Networks begin sharing information on fraudulent partners

Back in June of this year, the Japan Affiliate Service Kyokai (JASK), an organization of Japanese affiliate service providers, announced that starting in October 2007, they would begin sharing information to identify affiliate partners with which member companies have discontinued agreements due to fraudulent activities. Member companies will refer to a common database of partner information when taking on new affiliates or examining the continuation of an affiliate agreement with a pre-existing partner on their network. No doubt, this is a move in the right direction for the Japanese affiliate industry. Though the level of fraudulent activity is no where near what it is in the USA, Japan might be seen as virgin ground for future scamsters, so this kind of inter-network cooperation should help both the providers and those whose money is most at stake, the advertisers. The following types of information will be used to identify affiliate partners that have committed fraud:
1) Name (company name) of affiliate partner
2) URL of registered website
3) e-mail address
4) Details of fraudulent activities
5) Industry of relevant advertisers
6) Seven-digit registered bank account number
7) Name of Member Company

One thing that wasn’t clear in all of this was if JASK member companies plan to create some kind of appeals process to allow affiliates an opportunity to defend themselves if they feel they were unfairly placed on the blacklist. I speak from personal experience when I say that there are times when an affiliate provider will kick you off their network over a simple misunderstanding that could have been cleared up with one phone call. Now with all JASK member networks working off the same blacklist, a professional affiliate marketer may find himself banned from network X due to some SEO practice that is not necessarily looked down on in network Y. In addition, has JASK clearly defined what falls under “fraudulent activity”? Unless there is a clear and common set of standards among all member networks, I fear that we may see good affiliates unnecessarily prevented from doing business.

Adways launches new mobile content site

Adways (owners of the Smart-C mobile affiliate network) and M-Up, a mobile content creation company, have announced the launch of Artist Koushiki Mobile (http://a-mb.jp/mobile/). The new mobile site will target girls in their teens and early twenties. The site will feature content and diaries built around popular Japanese singers and artists. In addition, users will have access to artists promotional videos, decorative email and SNS features to allow fans to communicate with each other. Taking a page from the Moba Game Town play book, Artist Koushiki Mobile will also feature mobile games and allow users to create avatars. Like Pocket Affiliate, Adways understands the importance of maintaining a portfolio of mobile media sites. As the affiliate landscape becomes more crowded, networks will need to lock in access to high traffic channels as a means for distributing their client ads. By teaming with M-Up, Adways taps into an already established mobile content source and thus benefits from a lower barrier to entry in the highly competitive mobile market.

Adways Ties Up with Chobi Rich

Recently Adways (owners of Janet affiliate network and the mobile affiliate network Smart-C) announced a tie up with Chobi-Rich (http://www.chobirich.com). Chobi-Rich is one of Japan’s most popular online incentive media site, otherwise known here as “point site”. Users earn points by clicking on ads or accepting special offers from advertisers. These points can later be exchanged for prizes. As part of the tie up, Adways will invest in Chobi-Rich though I am not sure how much Adways plans to invest. I see this as a strategic partnership that could help Adways by allowing merchants registered on its affiliate network to gain premium access to the large base of Chobi-Rich registered users. As a super affiliate, Chobi-Rich earns most of its revenue from CPC/CPA ads that it distributes to its users both on their site and through their email newsletters. Most likely Chobi-Rich might benefit from preferred offers on the Adways network and bonuses usually reserved for special partners. Not long ago, TrafficGate (www.trafficgate.net) also teamed up with another popular point site called Pex Point Exchange (http://pex.jp) in an effort to leverage the Pex media reach. One result of the tie-up was that TrafficGate affiliates could now exchange their commissions for Pex Points which can be used on the Pex site for shopping. At the time I believe the exchange rate was 1 Yen = 10 Pex Points. This turned out to be good for affiliates who had less than the minimum commission (3000 YEN) required for withdrawal.

The Japanese Love Their Mobile Games!

What more can I say? The Japanese mobile market continues to surprise even an old dog like me. To think that 3G mobile phones and the resultant mobile commerce industry is only a few years old in Japan. A survey by Netasia (http://www.netasia.co.jp/) demonstrates that gaming is the keystone to building a successful marketing strategy for the mobile platform in Japan. 600 young people between the ages of 15 and 29 were sampled in the survey with the aim of breaking down user preferences and spending potential. Here’s what they found:

• 79.3% play games on their mobile phones
• 30.7% would pay to play mobiles games if the monthly charge were between 385 JPY and 505 JPY
• Women outnumber men in frequency of use of mobile games
• Roll playing games, puzzles, table games are the top three most popular game types

MobaGame Town, the top mobile site in Japan, has successfully found a way to leverage the Japanese predilection for mobile games into a lucrative business. Unlike other mobile game sites that require a monthly fee, MobaGame Town is free to use and even allows users to earn virtual currency with which they can use to buy virtual goods on the game site. Marketers targeting 15 to 29 year olds will need to include mobile advertising channel (especially on game related sites) into their ad mix.