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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when google does the same google affiliate network
Scroll down to the bottom of their page for the above info.
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A survivor personality is a winning personality that longs to win in the long-term, within the big picture and not one that looks only to succeed within individual moments.
when google does the same google affiliate network
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?
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
__________________ Azam Marketing, 1997-2008: 11 Years of Online Marketing Results
Hi,
It should never be underestimated the power of affiliates to adapt to changes in the IM world. For example, the sudden ban by Ebay of digital download products put a whole load of people out of business overnight. What happened? The real players in the market adapted and brought out multimedia products and are probably doing better than before.
Same in this situation. Good affiliates who are doing this as a real business will adapt.
At the end of the day, merchants need affiliates in order to extend the reach of their sales. If they make it unattractive to become an affiliate, they will lose these extra sales channels.
The likely outcome of CPA rather than PPC is that each resultant sale will provide much more in commission than lots of just plain clicks. ie. affiliates with good, highly targeted content should do just fine
RIP Affiliates? Microsoft Cashback
when google does the same google affiliate network 
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