charge of course.

I selected people I know and trust personally or by reputation.

The preliminary Judges
I will ask Beth Kirsch, Shawn Collins, Wayne Porter, Brook Schaaf, Chris Sanderson, Linda Buquet, James Nardell, Jim Kukral, Lee Gientke, Scott Jangro, David M. Lewis, Nele Sharp, Karen White, Susan Arts, Christopher Blair, Jonathan Trust, Jeff Molander, Brian Littleton and Connie Berg for their votes.

This should cover people from the whole spectrum of affiliate marketing, known Affiliates, OPMs, Affiliate Managers, Trade Shows and even Affiliate Networks.

This list is preliminary and can be extended.

if you volunteer and want to be part of it, contact me at NewAMOrgInitiative@gmail.com.

I am sorry if I decline the request and apologize for it already in advance. The only reason why I would decline anybodies request would be that I don’t know you well enough to take the risk.

If one of the people I listed as preliminary judges knows you well, refer to them in your request via email and I will ask them about you.

The votes will be made public and published here at ReveNews. No anonymous votes. Also the Winner will be announced in public so specify next to your name also your title, company and possible contact information you would like to make public with the announcement.

Step 2.

Step 2.- First Potential Project Candidates
Here are some independent Projects that are currently managed by individuals or businesses that would be a good fit for projects under the umbrella of the new Organization.

• The Affiliate AIM List
• Affiliate Skype List
• Affilipedia.com – The Affiliate Marketing Wiki
• Affiliate Buyer’s Guide – The “Yellow Pages” of Affiliate Marketing
• Affiliate Program Bonus – programs sorted by industry, network and bonus type
• Affiliate Marketing BUZZ and Aggregated Internet Marketing New Feed
• Affiliate Managers Only Forum at AffiliateManager.net
• Public Internet Marketing Events Calendar (Feeds via: GCal XML, iCAL and Upcoming Events RSS2.0 Feed)

if you know about other projects that would fit in or even better, have a project yourself that could be incorporated (finished and live or not does not matter) post it here as comment or shoot an email to NewAMOrgInitiative@gmail.com

Conclusion

That’s it.

It is my money that is gone for good, if I can not create a spark that is strong enough to get people that have much more experience and knowledge with this kind of stuff than I do, to jump on it and get the fire up and self sustaining (I ditched school when “how to found an officially recognized non-profit organisation” was teached in class ).

I hope I have the right feeling and judged people correctly. People who I have met personally or communicated with via email and forums in this Industry.

It does not take much and we have so much combined knowledge, Experience and Resources that it takes virtually nothing more than personal will and courage to make this a reality.

Cheers,
Carsten Cumbrowski

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