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Struggling?

The E-commerce world is changing almost by the minute lately. From Merchants having to pause programs because they cannot ship anything, to panic over budgets, commission rates slashed or set to zero.

While this is a very unusual set of circumstances we are all dealing with; there are some bright notes.

  • Some Merchants are stepping up and adding in bonuses
  • There are very profitable sectors with healthy affiliate programs
  • Now is a good time diversify your affiliate earning platforms
  • As a community, we are helping each other
  • Consumers are discovering this shopping from home thing is pretty cool.
  • Oh, and in about 7 months you better have a Baby site in place.. just saying

Commission Junction is making Network Consumer Trends Reports available – These are updated every Wednesday.
https://junction.cj.com/covid-19-network-consumer-trends-report

FMTC has partnered with Trackonomics to give daily updates on commissions changes in Affiliate Networks. You can sign up to subscribe to their email updates here: http://fmtc-7325025.hs-sites.com/affiliate-program-covid-19-updates

Rakuten Center has insights on current commerce and consumer behavior with specific global and category trends. this is updated weekly: https://rakutenadvertising.com/covid19/

Featured

Working from Home, A new reality for some of you :)

I have worked from home for 27 years..so after being thoroughly entertained by posts of those new to working from home I thought I would give you some tips and giggles.

  • The worst thing that can happen during your new office commute is you blow out a slipper in the hallway.
  • Loungewear..is the new uniform. Don’t call them jammies.
  • PC Gaming Headphones with their own mute function are your best friend!
  • Wireless headsets are MUST! especially if you have children. ( the look of shock when your sweet cherubs who are coloring on the wall see you get up from your desk to deal with them is priceless)
  • It is way too easy to just stay in your jammies..for days. Get dressed and prepared for home office work like you would for normal work..just skip the dress shoes and stick to slippers.
  • Team meetings fails on Zoom are a trending search lately. Don’t be one of those examples. Always mute yourself upon entering  ( both from your mic and the button in your conference screen to be safe. )No one wants to hear you arguing with your housemates.
  • Video IS optional place a sticky note over your camera, or disable it when entering a conference. If you are using your phone for conferencing disable the camera in the meeting settings. We really do not need to see video of you in the bathroom…please noooo. ( see Zoom meeting fails search)
  • Multiple Monitors are a must. If you are using a laptop you can add a monitor to your set up with a HDMI cable on most Macs and PC’s..you know that extra TV sitting around ..it works as a monitor too! 
  • Screen sharing meetings are pretty common now. For these make sure you are turning off all other applications so you can get the best frame rates on the video screen shares.
  • If you are the Presenter in a screen share – move any other applications to the opposite screen you are sharing- no one needs to see that private Skype pop into the screen share.
  • Working at home is a complete disruption of your schedule..specifically your eating schedule. Set timers for your breaks and lunch or you will find yourself skipping these and by the time we get back to going in the office you might have snacked yourself into a new
    size.
     
  • Get the best comfy chair you can- your body will thank you. When shopping for that new comfy office chair for home look at the ratings for both weight and hours of use. I love the Serta chairs – they are one of the few brands that have chairs designed for big and tall people.
  • Know your function keys..why you ask?..in case your new furry supervisor walks on your keyboard and suddenly your screen size has changed or you are typing in a different language. ( most common F11 pops you in full screen view  and the toolbar disappears)
  • Hydration is your friend, but it isn’t friendly with laptops and keyboards. Those travel cups are now your desktop coffee cup and all around drink cup. Think sippy cups for adults. I admit I or my furry supervisor cat- Shadow has helped to kill off several expensive mechanical keyboards and two laptops over the years.  

Got something to add?

Shadow, My supervisor
Shadow- supervising

Walmart buys ‘the Google Ads of streaming’ Vibe in a deal tipped at a $1 billion-plus valuation

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Business of TV

Meta eyes CTV expansion to fuel its next wave of ad growth

Walmart has agreed to acquire Vibe.co, an outfit specializing in bringing SME’s media to CTV, in a move extending the retail giant’s multi-billion-dollar push into advertising over recent years.

Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed, although separate sources approached by Digiday, who requested not to be named to maintain relationships, hinted it was in the range of $1 billion.

In a statement announcing the deal, both parties said the transaction is expected to close by the end of fiscal year 2027. After which, Arthur Querou, Vibe’s CEO and co-founder, and Franck Tetzlaff, Vibe’s CTO and fellow co-founder, are expected to join Walmart Connect to aid its integration into the wider entity. 

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Cannes Briefing: The AI search crisis everyone’s talking about at Cannes is actually about brand coherence

For two decades, Cannes Lions has been the advertising industry’s high church of the campaign — the ad, the stunt and the killer creative idea. This year, the conversations actually happening in the villas and the beach cabanas aren’t about creative execution at all. They’re about something closer to brand infrastructure: how brands get discovered, trusted, and recommended by AI systems that don’t care about a media plan. That’s a quieter, less glamorous story than the one Cannes normally embodies, but it’s the one playing out behind the closed doors. 

Take one exchange overheard in a meeting earlier in the week, where an exec running media and analytics for a major platform laid out the unglamorous part nobody wants to talk about: coordination. When someone gets a single answer back from an LLM, they said, that answer was assembled from everywhere — SEO, PR, content and product — whether the company meant it to be or not. So the job isn’t optimizing one channel anymore. It’s making sure every function is pointed at the same message because the model doesn’t know or care which team owns which piece.

Strip the AI framing out of that and it’s not really a search problem at all. It’s the oldest brand-building problem there is — does this company say one consistent thing about itself, everywhere, all the time — except now there’s a machine reading every inconsistency back to the customer in real time. Search used to forgive a messy brand. You could buy your way to the top of a results page even if your PR, your reviews and your product page told three different stories. An LLM doesn’t buy that. It synthesizes whatever’s out there, gaps and contradictions included, and hands the customer one version of the truth. So the “SEO problem” everyone at Cannes is panicking about isn’t really about search at all. It’s brand coherence, finally getting graded in public.

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