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I thinkone of the most anticpated sessions at Affiliate Summit East is the panel on Ethics in Affiliate Marketing moderated by Haiko from AbestWeb.com with panelists from PepperJam, Shareaale, AffiliateCrew, FlamingoWorld and eBates.

Haiko opened with a great call to consider the ethics (or lack thereof) that exist in the industry that we work in. 

Michael Jones from Pepperjam talked a bit about PepperJam’s commitment to transparencey of the affiliate/merchant relationship and their interest in working with the emerging groups that are springing up to speak for the concerns of the various sectors of the industry.

Paul Nichols from eBates definitely stirred the room with his claim that eBates has been affiliate redirect (commission theft) since 2001.  He went as far as to claim that the continuing claims by affiliates that eBates is doing something improper is legally actionable based on his experience as a former prosecuting attorney. 

Connie Berg of FlamingoWorld laid out the fact that plenty of rules that are in place, that many people choose not to follow and networks that choose not to enforce them because of their interest in profitability over fairness.

Chuck Hamrick spoke a bit on issues of cleaning up the industry internally before regulation comes in from outside. 

Brian Littleton of Shareasale in typical fashion was able to boil the arguments down and make some great poins. 

First: we need to look at the big picture.  He gave the example of an affiliate who is violating at Google terms and conditions and stating that although the action is not Illegal… it is Unethical and that affiliates who engage in behavior like this would be thrown out of the network because of their overall impact on the ponds whose water we share.

Good discussion followed with points on the consumers role in all of this as consumers choose to use tools like eBates for specific reasons.  Lisa Picarille posed the question of viability of certification of affiliates that do engage in ethical practices. 

Running out of battery… gotta go 

I just got to sit in a session presented by Qoof (a video based affiliate nework) on "Lessons Learned - Video for Affiliates"

• Some video is better than no video
• Practice and refine your approach based on results
• Video creative can have a longer shelf life than other creative types

User generated vs Professionally generated content - How to source content

- recommended a professionally generated core video set with reinforcement from reviewed and approved user generated content like review content from users.

Internal vs Professionally outsourced production - good quality content can be sourced for $1000 or so for short videos that are very professional. 

Streaming solution decision is very important.  Make sure that you partner with a delivery mechanism that is reliable and scalable. 

Practical lessons learned: 

• No longer than 3:00  as the attention span of a web viewer is about 2 and a half minutes. 
• Make sure sound and lighting are good.
• Creative multiple versions and test for best results - not much cost difference in production.
• Create different Genre’s of content (informative, fun, product demo, etc)
• MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION - you don’t have to be over the top though  

Tips on calls to action:

• The point of the videos you use is to sell so make sure you call to action
• Tell people what you want them to do
• Make sure to cover both audio and video calls to action… different approaches work for different people.

Distribution and Configuration of Affiliate Video:

• Merchants prefer video content delivery integrated with their affiliate network
• Other option is Widget Configuration pages where some flexibility and control exist are preferable to affiliates
• Offering both options is best as some of the more advanced affiliates love the flexibility to modify presentation as needed.
• Make sure content DOES NOT slow down affiliate pages
• Offer automatic updates if you can.

What happens because of video ?  People are used to clicking on "play " buttons and they can be clicked at a much higher rate than the average text link.

Good overall presentation… credit to the speaker as he steered away from commercializing his content.  As a rep for Qoof, he could have definitely been heavy handed.