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Look at the latest moves by Amazon, Apple, and USA TODAY, all reported in the past week. They have a commonality that suggests traditional communications are being swept away by a digital tsunami of historic proportions.

Amazon is readying a web-based subscription service that will deliver content via a web browser or through new televisions with Internet connections, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It will rival Netflix, the movie rental company that is increasingly moving its DVD mail order business to digital delivery.

Amazon would like to have the new service available by the holiday season, but it will depend on whether companies such as NBC Universal, News Corp., Time Warner, and Viacom agree to provide content. Amazon already sells individual television episodes, and it sells and rents digital movie downloads, but the subscription service would be a first for the leading online retailer.

Amazon has also been an early innovator in the e-book market with its Kindle e-book reader, which is now available in WiFi and 3G models. By the end of this year, according to Forrester Research, over 10 million people in the U.S. will own e-book readers and buy about 100 million e-books. Last year, under 4 million e-book readers and about 30 million e-books were sold.

Amazon has managed to transition its online business from once being a seller of traditional books to, today, being an all-purpose online superstore. With its digital initiatives, it looks like Amazon will again reinvent itself.

At the same time as the Amazon subscription service report surfaced, Apple unveiled an upgrade to its “Apple TV” device. The smaller $99 set-top device offers a lot more content – “the largest online selection of HDTV show episodes to rent from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America for just 99 cents,” according to Apple. The device also streams content from Apple’s MobileMe service, Flickr, Netflix and YouTube. Not unlike Amazon, Apple sees the burgeoning opportunity in digital content delivery.

And now Apple is entering the social networking space with Ping, an iTunes add-on. The new service allows users to follow friends and see the music they have purchased, as well as music they’ve reviewed or concerts they attended.

Sound familiar? It should – think of MySpace, which has gravitated towards music in recent years, or Pandora and Zune Social. Apple is now squarely in the music-related social media game, and it could be meaningful. According to the New York Times:

“While other social networks have struggled in the shadow of Facebook, some analysts said that Apple had a chance to turn Ping into a success. The service will be instantly available to 160 million iTunes users, as long as they download the latest version of the software…”

Meanwhile, USA TODAY recently announced a major restructuring that basically acknowledges what we’ve discussed for some time on ReveNews that, in order to survive, newspapers must reinvent themselves into digital publications. The newspaper will reorganize its operations around “content rings,” consolidate and lay off staff, look into new licensing and business opportunities, and most importantly, focus the majority of its attention on providing web-based and mobile content.

The decision by USA TODAY is not particularly surprising, given the fact that print newspapers have been desperately seeking ways to maintain their circulation and protect profits, in light of being undercut by the wealth of free news and information available on the Internet. Some newspapers have gone out of business, while others, like Seattle’s Post-Intelligencer,

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The Digital Tsunami

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As we lead up to our departure for Affiliate Summit East, we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce our team members who are counting sleeps until New York City.

Yesterday we introduced Jamie Fortunaso, our Digital Marketing Manager, and today, I sat down with Maranda Moses to chat about what makes the Share Results world go round.

Janice Scrim: Like Jamie, you have been a Share Results staple for a number of years. What do you like best about working at Share Results?
Maranda Moses: Working in the online retail space in general is so much fun and very flexible in terms of the various digital marketing opportunities that are available. That includes the benefit of seeing an affiliate or merchant venture grow from an unknown entity to a successful profitable business with our help. I’ve also developed some really great relationships with people along the way that goes beyond just being about business, which is also important. Oh yeah, and our team isn’t half bad either.

JS: You are an Affiliate Summit attendee veteran. What do you think this conference offers affiliates that other affiliate marketing events miss?
MM: There are some amazing opportunities at ASE. I just blogged about some of them the other day—check out my guide to standing out at a conference.

JS: A big part of your role at Share Results is providing affiliates with strategies to build their online businesses. What’s your number one tip for making it big in the industry?
MM: As a writer, we’re often told by literary experts to “write what you know.” I would say the same rule applies to affiliates in digital marketing: promote what you know! I would also say it’s imperative to diversify and cultivate organic traffic. Too often we’ve seen affiliates in the past put all their eggs in one basket, then if a merchant shuts down for whatever reason, the affiliate hasn’t expanded or looked to other merchant offers or methods to promote to their audience.

JS: Share Results has really started branching out, and is reaching new verticals. Tell me a bit about this expansion and where Share Results is headed in terms of merchant partnerships.
MM: These are really exciting times for Share Results because we’re at a convergence where we’re combining our areas of expertise with new areas we’re on the cusp of developing all under our brand. We’re expecting to see expansion in our travel, education and electronics verticals. We’re also perfectly positioned to expand within the Canadian market, in which we already have a foothold. These verticals and markets have always been top of mind, but we’re finally seeing ourselves beginning to cultivate these areas further.

JS: You are an established Canadian author and have an incredible talent for writing. I know you work with a lot of affiliate Bloggers—how do you use your skills to help them develop?
MM: I used to run my own blog and as a result, I gained a lot of valuable insight from that and my other writing experience. I know what affiliate bloggers go through in terms of trying to find relevant content to publish and coming up with creative ways to attract readers. In the past I have stressed to affiliates that quality is better than quantity. I’ve helped bloggers learn how to craft tailored quality content be it blog posts, advertorials, etc.

This is an exceptionally important skill to have these days, because not all merchants have the resources to establish their own content team. Ask Melanie Seery, she’s an experienced affiliate out in the industry that is extremely qualified and is highly sought after to produce quality outsourced content.

Being known as a top-quality blogger also means you do not have to be at the mercy of a merchant if the turn-around time on receiving content is too long. Rather than waiting on a merchant to deliver a write up about a product or particular trends, I’ve been a strong advocate of writing and publishing quality content yourself (with the merchant’s final approval of course). By doing this, you save time and have a lot of room for creativity to promote your preferred product or service.

Maranda will be at the Share Results booth at Affiliate Summit East. If you’ve got questions about our network or just some tips on how to build your affiliate business, she’s a great resource—and pretty darn friendly too. Pop by booth RG 2017 to chat, or schedule some one-on-one time with her. You can email her at Maranda [at] shareresults [dot] com.

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Meet Maranda Moses at ASE 2010

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Editor’s Note: The following is an analysis of a set of claims made by Shawn Hogan regarding his time as an affiliate of eBay. The claims made by Hogan are serious in nature but are made in an unstructured fashion, delivered without evidence, and seem to be an attempt at salvaging his image. Such claims thus fall into the realm of rumor and innuendo meant to damage eBay’s reputation. It should be noted that eBay was always in good standing while  a Commission Junction merchant and that they are not currently, nor ever have been,  under investigation for such activities as claimed by Hogan.

Last week I posted about criminal charges being filed by the Justice Department against Shawn Hogan of Digital Point Solutions and Brian Dunning of Kessler’s Flying Circus related to allegations of cookie stuffing in the Ebay affiliate program. These were separate charges following a civil suit filed by Ebay in 2008 for the same activity.

Digital Point Solutions Responds

There are always at least two sides to every story. Yesterday evening I received a ping via Twitter linking to a blog post by Digital Point Solutions, written by Shawn Hogan, responding to these allegations. The post is rather long, rambling, and sensational, to say the least. In the post, Hogan defends himself against the charges of cookie stuffing and makes a few rather serious allegations against eBay.

Cookie Stuffing Timeline According to Hogan

I’ll try to summarize the claims made by Hogan, beginning with those aspects related to cookie stuffing activity. The following are facts according to Shawn Hogan:

• Hogan began working with the eBay affiliate program in the fall of 2004, at which time he began an SEO campaign to rank the term “eBay”. By the end of 2004 he held Google SERPs in the top 5 for “eBay” and maintained those until April 2006.

• The rankings were achieved, in part, through Hogan’s Co-op Ad Network. In early 2005, Hogan’s affiliate account came to the attention of eBay because of activity levels and he was assigned a direct eBay representative.

• In the spring of 2005, eBay suggested that Hogan’s Co-op Ad Network be used as a traditional ad network for delivering ads instead of a mechanism to only increase SERPs. Hogan began displaying a small percentage of the ad inventory with eBay ads (“tens of millions” of ads daily) which were ultimately affiliate links. This grew his affiliate account by “300%”.

• In the summer of 2005, eBay approached Hogan wanting more traffic at the same time suggesting he “experiment” with “gray area” techniques that were technically in violation of eBay’s TOS.  One of those techniques described was cookie stuffing, although Hogan does not specifically call it cookie stuffing in his post.

• Towards the end of the summer of 2005, Hogan’s eBay affiliate account showed up on a compliance report performed for eBay by Ben Edelman, an independent third-party compliance expert. [Author’s Note: At this point in time Edelman’s monthly compliance consulting typically focused on testing for cookie stuffing via adware. It is unclear as to whether Hogan was experimenting with this form of traffic generation or not. The Justice Department’s charges only indicate cookie stuffing via web pages.]

• Hogan was told by eBay that he was free to experiment as long as he didn’t show up in outside compliance reports. Hogan further states that eBay recommended he use geo-targeting to remain outside of areas that Ben Edelman was likely to be testing from. At an unidentified point eBay contacted Hogan to request the Digital Point Geo Visitor tool, which was installed on “millions” of web pages, to direct to eBay’s site when clicked instead of to the expected map. Hogan states this was being done some, but not all, of the time.He also states he informed eBay this violated their TOS, but that after consultation with their legal department, eBay requested that the Geo Visitor icon be occasionally replaced with an eBay icon. Hogan claims he considered this a “bait and switch” tactic and wanted to stop it altogether. However, the “pressure from eBay” ultimately won out and tactic was implemented, resulting in a doubling of his affiliate revenues.

• During a private dinner at eBay Live! in the summer of 2006, eBay again asked Hogan for more traffic. Hogan stated there was no way to drive more traffic without using non-compliant means. Hogan claims that the eBay rep responded: “As long as you don’t show up on compliance reports, it’s compliant as far as we are concerned.”

• Sometime in the fall of 2006, Hogan showed up on Edelman’s compliance report for the second time. eBay told Hogan to change his PID so that Edelman could not connect the accounts in any further testing.

• In the fall of 2006, eBay implemented their Rover links. Hogan was pressured by eBay to change his links over, but repeatedly resisted the change, asking them why they wanted the change. Hogan claims eBay finally responded, after months of questioning, that traffic coming through Rover had no compliance check.

• In June of 2007, eBay ended the affiliate relationship.

Hogan’s Allegations Against eBay

• Hogan speculates that the management staff of eBay’s affiliate program was compensated based on commissions paid to affiliates which caused them to turn a blind eye to his activities.

• Hogan further speculates that when Meg Whitman, eBay’s former CEO, left the new management began looking closely into how eBay was being run, including the affiliate program. The new management decided to “clean house” and he was ultimately used to set an example to all affiliates via the civil suit.

• Finally, Hogan contends that the criminal charges amount to a political favour since one of eBay’s civil lawyers has worked for the District Attorney’s office.

The Digital Point Solutions post might be a peek into the defense strategies which may be used in both the criminal and civil suits still pending before the courts. I am somewhat surprised to see the post at all since most defense attorneys usually aren’t keen on their clients making any kind of statement while litigation is ongoing.

Hogan seems to basically admit to cookie stuffing, along with some other tactics not covered in the indictment, and to knowing that such tactics violated eBay’s TOS. His defense appears to hinge on his claims that he was not only being given permission by staff on eBay’s affiliate team but pressured to use such tactics. However, admitting knowledge of the illegality of his actions does not make him any less culpable for them, regardless of whether or not his behavior was endorsed by an outside party.

Further Allegations Against eBay

Hogan makes further allegations of wrong doing by eBay that are not directly related to cookie stuffing, some of which are pretty serious.  These claims are outlined below:

• Early on during the spring of 2005, Hogan became tired of hearing his eBay contact talk about his “crappy” car. In order not to have to hear the repeated complaints, Hogan made a deal that if he ever made more than $1 million a month with eBay he would buy the rep a new car. Around the time he implemented the Geo Visitors switch and his affiliate commissions doubled, he began earning the $1 million a month. Hogan claims he gave his eBay contact $50,000 so he could buy the car himself.While Hogan admits it wasn’t “extortion” because he made the offer himself, he felt like it was due to continued pressure from the rep. Subsequently, he claims he was “coerced” into buying other items for his contact, including a plasma TV and laptop, and was told that “all the affiliates buy their contacts stuff like this”.

• Hogan claims that eBay admitted to him that their TOS were a “façade” allowing them to engage in any activity they wanted, such as spamming search engines, while providing eBay with deniability to major partners like Google. This way eBay could blame the bad behaviour on affiliates.

• Hogan further claims that during the private dinner at eBay Live! eBay employees informed him of a “black budget” that entailed a large dollar amount to be used at their discretion. This was not reported on the balance sheets or to shareholders. In conjunction with this black budget, Hogan reports being solicited by eBay to spam the web with eBay ads while eBay bought hardware off-shore to run the campaign so that the ads could not be traced back to Digital Point Solutions by Google.He continues by saying eBay expressed their dislike for Google and wanted to pay Hogan out of this black budget to hurt Google anyway he could and to “take down Google datacenters somehow”. Hogan claims that eBay went as far as to fly down an executive from the pay per click division to discuss the possibility.

While most of Hogan’s allegations are serious and involve charges of possible criminal activity on the part of eBay, he posted nothing to substantiate any of his claims. While I know that some companies engage in the kind of activities described by Hogan, it also strikes me that if claims cannot be backed up with proof then they are merely hearsay in the eyes of the Court.

Affiliate Dirty Laundry

While affiliate fraud has been getting increased attention within our industry lately, I am aware that bad behavior isn’t limited just to affiliates. Over the years, I’ve seen questionable tactics and activity coming from networks, affiliate managers, and outsourced program managers. Greed is an equal opportunity corruptor.

Cookie stuffing has been a dirty side of our industry for years and continues to be present today. Indeed there are still numerous posts on Digital Point Solutions forum promoting ebooks and scripts for cookie stuffing (screens shots available).

There is plenty of “dirty laundry” to go around in the business. This includes managers who encourage affiliates to break a programs’ TOS. I know firsthand of such incidents. It is an unseemly side of the business that unfortunately happens. It appears that if either of the cases against Hogan goes to trial, the dirty laundry of affiliate marketing may be paraded across the courtroom, and not just as it relates to cookie stuffing. I wonder what impression of our industry this will leave on jury members.

We Have Choices

When I step back from Hogan’s post and put aside the sensational elements, a few things strike me. First, Hogan admits to engaging in cookie stuffing tactics, albeit with the alleged blessing of eBay. Second, he admits to using Digit Point Solutions tools (the Ad Network and Geo Visitors) to implement some of his tactics. These were tools installed on others’ web sites, undoubtedly with some degree of trust that they weren’t being used by the provider to engage in questionable affiliate tactics.

Hogan further admits knowing these tactics were against eBay’s TOS. His justification for engaging in the tactics seems to be eBay’s condoning and encouragement of the tactics.

We all have choices in our business dealings. No one could force Hogan to remain in the eBay program. No one could force him to engage in activities he knew to be in violation of their TOS (and indeed CJ’s TOS, although he never mentions CJ at all in his post). Even if any part of Hogan’s claims regarding eBay’s conduct is proven to be true, I do not subscribe to a “two wrongs make a right” mentality. And, frankly, neither does our legal system. Any wrongdoing on eBay’s part in no way justifies knowingly engaging in wrongdoing by Digital Point Solutions.

Regardless of what a representative of a merchant or network may tell an affiliate privately, affiliates should keep in mind that there may be someone further up the company food chain who disagrees. Ultimately, Terms of Service are legally binding documents between an affiliate and the merchant/network. It is prudent to abide by those TOS. If you choose not to follow those terms your are legally bound by, it can land you in court, regardless of how honorable or not others around you have behaved.

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Explain to us, what exactly is Nero and when did they first launch their company?

Nero began as Ahead Software in 1995 and launched Nero Burning ROM shortly after. Since then our goal has evolved and Nero has become the premium creator of liquid media technology. Our core mission is to provide consumers with the freedom to simply enjoy their music, photos, and videos, regardless of hardware or file format, by taking a unique platform neutral, standards-based approach to solution development. In essence, allowing users to create and distribute their content anytime, anywhere and on any device.

When did Nero decide to branch into the affiliate marketing space?

We’ve been actively working with our affiliates since 2006.

What trends have you seen since entering the performance marketing space?

What we’ve seen is a move away from companies just signing up with affiliates without much thought. Lately, affiliates and merchants have been actively seeking true partners to complement each other and a move away from strictly content affiliates toward value added partners such as coupon, and search affiliates.

Who would you say is Nero’s average customer? What do customers look for the most in Nero products?

Nero’s average customer is a PC user who seeks reliable and friendly software for burning media, allowing storage, portability and sharing of their photos, videos, and music.

Nero already has a foothold in the American market, but recently the company decided to branch into the Canadian market as well. When did Nero expand north of the border and based on your observations, how have affiliates been benefiting from this?

Nero has always had an unofficial presence in the Canadian market and officially launched a French site in January of 2008. This has allowed us to connect directly to Canadian consumers quickly and easily by leveraging Canadian traffic of top Canadian affiliates.

What percentage of your sales would you say comes from the Canadian market?

We can’t disclose the exact percentage, but it is a healthy part of our overall sales.

What interesting trends have you noticed from Canadian shoppers that affiliates might find useful to know?

Most of our Canadian consumers appreciate the ability to purchase their items in their currency. Often, we’ve noticed that merchants who leave the math to the consumers when they post their prices in non-Canadian currency experience a higher drop-off rate than merchants who list prices in Canadian dollars.

What sort of trends does Nero foresee for the fall and winter seasons and what should affiliates, especially those targeting Canada, do?

With the focus on thrift this past year we’ve noticed a big move toward users looking for value and lately these have been coupon-oriented sites or affiliates that actively interact with their audiences. These sites have successfully engaged their clients with dedicated blogs, emails or specialized landing pages. We’ve worked with partners in designing specialized landing pages and coupon codes that make visitor’s experience special and focused.

Are you a Canadian affiliate or a publisher with Canadian traffic? Want to be a member of the Nero program or the Share Results network? Click here to register today!

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Share Results chats with Nero about the Canadian Market

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A big thank you to everyone who sent us videos. Check out all the submissions here.

Posted by Micheal Lopez, Web Design Lead

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Recreating the Google Chrome icon: videos from around the world

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Halloween widget – countdown to Halloween

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Create a Squidoo Lens Ring

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Store Builder scripts for affiliate programs, including: AllPosters.com amazon.com amazon.co.uk BettyMills.com GoCollect.com.

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Cusimano.com Scripts.

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Easy Photoshop Video Tutorials for Digital Photographers.

Photoshop Newbies.

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We convert your handwriting into a font.

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FontGod.

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The Best Place on the Internet for all of your 3D cover needs! We have hundreds of eBook, software, ezine, andamp; cd covers.

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3D Covers And More!

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Best-selling monthly computer magazine in America! Earn 30% commissions for a payout of $5.24 per sale!

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Pc World.

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Learn spectacular and easy to create watercolor effects in Photoshop. eBook and plug-in instant download. Affiliates receive 37%

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Photoshop Watercolor Secrets Revealed.

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Pdf Books, Software and Online Games.

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Bookshock Publications.

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Designed for offline small business owners who want to learn how to ‘do more with less’free e-zine.

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Success Ideas.

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