Press Release Clickbooth Invalidates Essociate Patent Claims Sarasota, FL, February 12, 2015 - On February 11, 2015, the United States District Court, Central District of California granted Clickbooth’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, ruling that the claims asserted by Essociate are patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and are therefore invalid. Title 35 of the … [Read more...]
The New Google Webmaster Guidelines Are Killing Affiliates
Affiliates have been complaining for a long time that Google keeps changing the rules of SEO. Most of the time it claims that it is doing it for the benefit of its users, but often it seems Google is just taking care of its own web properties. Recent Google algorithm updates have punished "thin" content sites, yet somehow the scraped content that appears on so many of Google's … [Read more...]
Summer Conference Recap: Accountability and Compliance Take Center Stage
It has been a busy summer for online marketing professionals. LeadsCon East and Affiliate Summit East were scheduled three weeks apart, making scheduling and planning for these important events somewhat more complicated than in years past. Despite the close proximity of the two shows, each continues to offer a different kind of value. LeadsCon attracts a more advanced … [Read more...]
Mr Waledac: The Peter North of Spamming
The always reliable Brian Krebs with an amazing story of Russian spammers, huge botnets and oddly named pwnsters. Microsoft on Monday named a Russian man as allegedly responsible for running the Kelihos botnet, a spam engine that infected an estimated 40,000 PCs. But closely held data seized from a huge spam affiliate program suggests that the driving force behind Kelihos is a … [Read more...]
Billion Dollar I.P. & Patent Leeches
The affiliate marketing industry is already being burned by BS intellectual property law suits in the form of Essociate's patented claim to have invented affiliate network technology, but in this week's ridiculous I.P. news we hear that Apple is likely to have to pay $1 billion to obtain the "iPad" trademark in China. The backstory is that Apple bought the iPad … [Read more...]
CPAWay vs. Essociate: Is This The Way Forward?
CPAWay is one of our favorite CPA networks: fast growing with an innovative CEO committed to quality and service. So we were horrified when we heard a few weeks ago that CPAWay was the latest in a long line of networks sued by Essociate Inc. for patent infringement. Patent law suits can drag on for a long time and be very expensive, just ask ShareASale, Blue Whaler, Max Bounty … [Read more...]
Google Forfeits $500 Million Generated by Online Ads & Prescription Drug Sales by Canadian Online Pharmacies
From the Department of Justice: “Google Inc. has agreed to forfeit $500 million for allowing online Canadian pharmacies to place advertisements through its AdWords program targeting consumers in the United States, resulting in the unlawful importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs into the United States.” This is one the largest forfeitures … [Read more...]
Police Crackdown On Fake Anti-Virus & Online Pharmacies
Have you ever been hit by a fake anti-virus alert on your computer? Do you know someone who has? More importantly, have you ever made money off those kinds of offers? The chances are that the number of people replying in the affirmative to these questions is disappointingly high. Fake AV software is perhaps the most visible of fraudulent activities online: it is incredibly … [Read more...]
FTC Aggression: Killing? Or Curing?
The jury is in. And the verdict is that performance marketing has to clean up its act. Every week now we see evidence of the FTC's newly aggressive approach utilizing a “master theory” about online marketing that they are applying across multiple verticals. EDU, health, beauty and financial services have been affected, but make no mistake: we are going to see it … [Read more...]
Five Key Points On CA’s New Sales Tax
Armageddon arrived two weeks ago in the fight against online sales taxes. California signed their version of the affiliate sales tax into law and Amazon, along with many other online merchants, responded by terminating their CA affiliate programs. But as the dust begins to settle, who are the winners and losers? And where does the affiliate marketing industry go from here? … [Read more...]
Cagefight: Facebook vs MaxBounty
The big news this week has been Facebook filing lawsuits against MaxBounty, Steven Richter and Jason Swan, the CTO of CPALead. The allegations are serious and include violations of CAN-SPAM, fraud and breach of contract among others. Facebook is breaking fresh ground with these actions, and the word on the ground is that the people involved are taking them very … [Read more...]
Botnet of 13 Million Computers Smashed
On Wednesday Spanish authorities announced the arrest of three alleged ringleaders behind the Mariposa botnet. Mariposa is possibly the largest botnet yet discovered and consisted of an estimated 12.7 million computers. The extent of the virus-infection is staggering: more than 190 countries, over half of the Fortune 1,000 large enterprises and at least 40 major banks were … [Read more...]
Shock! Google Isn’t Infallible!
It has become crystal clear over the last week that Google rushed the introduction of Google Buzz, did little or no external user-testing, and as a result is scrambling to mitigate a massive PR failure. As we reported last week, early concerns about privacy were confirmed for many when a blogger writing under the name of Harriet Jacobs complained that her “actual … [Read more...]
Fighting the Nexus Tax
If you’re a performance marketer, you’ve probably heard of the “nexus” tax laws that are being proposed in several states (also known as the Amazon tax). And you may be wondering if you should be concerned.As I’m learning, if something has to do with laws, taxes and politicians, you should be very concerned. Mostly this is because issues are … [Read more...]
Blurring the Lines
Recently, I posed my question to a diverse audience: "At your company, who is in charge of social media marketing? Raise your hand if it's the marketing group." A few hands went up. "The public relations team?" A few hands again. "Market research?" Once again, only a smattering of hands was raised. "So I guess most of you aren't using social media at all?" I suggested. "Must be … [Read more...]