“Oh Shit. There Goes The Planet”
Affiliate marketing has evolved from email spam to sophisticated search marketing but in very recent times has gone back to its scandalous ways with social network spamming. MySpace, the biggest social network, seems like it has had enough.
Jon from Wickedfire forums says that MySpace is about to sue more than 20 affiliate networks for actively recruiting spammers for $25m-$75m a piece. He isn’t naming names yet but does cite CPA Empire and says they will be the biggest network hit with a $75m fine.
The contentious issue is that MySpace is apparently relying on spam law that is mostly applicable to email rather than web forums and communication.
Ironically, apparently MySpace was monitoring another forum, Screennameforum.com, to decide which networks to go after.
The basic practice involves ‘hot girls’ asking nerds to be their friends and then sending them affiliate ringtone offers. As smaller affiliate marketers are pushed out of search by Google’s ‘quality score’ and bigger marketers entering their territory with more efficiency they have increasingly turned to MySpace profiles to grow their income.
The impending shake out is much needed at MySpace, although whether MySpace deserves to profit from the activity retro-actively is a little suspect.
BTW, Wickedfire.com forums are a fantastic place to learn more about affiliate marketing tactics in general.
