Last week, I received an email from Linkhsare informing me that I’ve been named as a finalist for a Linkshare Golden Link Award in the Performance Marketing’s Most Vocal Advocate category.
If you’re here wondering why the heck a guy who’s been recently posting goofy pictures of himself in a chinpose has been nominated for such a serious category, here’s the background.
The pictures are a bit of fun, but my days of being vocal in this industry started back in 2002 when I was the voice of Be Free on the ABestWeb message board. My predecessors there were PR people and Senior execs who quickly had their heads handed to them by the strong ABW community. As a product manager, I volunteered to take the reigns and tried to do better by just being real. In 2004 I left Commission Junction to become a full-time affiliate marketer and have been making a living as a publisher ever since.
I don’t think my tenure as the public face of Be Free has as much to do for this nomination as has the subsequent activity on this blog. As a former affiliate network employee, I have a unique perspective and I often share my opinions of this industry here, on podcasts, or in opportunities at conferences and other industry events.
There are many posts here that highlight issues in affiliate marketing, always in the interest of generating awareness and discussion. But there is one thing that has placed me consistently in the short list of advocates, my response to the Commission Junction Link Management Initiative.
That action by CJ would have had, in many people’s opinions, serious impact on affiliate marketers. Beyond writing several posts to educate people on the issues and impact, I spoke out loudly against it and organized a petition to ensure that CJ saw that this reaction from their publisher base was more than a few noisy individuals.
Over 440 people signed that petition which was delivered to Tom Vadnais, then GM of Commission Junction. As a former employee and current CJ Performer, this put me in an uncomfortable spot but also in a position to be heard. Thankfully, they saw it as important feedback which partly lead to the decision to indefinitely postpone the initiative.
There haven’t been very many issues to generate such level of activity, with the possible exception of the recent New York Tax Law changes happening now, which we’re all watching very closely. In any case, it is always important to keep moving our industry forward through discussion of affiliate marketing issues, large and small.
This isn’t my first nomination for an industry advocate or service award. I’ve received a few such nominations on ABestWeb, a Best Blogger Pinnacle Award, and most recently an Industry Advocate Pinnacle award at Affiliate Summit West 2008. Each time I lost out to a very deserving person and again, I’m up against deserving competition. Best of luck to my friends Revenue Magazine (Lisa Picarille) and InternetGeekGirl (Stephanie Agresta). I look forward to seeing you in NYC from either side of the award podium.
