Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Frank Coluccio Technology Forum - ASAP -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (986)	1/17/2000 10:27:00 PM
From: ftth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1782

re:>>The few pennies per click taken by each participant are often arbitrarly set, very arbitrariliy set. I was looking for some rationale used for setting those fees, like cost-plus, or the like, but there was none In general for companies that built their own affiliate programs it is very arbitrary, and involves time consuming negotiations and contracts, but more and more it makes less sense for companies to attempt to build such infrastructure and affiliations from scratch when they can outsource that service to a company that has already organized it and worked out the distribution network and tracking and reporting mechanisms--and is sold on a pay-for-performance basis. You can look to the affiliate marketing networks, such as Be Free and LinkShare, which aggregate these affiliates and track the pennies, for such things. The big picture of a dilute pool of zillions of penny takers leads you to believe no one can really benefit substantially because it's so fragmented. I believe these aggregators, such as Be Free and LinkShare, have the greatest potential to benefit because they act as sort of the "middleman's middleman" and sell their services in such a way that it makes little sense NOT to outsource their affiliate marketing. Even companies that deal in content or traffic rather than product can benefit from these arrangements. These aggregators would seem to be the only ones that may truly achieve "zillions of pennies" scalped from internet transactions because of their reach and coverage. BWDIK. These are all unproven business models, but at least their execution has been stellar so far, and there's at least some logical reason that doesn't require the use of outlandish forecasts whereby they may be extremely profitable in the coming years. To add fuel to the fire, so to speak, BeFree was mentioned specifically in that Harvard Business Review article I provided the link to earlier as a prime beneficiary of on-line transactions. befree.com (Nasdaq:BFRE) linkshare.com (Private; ICGE owns a stake) Disclosure: I've owned shares of BFRE since the day of the IPO. Sort of an "out of character" investment for me since I hate marketing so much. My intent isn't to hype, but just to present a POSSIBILITY for further review and scrutiny. The closest I ever get to hype was my post regarding SNRA the day before it broke out to the upside. I'm quite sure my post CAUSED that breakout <GGG>. dh