Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: /affiliates/

Apple warns appayola-using app-makers

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:37:00 GMT

App Store competition can be tough, but Apple has warned the consequences of trying to game the system are tougher.

Apple is reminding app-makers that using appayola services - paying to artificially inflate an app's chart ranking - will lead to them being stripped of their ability to release apps in the App Store.

In a post on Apple's Developer website, the company said: "Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts.

"Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership."

The reminder appears to have come in response to a recent conversation on the forum for the mobile games site Touch Arcade. In the forum posting, an independent developer claimed to have been contacted by an ad network charging $5,000 (£3,200) for a guaranteed spot in the App Store's Top 25 placement listing for free apps.

The developer also alleged that the company claimed to use a bot farm to automatically download apps and drive up their rankings, as well as implicating eight free apps currently in the Top 25 listing as using the unnamed bot farm's services.

Making the Top 25 is a coveted position in the App Store, and the potential revenue rewards for download popularity are certainly alluring. However, analysts are quick to point out that long-term business models cannot be built on the artificial use of bot farms.

For example, a really bad game in the App Store may just make it into the Top 25 by using appayola firms, but once "real human" users start playing, the rankings can sink very quickly.

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Groupon founder admits his failings

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:01:00 GMT

Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason has admitted his team made a "bush-league mistake" in the lead-up to the company's IPO filing last November.

The daily deals monger was forced to revise its filing papers after reporting that it generated $713.4 million (£466.3 million) - the Securities Exchange Commission said revenue figures should have been $312.9 million (£204.5 million) - a considerable discrepancy.

"Smart people can get this stuff wrong," Mason said in an interview.

"We're inventing a new industry. Like, if we were smart, evil people, we would be more cunning and subtle in our evil ways."

Although Groupon's share prices beat analyst expectations following its IPO filing - the bargain hunter had the strongest debut of any internet company since Google - share prices have cooled off, while competition has continued to heat up.

Groupon struck the right chord with users initially - more than 150 million users are signed up to receive daily deals to their inboxes.

However, as competitors like Google and PayPal are entering the ring, Groupon may have no choice to revise its business model - the young company has yet to turn a profit, and retailers are beginning to shy away from Groupon arguing that they lose money as they struggle to retain new customers.

"I think if there's any difference between me and a traditional CEO, it's that I've been unwilling to change myself or shape my personality around what's expected," Mason said.

"Am I as experienced or as mature or smart as other CEOs? No, probably not. But there's something useful about having the founder as a CEO."

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Zynga's IPO as popular as its games

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:12:00 GMT

Zynga Inc. is raising more than virtual livestock these days, having pulled in $1 billion (£643 million) in its initial public offering.

The social games developer responsible for time-consumers like FarmVille, Words with Friends and Mafia Wars announced late Thursday the sale of100 million shares of Class A common stock at the top of the marketed range - coming it at $10 (£6.40) a piece.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Zynga's offering is the biggest by a U.S. internet company since Google raised $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion) in its IPO in 2004.

And, at $10 a share, it appears that investors are very interested.

Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in San Francisco, said, "Zynga and its games are becoming consumer brands and there is a lot of recognition for growth potential. My guess is that the shares will be well-received."

The share pricing gives the internet gaming company a market value of approximately $7 billion (£4.5 billion).

Zynga Inc. was founded in 2007, building the company by charging small amounts of money - from a few cents to a couple of pounds - for virtual items in "free-to-play" online games.

Their "free-to-play" business model assumes most people won't want to pay anything to build virtual castles in CastleVille or take down rival mob bosses in Mafia Wars. But, by cultivating a large enough player base with a few loyal spenders, Zynga was able to earn a net income of $90.6 million (£140 million) in 2010.

This success is due in large part to their partnership with Facebook. Between July and September, 93 per cent of Zynga's revenue was generated through the social network giant, and this week announced Zynga's games had more than 223 million monthly users on Facebook.

However, with the popularity of mobile phone games like Words with Friends - a game actor Alec Baldwin felt strongly enough about to be kicked off an airplane - Zynga is also focusing on mobile gaming as a way to expand beyond social networks and snag as many shareholders as it has users.

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PayPal takes aim at Groupon

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:25:00 GMT

Daily Deals monger Groupon may have to brace itself for rough waters ahead as internet payment giant PayPal announces its intention to enter the daily deals market.

With more than 103 million users worldwide, PayPal hopes to leverage its database of consumer information into targeted e-coupons and daily deals that will prove more relevant than the ones currently being delivered to their inboxes by competitors like Groupon and LivingSocial.

According to Bloomberg News, the eBay owned company will make its foray into the land of daily deals in early 2012.

PayPal will also work to edge out the competition by offering deals to users' smartphones based on their location. For example - PayPal will alert users to available offers as they near a store or restaurant.

PayPal president Scott Thompson is hoping by targeting user location and buying habits the company can close in on its target revenue goal of $7 billion (£4.5 billion) in 2013.

"The experience is going to be completely different than anyone else's through and through," Thompson said.

"We'll only give you something that we think fits the category of unique and relevant. Everyone else is going to bombard you."

Following its initial IPO filing, Groupon shares jumped before swiftly sinking several weeks later.

Though Groupon and LivingSocial still hold the lions share of the daily deal's market, newer competitors like Google Offers and PayPal's yet-to-be-launched initiative could pose a serious threat to the company moving forward - particularly if new competitors can leverage the wealth of consumer information effectively and offer tailored offers to consumers.

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IE9 to include 'do not track' features with next release

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:12:00 GMT

Microsoft plans to build an anti-tracking device into the hotly anticipated Internet Explorer 9 web browser as online privacy debates intensify stateside and advocates push for widespread introduction of protective features, Wired.com reports.

Microsoft's new feature, dubbed 'Tracking Protection', will reportedly allow web users to keep lists of websites tracking their online activity, with options to block websites and third-party plug-ins outright.

Microsoft's move seems to follow the recommendations championed by privacy advocates who have lobbied American legislators to make available an optional "do not track" online privacy feature modelled on popular "do not call" subscription services that allow individuals to opt-out of unwanted telemarketing calls.

Dean Hachamovitch, the company's vice president responsible for IE development, explained the service would allow users to choose whether to be tracked by certain companies or not - as users could subscribe to website-blocking lists that did not block popular tracking services such as Facebook's Like button.

Though Microsoft's move is bound to be unpopular with advertisers keen to track and profile web users' behaviour in order to better target online display adverts towards receptive demographics, the company could appease privacy-conscious web users and watchdogs alike.

The move could cause a shift in online advertising as well, as trusted websites tracking users' online activities often factors into affiliate marketing online.

Tracking features such as Microsoft's offering could generate more than good will among web-using communities - particularly as YouGov's latest Brand Index report has shown that Google and Facebook's positive brand perceptions perceptibly dipped as their respective privacy-breaching and data-sharing foibles came to light.

Microsoft's tracking protection feature is hotly-tipped to be made available with Internet Explorer 9's next beta release.

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Amazon introduces affiliate tool for Google’s Blogger

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:24:00 GMT

Internet retail giant Amazon has integrated with Google's blog platform. The new module allows affiliate bloggers to quickly add links and search Amazon simply by highlighting text in a post.

Affiliates of Amazon.com where introduced to a powerful new blogging tool that attaches to their Google-powered blogging interface as an enhancement module.

The module allows affiliate bloggers to highlight a selection of text in their post to use the Amazon Product Finder to search automatically through millions of products to find recommended links for the selection. Affiliate bloggers may also select images from Amazon's huge database of product images.

It isn't just books covered by the tight integration of Blogger and Amazon. The retailer is also encouraging bloggers to use an integrated sidebar gadget to help sell MP3 tracks from Amazon's DRM-free music store.

This affiliate widget enhancement from Amazon follows closely on from the company's controversial Twitter offering. Amazon provided an easy way for associates to promote their affiliate links to their Twitter followers which started a debate around appropriate disclosure of interest.

The newly launched affiliate widget is similar to the Zemanta download from a seed funded Slovenian startup that automatically searches for related stories and links as a blogger creates their post. Although Amazon's Twitter integration is present on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk neither Zemanta nor the new Amazon blogger widget will work for Amazon.co.uk URLs.

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Affiliate Window dynamic search widget becomes UK's first

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:36:00 GMT

A smart new piece of software is now available on the Affiliate Window platform that allows users to enjoy an altered search experience when it comes to hunting down products online.

The widget, named the AnswerOil® Product Selector, offers an alternative way to hunt down products on the web and diverts away from the more traditional form of showing results that we're used to. Instead of showing results in the usual vertical-filtered way, the widget takes information from the web and collates it inside the tool itself.

With a range of handy features, the widget could mean a change in the way we shop online. For example, the tool will never get our hopes up with a great price on an item only for us to see that there's none left as it cuts out all pages without the stock. Even better, though, is the benefit for affiliates.

The tool's ability to let web users filter and select their preferences as they want means that they are presented with dynamically updated results. Affiliates can utilise the draw of such a useful service by making the most of the additional copy and paste process that allows them to integrate the application into a publisher website instantly and easily, providing simple and quick content for affiliates whilst being convenient for the customer - which is a winner for both.

The Affiliate Window blog quoted Ennis Al-Saiegh, Director of E-Commerce at PrismaStar as saying: "Product Selector Content Widget is an outstanding new tool at the forefront of cutting edge technology in the online arena. The affiliate product selector content widget project with Affiliate Window is an exciting new step forward for us, with the potential to change the way in which affiliates operate in the future."

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Google Parameter handling in Webmaster Tools

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Google are forever looking for ways to improve their relationship with webmasters. Today, a budding bigmouthmedia SEO found a new feature within the Settings tab in Google Webmaster Tools named parameter handling.

Google's description of parameter handling is:

Quote: "Dynamic parameters (for example, session IDs, source, or language) in your URLs can result in many different URLs all pointing to essentially the same content. For example, http://www.example.com / dresses?sid=12395923 might point to the same content as http://www.example.com / dresses. You can specify whether you want Google to ignore up to 15 specific parameters in your URL. This can result in more efficient crawling and fewer duplicate URLs, while helping to ensure that the information you need is preserved. (Note: While Google takes suggestions into account, we don't guarantee that we'll follow them in every case.)"

From bigmouthmedia's first assessment, this tool allows webmasters to notify Googlebot of certain parameters it needs to be aware of in the crawling process. Google may then ignore or remove these parameters in order to display the most effective URL within the search results. Google may then treat these parameters differently.

Bigmouthmedia has seen a very similar tool within the Yahoo! Site Explorer named dynamic URLs. For once, we have seen a tool release initially by Yahoo! and the followed by Google - could this be a trend for the future?

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HTML 5 Draft: Hyperlink Auditing and how it will impact affiliate marketing

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:48:00 GMT

Affiliate marketing has been around for many years and has proven to be a powerful marketing technique on the web. Over recent years, it has prospered to become a multi-million pound advertising stream - though there could be an upcoming bump in the road. Bigmouthmedia may have uncovered a kink in affiliate marketing's future progression, lying within the new proposed HTML 5 draft.

HTML 5 is the next major overhaul of HTML, the main markup language used to power the World Wide Web. The working draft of HTML 5 was released late August 2009, which bigmouthmedia was keen to analyse. After digesting the proposed differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5, a certain area caught our attention with relation to digital marketing: hyperlink auditing.

Hyperlink Auditing

In the proposed draft of HTML 5, hyperlink auditing allows you to "attach" resources to a link which, when clicked, will ping a source(s). This enables the click to be tracked via the desired method e.g. dropping a cookie or sending a HTTP request. This may sound familiar affiliate marketers and it is a method that is made possible with the proposed ping attribute. The ping attribute can be assigned to a URL and contain URLs for external resources to be pinged, separated by a space.

The differences between existing tracking in affiliate marketing and the proposed method in the HTML 5 draft are:

a) redirects could be made redundant
b) the link can be made direct
c) and the new aspect - privacy is a core consideration

True to its name, hyperlink auditing may have been partially developed to allow users to vet or decide which third party tracking (cookies) are allowed. Within the proposed draft, it is apparent that your user-agent e.g. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera etc. will have settings to adjust behaviour.

It is likely that users will be able to choose which third parties they accept, as well as choose to disable all third party requests and user-agents will indicate to users the implications of clicking the link. For example, in the status bar, it is proposed that a notification will be displayed advising the user that clicking on the following link will also cause secondary requests.

These proposed changes may have been brought into consideration to tie in with the EU's proposed amendments to the 2002 European Communities Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, which is causing some concern for affiliate marketing here in the bigmouthmedia office. If our suspicions are correct, all tracking of links and affiliate activity will be openly disclosed to the user. Even affiliate networks that offer redirectless solutions would need to disclose.

Keen to get a better understanding, bigmouthmedia spoke to Ian Hickson, author and maintainer of the Web Applications 1.0/HTML 5 specification.

We asked Ian: "Would you be able to clarify whether ping and hyperlink auditing was in fact thought up as an alternative to tracking tags."

Ian kindly responded, saying: "Yes, that is one of the use cases that the feature is intended for."

Overall, from the HTML 5 draft, hyperlink auditing is not here to replace existing tracking methods, but is likely designed to act as an improved alternative. Removing the redirect from the tracking process improves user-experience, as there is no need to visit another host prior to the final landing page - resulting in faster load times. It is strongly believed this is one of the main considerations of the HTML 5 draft, along with privacy.

It's important, however, to bear in mind that HTML 5 is only in its draft stages, not conclusive. Hyperlink auditing may not even be part of the final release. If hyperlink auditing is present in the final version, bigmouthmedia believes it may affect affiliate marketing heavily, especially if enforced by the EU as described in 2002 European Communities Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications and supported by major browsers. Inevitably, every internet user would be disclosed to all tracking that occurs on links - a weird, but highly likely scenario. Let's wait and see what unfolds.

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Kowabunga!, Inc. rebrands to Inuvo, Inc.

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Kowabunga!, Inc has rebranded to Inuvo, Inc. which is built around an integrated technology platform. Inuvo claims to be the next generation of performance based advertising, allowing advertisers to manage CPA offers in one simple to use interface.

The name change forms part of the new streamlined vision to bring the best of Kowabunga technologies into a more integrated technology platform. Some of these technologies include MyAP®, PrimaryAds® and ValidClick®.

This new Inuvo Platform has been released as a beta version and is being trialled by a selected number of partners. The beta edition has limited functionality to allow for more complex functions to be added over the coming weeks. Inuvo are encouraging their existing affiliates to sign up to partners in the platform, trial the new platform and provide feedback, all of which will assist Inuvo, Inc. in building a unique marketplace.

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