Special Report: E-Commerce & Catalog Technology: Is Affiliate Marketing Worth the Effort?

Newbies and veterans of performance-based strategies are noticing affiliates competing for searchers and wondering how to handle it. Do you ban them from using some tactics? All tactics? Do you partner selectively with them?

Beyond coupon and incentive-shopping affiliates, where's that affiliate innovation of years past? Web marketing’s hands-down darling strategy has promised that everything from mobile devices to video is the next great panacea for customer acquisition. Of course, catalogers themselves aren’t expected to test the waters. Those clever, innovative affiliates are going to help … again. Just as they did with paid search, affiliates will test the waters and pave the way.