More Affiliate Summit Keynote discussions…

2/27/2008

Wow… I’m on the road again today (at LAX with Tyler right now in fact), but the feedback on the Affiliate Summit just keeps coming in.

There is only one potential cure for the system gaming which pollutes the Net- and some gaming is good- it forces innovation. The real cure is to remove the incentive from the system. Ponder that…if so there will be collateral damage. There are many good publishers, analytics people (who can do PPCSE via arbitrage much better than merchants) and community builders. Please-all of you- stop thinking of yourselves as “affiliates”.

Also, love him or hate him, you have to thank Jason Calacanis for doing what he did at the Keynote…It’s rare that you see a keynote that leaves everyone talking for the duration of the conference, but that’s what Jason is a pro at. So thanks Jason…you jerk.

While I do agree with Jason Calacanis’ basic premise that web content creation should always strive for the best and focus on quality and community rather than quick profit, I don’t think web spam is the biggest hurdle for affiliate marketing (or search engines for that matter). Instead, the biggest hurdle for our industry in the coming years is our ability to open the doors to new content creators who want to find ways to responsibly monetize the content they are creating.