Comments on: Affiliate Summit West – Rant…

By: Ben Smith

Ben Smith — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:31:20 +0000

Good point Lee. It was nice meeting you in Vegas!

I’ve been an Affiliate in the game for almost 10 years and I can say from experience that I’ve seen almost every one of my Account Managers leave their company to start their own Network by simply buying DirectTrack. I think that’s why we see so many uncreative, cookie-cutter Networks with nothing unique to offer to their Affiliates. I go to these events as an Affiliate looking for new opportunities and I agree that most Networks lack uniqueness. There is nothing more annoying than when I tell someone my primary vertical is Home Business and just seconds later they’re pressing their Dating offer on me. I choose to work with those Networks who listen to my needs and work with me to help me accomplish my Affiliate goals.

Diablo Media does operate an Affiliate Network but we don’t use DirectTrack. Instead we’ve built our own proprietary Ad Tracking platform 100% in house to insure it tracks and reports the way we would expect it to as an Affiliate. We also take a different approach with our Affiliates. We don’t use “big business” pressure tactics! Instead we listen to needs of our Affiliates and we work with them one-on-one to build a mutually beneficial and long-lasting relationship. Our backbone is our technology and we’re always updating our Ad Tracking platform to meet the needs of our Affiliates. Whether it’s reporting enhancements, ad serving optimization, or improving offer conversion, we’re always available to hear how we can make the Affiliate experience the best it can be.

Great Article! It’s refreshing to see how other Affiliates like me view these bigger conference events.

Ben Smith
Founder & CEO
Diablo Media, LLC

By: Gab "SEO ROI" Goldenberg

Gab "SEO ROI" Goldenberg — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:53:07 +0000

I’m emailing this to my AM at CXDigital (Nate Poupko). I’ll bet he finds it interesting!

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:45:54 +0000

Hey man – great seeing you at the summit.

I was shocked at the number of networks there as well. I spoke to most of them just out of curiosity and realized most of them aren’t going to make it because of what you’ve said. Most these guys get a bright idea that they want to run a network so they rush out and buy DirectTrack, which is pretty cheap and easy to do. The next part they don’t think about — how the hell do we stand out? You’ve got some great ideas and any network should pay heed if they want to succeed.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:48:03 +0000

I never understood why affiliate networks didn’t provide a toolset to make marketing their products easier.

No hard pitch here, but that is exactly why we created Lead Alchemy (www.leadalchemy.com). Don’t re-invent the wheel each time you build a campaign or landing page.

I couldn’t find any contact info to send a private message, but give me a shout and I can tell you more. andy_at_leadalchemy.com. Thanks.

By: nickycakes

nickycakes — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:33:20 +0000

Totally dude. I talked to a ton of affiliate networks in vegas, and i kept having to say the same thing. What do you have to offer me that other networks don’t? Everyone claims to have the best payouts and/or best customer service, which are great, but at the end of the day, they’re taking a cut of the money I’m making and need to do something to make up for it.

By: mark

mark — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:08:01 +0000

Do you mean to say that if we are late-comers to the game and keep doing the same tired thing that everyone else is doing, we won’t be better than them? Dang it.