There’s been quite a bit of discussion over the last few months about forced clicks (or cookie stuffing) and coupon sites. It’s a feeling of deja vu. This was an issue “discussed” at length several years ago. The discussions were pretty heated then and seem to generating a bit of flurry once again. The amount of discussion happening now may be related to a couple of things. First, there are many new faces in Affiliate Marketing that weren’t here when all the discussion was happening three or so years ago. Second, a couple of high profile affiliates with a reputation for advocating fair industry practices were “outed” for using what some considered forced clicks on their coupon site. That’s pretty much tantamount to striking a match in a shed full of gun powder.

I’ve gotten quite a few emails, IMs, PMs, and twitters on the issue of coupon sites using forced clicks the last couple of months. The amount of discussion in the community isn’t always the same as how prevalent the practice is however. So I decided to do a little study determine if the degree of discussion is proportion to the degree of coupon sites using forced clicks today. Is the rate of incidents more, less or the same as in the past?

I did some testing over the last week and the results of my testing of the Prevalence of Forced Clicks on Coupon Sites can be found here. (more…)

And another gone, and another one gone, and another one bites the dust……

That would apparently be DirectRevenue. Affirmation of my general philosophy that what goes around comes around..eventually. A business model built upon bullshit just isn’t sustainable long-term. At some point, no matter how much spin is put out there and to how much the spinners may start believing their own spin, someone who has the ability is going to come along smell the stink and lower the big whammy. No one is immune. No one. A fact that a few others should be heeding at the moment. (more…)

Sometimes I find things in unexpected places and ways. This is one of those times. It also brings home the conflicts of interest that can arise within companies involved in different aspects of online advertising.

A friend sent a link over IM the other day for a news article they thought was amusing on the NYPost web site. I clicked through and noticed a pop-up ad being delivered. That wasn’t an unusal occurrence, especially for a content site. As I went to close out the pop-up window, I found an ad which I recognized for SpamBlockerUtility. This is a “free” software application to block spam owned by Zango and bundled with Zango when installed. (more…)