Nearly a year ago, LinkShare president Steve Denton stepped down. The company named co-presidents. Jonathan Levine and Yasuhisa "Yaz" Iida are both veterans of LinkShare's parent company Rakuten. Lisa Picarille: LinkShare is the only major network to have co-presidents. Give me the break down of your duties. Jonathan Levine: I used to be the chief technology officer at … [Read more...]
ShareASale: Size Doesn’t Matter
ShareASale.com founder and CEO Brian Littleton runs what is considered to be the fourth largest performance network in the United States. Littleton has earned the respect of the industry and garnered a dedicated following of merchants and affiliates by taking a firm stand on issues. His company is the only network that does not allow downloadable applications of any kind. His … [Read more...]
Key Cogs in the Affiliate Machine
In May 2008, JupiterResearch analyst Patti Freeman Evans published a study on affiliate marketing that indicates online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees, with U.S. online affiliate marketing spending reaching $3.3 billion in 2012. That figure includes the aggregate cost of running an affiliate program: affiliate network fees and affiliate … [Read more...]
Merchant Advantage: eBay Partner Network
In mid-March of 2008, eBay announced it would be transitioning away from having its massive affiliate program run by a network and instead they would take it in-house.eBay began its affiliate program in 2001 and had since grown it to the second largest affiliate program in the world, behind Amazon.com's Associate Program.The eBay Partner Network launched on April 1, and the … [Read more...]
Merchant Advantage: CSN Stores
When Brent Elias began working at CSN Stores.com in 2002, the Boston-based online home furnishings retailer didn't have an affiliate program. Elias began his career at CSN working in the advertising department on the keywords team. Like many e-tailers, CSN Stores was afraid that affiliate marketing would cannibalize sales from its main online store.But as the privately-funded … [Read more...]
Crossing the Line
The roles played by each of the key parties in the affiliate marketing space are very clearly defined. Just like a well-oiled machine, each component has its job to do, each ensuring that the industry as a whole functions, if not in harmony, at least in synergy.Affiliates should drive value added traffic and consumers to a merchant's site.Networks are considered to be the … [Read more...]
Commission Junction: Putting the Pieces in Place
Kerri Pollard took over the helm of Commission Junction as general manager over a year ago. Pollard's rise through the ranks - starting at BeFree back in the day and then at CJ as director of publisher services - gives her a wide variety of network experience to draw upon. Since Pollard took over, CJ has undergone some changes.Lisa Picarille: You've been running Commission … [Read more...]
Google Affiliate Network: Big-Time Backing
The performance marketing landscape changed dramatically last year when Performics, the third largest network, was sold along with its parent company DoubleClick to search giant Google. After more than a decade in the online marketing space, Performics became the Google Affiliate Network - gaining all the cachet of an association with Google, along with concerns from the … [Read more...]