Associate Programs Newsletter #173

CONTENTS:

1. Outrage spreads over "scumware"
2. Don't be swayed by feeble arguments
3. How affiliates can fight scumware
4. What merchants can do to show they care
5. How an affiliate harnesses the power of eBay
6. Gator's new dirty trick
7. Be Free reduces workforce, and other news
8. Useful free resource: SpamCon Foundation
9. Thought for today: Evil things (such as scumware)

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1. Outrage spreads over "scumware"
==================================

You've heard of software, freeware, shareware and perhaps vaporware. Now there's "scumware".

As outrage spreads over eZula's TopText and other browser plug- ins which divert traffic from your web site, "scumware" is the name which is being accurately applied.

Scumware DEFACES the content of your web site without your permission.

It OVERLAYS advertisers' links on your site without your permission.

Depending on how upset you are and how you view the ethics of this, it either diverts, hijacks or steals traffic from your site.

However you describe it, the end result is:

You lose visitors - perhaps to your competitors.

You lose sales.

You lose commissions.

If you haven't caught up with this topic yet, prepare to be horrified.

When I checked CNet's Download.com this week, eZula's KaZaa had been downloaded 7.4 million times.

Many of the 7.4 million people who downloaded KaZaa - a Napster- like file-sharing tool - apparently didn't even realize that they were also installing TopText.

TopText, like Microsoft's widely denounced SmartTags, works through your browser. It modifies your web page, highlighting in yellow all the keywords which eZula has sold. Advertisers pay per click for the keywords.

What it's doing is inserting advertisers' hyperlinks in YOUR pages.

For example, if you have used the phrase "car loan" on a web page, TopText could turn that phrase into a hyperlink which your visitors click on, robbing you of potential sales or commissions.

As Danny Sullivan of http://searchenginewatch.com says:

"As a result, potentially Coke could advertise so that any time 'cola' appeared on the Pepsi site, the word would have a hyperlink leading back to the Coke site. Similarly, Ford could advertise so that the word 'car' on any pages across the web - including those at the General Motors web site - would link to Ford."

It doesn't matter whether you're the FBI, the White House or a children's charity, advertisers' links are being added to your pages.

That stinks. It looks remarkably similar to breach of copyright and unfair competition.

A really nasty side of all this is that if you run a children's site TopText or Surf+ could overlay links on it to "adult" sites. It could be happening to YOUR site right now.

About the kindest conclusion I can come to is that it's unethical.

Jim Wilson, who created http://scumware.com/ , says:

"The stealing of traffic from independent web site publishers has become the biggest threat to the survival of the Internet to date."

Steve Shubitz of http://www.stopscum.com/ says:

"In some cases, they alter the contents of a PG site with adult and or gambling links which the owner of the site would never permit. We find all of these actions morally reprehensible."

Paul Myers of Talkbiz in an article titled "Who Owns Your Business?", says:

"There is a word for taking a valuable commodity from its creator without their permission and without compensation. Theft."

I was so impressed by Paul's article I asked for permission to help publicize it:

To get it, just send a blank email to:

linktheft AT talkbiz.com

I hope you already subscribe to Paul's newsletter. It's an absolute must - hard-hitting, original thinking.

Other software products which lure away your hard-earned traffic by adding additional linking options to your web site without your permission include:

Surf+ from http://www.filemix.net/
Gator - http://www.gator.com - which boasts that it allows you
to advertise even on sites which don't accept advertising.
Melting Point http://meltingpoint.com/pressmirazolaunch.html

All these companies can sell advertising on YOUR site to your competitors.

Useful resources:

Sunil Tanna outlines the problem, suggests legal issues you can explore with your attorney, and provides useful links.
http://www.suniltanna.com/ezula.html

Forums:
gethighforums.com/Forum10/HTML/001386.html
66.33.83.213/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12175
66.33.83.213/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12048
slashdot.org/features/01/07/31/2015216.shtml
revenews.com/archives/00000139.html
revenews.com/archives/00000138.html

Jim Wilson's rant, with plenty of additional info and links:
http://scumware.com/

Steve Shubitz's campaign against contextual advertising:
http://www.stopscum.com/

Take Back The Web
takebacktheweb.com

Links to "other offenders":
freegraphics.com/zz-scumware/06_Known_Offenders/

Articles:

"Forget Smart Tags; TopText Is Doing What You Feared"
searchenginewatch.com/sereport/01/08-toptext.html

"Web sites prey on rivals' stores"
news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6797640.html

"Peer-to-peer exchanges court advertisers"
news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6759036.html

"Who Owns Your Business?"
linktheft AT talkbiz.com

More useful links:
http://www.dmoz.org (Search for "ezula")

[UPDATE, May 2004:
Google has joined the fight, updating its policies on parasiteware and spyware: http://www.google.com/corporate/software_principles.html ]

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2. Don't be swayed by feeble arguments
======================================

One feeble argument in favor of eZula's predatory advertising says that your site isn't being altered, TopText just provides an OVERLAY.

That's ridiculous. It LOOKS as though it has been altered. That's what counts.

Another feeble argument says that the software users CHOOSE to download the software. They choose to see your site with yellow links added to it.

Don't be swayed by that weak reasoning. Your web site is your property. You created it. It's your intellectual property. Another business doesn't have any right to tamper with it, diverting traffic via advertisers' links which you didn't create.

Even if the courts haven't caught up with this yet, it's still a filthy trick.

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3. How affiliates can fight scumware
====================================

To help fight scumware, you can do any or all of these:

If you have any of these unethical companies' products installed on your computer, uninstall them now.

Check to see if you have eZula's KaZaa on your computer:
http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/ezula.htm
[UPDATE: This link no longer works.]

The KaZaa uninstall function doesn't work completely.

Here's an article which explains how to uninstall KaZaa completely:
http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/removeezula.htm
[UPDATE: This link no longer works.]

Uninstall Gator. Stop promoting it. (It has an affiliate program tracked by Be Free.)

Install a free script which prevents TopText from working:
http://www.searchking.com/ezulakiller

Add free code to your pages to redirect visitors infected with scumware to a page warning them about scumware.
takebacktheweb.com/

Sign the TopText online petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/toptext/

Warn your web site visitors and newsletter readers. Feel free to forward this newsletter, link to it when it has been archived -
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/199/1/How-to-stop-scumware - or publish these articles.

[UPDATE: You can warn people visiting your sites about the problem. With one simple line of HTML parasite.js can do the trick. I've added it to this page. More details: http://www.doxdesk.com/software/js/parasite.html ]

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4. What merchants can do to show they care
==========================================

Here are four simple things affiliate merchants can do to show their support for the fight against scumware:

Don't use it.

Tell you affiliates you don't use it.

Ban any affiliate who uses it. PremierEquity - http://www.premierequity.com/ - says it has done that.

Add a clause to your affiliate agreement banning the use of scumware.

Bob Cortez of ListChannel.com says he is planning to add a clause to the company's affiliate agreement to warn affiliates not to participate in advertising programs such as eZula, Surf+ and Gator to promote ListChannel

The clause may be something like this:

"Affiliate agrees not to use any predatory advertising methods in the promotion of ListChannel.Com products, services or affiliate program. Predatory advertising is defined as any method that creates or changes links or banners on web sites without the expressed permission of that web site owner. Participation in predatory advertising programs will be cause for the affiliate's immediate termination."

The Affiliate Union - AffiliateUnion.com - is also discussing this.

Rick Bier has suggested this improved clause:

"Merchant agrees not to use any predatory advertising methods designed to generate traffic from sites they have not contracted with in the online promotion of the merchant's products, services or affiliate program and agrees to prohibit their affiliates from such predatory advertising methods.

"Predatory advertising is defined as any method that creates or overlays links or banners on web sites, spawns browser windows, or any method invented to generate traffic from a web site without that web site owner's, knowledge, permission, and participation.

Examples include, but are not limited to, keyword parsing browser plugins such as TopText and +Surf, banner replacement technology such as Gator, browser spawning technology that is not web site dependent."

An anti-scumware clause has already been included in at least one affiliate agreement. Congratulation to Brian Welch of the new affiliate network, LeadCrunch, which has just come out of beta testing.

[UPDATE: In July, 2005, LeadCrunch was acquired by JP Sauve's CPA network MaxBounty - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/maxb ]

===============================================
5. How an affiliate harnesses the power of eBay
===============================================

If you use eBay, you'll already know that you can't simply sign up as an affiliate of a product and advertise it on eBay.

You have to be a bit more inventive.

Here's a clever tip from Sydney Johnston, editor of Auction Gold newsletter - http://auctionknowhow.com/ - which gives advice on selling items at online auction sites.

In her latest newsletter, Sydney says that when people ask her what to sell, "the best advice is always to find something that is interesting to YOU".

She gives a personal example.

"I have a really burning interest in finding ways for sane weight loss. So many so-called solutions range from ridiculous to downright dangerous...

"The question isn't WHAT to eat. We all know.

"The question is how to develop the habits that support a safe and healthy lifestyle."

Sydney says she is constantly experimenting, and when she finds something genuine it's very gratifying to be able to help people ­ and make money, too.

"About two weeks ago I put a new item up for auction. It's an ebook called 'White Heat Metabolism'. It's about how to speed up your metabolism with something called Power Breathing. After following its directions for about two months, I can positively affirm that it is working."

She made a listing and put it on eBay, wondering what would happen.

"It went crazy! I have never had so many questions about an auction item in all my years of doing this. After a few days I realized that I had to get briefer in my answers because I was spending hours every day reading people's stories and writing long essays for answers.

"There are a million different weight loss thing-a-ma-jigs on auction sites. Why so much excitement over this one? I am sure that I know. I just tell a very simple story of what's happened to me. My ad is very human and very unimpressive. There aren't any AMA statistics, lab studies or diagrams of the fat cell. It's just one person talking about her experience. I mean every word I say, and people know that I mean it.

"This is an affiliate book so I can't sell it directly on auctions. So, I sold the information on how to find it, for the grand total of a PENNY. (I added the capital letters.)

"Of course, I haven't collected any pennies. But I have sent a steady stream of people to the affiliate site and they're buying this book. Lots of them."

Sydney has put her listing on this page:

auctionknowhow.com/ebooks/metabolism.shtml

"There's nothing fancy, nothing slick or sophisticated. Just a person saying what they absolutely believe. Anyone can do it. The point is, though, that I can be so sincere simply because I care about what I'm selling and saying. If I had to write a listing for a car battery it wouldn't come across that way at all.

"What should you sell? What do you care about?" Sydney says.

If there's a product YOU'RE highly enthusiastic about, perhaps you can offer to tell eBay users how to find it for a penny.

Sydney is also author of the highly popular "Make Your Net Auction Sell!" in which you can find a lot more down-to-earth, practical tips.

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==========================
6. Gator's new dirty trick
==========================

Gator is selling ads designed to block banners on sites such as Yahoo with pop-ups of the exact same dimensions, completely obscuring the original ad. The pop-ups hover over the banners even when the visitor scrolls down the page, making it even more difficult to discern that the visible ad is a substitute.
zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0%2C4586%2C5095848%2C00.html

IAB Lawyers to Recommend Action Against Gator.com. "At the very least, this is a dirty trick," says Washington attorney John Kamp.
internetnews.com/IAR/article/0,,12_869591,00.html

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7. Be Free reduces workforce, and other news
============================================

Be Free is reducing its workforce from 230 to about 175 and continuing its restructuring as part of its plan to reach profitability, before non-cash charges, by the second quarter of 2002. Co-founder Tom Gerace will no longer serve as chief marketing officer. He will, however, continue to work with the company in an advisory capacity on strategic initiatives.
befree.com/company/pressroom/releases/2001/082101.htm

Affiliate network LinkShare has endorsed the Affiliate Program Certification Criteria created by the Affiliate Union. This "certification standard" is designed to guide merchants towards contracts that are both clearer and fairer to affiliates.
biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010815/nyw028.html

Online Contests and Incentives
australia.internet.com/r/article/jsp/sid/10892

Dell Loses $101 Million For Quarter
nytimes.com/2001/08/17/technology/17DELL.html

Cybergold, which claimed more than 9 million members, will shut down on August 31, says Pieter Hartsook of Cybergold. Cybergold is directing its users to its parent company MyPoints.

Beenz, which had 265 employees at one stage and burned through more than $70 million, will shut down on August 26. Any beenz remaining in a member's account will be worthless. Another alternative currency company, Flooz, suspended operations this month.
news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-6893917.html

Online cash collapses
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46180,00.html

Amazon.com has reached a deal with electronics retailer Circuit City that will give customers the option of picking up purchases in about 600 U.S. stores rather than paying shipping fees.
ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/12922.html

You Are Your Best Super Affiliate: Smart Media Buying by Declan Dunn
clickz.com/aff_mkt/aff_mkt/article.php/867671

Affiliate Marketing - the Wireless Way by Amanda Austin of Mobile Affiliates
affiliatemarketing.co.uk/wirelessaffiliates.htm

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8. Useful free resource: SpamCon Foundation
===========================================

SpamCon Foundation is a non-profit organization which aims to protect e-mail as a medium of communications and commerce by reducing the amount of spam on the Internet.

The site includes a searchable database of more than 7,000 media stories about spam, a library of statistics, studies, articles and white papers, and links to related resources.

http://www.spamcon.org

====================================================
9. Thought for today: Evil things (such as scumware)
====================================================

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke

 

All the best

Allan Gardyne