Business Models

The winners in the online marketing space have always been the fast movers. Quick and agile people who see an opportunity and have the motivation and resources to act rapidly. But as we’re seeing in the mobile marketplace right now, new opportunities are being fenced in by the biggest companies who control the platforms. In the evolving world of online advertising, the big beasts are making their presence felt.

Consider three data points:

The CPA network space is in tumult. If your favorite CPA network isn’t dead already, it’s probably refinancing, merging or crouching in a defensive posture.

Facebook made a big change in their advertising policies this week.

But they did it very quietly with a letter to display advertisers telling them that if you want Facebook traffic, you’d better be buying CPC.

The letter, sent out at the end of last week, told CPM advertisers that henceforth they, “will continue to receive impressions but may receive less clicks.”

And, “if your most important objective is to drive clicks on your ads, you should change your bids from CPM to CPC.”

Hydra Networks has announced that with immediate effect it has terminated the accounts of over 15,000 publishers. The news comes as part of a new push by Hydra to attract mainstream brand advertisers and set themselves apart from “ad networks peddling nutraceutical diet remedies, cash grant opportunities, tooth whiteners and other non-branded campaigns of low consumer value.”

Affiliate marketing is a much-coveted career path in the business of online moneymaking. After all, it’s convenient, it looks easy enough and everybody’s doing it. But make no mistake: it’s a virtual jungle out there.