I've seen screenshots of this around for a while now, but came across a way to play with a new Google search page layout. I'm not sure if it's a test or if it's an imminent change. My own vanity…

Which network does the best job of sharing data trends with its membership?

It seems that some in our community find it unethical when companies don’t do enough to protect themselves and, hence, their business partners. That stated, most employers do take precautions to protect both themselves and their partners… unless, of …

My Blog entry takes a slightly different approach to this deplorable issue, provides suitable cross linking, AND provides ALL CPA/CPL Networks an opportunity to go on the record.

Thank you.

I find myself agreeing with Jeff, that perhaps commending CJ for taking action now is just too little too late.

Unfortunately in an industry that is regulated as much as mine, I have a duty to report to my superiors and legal department what my affiliates are saying about the company and how they promote us. If I am unable to identify these people I have much more difficult time convincing upper management and legal council most of what we do is not voo-doo.

1. Congrats to ALL the Super Affiliates who have stepped forward with posts. Please continue your efforts with posts.

2. IMHO, the core issues remain:

a. The perception of a conflict of interest with respect to current employees inside networks building web sites which either derive income from the affiliate space or attempt to do so.

b. The perception of a conflict of interest with respect to current employees inside the Corporate sturcture of a given Network who are engaged in "SEO/SEM/arbitrage".

3. For the sake of discussion, I find the numerous discussions about what is or isn't a "trade secret" and or exactly how easy or hard it is to execute "SEO/SEM/arbitrage" very interesting, informative, and understandable. If we zoom up to 40K feet for a big picture view, these issues/debates are really more of a legal nature (inside a court of law) and to a large exstent dilute the real core issues for the enitre industry and every single Affiliate and Network on planet Earth or Mars.

In this vein, I think it's very dangerous to assume that your "cloistered" discussions among Netowrk employees, Super Affiliates, and consultants since year 2001 or even today actually resolve the issue and more importantly IMPROVE the industry. Naturally, I'm assuming in a respectfull fashion that Networks value their brand and don't want it tainted via the "perception" issue in item 2.

My small "survey" of your typical 80% affilaite and 2 other Super Stars who actually read this entire thread indicate that while some had suspicions, the majority had no clue. Admittedly, it's not scientific and a very small sampling but it was a start. They are NOT happy campers and as others have pointed out, some will become more secrative unless I can temper their understandable paranoia with some advice. Credit to Adam who first raised this very issue of letting ALL your affiliates know about these "conflict of interest" issues and exactly what you have done and will do.

4. I'm conflicted on exactly what advice to provide the 80% crowd. Specifically, what would YOU suggest I say and what specific procedures would YOU suggest with respect to "due dillegence"?