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What’s Old is New Again in Affiliate Marketing
Jellyfish.com, an affiliate cashback site, has launched with coverage by John Battelle, ClickZ, Infoweek, and of this post has over 400 diggs at digg.com.
Many of these sites are calling this a "new" ad model that will challenge Google's CPA network. I guess they've never heard of eBates or any of the other cashback affiliates. If I had a dollar for every time a media outlet “discovered” something that we’ve taken for granted for years in this industry, well, I’d have at least enough to but this supercool thing.
I think it’s different this time, however. The frenzy over this little start-up affiliate is due almost entirely to Google’s entry into the CPA game. Suddenly the larger online marketing community is rediscovering the benefits of CPA, and though I don’t think Google will dominate this market, their entry has brought new legitimacy and attention to the industry. Perhaps, in the long run, Google’s move will end up helping ValueClick more than it hurts it.
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Jeff - if you buy that “super cool thing” with a new type of credit card called the “Discover” card - they’ll give you cash back on your purchase!!!
I was going to post the exact same commentary on JellyFish. I love how the media outlets act like JellyFish is going to turn the online ad world upside down with their “revolutionary” application.
Their PR team did an excellent job getting the word out.
Jellyfish has a nice UI. That and an extensive use of Ajax are notable forsite design but not for the hype of being a revolutionary site.
Cashback sites are adding product search. I’ve been working on it for months on Cashbaq but won’t make this type of hype when the search engine isn’t functioning to the level that users require.
There are two parts to good product search: a good search engine and a good database. It appears that Jellyfish has neither. I cannot find a single iPod or PSP. There are plenty of accessories but not the actual unit. While the categorization may be helpful (arguments can be made for an against it), it doesn’t replace good product search.
I tried “red shoes”. There were 21 red shoes. I did the saem search at http://www.thatshoe.com (Vinny Lingham’s shoe site) and found 381. Jellyfish had only 2 shoe stores.
The only difference between Jellyfish and other sites is the ability for merchants to bid on their CPA. Well, Snap already has that as it brags about how much money it isn’t making. So this isn’t revolutionary. I am also not sure if it is useful. Merchants have been bidding for placement on some shopping comparison engines under their PPC models. The difference here is not just CPC vs. CPA, it is critical mass. These sites migrated to a bidded model after they had the critical mass of advertisers and users. Jellyfish claims 1000’s of merchants (not) and has no users. While this may be a good idea, I fear that it will fail for lack of scale.
Assuming scale, will merchants want to take part in this? More importantly, will consumers care? Most consumers don’t know about cashback sites and most who do use a single site. Will this be enough benefit to attract new users? Not with the exisitng product search on Jellyfish.
I like JellyFish. Don’t under-estimate the value to user friendly design. I found iPods quickly and easily. And the ipod page showing best prices was slick and nicely done as well.
Two thumbs up!