Cashing Out: Week of January 25th-31st, 2009 in Online Marketing News
Click Fraud Sets Records in 2008
According to a report released by Click Forensics 17.1% of all clicks in web advertising during Q4 of last year were fraudulent. Fraud within search engine ads like Google Adsense was an estimated 22.8% of all clickthroughs. Clicks generated automatically through botnets led the growth jumping 10% year over year, responsible for 31.4% of all fraudulent traffic.
Layoffs Continue
Bad news continued this week as layoffs kept rolling. Companies announcing layoffs included:
NEC – Had the biggest announcement this week cutting 20,000 jobs
Sprint Nextel – Which cut 8,000 jobs about 14% of its workforce
AOL – Announced 700 layoffs about 10% of its staff
Fox Interactive Media – Eliminated 100 jobs about 5% of its staff
Zazzle – Cut 40 jobs about 15% of its workforce
Offbeat Guides Launches Affiliate Program
Started by Technorati founder Dave Sifry, Offbeat Guides a dynamic regional guide site designed to compete with Frommers and Lonely Planet just launched an affiliate program. The in-house program offers affiliates 8% commission for guides purchased through the site. Program should be interesting since it combines on demand travel recommendation requests with a company sprouting from a social media background.
Behavior Unbecoming: Michael Arrington targeted in repugnant incident
Techcrunch founder and editor Michael Arrington has a long history of not making friends. But what happened to him in Germany while he was at the DLD Conference is just completely out of bounds in the realm of rational business. A disgruntled attendee came up to him in a crowd and spit in his face. In a heartfelt and obviously personally difficult blog Arrington disclosed not only that incident but revealed that last year his family received death threats. The threats were of a serious enough nature to involve the local police.
Thankfully, in both cases, no one was injured but covering the online business industry shouldn’t involve physical threats. Yes, Arrington can often be caustic but he is so in part, because of his passion for this industry. The fact that these incidents could occur and did, is just ridiculous. It’s the kind of treatment no one deserves.
