RIP Affiliates? Microsoft Cashback

[zaq]

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In the new york times about Microsoft cashback new service etc

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As part of the program, Microsoft is also unveiling a new business model (Microsoft affiliate network) that allows search marketers to pay for ads only when people buy a product, rather than when they simply click on an ad.

Microsoft said this so-called cost-per-action model would give advertisers more precise returns on their marketing budgets.
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:scared when google does the same google affiliate network :scared

INFO: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/te...rssnyt&emc=rss

Scroll down to the bottom of their page for the above info.

[channel5]

If Google did it then it would have a massive effect on those affiliates that specialise in PPC.

Natural search will not be affected by this, if that is your specialism then sleep easy.

[Darren M]

:scared when google does the same google affiliate network :scared

I thought Google already had done this to a point. I wouldn't worry about it anyway, not everything these search engines do is a big success, just look at Froogle. Froogle was meant to have killed off all of the big price comp sites, it never happened as the results were pretty poor. The quality suffers because of the huge amount of products they're trying to match programmatically. The best price comp sites have a limit on how many product categories they focus on and they have staff that try to correct the results.

I imagine it's the same story with a search engine affiliate network. The big brands would be better off sticking with a real affiliate network where they had dedicated account managers and real people to talk to. Have you seen some of the rubbish that's on the Google Referrals programme?

[Azam.net]

Completely agree with Darren.

Microsoft's cashback site will influence affiliate marketing to a very small degree, as any innovation does in this sphere, but the very nature of online business requires one to constantly have to adapt. Successful affiliates have always had to adapt to market conditions and, because their income depends on being sharp entrepreneurs and not succumbing to the constant barrage of assaults on their businesses from a million and one directions, there are no other bunch of people that I admire more.

I personally would not worry about even Google setting up a cashback site. Have you seen their level of support with Adwords? The first sentence of my email is always, "Do not send me a form mail response" and they still always do