WaterFront Media Double Whammy
Ian Lee, founder of Affiliate Marketers Alliance, recently blogged that WaterFront Media is almost six months behind in payments for their affiliate payments through Commission Junction. Volumes could be said about just that situation with regards to both WaterFront Media and CJ. Ian does a pretty good job stating, what should be the obvious, on the matter of non-payment to affiliates.
If not paying your affiliates for nearly six months isn’t bad enough, it seems that WaterFront Media is capable of adding insult to injury. How could that be possible? Well WaterFront Media seems to have a propensity for marketing the various web properties they represent through Zango. This isn’t their affiliates (why would their affiliates buy ad inventory even through Zango when they aren’t getting paid?) but WaterFront Media themselves doing the ad buys. Ok, the ads come through the Agora Media domain, but same thing just a different name.
I’ve documented numerous incidents of WaterFront Media represented sites popping through Zango over the last several months. They showed up in my testing my study, Impact of Contextual Advertising Adware in Affiliate Marketing: A Case Study. I classifed them as a Media Agency, so they weren’t named specifically in the report. However, they accounted for six of the total pop-ups received which was the majority of the pop-ups attibuted to Media Agencies. That isn’t the only time I’ve found them popping through Zango however. They appear to be targeting a wide range of web sites. Some of the most frequently properties I’ve seen promoted through Zango are Denise Austin and South Beach Diet, although these aren’t the only properties. And while they tend to target other sites in the health and fitness verticals, some of the targeting isn’t as obvious. For example, the Denise Austin web site popping on shoe merchants like FinishLine and EasySpirit. I’ve even seen them targeting keywords such as “lingerie” for a pop-up of the DeniseAustin web site.
What this means is that even affiliates who aren’t partnered with Waterfront Media may have traffic siphoned away from other merchants they send traffic to by WaterFront Media. And since WaterFront Media is running campaigns with general keyword targets, not just targeting specific domain names, these pop-ups could also well be happening on affiliate sites, not just merchant sites. How’s that for a true partnership between a merchant and affiliate?
Now one thing I always ask myself when I see merchants advertising directly through adware is the possibilty someone who is clueless doing the media buys. In this particular case however, the answer to that question is a resounding “they are very aware.” WaterFront Media is knowledgable not only with regards to adware advertising, but more specifically Zango. In March 2006, CDT (The Center for Democracy and Technology) published a report, Following The Money: How Advertisering Dollars Encourage Nuisance and Harmful and What Can Be Done To Reverse The Trend. In this report, the CDT outlines WaterFront Media’s involvement with Zango advertising. After the CDT filed a complaint with the FTC regarding Zango practices in January 2006, the CDT contacted eighteen of the advertisers found using Zango. WaterFront Media was one of these companies. WaterFront did not initially responded, but after the CDT’s report was made public they did respond. According to the CDT, WaterFront responded thus:
Representatives of Waterfront Media say that the company has suspended its relationship with 180Solutions pending further review of that company’s buiness practices. Waterfront Media spends less than less than one percent of its marketing budget on adware expects it’s advertising vendors to obtain explicit user consent before installing software, collect no personal information, allow for easy removal of advertising software and avoid third party advertising distribution, company officials say. Waterfront Media is considering implementing additional standards to insure that its partners and advertising vendors abide by industry best practices.
So there you go. Do I really need to say any more?
Now the next question that comes to my mind in this particular situation is “Has Zango been paid in the last six months?” Maybe they haven’t, but Zango is a pay as you go service. Your account funds are zero, then you replenish or your ads stop. Now maybe Zango makes exceptions for their large advertisers, but I have a hard time believing Zango is still doing pop-ups while waiting to be paid for six months. I suppose it is possible but I doubt it’s in the realm of probable.
So is Waterfront Media paying for their adware advertising and not their affiliates?
so, when caught then, they suspended, then reconsidered, then thought… well, let’s just cheat everyone we can, that’ll be the same thing as maximizing roi… we’re marketers and we’re so proud of ourselves… let’s stop paying real providers of traffic, who are our partners and let’s just use adware to poach then and everyone else…
outrageous!
Comment by Pat Grady — June 26, 2007 @ 8:33 am
Sad that this crap has become industry standard on the larger networks.
Comment by Mr. Mackin — June 26, 2007 @ 8:55 am
I know about the lack of CJ payment, that was finally resolved last week, check “in theory” is in the post. However there are 10 WFM programs on CJ. Which one(s) have Agora Media running on them through CJ or is this running outside of the network ? As far as I am aware it’s not possible to pay one affiliate and not the others via CJ?
Comment by Chris Sanderson — June 26, 2007 @ 10:26 am
I’ll read the whole post next time before commenting… Question, being as the Adware is actually running outside the network, and therefore uses seperate tracking from the affiliates, it actually has no impact on the CJ cookie, (correct me if I’m wrong here), this doesn’t justify using Zango, just a concern overall in terms of impact on tracking. tks.
Comment by Chris Sanderson — June 26, 2007 @ 10:33 am
Chris,
The pop-ups are not running through CJ..it’s not affiliate links at all. Agora Media is placing the ads themselves. They are popping the DeniseAustin, SBD, SomonaDiet and other sites. This is Agora Media having an account with Zango.
My point being…..Agora/Waterfront had not paid their affiliates…had they also not paid Zango? Somehow I doubt it.
I’m glad to hear that in theory their affiliates are being paid as they should, hopefully it will soon move from theory to reality.
That still won’t change the fact that Waterfront advertises directly through Zango popping on other people’s sites. Nor the fact they’ve been called on it in the past, reviewed the practice and made the decision to continue with such advertising.
Comment by Kellie AFP — June 26, 2007 @ 10:36 am
Thanks Kellie, PM sent via the forums, Payment is the first focus we’re aiming to resolve, then we’ll go after the Zango issue.
Comment by Chris Sanderson — June 26, 2007 @ 11:11 am
The payment issue has been put to bed, funds were wired to CJ on Tuesday and should be paid out on the usual CJ payment process.
Comment by Chris — June 30, 2007 @ 8:13 am
ya, nice post ans some good points of view.
Comment by Partner Computer Group LTD — December 27, 2010 @ 7:19 am
Why is it only drug dealers and software developers call their clients ‘users’?
Comment by buffalo — March 23, 2011 @ 11:26 am
Xrumer…
Best xrumer linkbuilding service - obtain Top notch search rankings as well as amazing targeted traffic with our amazing link building services. Profitable & cost-effective backlink building solution of all time! XrumerGod.com - research engine marketi…
Trackback by Xrumer Installation — March 31, 2011 @ 10:14 am
thanks for this helpful blogpost ill recommend your blog to my class mates as we have been searching for this since i can remember.
Comment by vanzare casa — May 17, 2011 @ 6:32 pm
Great… Five star read…I did notice the RSS Feed had not been functioning, someone else notice this, or perhaps is it just myself. Lol
Comment by houses for sale in boston — May 26, 2011 @ 3:29 pm
Hello I just wanted to say that for some reason your site has started to load really slow for me, not sure if anyone else has this problem?
Comment by hgv training prices — June 6, 2011 @ 10:42 pm
Hello.This post was very amazing, especially simply because I was trying to find ideas on this issue last Thursday.
Comment by monster beats headphones — July 4, 2011 @ 2:52 pm
This guide was just what I was seeking out. Thanks for this information, it seriously assisted me loads and saved me a large amount of time.
Comment by Urządzenia kosmetyczne — July 22, 2011 @ 11:15 am
Inside really serious and also extensive world wide web you’ll find all sorts of internet informed folks. But it’s when I arrive at locate this amazing site which i recognize i’ve found on-line gold. However, if My spouse and i visit try to obtain the RSS Feed button I am baffled. Could any individual steer me personally for it? Thanks.
Comment by the kindle — August 25, 2011 @ 12:33 am
Please remove me from your email list. Thank you,
Sally Morris
Comment by Sally Jo Morris — September 9, 2011 @ 3:11 pm
Machen Sie weiter so work.I ‘ll Rückkehr oft.
Comment by iso 9001 — September 22, 2011 @ 12:59 pm
Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it is truly informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. A lot of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
Comment by Mitchel Wilshire — October 21, 2011 @ 4:12 am
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this outstanding blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will share this website with my Facebook group. Chat soon!
Comment by Vivienne Cannell — October 27, 2011 @ 8:33 am
I discovered more new stuff on this fat reduction issue. One issue is a good nutrition is especially vital if dieting. A huge reduction in bad foods, sugary foodstuff, fried foods, sugary foods, beef, and bright flour products might be necessary. Keeping wastes parasitic organisms, and toxic compounds may prevent ambitions for losing belly fat. While specific drugs quickly solve the challenge, the nasty side effects aren’t worth it, they usually never present more than a short-lived solution. It can be a known proven fact that 95% of diet plans fail. Many thanks sharing your opinions on this blog.
Comment by what is cosmetic surgery — November 11, 2011 @ 10:16 am
Pretty fascinating
Comment by chin — November 22, 2011 @ 9:36 pm
Linking Website…
[…]I just read your site previously it was pleasant.[…]…
Trackback by rain news — December 1, 2011 @ 11:43 am
Howdy! Interesting write-up! I’m the regular website visitor (a great deal more for instance addict) of this web page sadly My spouse and i a doubt. Now i’m simply just by no means pretty sure whether it be the proper web page for you to query, but there are actually zero junk mail opinions. We acquire opinions generally. Could you promote us? Thankyou!
Comment by Keren Modisett — January 4, 2012 @ 11:21 am