I blogged about this rumor on Saturday and scooped the story - now it looks like it's true. Sometimes AdBumb prints rumors that are funny but not true - yet I have seen a number of times when they turned out to have the inside scoop before anyone else. So I followed a lead over the weekend from a story they printed and found that AzoogleAds is indeed ready to launch their new affiliate network. Azoogle isn't talking about it yet. I assume they will do a press release next week. Looks like it's designed to go head to head with CJ and LinkShare: They are offering merchants a special promo through 2005 - NO FEES PERIOD. The fee structure they have set up to start Jan 06 looks like it was modeled after CJ's merchant fee structure - only lower. They even have a fee for setting up a "new action" - that's a CJ term! Affiliates also get a sign-up bonus of $50 for joining - through Sept. 30th. My guess is they are planning to make a big splash right before CJU to ensure that all the merchants and affiliates that will soon be congregating in Santa Barbara will be buzzing about it. I SWEAR I do not have a source inside and have not talked to anyone about this. Just seems like it would be perfect PR timing. I really like CJ (for the most part) but maybe some new competition would do the whole industry some good right now. Azoogle is big enough and well respected enough to take the big boys on. If they do it right, keep the network clean and take good care of affiliates they could force some other networks to clean up their act and step up their game! Original Source, AdBumb's publication: NewMedia Report What do you think?
Is this thing live? I have been with Azoogle for several months and they haven't sent any email about this
Hi fryman, I didn't think it was ready for launch when I discovered it Saturday. But today they had a HUGE ad in NewMedia Report. Plus today on a private affiliate manager forum one of Azoogles PR people PMEd to thank me for the PR. I still think they are doing a soft launch and building up a rumor buzz and then will do a big PR blitz right before CJ. That's what I would do anyway.
I don't quite understand what this is... right now Azoogle offers CPA programs, so what is this new network about?
The divide is partly the image and distinction between "CPA networks" and "affiliate networks". They are both "pay per action" but CPA networks tend to be more 'offer' oriented instead of product oriented. They also tend to have more email marketers and spammers. Also CPA networks many times are like brokers. They take an offer from an affiliate program ande broker it out to other affiliates and get a piece of the action. Since they have large volume they can still pay out pretty high. Traditional AFFILIATE program merchants that sell products, like the product merchants you find on CJ - would not usually join a CPA network and even look down on them at times. You typically won't find someone like National Geographic that has thousands of products and a datafeed on a CPA network. Although you could find a National Geographic free magazine 'offer' or something on a CPA network. Does that kind of make sense? Lead based merchants you could find on either type of network but think of Affiliate networks as promoting 'merchants' that sell 'products' and CPA networks more as pushing single 'offers'. If MPORT can do it right and attract some of the big name 'affiliate merchants' it opens up a whole new ball game and revenue stream for them.
They are already one of the most important networks out there... this only makes them bigger. Quite impressive.
Anyone managed to sign up? I kept getting a message saying that I needed to enter my address, and no matter what I did I just couldn't sign up
It didn't like my zip code. Ireland doesn't have any sort of zip code and any combination of "Dublin 16" I tried failed miserably. Oh well..
Like I said in my blog, I don't think it's really ready and that's why they have not officially announced it yet. Think they are just leaking the story to create some build up buzz. From what I see they have some work to do before it's ready.
Azoogle doesn't have the "big name" merchants that CJ has. This is why Azoogle can't make it... Off brand mortgages/ NO WEB HOSTING/ etc........ Sorry I would love to see the humble underdog win but ............ that's life...............
I disagree. There are a lot of webmaster such as myself that are craving an alternative. If they can provide that alternative route in a clean and proactive environment I think it could float.
Azoogle already made it... it is one of the biggest CPA networks out there, and if they make a move you can bet it will be big...
Yes JP from www.MaxBounty.com contacted me too about the expansion they are doing into being more of an affiliate network.