Author

  • May’s Take – Jet Gleam and Fly Swatta

    A break from Direct marketing talk, The column may be about politics, or sex, religion, lost youth, lost love, or lost lives, but it will be something that relates to you. It will be something that relates to us all.

  • Strategy and the Affiliate Space

    Imagine $100 bills being dropped from a helicopter and a mad rush of people scrambling to pick up as much money as they could. A young woman is stuffing as much as she can down her shirt, another kid is just simply jumping up and catching the bills as they fall from the sky and in the background is an older gentleman pulling a vacuum cleaner out of the back of his Lexus LS.

  • Oz Behind The Curtain

    In an industry that at times appears to be completely anonymous and automated I find it rather relieving when I receive the “So and so has moved on to pursue other interests and so and so will be your new account rep” email. I tend to get so entirely caught up with…

  • Digital Thoughts – Growing Pains

    While not directly connected to the topic discussed in this week’s Trends Report, the purchase of CDT by 180 Solutions touches upon a topic that I would wager many in this space have faced – growth. With the successes of 2004, many in our space found themselves rapidly hiring…

  • Trends Report – 180’s Solution

    One of the most consistent trends in our industry over the past year revolves around companies in our space either selling a portion of their company for funding or buying another company for growth.

  • Can Advertising-Biased Search Sites Take Lessons In Trust From Privacy Fundamentals?

    Travel Web sites help customers search for great fares — but not always the cheapest ones. When they display the results of a fare search, many of the most popular sites leave the most prominent positioning to the products and services of the highest bidders.

  • To Know Us is To Love Us (

    An Affiliate Manager’s job isn’t easy. My affiliates who are reading this right now will attest to the 20 IM conversations I juggle, while simultaneously answering email, running reports, adding/deleting/modifying campaigns, answering posts on message boards, all while carrying on a coherent and pleasant conversation via phone.

  • Successful Baseball Strategy In Our Space

    Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics and protagonist of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball, had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget smaller than that of nearly every other team.

  • Trends Report – Look Internaly

    Traditionally, this section of the DM Confidential looks externally at the market. Topics range from capital markets activity to insights gleaned from watching Yahoo and Google indirectly and directly compete for dominance. This week’s article takes a step back…

  • Digital Thoughts – Five Rules Of Hardball

    Most of the companies in our space did very well in 2004. Some of them did so well that unanticipated but certainly desired exit strategies were realized. 2005 brings more promise but most likely not the easy gold of 2004.