I’ve read a couple of things on various blogs and forums recently regarding lawsuits brought by people who have the right royal hump with Google over one thing or another. I decided to go off on one of my random end-of-day internet searches to see just who is suing the great G-Meister this month, and why.

A lawsuit was filed against Google recently for infringing a patent on hyperlinks. Google committed the heinous crime of adding options to links. The lawsuit was filed the same day the patent was granted. Can anyone spell “opportunist”?

Here’s another cracker. Apparently they’ve given someone a bad ranking. There’s a bit of a new slant on this one though… this time Google are being sued because a building contractor doesn’t appreciate the fact that Google indexed bitter complaints by consumers about their service which rank second in response to queries on the company name. Not so much a bad ranking as a bad review. Food critics had better watch out on this one, a precedent could well be set.

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Affiliate marketing seems to be ridden with bits of jargon that are almost certainly designed to confuse and bewilder the unwary newcomer. We just LOVE our abbreviations… SEO, PPC, CPM, EPC, CTR, CPC… the list goes on! Combine this with the many industry terms that we need to get to grips with just to hold a conversation with another affiliate marketer, and we’ve got a proper recipie for confusion.

With the pain of this particular learning curve in mind, I’ve compiled a reasonably comprehensive list of all the different buzz words we tend to get thrown at us on a daily basis. So if you don’t know your EPC from your elbow, this is the guide for you.

Check out my Affiliate Glossary now, and it will all become clear!

I posted this a while back on the A4UForum “Real World” section. I just wanted to include it here because it documents what was probably the most frightening experience of my life during our current travels in Australia… and it gives a bit of an idea of my personality

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I feel I need to share the out of body experience I had recently whilst trying to perform the simple but essential task of checking myself for grey hairs in the mirror on the passenger side of our van. I’m only just able to talk about this you understand.

Those of you who know me really, really, well will no doubt be aware that my reaction to arachnids is somewhat spectacular. I feel like I’m trying to breathe underwater whenever I see even a teeny tiny one a few feet away. (more…)

I see many new affiliates asking questions about bringing in revenue from PPC campaigns. Understandably, many new affiliates are completely daunted by the prospect of putting money into something they may not fully comprehend. When I was managing the PPC and affiliate programme for Greenfingers.com I saw affiliates sitting on terms that I couldn’t nearly make work within the margins available for the merchant.

I even once got an extremely annoyed e-mail from one affiliate demanding to know why he hadn’t made the money the programme’s EPC rating suggested he would when he’d “uploaded all your suggested search terms from Commission Junction”. I had to gently explain to the poor chap that the suggestions were extremely generalised and that it was up to him to find his own niche (I’m not completely heartless, I gave him some suggestions about how he could do this!).

With those kind of early mistakes in mind, I’ve compiled a newbies guide to PPC via Google Adwords. I’ve written this without going into detail about any of the current issues with Googles landing page algo as pertains to affiliate sites. The guide is purely about identifying merchants, and the way affiliates should think when working on their first campaigns.

Check out my Beginners Guide To Google Adwords!

An online survey of affiliates was taken at the end of 2006 by e-consultancy.com in association with affiliateprogramadvice.com

The survey was jam packed full of interesting information regarding affiliate demographics. For me, one of the most interesting facts the survey dug up was the fact that just 17% of UK affiliates are female. I knew from the various affiliate marketing events that I’ve attended that there aren’t as many women in the industry as men, but I found the low percentage intriguing.

So what is it about affiliate marketing that creates this demographic? (more…)

In the last few days, Google has rolled out its GoogleCheckout service to UK merchants. On the face of things, it’s a great deal for UK E-commerce sites. It offers great fraud protection and promises to reduce costs by fighting chargebacks on behalf of the merchant and increasing conversion rates. It’s even offering consumers £10 off all purchases over £30 when they use the system for their purchases.

What’s the problem then?

A vast proportion of sales originating from affiliate links will simply not be tracked.

The checkout system works on the basis of approved tracking providers. If your network hasn’t jumped through Google’s hoops to qualify for inclusion in this new checkout system, you won’t be paid your commissions. Merchants with concerns about affiliate tracking have found that Google Checkout is an all or nothing gig. The big G won’t allow them to revert to another checkout system for sales originating from affiliate links.
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