2009 June

Are merchant selling networks the birth of
‘Social eCommerce?’

by Jeff Molander

There’s an endless amount of silly and illogical hype around Facebook and Twitter — their ability to create a new form of advertising. Forget advertising for a moment: When will e-commerce become socialized? Which companies will actually enable it? eBay’s unbridled success gave birth to an ecosystem of companies that “help sellers sell”… and eBay brings buyers and sellers together around shared interests to gab, blog, review products, etc. But there aren’t any companies out there helping sellers connect with other sellers to create “merchant networks” — with one exception. Not until today have sellers been able to instantly connect with other sellers to expand their own inventory (find new stuff to sell) AND create new sales channels (recruit other sellers as distributors). Check out this short video for the basics and here’s a link to the media release http://pitch.pe/16159

What do you think? Click to continue…

Tags: Better 'Social' Strategies

June 30, 2009

6 Comments

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If customers hate search ads
why do we put all our money in them?

by Jeff Molander

How does your digital marketing team invest today — and why? How will this change given the failings of search engines? Yes, failings. Search marketing is broken and failing most businesses… yet it is the #1 way digital marketers spend budget dollars on the Web. More alarming, research proves search engines are increasingly less trusted and less useful to consumers… and this will continue. Bottom line: search engines are increasingly unable to deliver results against the strategic interests of most companies. True. Now what? Click to continue…

Tags: Uncategorized

June 15, 2009

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Can Affiliate Marketing Work Better for Brands?

by Jeff Molander

I sat down with John Ardis, Valueclick’s VP of Corporate Strategy (who’s company owns affiliate network Commission Junction) to talk turkey about the current state of the market. I challenged John by making statements like, “there’s very little if any innovation in affiliate marketing” and “affiliate marketing budgets are being cut — consistently.” John admits that some advertisers build a sense of resentment with affiliates over time — based on customer ownership issues and strong desire for incremental sales. John speaks plainly and boldly to the issue. That’s why I love the guy