We are about to witness a classic lab experiment of the economic law of supply and demand, and it will give any economics professor who is monitoring the online video advertising world enough lecture material to last a semester, maybe two.

Currently, there are billions of video-advertising dollars sitting on the sidelines waiting to stream into the Internet marketplace. Part of the reason, in my opinion, that the dollars are not already flooding into the marketplace is the absence of an Internet Video Advertising Standard.

We have had an advertising standard for regular network television broadcasts for many years. Many might agree that the standard is a 30-second commercial that plays at the beginning or end of a show.

It makes perfect sense for the ads to play at these positions as both spots take advantage of deep-rooted psychological triggers that are hard coded into the human brain. Tuning in early to a show pulls the scarcity trigger as the viewer does not want to miss out on any of the programming. Watching the ads at the end of the show is a reciprocal response since the viewer was allowed to watch free programming.

Ask Randall Rothenberg, the President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and he will tell you that the accepted standard for video advertising online has not yet been cast in stone by the industry. We are close, but not quite there. Some of the things that are part of the standard and must be decided are:

• Length of a video ad.
• Type of ad.
• How many ads within a given video.
• Manifestation of the ad (overlay, preroll, postroll, interstitial, etc.).
• Behind-the-scenes high-powered metrics for measuring ad effectiveness.
• Cross-platform ad buying allowing an advertiser to buy multiple websites at one location.

Once the online video advertising standard has been accepted by the marketplace, I predict a green tsunami of cash to wash across many of the websites that host great video content. The advertisers will be looking for high-quality video that is contextually connected to their products. The videos that offer solutions to everyday problems will do well. The ads that appear with these videos will be accepted by the viewer as helpful additions to the content.

Let’s talk about this in the world that I work in each day. My AsktheBuilder.com videos might appeal to any number of large brand advertisers. For example, consider videos that would be in my Plumbing category for just a moment.

As soon as the advertising standard is decided, the marketing manager at Kohler might call the Ad Sales department at YouTube and purchase all of the ad spots in the AsktheBuilder.com videos that have anything to do with plumbing fixtures and faucets. This is very likely as Kohler has the budget to do this.

Moments after the deal is struck, the phone at YouTube rings again. But this time it is Moen, another powerhouse plumbing faucet manufacturer, calling. Unfortunately, YouTube tells the Moen ad buyer that the entire ad inventory is sold. Moen reacts by finding another video-hosting site that features AsktheBuilder.com videos.

Oh, we are not finished. What about Delta Faucets, Elkay, American Standard, Price Pfister, etc.? Where will these companies buy video ad space to showcase their products within plumbing videos? My hypothesis is in videos that are hosted on other video-hosting websites scattered across the Internet.

There are at least two major dynamics at play in this situation. The one is the supply of high-quality video content and the other is the number of different places where this content is playing in syndication. In both cases the owner of the video content is sitting in the driver’s seat. The owner of content on the Internet is king.

I was quoted as saying that in the best-selling book, StrikingItRich.com, by Jaclyn Easton. But just a few days ago, a colleague of mine said the owner of video content is going to be the king of kings. Having survived on the Internet since 1995, I have to agree with this statement.

In the meantime, I suggest you move to high ground to watch what happens when the green tsunami crashes ashore.

Tim Carter is the author of the nationally-syndicated newspaper column Ask the Builder and the founder of AsktheBuilder.com.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

Affiliate Marketers are definitely an eclectic bunch. Put a group of 10 in a room and you’ll get 10 different opinions on various industry issues, with each individual view passionately expressed.

That being said, you will never see a group band together more strongly than a gathering of Affiliate Marketers who have just had their collective cookies overwritten or website content stolen.

All differences will be put aside and for a moment in time, the industry will become One.

It is that “Rallying” style that is witnessed each time Affiliate Marketers are called upon to support a worthwhile cause.

Since 2007, the Affiliate Marketing community has raised nearly $80,000 through Affiliate Summit selected charities such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada, March of Dimes, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Starlight Starbright Foundation.

In the next few months, Affiliate Summit will be supporting the Susan G. Komen for the Cure again as team Affiliate Marketers Worldwide, takes to the streets to raise money to fight Breast Cancer.

This September in Seattle, I will be leading a team of incredibly generous Affiliate Marketers who will be walking 60-miles, over the course of three days with me.

Angel Djambazov or PopShops.com and JonesSoda.com, Jen Goode of JGoodeDesigns.com, Karen Garcia of GTOManagement.com, Anne Fognano and Tammy Carney of CleverMoms.com, Laura Przybek of buy.at and Heather Paulson of PaulsonManagementGroup.com are just a few of the terrific folks that will be donating their valuable time for this worthy cause.

Some people have asked me why I’m doing the 60-mile walk again, even now that I know what I’m in store for. I guess for me, it’s all about the facts. I know that without a cure, 1 in 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. I also know that EVERY advancement in breast cancer research, treatment, education and prevention in the last 25 years has been touched by a Susan G. Komen for the Cure grant.

I can’t think of a better way to use my feet so that one day men and women won’t lose their breasts or their lives.

I am still looking for additional walkers to take on Breast Cancer with us.

If you would like to join our team, or make a donation, please visit www.AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com to do so.

On that site, you will also find a terrific discount to Affiliate Summit Boston, which is available to folks that make a donation. Information on sponsorship packages can also be found on the website.

Additionally, the LEAGUE is the charity that Affiliate Summit has chosen to support during the upcoming Affiliate Summit Conference in Boston.

The LEAGUE, in its first year, is getting tens of thousands of kids involved in improving their communities and ramping up quickly.

It provides a structure, the curricular resources for the classroom and the planning resources for students and teachers to effectively address a community need through school year events.

The LEAGUE also provides recognition of student efforts, and works closely with local and national media partners to highlight and celebrate our youths’ contributions that are changing their community for the better.

For more information about this wonderful charity, please visit www.TheLeague.org.

Fundraising efforts will begin shortly and will also include the customary and highly-coveted Affiliate Summit Staff Shirt and Videos sponsorships.

For up-to-date information on these fundraising efforts as well as other Affiliate Summit happenings, please visit the Affiliate Summit Blog at http://blog.affiliatesummit.com

Missy Ward is the Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit, the premier conference for the Affiliate Marketing Industry.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

Anybody based on the U.S. who attended Affiliate Summit last year in Miami or this past February in Las Vegas should have received an issue of FeedFront in the mail by now.

If you didn’t get a copy, we must have an incorrect address on file for you.

You must get your subscription request in no later than June 30, 2008 to receive issue 2.

Subscribe now at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

So, here’s my Top 10 List of Web2.0 Apps to Help Affiliate Marketers GTD:

1. Harvest: Great time tracking application to keep track of where you spend your time. Includes a great invoicing system as well as a must-have desktop widget available for Mac and PC users. Freshbooks is my second pick for time tracking.
2. Google Calendar: Sharing, mobile access, Google-backed. ‘Nuff said. Essential for any web worker.
3. Remember The Milk: To-do Lists are not always sexy, but this app combines the best of simplicity with full-features to give the user a customized experience. As an added bonus, you can integrate your RTM to-do list with Gmail and have your list appear right in your inbox.
4. Jott: Jott allows you to record short voice messages. The key part of Jott’s worth is its ability to integrate into many other apps including RTM (see #3), Google Calendar (see #2) and even Twitter.
5. Google Docs: The ability to share, create and quickly edit (now online or offline) makes Google Docs indispensable for affiliate marketers (especially those on a limited budget since you can read and create Word Docs, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations).
6. Basecamp / Backpack / Highrise: All of these web apps come from the same company called 37Signals and they all offer varying degrees of product management and CRM. My day begins and ends in Basecamp.
7. Ma.gnolia: While I use and love Del.icio.us for bookmarking, Ma.gnolia fills a handy GTD niche by allowing me to keep my bookmarks in groups, private or public and share them with others. All of my affiliate logins, message boards and various places of destination dealing with affiliate marketing are organized nicely in my Ma.gnolia account.
8. Sandy: Sandy integrates nicely with your email and calendar (Outlook, Mail.app or Gmail) and sends you reminders wherever you’d like them to appear. Plus, Sandy also integrates with RTM, Jott and even Twitter.
9. CallWave: Everyone hates voicemail (at least I do). CallWave helps you get around the voicemail problem by sending your transcribed voicemail either to your phone as a txt message, to your email or to the CallWave desktop app (works great on a Mac).
10. The Kitchen Sink: Here’s everything else I use to GTD and highly recommend you at least try out… Gmail, Twitter, Google Reader, and Google Notebook. Web 2.0 is certainly a concocted marketing term that has lost its once hip buzz. But some Web 2.0 apps can greatly improve your business and make you a better Web worker.

Sam Harrelson is the publisher of the AffiliateFortuneCookies Podcast.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

Brevity is not only the soul of wit, it is the foundation of Twitter, a free, burgeoning social networking/micro blogging service that provides savvy online marketers a highly effective way to communicate with consumers, peers and influencers 140 characters at a time.

On first glance Twitter resembles a glorified version of instant messaging that allows you to send out text-based updates (albeit a 140 character limit). These updates or tweets are displayed on the user’s profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them via Twitter.com or through a third party application such as Twhirl or Twitterific.

And while Twitter is still primarily the domain of early adopters it is gaining traction.

Since its launch in the summer of 2006, Twitter has been one of the fastest-growing apps on the Internet. According to March figures from the company, Twitter is likely to reach 1 million users by June. However, other statistics claim that based on registered Twitter IDs, the number of Twitter users already exceed nearly 12 millions users.

Although, Twitter asks its users to answer the question, “What are you doing?”, it’s gone way beyond just personal updates from friends and peer and is now being used to pose questions, do crowd sourcing, conduct informal research and market products and services.

Twitter appeals to online marketers because, like other presence platforms, is an immediate way for people to communicate their thoughts and ideas. Marketers can leverage it by selling to the user directly or by seeing major trends in the millions of daily public posts.

There are several strategies for making the most of Twitter. For marketers, it can extend the reach for companies that already have a blogging strategy in place and want to deepen or further ties to its users. It allows merchants to announce sales and deals immediately to its consumers or to affiliates. It can be used to link to blogs, websites or news updates. Twitter is useful to build consensus or a community of supporters and fans. It can also help build buzz and shape personal or corporate branding.

Some merchants are using Twitter to put a human face on their brand and communicate directly with their users. According to Forrester Research’s web strategies analyst Jeremiah Owyang, Twitter is a great way to establish a trust with community members – to get personal and be personable.

For example: Zappos.com CEO, Tony Hsieh, has attracted more than 2,000 Twitter followers through his amusing tweets and shoe giveaways. Airlines Jet Blue and Southwest are also active on Twitter and use the platform to promote blogs, contest, flight updates and answer customer comments.

Gary Vaynerchuk or WineLibraryTV.com has built a huge and rabid following of Twitter followers (more than 7,000 at press time) and uses his popularity to promote his online videos, his books, and sales of wine from his retail outlet. Jason Calacanis, CEO of human powered search engine Mahalo, has more than 22,000 followers and recently used Twitter to get input on a new design for Mahalo.com.

Social media consultant, Stephanie Agresta, president of Stephanie Agresta consulting, says that Twitter is not only an excellent way for merchants to communicate and engage its audience, but for affiliate managers to communicate with affiliates.

Because affiliates vary in how want to receive information - some like phone calls, some prefer email and others want RSS – Twitter messages can be received a variety of ways: on Internet- capable devices, the Web IM, and phone – which makes it a flexible solution for affiliate managers. The more affiliates know about what is going on with a program, the more they can tailor their marketing to convert their traffic into sales, according to Agresta.

Although Twitter is not a magic bullet for sales or success, any platform that improves communication, increases transparency and encourages dialog is worth adding to your arsenal of marketing weapons.

Lisa Picarille is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Revenue, a bimonthly magazine focusing on performance marketing (www.revenuetoday.com). She also co-hosts the weekly Affiliate Thing podcast with Shawn Collins on WebMasterRadio.FM and is a regular on the GeekCast.FM podcast.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

We’ve got a question for you for you, which must be answered in 140 characters or less - what is your opinion (positive or negative) of affiliate marketing?

Answers will be published in the second issue of FeedFront Magazine.

Please answer below by midnight EDT on 6/25/08.

Note: you must use your corporate email address - this is required to have your response printed in the second issue of FeedFront Magazine.

As affiliate managers grow their programs, it is common to seek other avenues to branch out. With the influx of new networks on the scene, programs in multiple networks are on the rise. Below are three key areas affiliate managers should consider when launching a program in multiple networks:

DUPLICATE TRACKING

As one might imagine, having an affiliate program on multiple networks increases the risk of duplicate payment on a single transaction.

For example, “Affiliate 1″, participating on “Network A”, drives a consumer over to a “Merchant”, but does not complete a purchase. Later in the week, that same consumer changes her mind, does a Google search to find the “Merchant” again, clicks a link from “Affiliate 2″ on “Network B”, and completes the purchase.

That consumer will have tracking from both “Network A” and “Network B”, and the merchant ends up paying double commission.

SELECTIVE PIXELS

In order to avoid paying duplicate commissions, affiliate managers are focusing on channelization methods to selectively display network pixels. For example, instead of an inbound link like http://www.example.org, the affiliate manager will setup two links:

http://www.example.org?sourcenetwork=NetworkA
http://www.example.org?sourcenetwork=NetworkB

Any consumer that comes through the “Network A” link will have a “Network A” pixel displayed on their shopping cart, and “Network A” will receive tracking information about that sale, and vice-versa.

Unfortunately, consumer behavior cannot be perfectly predicted.

For example, “Affiliate 1″, who participates on “Network A”, drives a consumer to a “Merchant” through http://www.example.org?sourcenetwork=NetworkA , but does not complete a purchase.

The consumer is still interested and writes down the “Merchant” URL. Later in the week, they retype http://www.example.org (leaving out the network URL string) and complete the purchase.

Since the consumer came through a direct URL on the second visit, it is common for the “Merchant” to fail to send tracking information to “Network A”, resulting in an improperly attributed transaction, and failure to properly commission a sale.

DIFFERENT COMPLIANCE RULES

Network policies regarding affiliate compliance present another complication. For example, some networks have strict policies regarding adware/spyware, while others see it differently. It is imperative that the rules and regulations of a merchant program are identical across networks to avoid significant issues regarding dual tracking.

Additionally, terms such as commission rates, cookie durations, bonuses, etc., must match, as savvy affiliates will leverage the difference, resulting in long-run channel inefficiencies.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If a merchant wishes to expand their reach, my recommendation is to task the affiliate manager with recruiting affiliates. With few exceptions, it should be possible to recruit any affiliate regardless of network preference.

However, if two or more networks are being used, it is important to provide proactive solutions for the points above. Some affiliates will pass on a “dual network” affiliates program unless assured the issues are addressed.

Brian Littleton is the President/CEO of ShareASale.com, Inc., a retail focused affiliate network for businesses of all sizes.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

Our business is paid search arbitrage and most of the time we send traffic to the merchant’s landing page directly from search engines. That means we live and die by the conversion rate of the merchant’s page and we have to very carefully evaluate a landing page before we begin working with a new merchant.

In this article, I’ll outline some of the things we look out for when it comes to landing pages.

Toll-free phone number on the landing page

In most cases, when a prospect calls the merchant’s phone number, the affiliate will not get credit if there is a sale. So when a merchant puts their phone number on the landing page, especially in a prominent location, that can serve to “siphon” legitimate commissions away from the affiliate.

Recently, I was assessing a landing page for a weight loss merchant through a major affiliate network. When I tested the landing page link, a huge popup window appeared, that was half the size of the entire screen, obscuring almost everything else and urging the visitor to call the company’s 800 number. Needless to say, this is not an affiliate-friendly practice.

Advertising for other merchants or products on the landing page

As a paid search affiliate, when I send highly qualified traffic to a landing page, my intention is obviously to drive a sale of the product featured on the page.

When merchants place banner ads for other companies on the page, which can bleed away our precious traffic and decreases the potential to close sales and earn commissions.

Is there navigation on the page for other parts of the website or other products from the merchant?

Since we are trying to drive orders by bringing highly targeted traffic to a merchant’s sales page, if the visitor starts wandering around to unrelated parts of the site, we can often lose the sale.

In some cases, however, the prospect does need to visit some other pages to make a purchase (to check product specifications, for instance). Be sure the merchant’s landing page only links to other pages that are mission-critical for making the sale.

Pop-up windows on the landing page

I don’t think there’s anything more distracting than visiting a landing page for a product and seeing a pop-up window that advertises something completely unrelated to the product featured on the page.

If you see this practice, be sure to talk to the merchant and either ask to share in the revenue they receive from the pop-up window or, better yet, request that they kill the pop-up.

Targeted content on the landing page for the product you are selling

If you are promoting, say, “men’s Nike running shoes,” be sure the landing page is specifically geared to that product.

Any more general page — for, say, running shoes, or Nike shoes or men’s running shoes will not perform nearly as well as a page geared exactly to men’s Nike running shoes. If your merchant doesn’t offer these deep-linking landing pages, request that they be created.

Dan Murray is Internet Marketing Strategist and Founder of Ravenwood Marketing, Inc., a high-volume paid search firm based in Boulder, CO.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

I recently attended ad:tech San Francisco, which boasted nearly 15k attendees. I enjoyed catching up with old friends, having brainstorming sessions over drinks, and even accepting an ad:tech finalist award for “Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign” (congrats to Schaaf Consulting who was the category winner).

However, my major take away from the conference was that our industry is flooded with affiliate networks, ad networks, and vertical ad networks, as evidenced by the volume of booths in the exhibit hall claiming to be the leading network. While the growth in the ad network space is certainly not new, it has exploded over the past 12-18 months.

The growth of vertical ad networks makes lots of sense, since many advertisers are frequently looking to tap into relevant niche websites. Where ad networks include a broad mix of many websites (for example, advertising.com), vertical ad networks are much smaller, but highly targeted to particular content areas (for example, traveladnetwork.com).

Why Should You Care?

Publishers need to cut through the noise and decide which type of network (or combination thereof) to associate themselves with. Advertisers need to build strategies to effectively utilize an optimal mix of these marketing channels.

Value to Publishers

All three of these marketing channels offer publishers access to many leading advertisers through a system that streamlines the process of:

• finding advertisers
• launching campaigns
• tracking performance
• receiving payments

Where they are different requires a closer look:

Value to Advertisers

The ability to easily run ad campaigns across a multitude of websites speaks to the scale offered by these channels and highlights one key advertiser benefit offered by these marketing channels.

Many sites that appear in these marketing channels would never make it to a media plan on their own, because of their limited audience and reach. However, they can work with leading advertisers through these channels and reap the rewards of those relationships.

Here are some differences:

Summing Up

If you decide to explore any of these channels, do your homework first. While there are a number of benefits in doing so, there are also pitfalls, such as how to ensure your ad network buys do not poach your affiliates etc., but I will save those for future articles.

Peter Figueredo is the CEO and Co-Founder of NETexponent, a performance marketing agency that is efficient, evolving, and ethical. Their suite of services includes Affiliate Marketing Management, Media Partnerships, and PPC Search Marketing.

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.

“Affiliate marketing is bullshit.” You might have read that was the gist of the keynote from Jason Calacanis at Affiliate Summit 2008 West in Las Vegas.

Many others heard it in person, or did they? The phrase was all over the Interwebs for the last
several months.

And yes, that is how he opened his talk. Then the crowd laughed, and he said, “That’s what you all
expect me to do… I’m not going to do that.”

Some folks heard the first line, got aggravated and tuned out. Others were so peeved that they left the room.

Anyone who wasn’t there likely heard the version that the whole keynote was focused on skewering
us, affiliate marketers – and that could not be farther from the truth.

In fact, Jason called out affiliates that think in the short term and reflect poorly on the industry, and
he praised many as well. See and hear for yourself at AffiliateSummit.tv.

After Affiliate Summit, Jason joined up with affiliate networks and started experimenting with affiliate marketing on Mahalo.com.

Jason opened affiliate marketer’s eyes, and we did the same to him.

Anyhow, thank you for taking the time to read FeedFront, a magazine dedicated to bringing ideas,
resources, and opinions from Internet marketing innovators to you before your next project or venture.

Get the insight on the front end, rather than feedback after you’ve executed.

This magazine is for the futurists; the next-gen marketers; the early adopters in affiliate marketing.

Read. Test. Learn. Succeed.

Like we were saying, you are what you read.

Missy Ward & Shawn Collins
Co-Editors in Chief

Download issue 1 of FeedFront at http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue1.pdf.