Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet . Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer programming tutorials , reviews of the latest technologies, and advertisements.
58-415: TechLife (formerly PC User ) is an Australian general computer magazine , published monthly by Future Australia . The magazine's regular content consists of computer hardware and software reviews and previews, technology news and opinion articles, technical how-to guides, and a 'help station' feature where the magazine's contributors provide answers to technical queries from readers. Each issue includes
116-600: A merchant . This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process . It is a form of performance-based marketing where the commission acts as an incentive for the affiliate; this commission is usually a percentage of the price of the product being sold, but can also be a flat rate per referral. Affiliate marketers may use a variety of methods to generate these sales, including organic search engine optimization , paid search engine marketing , e-mail marketing , content marketing , display advertising , organic social media marketing , and more. Though
174-723: A book, the associate received a commission. Amazon was not the first merchant to offer an affiliate program, but its program was the first to become widely known and serve as a model for subsequent programs. In February 2000, Amazon announced that it had been granted a patent on components of an affiliate program. The patent application was submitted in June 1997, which predates most affiliate programs, but not PC Flowers & Gifts.com (October 1994), AutoWeb.com (October 1995), Kbkids.com/BrainPlay.com (January 1996), EPage (April 1996), and several others. Affiliate marketing has grown quickly since its inception. The e-commerce website, viewed as
232-429: A commission for each sale they close, and sometimes are paid performance incentives for exceeding objectives. Affiliates are not employed by the advertiser whose products or services they promote, but the compensation models applied to affiliate marketing are very similar to the ones used for people in the advertisers' internal sales department. The phrase, "Affiliates are an extended sales force for your business", which
290-573: A companion DVD of free full-version software, trial software, game demos and video tutorials, many of which complement articles in the magazine. The magazine also includes software created by contributing writers, including two customized versions of Linux – 'UserOS Ultra', based on Xubuntu 7.10 and aimed at older computers; and 'PCUserOS Extreme', based on the Ubuntu 8.04 'Hardy Heron' and designed for use on more recent computer hardware. Notable Australian IT journalists who have regularly contributed to
348-481: A compensation method, nineteen percent use cost per action (CPA), and the remaining programs use other methods such as cost per click (CPC) or cost per mille (CPM, cost per estimated 1000 views). Within more mature markets, less than one percent of traditional affiliate marketing programs today use cost per click and cost per mille . However, these compensation methods are used heavily in display advertising and paid search . Cost per mille requires only that
406-417: A hierarchical referral network of sign-ups and sub-partners. In practical terms, publisher "A" signs up to the program with an advertiser and gets rewarded for the agreed activity conducted by a referred visitor. If publisher "A" attracts publishers "B" and "C" to sign up for the same program using his sign-up code, all future activities performed by publishers "B" and "C" will result in additional commission (at
464-431: A large amount of mostly computer-generated duplicate content from its index . Websites consisting mostly of affiliate links have previously held a negative reputation for underdelivering quality content. In 2005 there were active changes made by Google, where certain websites were labeled as "thin affiliates". Such websites were either removed from Google's index or were relocated within the results page (i.e., moved from
522-482: A link that would take visitors directly to CDNow to purchase the albums. The idea for remote purchasing originally arose from conversations with the music label Geffen Records in the fall of 1994. The management at Geffen wanted to sell its artists' CDs directly from its website but did not want to implement this capability itself. Geffen asked CDNow if it could design a program where CDNow would handle order fulfillment . Geffen realized that CDNow could link directly from
580-750: A lower rate) for publisher "A". Two-tier programs exist in the minority of affiliate programs; most are simply one-tier. Merchants favor affiliate marketing because in most cases it uses a "pay for performance" model, meaning that the merchant does not incur a marketing expense unless results are accrued (excluding any initial setup cost). Some merchants run their own (in-house) affiliate programs using dedicated software, while others use third-party intermediaries to track traffic or sales that are referred from affiliates. There are two different types of affiliate management methods used by merchants: standalone software or hosted services , typically called affiliate networks. Payouts to affiliates or publishers can be made by
638-644: A marketing toy in the early days of the Internet, became an integrated part of the overall business plan and in some cases grew to a bigger business than the existing offline business. According to one report, the total sales amount generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was £2.16 billion in the United Kingdom alone. The estimates were £1.35 billion in sales in 2005. MarketingSherpa's research team estimated that, in 2006, affiliates worldwide earned US$ 6.5 billion in bounty and commissions from
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#1732791112120696-405: A medium for affiliates to promote advertiser offers. Regardless of the progress made, adware continues to be an issue, as demonstrated by the class action lawsuit against ValueClick and its daughter company Commission Junction filed on April 20, 2007. Affiliates were among the earliest adopters of pay per click advertising when the first pay-per-click search engines emerged during the end of
754-497: A negative reputation. Some merchants are using outsourced (affiliate) program management (OPM) companies, which are themselves often run by affiliate managers and network program managers . OPM companies perform affiliate program management for the merchants as a service, similar to the role an advertising agencies serves in offline marketing. Affiliate websites are often categorized by merchants (advertisers) and affiliate networks. There are currently no industry-wide standards for
812-603: A special anniversary issue. Long-time editor Glenn Rees (who edited the title from 1992 to 1999 and again from 2002 to 2012) left the magazine in February 2012 as part of a restructure of the Australian Consolidated Press tech magazines including the PC User sister publication APC . The current editor-in-chief of PC User is Tony Sarno, who is also editor-in-chief of APC. In June 2012, PC User
870-582: A user's browser to send fake clicks to websites that are supposedly part of legitimate affiliate marketing programs. Typically, users are completely unaware this is happening other than their browser performance slowing down. Websites end up paying for fake traffic numbers, and users are unwitting participants in these ad schemes. As search engines have become more prominent, some affiliate marketers have shifted from sending e-mail spam to creating automatically generated web pages that often contain product data feeds provided by merchants. The goal of such web pages
928-478: A variety of sources in retail , personal finance , gaming and gambling , travel , telecom , education , publishing , and forms of lead generation other than contextual advertising programs. In 2006, the most active sectors for affiliate marketing were adult gambling, retail industries and file-sharing services. The three sectors expected to experience the greatest growth are the mobile phone , finance , and travel sectors. Soon after these sectors came
986-416: A whole slew of third-party extensions available for download. In recent years, there has been a constant rise in the number of malicious browser extensions flooding the web. Malicious browser extensions will often appear to be legitimate as they seem to originate from vendor websites and come with glowing customer reviews. In the case of affiliate marketing, these malicious extensions are often used to redirect
1044-413: Is not commonly taught in universities, and only a few college instructors work with Internet marketers to introduce the subject to students majoring in marketing. Education occurs most often in "real life" by becoming involved and learning the details as time progresses. Although there are several books on the topic, some so-called "how-to" or " silver bullet " books instruct readers to manipulate holes in
1102-411: Is often used to explain affiliate marketing, is not completely accurate. The primary difference between the two is that affiliate marketers provide little if any influence on a possible prospect in the conversion process once that prospect is directed to the advertiser's website. The sales team of the advertiser, however, does have the control and influence up to the point where the prospect either a) signs
1160-458: Is one example where Affiliate Marketing does not overtly resemble the same model in the West. With many affiliates being paid a flat "Cost Per Day" with some networks offering Cost Per Click or CPM. In the case of cost per mille /click, the publisher is not concerned about whether a visitor is a member of the audience that the advertiser tries to attract and is able to convert because at this point
1218-678: Is to manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, also known as spamdexing . Each page can be targeted to a different niche market through the use of specific keywords, with the result being a skewed form of search engine optimization . Spam is the biggest threat to organic search engines, whose goal is to provide quality search results for keywords or phrases entered by their users. Google 's PageRank algorithm update ("BigDaddy") in February 2006—the final stage of Google's major update ("Jagger") that began in mid-summer 2005—specifically targeted spamdexing with great success. This update thus enabled Google to remove
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#17327911121201276-469: The FTC . Guidelines affect celebrity endorsements, advertising language, and blogger compensation. Affiliate marketing currently lacks industry standards for training and certification. There are some training courses and seminars that result in certifications; however, the acceptance of such certifications is mostly due to the reputation of the individual or company issuing the certification. Affiliate marketing
1334-564: The US Supreme Court ruled that the presence of independent sales representatives may allow a state to require sales tax collections. New York determined that affiliates are such independent sales representatives. The New York law became known as "Amazon's law" and was quickly emulated by other states. While that was the first time states successfully addressed the internet tax gap, since 2018 states have been free to assert sales tax jurisdiction over sales to their residents regardless of
1392-400: The publisher make the advertising available on his or her website and display it to the page visitors in order to receive a commission. Pay per click requires one additional step in the conversion process to generate revenue for the publisher: A visitor must not only be made aware of the advertisement but must also click on the advertisement to visit the advertiser's website. Cost per click
1450-539: The "150 or so" industry magazines published articles without clearly identifying authors' affiliations and conflicts of interest . Around 1985, many magazines ended. However, as their number exceeded the amount of available advertising revenue despite revenue in the first half of the year five times that of the same period in 1982. Consumers typically bought computer magazines more for advertising than articles, which benefited already leading journals like BYTE and PC Magazine and hurt weaker ones. Also affecting magazines
1508-501: The 1990s. Later in 2000 Google launched its pay per click service, Google AdWords , which is responsible for the widespread use and acceptance of pay per click as an advertising channel. An increasing number of merchants engaged in pay per click advertising, either directly or via a search marketing agency, and realized that this space was already occupied by their affiliates. Although this situation alone created advertising channel conflicts and debates between advertisers and affiliates,
1566-1064: The December 1983 issue that "all of our previous records are being broken: largest number of pages, largest-number of four-color advertising pages, largest number of printing pages, and the largest number of editorial pages". Computers were the only industry with product-specific magazines, like 80 Micro , PC Magazine , and Macworld ; their editors vowed to impartially cover their computers whether or not doing so hurt their readers' and advertisers' market, while claiming that their rivals pandered to advertisers by only publishing positive news. BYTE, in March 1984, apologized for publishing articles by authors with promotional material for companies without describing them as such, and in April suggested that other magazines adopt its rules of conduct for writers, such as prohibiting employees from accepting gifts or discounts. InfoWorld stated in June that many of
1624-595: The Google algorithm , which can quickly become out of date, or suggest strategies no longer endorsed or permitted by advertisers. Outsourced Program Management companies typically combine formal and informal training, providing much of their training through group collaboration and brainstorming . Such companies also try to send each marketing employee to the industry conference of their choice. Other training resources used include online forums, weblogs, podcasts , video seminars, and specialty websites. A code of conduct
1682-600: The advertiser. Relevant websites that attract the same target audiences as the advertiser but without competing with it are potential affiliate partners as well. Vendors or existing customers can also become recruits if doing so makes sense and does not violate any laws or regulations (such as with pyramid schemes ). Almost any website could be recruited as an affiliate publisher, but high traffic websites are more likely interested in (for their sake) low-risk cost per mille or medium-risk cost per click deals rather than higher-risk cost per action or revenue share deals. Since
1740-444: The affiliate marketing world as well. These platforms allow improved communication between merchants and affiliates. Web 2.0 platforms have also opened affiliate marketing channels to personal bloggers , writers, and independent website owners. Contextual ads allow publishers with lower levels of web traffic to place affiliate ads on websites. Eighty percent of affiliate programs today use revenue sharing or pay per sale (PPS) as
1798-501: The affiliate to send the most closely targeted traffic to the advertiser as possible to increase the chance of a conversion . The risk is absorbed by the affiliate who funnels their traffic to the campaign (normally a landing page ). In the case a conversion is not fired the publisher won't receive any compensation for the traffic. Affiliate marketing is also called "performance marketing", in reference to how sales employees are typically being compensated. Such employees are typically paid
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1856-440: The application of technology to all consumer lifestyle activities, from fitness to entertainment. In August 2013, TechLife and APC were sold to Future. Computer magazine Sources:. 1980s computer magazines skewed their content towards the hobbyist end of the then- microcomputer market, and used to contain type-in programs , but these have gone out of fashion. The first magazine devoted to this class of computers
1914-563: The artist on its website to Geffen's website, bypassing the CDNow home page and going directly to the artist's music page. Amazon.com (Amazon) launched its associate program in July 1996: Amazon associates could place banner or text links on their site for individual books, or link directly to the Amazon home page. When visitors clicked on the associate's website to go to Amazon and purchase
1972-581: The business model of paying a commission on sales to the Prodigy Network . In 1994, Tobin launched a beta version of PC Flowers & Gifts on the Internet in cooperation with IBM , which owned half of Prodigy. By 1995 PC Flowers & Gifts had launched a commercial version of the website and had 2,600 affiliate marketing partners on the World Wide Web . Tobin applied for a patent on tracking and affiliate marketing on January 22, 1996, and
2030-431: The categorization. The following types of websites are generic, yet are commonly understood and used by affiliate marketers. Affiliate networks that already have several advertisers typically also have a large pool of publishers . These publishers could be potentially recruited, and there is also an increased chance that publishers in the network apply to the program on their own, without the need for recruitment efforts by
2088-578: The contract, or b) completes the purchase. Affiliate marketing overlaps with network marketing, also known as multi-level marketing (MLM). Multi-level refers to different levels of compensation offered by companies to different tiers of distributor. While MLM schemes are not inherently illegal, they become illegal when income from recruitment-fees and similar exceeds the sale of actual goods and services. In these situations, MLM schemes overlap with pyramid schemes and ponzi schemes . Some advertisers offer multi-tier programs that distribute commission into
2146-461: The emergence of affiliate marketing, there has been little control over affiliate activity. Unscrupulous affiliates have used spam , false advertising , forced clicks (to get tracking cookies set on users' computers), adware , and other methods to drive traffic to their sponsors. Although many affiliate programs have terms of service that contain rules against spam , this marketing method has historically proven to attract abuse from spammers. In
2204-425: The entertainment (particularly gaming) and Internet-related services (particularly broadband ) sectors. Also several of the affiliate solution providers expect to see increased interest from business-to-business marketers and advertisers in using affiliate marketing as part of their mix. Websites and services based on Web 2.0 concepts— blogging and interactive online communities , for example—have impacted
2262-507: The heyday of printed computer magazines was a period during the 1990s, in which a large number of computer manufacturers took out advertisements in computer magazines, so they became quite thick and could afford to carry quite a number of articles in each issue. Computer Shopper was a good example of this trend. Some printed computer magazines used to include covermount floppy disks , CDs , or other media as inserts; they typically contained software , demos , and electronic versions of
2320-581: The industry". Computer Gaming World stated in 1988 that it was the only one of the 18 color magazines that covered computer games in 1983 to survive the crash. Compute! similarly stated that year that it was the only general-interest survivor of about 150 consumer-computing magazines published in 1983. Some computer magazines in the 1980s and 1990s were issued only on disk (or cassette tape, or CD-ROM) with no printed counterpart; such publications are collectively (though somewhat inaccurately) known as disk magazines and are listed separately . In some ways
2378-516: The infancy of affiliate marketing, many Internet users held negative opinions due to the tendency of affiliates to use spam to promote the programs in which they were enrolled. As affiliate marketing matured, many affiliate merchants have refined their terms and conditions to prohibit affiliates from spamming. A browser extension is a plug-in that extends the functionality of a web browser. Some extensions are authored using web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Most modern web browsers have
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2436-421: The issue much more quickly, especially because they noticed that adware often overwrites tracking cookies, thus resulting in a decline of commissions. Affiliates not employing adware felt that it was stealing commission from them. Adware often has no valuable purpose and rarely provides any useful content to the user, who is typically unaware that such software is installed on his/her computer. Affiliates discussed
2494-399: The issues in Internet forums and began to organize their efforts. They believed that the best way to address the problem was to discourage merchants from advertising via adware. Merchants that were either indifferent to or supportive of adware were exposed by affiliates, thus damaging those merchants' reputations and tarnishing their affiliate marketing efforts. Many affiliates either terminated
2552-478: The largest companies run their own affiliate networks (for example Amazon), most merchants join affiliate networks which provide reporting tools and payment processing. The concept of revenue sharing —paying commission for referred business—predates affiliate marketing and the Internet. The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened in November 1994, almost four years after
2610-497: The largest issue concerned affiliates bidding on advertisers names, brands, and trademarks. Several advertisers began to adjust their affiliate program terms to prohibit their affiliates from bidding on those type of keywords. Some advertisers, however, did and still do embrace this behavior, going so far as to allow, or even encourage, affiliates to bid on any term, including the advertiser's trademarks. Bloggers and other publishers may not be aware of disclosure guidelines set forth by
2668-472: The magazine include Rose Vines, Helen Bradley, Darren Yates, Philip Moore, Link Harris, David Flynn, Roulla Yiacoumi, Alex Kidman and Angus Kidman. PC User was first published in 1990 and is Australia's best selling computer magazine, with a monthly circulation of 31,062 as at July–December 2011. In 2009 a "NetGuide" section was added after the cessation of publication of Australian NetGuide . In January 2010, PC User celebrated its 20th anniversary with
2726-417: The networks on behalf of the merchant, by the network, consolidated across all merchants where the publisher has a relationship with and earned commissions or directly by the merchant itself. Uncontrolled affiliate programs aid rogue affiliates, who use spamming , trademark infringement , false advertising , cookie stuffing , typosquatting , and other unethical methods that have given affiliate marketing
2784-508: The origination of the World Wide Web . The concept of affiliate marketing on the Internet was conceived of, put into practice and patented by William J. Tobin , the founder of PC Flowers & Gifts. Launched on the Prodigy Network in 1989, PC Flowers & Gifts remained on the service until 1996. By 1993, PC Flowers & Gifts had generated sales more than $ 6 million per year on the Prodigy service. In 1998, PC Flowers and Gifts developed
2842-484: The print issue. However, with the rise in popularity of the Internet , many computer magazines went bankrupt or transitioned to an online-only existence. Exceptions include Wired , which is more of a technology magazine than a computer magazine. Affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for
2900-414: The publisher has already earned his commission. This leaves the greater, and, in case of cost per mille, the full risk and loss (if the visitor cannot be converted) to the advertiser. Cost per action /sale methods require that referred visitors do more than visit the advertiser's website before the affiliate receives a commission. The advertiser must convert that visitor first. It is in the best interest of
2958-512: The top-most results to a lower position). To avoid this categorization, affiliate marketer webmasters must create quality content on their websites that distinguishes their work from the work of spammers or banner farms, which only contain links leading to merchant sites. Although it differs from spyware , adware often uses the same methods and technologies. Merchants initially were uninformed about adware, what impact it had, and how it could damage their brands. Affiliate marketers became aware of
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#17327911121203016-414: The use of such merchants or switched to a competitor's affiliate program. Eventually, affiliate networks were also forced by merchants and affiliates to take a stand and ban certain adware publishers from their network. The result was Code of Conduct by Commission Junction /beFree and Performics, LinkShare 's Anti-Predatory Advertising Addendum, and ShareASale 's complete ban of software applications as
3074-427: Was Creative Computing . Byte was an influential technical journal that published until the 1990s. In 1983, an average of one new computer magazine appeared each week. By late that year more than 200 existed. Their numbers and size grew rapidly with the industry they covered, and BYTE and 80 Micro were among the three thickest magazines of any kind per issue. Compute! ' s editor in chief reported in
3132-543: Was issued U.S. Patent number 6,141,666 on Oct 31, 2000. Tobin also received Japanese Patent number 4021941 on Oct 5, 2007, and U.S. Patent number 7,505,913 on Mar 17, 2009, for affiliate marketing and tracking. In July 1998 PC Flowers and Gifts merged with Fingerhut and Federated Department Stores . In November 1994, CDNow launched its BuyWeb program. CDNow had the idea that music-oriented websites could review or list albums on their pages that their visitors might be interested in purchasing. These websites could also offer
3190-562: Was more common in the early days of affiliate marketing but has diminished in use over time due to click fraud issues very similar to the click fraud issues modern search engines are facing today. Contextual advertising programs are not considered in the statistic pertaining to the diminished use of cost per click, as it is uncertain if contextual advertising can be considered affiliate marketing. While these models have diminished in mature e-commerce and online advertising markets they are still prevalent in some more nascent industries. China
3248-425: Was rebranded and relaunched as TechLife "to address a lack of innovation in the consumer technology publication space" according to the publisher, as well as more clearly delineating the difference between the more mainstream PC User and APC , which is aimed at professionals and "power users". TechLife will be available in print and tablet editions and cover a broader spectrum than PC User , offering editorial on
3306-406: Was released by affiliate networks Commission Junction / beFree and Performics in December 2002 to guide practices and adherence to ethical standards for online advertising. In 2008 the state of New York passed a law asserting sales tax jurisdiction over Amazon.com sales to New York residents. New York was aware of Amazon affiliates operating within the state. In Quill Corp. v. North Dakota ,
3364-674: Was the computer industry's economic difficulties, including the video game crash of 1983 , which badly hurt the home-computer market. Dan Gutman , the founder of Computer Games , recalled in 1987 that "the computer games industry crashed and burned like a bad night of Flight Simulator —with my magazine on the runway". Antic 's advertising sales declined by 50% in 90 days, Compute! 's number of pages declined from 392 in December 1983 to 160 ten months later, and Compute! and Compute!'s Gazette 's publisher assured readers in an editorial that his company "is and continues to be quite successful ... even during these particularly difficult times in
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