February 10, 2005 | Affiliate Marketing is the Bane of the Interwebs

Check today's Wired News for my story on the ongoing abuse of affiliate marketing schemes and some enforcement actions against companies that let people spam on their behalf.

Though I didn't have the space to get into it, affiliate spam also clutters search results and is responsible for almost all of the comment and trackback spam sent to blogs.

The biggest annoyance on the internet is not the guy trying to sell you a knockoff watch or prescription painkillers, it's the marketing scheme that rewards spammers who drive customers to his site.

Affiliate marketing, a system in which a business pays a commission to those who drive paying purchasers to its website, is responsible for much of the spam that clogs inboxes, search results contaminated with useless pages selling ring tones, and a never-ending barrage of pings and fake TrackBacks that have driven many bloggers to shut down comments on their sites.

The system allows individuals and other businesses to become freelance marketers for a company and generate income from individuals following links on websites or in e-mails sent to them.

Though the system has become much abused, some affiliate marketing is legitimate.

Found this comment on the article from a group blog called Threadwatch that focuses on Marketing and Related Technologies.

Wired are giving affiliates a bit of a rough ride today...

The CAN-SPAM stuff is not new news of course but it's always interesting to see how the more mainstream media views both affilates and seo's.

The question is, in the media's eyes, who are the worst scum, afiiliates or SEO's?

I won't answer the last question, but I love that I'm now a part of the mainstream media.

Posted by Ryan Singel at February 10, 2005 08:54 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.secondaryscreening.net/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/114