So they're making a movie of Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires" all about the early days of Facebook and the enemies that Mark Zuckerburg allegedly made and the meteoric rise of the social networking site that we all now accept as part of our lives. I've read the book and if I'm honest wasn't that impressed. A lot of the book is pure conjecture and speculation. Ben Mezrick uses quite a lot of artistic licence in piecing together what might have happened early on in Facebook's life. But given that Mark Zuckerberg hasn't written his autobiography yet, this is the best that we're going to get to the real story of how Facebook started. BTW I love the subtitle of the movie, "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies". Brilliant.
This got me thinking though, I think there's a much better story out there waiting to be told and it's all about eBay and affiliate marketing. For those of you who don't know, in August 2008 eBay filed a civil suit in America against Shawn Hogan, Brian Dunning and Todd Dunning from Digital Point. eBay alleged them of “cookie stuffing”, in other words generating hidden forced clicks of their eBay affiliate links. No big deal I hear you say, I know loads of affiliates who participated in cookie stuffing "back in the day". Yes, so do I. But get this, between 2006 and June 2007, Shawn Hogan earned approximately $15.5 million in commission from eBay. Shawn was eBay’s number one affiliate. Yes that's $15.5 million in commission from one programme in just over a year. So it's unsurprising that eBay are taking this seriously. To make matters worse (for the affiliates in question) criminal charges have now been filed and if they are found guilty they could end up in prison for up to 20 years. 20 years in prison for cookie stuffing, can you imagine? You can read a much more detailed account of the whole case here.
What makes this case really interesting to me is that having been around the affiliate business for 10 years or so I can remember loads of affiliates who did the whole cookie stuffing thing. In particular one or two of the early voucher code sites were a tad naughty. I'm pretty sure none of them generated as much commission from it as the Digital Point guys though, still, it's food for thought. And before anyone asks, no I won't name these affiliates on here. In fairness though, affiliate marketing was a bit "wild west" a few years ago and things like cookie stuffing were very much a "grey" area as no real rules existed. Brand bidding was also open to pretty much anyone, ah those were the days.
If there is only one blog post you read today you MUST read this one
In response to the eBay allegations Shawn Hogan has written a blog post about his experience with eBay as an affiliate. You simply must read this, it's absolutely fascinating and reminds me so much of years gone by when while not commonplace there certainly was an element of the "brown paper bag business" about affiliate marketing. Now that would make a good movie....
What I'm listening to right now: Strictly Bass, part 6
11 Responses to Brown paper bag money
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Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
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Wow, Shaun Hogan’s blog post is certainly very interesting isn’t it. Ebay was a great programme back in the day wasn’t it, very easy to make money out of with little effort.
As for over here, it’s not the first I’ve heard of brown paper bags being handed over either…
As one that made money out of eBay that wasn’t strictly redacted, I’m both sad and glad to see those days gone.
Goog post. I’ve been interested in reading a book about Zuckerberg for some time, but thought pretty much the same as you – you’re only going to get the true story when he writes his own biography. Thought the bit about the alleged underhand eBay affiliates looked interesting, going to head over and have a look at both posts now
Yeah, those “cookie stuffing” days are gone as you said…, but i think 20 years in prison for cookie stuffing is somehow hard to believe… Should wait to see what happens next!
The blog post sounds a bit self-serving. Its almost like he happened upon being the biggest affiliate on the eBay campaign. To do that takes time and perseverance and while he probably did feel bad about what he was doing, he is trying to make out it was all the evil account managers pushing him, which I can’t accept.
At the most generous reading, he was given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to do in order that the eBay handlers hit their targets, but if he wasn’t prepared to play ball they would have found another affiliate who had fewer scruples than he claims he has.
The fact he is being singled out might be unfair on him, but he falls foul of the ‘Justice must be SEEN to be done’ principle, and just because the rottenness went deep into eBay does not excuse his own immorality. He certainly can’t claim to have not profited from his own activities.
A very interesting article and discussion for debate. Thanks for sharing the content.
Its interesting to see how this will work out, both sides are telling completely different stories.
Two sides to every story and I have to say both make interesting reading!
That’s far more interesting than Mark Zuckerburg’s story, especially if Shaun wins the law suit filed by ebay. The Social Network movie seems to be over-rated, well some also say that the story was exaggerated. But I would still watch it
Regards,
Jason
Its fascinating to determine how this will work out, both sides are telling totally diverse stories.
Its exciting to determine how it will perform out, each side are telling totally various tales.