Zango has set their sights on the UK and European Market. Zango announced today the opening of Zango offices in the UK in order “…to enable Zango to more effectively serve interactive advertisers in the rapidly-growing European market.” In addition to opening offices in the UK, Zango will also be adding personal in the UK.

The press release states Zango currently has almost 100 European advertisers. The move is to allow Zango to better serve these existing clients and to better reach new advertisers outside of the US.

A heads up to our friends across the pond heading into Q4. UK Networks and Merchants should increase their monitoring for Zango advertising by both affiliates and merchants.

Lisa Picarille over at Revenue blogged yesterday a pre CJU post as she gets ready to head out to Santa Barbara. Here’s what I found really interesting in her Getting Schooled post……the end where she posts a press release sent out by ValueClick. I haven’t been able to find a copy of it anywhere else, but her is what she posted:

ValueClick Media and Commission Junction Partner for 2007 Holiday User Re-targeting Promotion

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – September 6, 2007 – ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK) today launched a behavioral targeting program to help retailers increase online sales from campaigns run on the ValueClick Media display advertising network during the upcoming holiday shopping season.

Both ValueClick Media and Commission Junction are making the “Ring in More Holiday Sales” user re-targeting promotion available to their advertiser clients. Advertisers who place a holiday user re-targeting campaign by October 15 are eligible to receive one million run-of-network bonus impressions.

“User re-targeting is the single most effective form of behavioral targeting because it presents your message to individuals who have already expressed interest in your brand,” said David A. Yovanno, general manager of ValueClick Media. “Our extensive network reach and experience serving online retailers provide a unique advantage for any advertiser focused on sales performance, especially during the competitive holiday shopping season.”

User re-targeting allows advertisers to reserve inventory targeted exclusively to consumers who have visited their sites or interacted with their online ad creative. Advertisers simply place ValueClick Media pixel tags on the pages where they want to identify visitor behavior. When those users are identified again on any of the 13,500 sites in the ValueClick Media network, they are served highly customized ads increasing the likelihood of response and conversion.

Campaigns for Commission Junction clients can be optimized across the ValueClick Media network using existing Commission Junction conversion tracking pixels, eliminating the need for additional tracking tags to be placed. Affiliate marketing clients should contact their Commission Junction program manager for more details.

ValueClick Media is one of the few online advertising media properties capable of delivering a behavioral targeting solution on such a massive scale. According to comScore Media Metrix, ValueClick reaches 131 million unique users per month, or 73 percent of the U.S. Internet audience.
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Interesting. ValueClick made a big fuss last year (I believe it was last year) with the launch of their behavioral targeting on ValueClick Media. I’d heard rumors recently of CJ merchants being approached with running ads on ValueClick Media. From the press release, it looks like a full push is will be made to pull some of their CJ Advertisers into the ValueClick Media fold for Q4.  VCLK is offering one million bonus impression on the VCMedia network if Advertisers sign-up by Oct 15.

The ads displayed on the VC Media network will be retargeted ads. Advertiser’s ads will be displayed to end users who have already visted the merchant’s web site on VCMedia publisher’s sites. So how does VCLK know if an end user has already been to the merchant’s site? Merchant’s place VCLK’s pixel on the pages of the merchant’s site where they want to tag user’s behavior.

Here’s where it gets really interesting to me. Bolding by me:

“Campaigns for Commission Junction clients can be optimized across the ValueClick Media network using existing Commission Junction conversion tracking pixels, eliminating the need for additional tracking tags to be placed.”

Existing CJ conversion tracking pixels? Hmmm….is this the tracking pixel that merchant’s put on their receipt page to track the sale? Someone correct me if I’m wrong on this one (I’ve not doubt someone will if I am wrong here) but that’s the only tracking pixel I’m aware of that CJ advertiser’s use. That pixel looks for the CJ cookie and passes such information as the Publisher ID, Advertiser ID and amount of sale. So exactly how will that work?

Or do they mean the img pixel provided to CJ publishers that some people use and some people don’t? If it’s that pixel, then surely CJ would let their publishers know they are using information collected on the CJ publisher’s site to deliver ads on their VC Media publisher’s site.

Maybe there’s another tracking pixel I’m not aware of. But the wording of the press release makes it seem like they mean the Advertisers tracking pixel.

And I’m still back to how will that work? Will this impact CJ Publisher’s in anyway? Will CJ Advertisers be paying the CJ publisher even if it’s the VCLK Media Publisher serving the re-targeted ad that’s the “last click” in prior to the sale? Where will Advertiser’s feel the real value is coming from for closing the sale?

I’m feeling rather confused and in an ambigous place on a Friday. Maybe some people will come back with some clarification from CJU. Hopefully ValueClick is setting this up in such a way that one set of publishers aren’t compromised for another set of their publishers. I’ll eargerly await hearing any input from CJU attendees.

Rakuten USA, the US division of the Japan headquartered Rakuten, has purchased CauseLoyalty.com. Shaking the corporation tree for those who aren’t aware, Rakuten USA owns LinkShare and CauseLoyalty owns SchoolPop and OneCause.

Another affiliate has been bought by a company which also owns a major Affiliate Network. This is the second such acquisition by LinkShare. In June of this year, LinkShare acquired TrafficStrategies.com. ValueClick has made similar acquisitions, most notably the purchase of PriceRunner and MeziMedia. Performics is being bought by Google (ok that one isn’t an affiliate but there is AdSense and Google moving into the CPA arena). ThinkPartnership owns KowaBunga, SecondBite (an affiliate with access to merchant’s shopping carts and customer contact information) and PrimaryAds. (more…)

It looks like a ruling was handed down yesterday on ValueClick’s motions to dismiss. From the web site of the plaintiff’s attorneys:

On August 27, 2007, the Honorable Florence-Marie Cooper issued two orders denying, in part, ValueClick’s Motions to Dismiss the Class Action Complaints. The Court held that Defendants failed to meet their burden of establishing that Plaintiffs could not proceed in the lawsuits.

The pdf’s of the ruling are available as well at:

SRC Motion To Dismiss Order
Carrier Motion To Dismiss Order

Lots of legalese. It looks like the cases will proceed. Additionally, it appears that the plaintiff’s will have te opportunity to amend one claim the judge moved to dismiss if they so chose. So that point may end up back in the claim in some form. At least, that’s what it appears to my non-legal mind towards the end of the Carrier MTD Order.

I’m still wondering if and when ValueClick (VCLK) and/or CJ will have any kind of public comment regarding these lawsuits.

AFP will continue to follow developments in these lawsuits as they progress.

Every Affiliate Manager has probably seen these sites come through their program for approval. It’s the ready-made mall sites that are sold as packages to people so they can make their millions on the Internet while they sleep. I’ve often heard Affiliate Managers ask whether there is any harm in accepting these types of sites into their program, even though they realize the sites are not likely to convert sales. It seems that there may indeed be risk in accepting these types of package deal sites into programs.

On August 21, 2007, the FTC issued a press release outlining the action taken against a company selling these types of mall sites to consumers. The investigation was conducted jointly by the FTC and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and it appears the AG will be filing a parallel case.

The case was filed against The Results Group, LLC which sold affiliate sites and hosting to consumers as a business system for $99 to $599. They claimed that their system was generating over $50,000/month in commissions for some of their users. Yeah right. Anyone in this industry knows that is far from realistic. The Results Company would then pressure consumers into purchasing more “advertising” for the site they had purchased.

The FTC felt that consumers were provided with false and misleading information regarding The Results Group “turn-key” system. The upshot is that The Results Group will be returning about $435,000 to consumers and will give up thousands in cash which were the proceeds from the sale of luxury sports cars, the value of life insurance policies and a Las Vegas real estate deal. All of that sounds like the FTC hit them with “disgorgement of ill-gotten proceeds” legal whammy, which means they can go after those things purchased with money earned through a scam.

While less than half a million may seem like a bit trifling for the FTC go after, the order was for $19.5 million and $435,000 is the settlement amount. It sounds as if the FTC agreed to take whatever they could get based on current assets.

The FTC mentioned two merchants promoted through these web sites, Amazon and Overstock. While it is doubtful (or at least I would hope so) that the FTC or an AG would go after any of the merchants partnered with these types of mall site scams, there is a potential branding issue for merchants. As a merchant, do you really want your brand connected with such scams? Let alone even being mentioned in an FTC press release.

These types of scams can only exist because they have merchant affiliate relationships. Since anyone with half a brain in this industry knows that these types of sites just aren’t going to bring in any amount of revenue to write home about, it seems to be no reason to be connected with this type of business model at all.

My personal advice would be to hit the decline button and stay clear of such “turn-key” solutions.

The FTC recently received a court ordered temporary injunction against and the freezing of EDebitPay in regards to business practices related to their prepaid debit cards and short-term loans. My write up on the situation is bit lenghy based on the current available information, so I’ve posted it on my forum. You can see the full details here.

The gist of the allegations is that EdebitPay has been charging people a $159.99 fee for the debit cards without adequate disclosure, any disclosure and sometimes when they weren’t even applying for the prepaid card but a short-term loan.

These are very serious allegations and there are some indication it’s also been turned over to the FBI  (not surprising considering the allegations involved). If you have had any business dealings with EdebitPay, you probably want (or need) to stay abreast of this case.

It seems that companies like to wear many different hats these days in affiliate marketing. They are an affiliate network, an affiliate, a SEO company, an OPM company, etc. Sometimes, this situation can lead to a complimentary of services available through one company. It also opens the door to potential conflicts of interest. Of course not all companies will exploit those conflicts of interest. But there will also be those companies who are more than willing to take advantage for their own financial gain. When companies exploit conflicts of interest for their own financial gain, the picture can become quite ugly. Case in point….. (more…)

In a press release dated yesterday (July 11), WhenU announced several major changes to their business model.

Here are the highlights:

• New CEO and President, Chirag Patel
• New Name, MeMedia
• New Web Site, MeMedia.com
• New Advertising Network (MeMedia) Expanding into a MultiModal Behavioral Ad Network
• New Desktop Application, AdVantage (ok, I’m not sure if it’s really a new application or the same WhenU software with a new name…I haven’t found an actual copy of it yet)
• Expansion of Their Global User Base
• Expansion into Mobile Product Offering (SMS) <---WhenU, I mean MeMedia, coming to a cell phone near your --->
• Advertising widget to allow software publishers to embed behavioral advertising in their applications
• Web-based and Mobile Advertisng Widgets
• Viral Video Distribution Supported by Advertisng for Desktop and Mobile

I wonder if the AdVantage software is TRUSTe certified? Regardless, it looks like the behavioral/contextual adware company formerly known as WhenU has a lot of new plans in the works. The MeMedia site doesn’t seem completely finished yet (there’s some links which aren’t linked and coming soon pages) but some very basic information can be found there. I also see several new domains registered to WhenU which aren’t live yet as well. Several of them seem related to the new AdVantage “consumer desktop application.” I’ll have to wait and see.

They certainly seem ready to try and ride the wave of mobile technology and Web 2.0.

On June 28, 2007 the FTC issued their final consent order with regards to DirectRevenue. Since it is a twelve page government document, I realize many will probably not read through it. Since there are some important points in the decree, I’ll highlight them here.

The Consent Order applies to DirectRevenue LLC, DirectHoldings LLC, the officers (Joshua Abram, Daniel Kaufman, Alan Murray, and Rodney Hook), their agents, representatives, employees or anyone directly or indirectly under the control of any of these. With regards to the officers of DirectRevenue, it applies to them as individuals and as officers of the company. This is significant in light of the historical past of parties involved with DirectRevenue being involved with other adware ventures. I take this to mean that the above entities can not go out and start up shop again, either collectively or individually, under a new company and engage in violate the following orders. (more…)

He’s part of our industry although I don’t think he’s on the attendee list for Affiliate Summit Miami. But who exactly is the mysterious and swimmingly handsome (at least that’s what I hear although I’ve yet to actually see him) Senor Pescado Frito Bandito Frappucino? But I hear rumors he can be seen hanging out at one of affiliate marketing’s coolest businesses. And with a name like Senor Pescado Frito Bandito Frappucino you have to figure he’s on the A List and in the company of “the cool” folks.

Be the first to comment here exactly who Senor Pescado Frito Bandito Frappucino is and AFP will make a donation in your name to Pussycat Dogs Run for PAWS, a charity marathon run in October for the Chicago PAWS. Carolyn Tang from ShareASale will be running the race to save pets and the link is to her donation page.

Anyone else who is just interested in seeing Carolyn work up a good sweat, feel free to make a donation as well. It’s for a good cause. Plus Carolyn is due for a little bit of “community service work” for blowing up peeps in the microwave over the Easter holidays.

And I expect pictures of Ms. Tang crossing the finish line for posting.