In the latest release of Norton Internet Security, Norton enabled a feature called Ad Blocking which will attempt to strip out advertising from the web pages you are viewing. When Commission Junction realized that their domains were on the list of blocked ads, they quickly moved to add new domain names and encryption options to their merchant’s advertising urls. A series of emails, see below, indicate that the issue may be heating up and causing some friction between Commission Junction and their Merchants.
Email from Merchant:
You’re loosing commissions!
Hello All,
You're losing commissions due to Norton Antivirus blocking your cj.com links. I've noticed many of your tracking URL's you have for us begin with qksrv.net. These are being blocked. I'm positive though that if you switch this url to one that is not on the banned list, you'll immediately see your efforts payoff and commissions triple. You can ask cj.com for a new url which is not being blocked yet they call it reintergration. They are trying to stay ahead of Norto*n by switching urls, but it maybe a temporary fix until that url is add to nortons list.
These are some articles to help you get a better understanding.
http://www.keywebdata.com/articles.aspx?article=10.
http://www.stevedawson.com/article0001.php
http://accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html
Regards,
Richard Chu
Online Marketing Manager
NGC Worldwide Inc.
rchu@ngcworldwide.com
617-848-4257 Office
646-270-7883 Cell
P.S. we are also on networks that are not currently being blocked and you can just replace cj's urls to the network of your choice. I can not spell these out because cj will filter this email so ignore the * s*hare*asal*e.com, cli*xgal*ore.com, and lin*kcon*nect*or.com all free to setup. Rather than fixing cj.com we would love to have your join us on one of these other networks.
The golf season is here. Being the number 1 performing sports site for cj.com last year, we'd like you make some money with us. We have proved copy that sells. Attached are new banners you may use.
Email from Commission Junction
Clarification of Ad-blocking Issue
Dear Affiliate,
You may have recently received an email message from one of our advertisers, NGC Worldwide, describing their view of ad-blocking effects on Commission Junction's ad-serving functionality. Because we value you as a client and your confidence in the reliability of our technology is essential, we'd like to more completely and accurately address how we've handled the ad-blocking issue.
As online marketers we are, of course, aware of the rise in use of software that blocks ads on an end-user's desktop. The affect of ad-blocking software can range from relatively non-invasive pop-up blocking to interference with general Web site viewing regardless of the presence of advertisements; these effects are often unwanted and unintended by the end-user. Ad-blocking software uses a variety of methods to accomplish its goal, and often aggressively blocks a large list of domain names including Commission Junction's "qksrv.net," "service.bfast.com", and ValueClick's "valueclick.com". Although Commission Junction has attempted to work cooperatively with ad-blocking software companies to approach controls more rationally, progress has been slow.
In response to the situation, last August Commission Junction released changes to our tracking technology in the CJ Marketplace, which allow advertisements to be served from new, unblocked domains and allow for encryption of some information in the link itself. To take advantage of this technology, publishers must renew any links which had been associated with qksrv.net. Our BFAST® also includes new technology to serve links from unblocked domains. These solutions have proven to be effective in combating the more onerous ad-blocking technologies.
If you need information about how to renew or use encrypted links, please search for "Get HTML For Links" in the Help section of the CJ Account Manager™. If you have any further questions, please access the "Ask a Question" feature in your CJ Account Manager or "Get Help" in the BFAST Partner Gateway.
Please accept our apologies for any confusion resulting from NGC Worldwide's email. And we wish you much success in your online performance marketing program with Commission Junction.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Cholawsky
Vice President, Marketing and Product Development
Commission Junction, a ValueClick company
Adam Viener
1. Beth Kirsch on March 27, 2005 2:11 PM writes...
Adam,
What a strange and interesting story. Let me add a merchant's perspect.
Richard from NGC worldwide should have first talked to CJ before sending out an email. CJ has been working on this issue.
Here is one of my favorite line from the email, "I'm positive though that if you switch this url to one that is not on the banned list, you'll immediately see your efforts payoff and commissions triple."
Commissions would be 200% greater? You think that is true. People would be up in arms if this was true. Moreover CJ is paid a percent of affiliate commisions, and you think they would not be on top of this issue?
Here is my favorite quote because it reveals the what I think Richard is trying to do. "Rather than fixing cj.com we would love to have your join us on one of these other networks."
Seems to me, he wants to move affiliates out of CJ to other networks to save CJ's fees. While CJ is a technology platform, it is also a recruting pool. Seems Richard wants to use CJ to recruit and then pull people out of CJ. He does not want to pay CJ for this service. Besides being tacky, it's against CJ contract I think.
So, Richard has scared his affiliates to join another network so he can save a few bucks. This hurts all CJ merchants. Also, scaring affiliates does nothing to help merchants and affiliates trust each other.
Geeezzz!
Beth
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