Why Pinterest Is Banning Affiliate Links

Pinterest has lowered the hammer on affiliate links—a way for social-media users to make a small commission in return for recommending a product. Ostensibly, the move helps keep the site tidy. But unsurprisingly, money is also involved.

According to an email many pinners received Thursday, Pinterest is removing all affiliate links on "pins," the Pinterest term for a image-centric post. The pins themselves will remain live, but Pinterest is officially encouraging users to find other means of making money on the visually oriented social network.

Pinterest has been removing affiliate links for some time. But as the email outlines, it had made an exception for two fashion affiliate programs, RewardStyle and HelloSociety. Pinners enrolled in these programs would make a small cut when people clicked on pin links that included the pinner’s affiliate ID and made a purchase. It's probable that these two programs were permitted longer than others were because they deal chiefly with fashion and design related links—two of Pinterest's most popular subjects—and exclusively limit who can sign up to join, which likely reduced spam. 

"We’re making this change for a few reasons: removing redirects and affiliates will keep Pinterest running quickly, smoothly, and prevent Rich Pins from breaking,” the email said.

Rich pins, a type of pinned image that automatically features relevant information—say, a map, address and phone number for a "place pin"—depend on an accurate link in order to fill in metadata. According to Pinterest, an affiliate ID tagged onto a link could mess with that instant process.

This isn’t the first time Pinterest has restricted organic behavior on its platform in an effort to improve performance. Last year, the company heavily restricted “Pin It To Win It” contests held by brands. While the site originally allowed brands to encourage pinners to repin the same picture of a prize over and over in order to raffle it off, Pinterest later changed its mind.

From the Pinterest guidelines for brands: “Don’t… Require people to add Pins from a selection—let them add what they like.” From the site's perspective, hundreds of people repinning a picture of, say, a purse can mislead Pinterest’s algorithms, potentially assigning that pin undeserved importance in its relevance score. Affiliate linking can likewise lead to spam and bad algorithmic inferences. 

While some Pinterest users are upset that they will no longer enjoy small commissions, this isn’t a move likely to bother power pinners. Many of Pinterest’s most popular users opt for approved brand partnerships, in which they guest-pin items on a brand’s pinboard, and encourage their millions of followers to check it out. 

Furthermore, with news that Pinterest is working to implement a “Buy” button in mere months, as Recode reports, it’s hard not to draw a connection. By retiring user commissions, Pinterest is paving a path to potentially draw commissions for itself on every product recommendation made. 

Pinterest has told that its primary motive is to make it easy for pinners to find useful, relevant images, but the company has got to be feeling the pressure from its many investors. Valuated at $5 billion last May, it’s about time for the company to indicate that it’s finally ready to make money on its own. 

Update: Pinterest said the affiliate link ban is purely about user experience. 

"This is not about monetization, this is 100% about the Pinner experience and ensuring relevant content on Pinterest," a spokesperson said.

- readwrite

Apple iOS tracking your every move

For those for you unaware of the inbuilt GPS in your smartphone and its capabilities, you may want to sit down for this.

Okay, did you know your iPhone is using its GPS feature to track your every move, every time you use your device?

No? I'm not surprised.

In an iOS 7 update dating back to 2013, Apple outlined details of this new feature in the mammoth agreement that everyone (including myself) skipped past and clicked "I agree" to. If you haven't disabled the feature, Apple most probably knows where you work and live, and therefore basically predict your daily routine – freaky!

To find out if you have this feature and whether it’s active, go to:

Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations

You'll see something like this:

It is a history of your most recent locations within the past few months, how often, when, and how long for.

Clicking on of these items will further narrow down and show the exact address, date and time you visited the location.

It's quite fun to take the trip down memory lane and check out some recent trips or drunken whereabouts. But it's also a harsh reminder that the little GPS chip in your iPhone is tracking your every move and uploading it to an Apple server somewhere.

So why are they tracking this data? Reports say Apple does collect this anonymous location data from iPhones in an effort to improve its own database of cell tower and WiFi hotspot locations, whilst others say it is to help with traffic indicators on Apple Maps. Will I turn it off? Probably not. I feel it's a great tool to sanction any alibi’s if I’m ever convicted of a crime.

"No officer, on Saturday 21st February 2015, I was at Frango's Charcoal Chicken picking up dinner for my family between 8:22pm and 8:36pm - there is no way I could've been anywhere near that stolen ferry"

TAKE A CHANCE Motivational Video

New Yahoo Mobile Development Suite Seduces App Makers With Analytics, Search, Ads

The tech giant unveiled its new Yahoo Mobile Development Suite that combines Yahoo App Publishing for monetization, Search In Apps, and App Marketing with its Flurry Analytics acquisition made last year. This is Yahoo’s “ads in dev’s clothing” strategy to convince app makers to buy and host its ads.

Flurry now has 200,000 app developers on its platform who have built 630,000 apps that reach 1.6 billion devices. Yahoo meanwhile now has 575 million monthly mobile visitors to its properties and hit $1.2 billion in mobile revenue in 2014, as it predicted.

“Today is about building innovative, game-changing applications,” said CEO Marissa Mayer when she took the stage. Now, rather than just make them itself, Yahoo is providing the tools for developers to build, grow, and earn money on their own apps.

Mobile Trends

Following Mayer, Flurry CEO Simon Khalaf took the stage to give an update on the state of mobile. He says there are three big trends in mobile right now:

1.    A massive rise in mobile shopping

2.    Messaging apps becoming whole platforms, like We Chat’s taxi integration, Line’s games, and Snapchat’s new Snapcash payment feature that prove people want more services from their favorite apps

3.    Phablet phones driving a massive increase in media consumption

 

Mobile Developer Suite

Each piece of the Yahoo Mobile Development Suite is getting its own update as well as being tied together.

Flurry Explorer And Pulse

Flurry announced the new Flurry Explorer analytics tool, which an exec said is an “ad-hoc query analysis tool” that lets you “ask complex questions of your data and get the answer in seconds.” The product is free at any scale, which poises it to undercut Mixpanel, and analytics tool favorite around the industry that unfortunately can be quite expensive depending on how many in-app events are being measured.

Flurry is also launching Flurry Pulse, which lets developers securely share any of their data with their partners with ease. No additional code needs to be written. For example, mobile app publishers serving ads can send their mobile audience data directly to comScore (a Flurry Pulse launch partner).

Previously, developers would have had to integrate another comScore SDK into their apps. This shrinks app size, increases app stability thanks to minimizing code, and removes the need for extra updates. Yahoo plans to add additional partners to Flurry Pulse soon, and is now in developer preview and will roll out over the coming weeks and months.

Monetizing With Ads

To give mobile developers a better way to monetize, Yahoo today launched Yahoo App Publishing.

Now through the Flurry SDK, developers can integrate Yahoo’s Gemini native ads that fit into different app feeds, whether they’re vertical streams, or horizontal cards. No matter what an app looks like, Yahoo’s Gemini system can morph standard ads to match the app’s design.

Last year Yahoo acquired video adtech startup BrightRoll. Now developers can pipe Brigh tRoll ads into their apps through the Flurry SDK. So if an app features video content, they can easily monetize it without their own sales force through BrightRoll. “Isn’t this great? Grumpy Cat and Big Macs in your app, and you make money from it,” said BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti.

Yahoo Search In Apps

Developers don’t want users bouncing from their apps when they need to run a web search. So today Yahoo launched Yahoo Search In Apps, an integratable search tool for mobile apps. The idea is that not only will users stick around in a developer’s app if they can search from there, but the developer can share in the ad revenue if users click on search ads.

Yahoo Search In Apps is now integrated in Yahoo’s main app, Yahoo News Digest, Yahoo Mail and Android launcher Yahoo Aviate. Externally, the Dodol launcher and Solo launcher apps now integrate Yahoo Search In Apps. Yahoo’s Jon Paris gave the example of someone using news app and wanting to learn more about the topic of the article. Yahoo lets them search without exiting the app.

Yahoo Mobile Marketing

Yahoo is tying together its three mobile advertising options for developers: Gemini native ads on Yahoo’s properties, video ads on third parties, and Sponsored Post social ads on Tumblr. Now developers can target ads in any of these channels using Yahoo’s identity data with a self-serve tool. That includes what people browse on Yahoo and Tumblr, and what they do across the web thanks to Flurry’s big footprint.

The Virtuous Cycle

Overall, Yahoo’s platform is a smart play because it dangles free analytics and monetization tools to lure developers towards its advertising products. Investors gave Yahoo a small 1.42 percent bump today as of 3:15 p.m. EST thanks to the launches. This “PlADform Strategy” is what I wrote Facebook and Twitter were aggressively developing last year.

Creating a Viral Marketing Campaigns

Creating a marketing campaign that “goes viral” is the goal of every marketer.

What is the secret to creating a campaign that is going to “go viral?”

The answer is complicated.

In fact, it’s almost impossible to predict what campaigns will go viral, and which ones will flounder. That said, there are some steps you can take to increase your chances of having your campaign go viral.

 1.) Make It Visual The things that go viral are the things that are visually appealing, in almost all instances. Adding video or images to your campaign is one of the first things you need to do to build a viral marketing campaign. Even if the majority of your message is text-based, find a compelling image or create a compelling video to go along with it.

When choosing your visual, first make sure it matches your brand. Never make a video or include an image that compromises your brand in any way.

However, you also need to make sure that the visuals are viral-worthy. Make them humorous, informative or surprising. The more surprising, the more of a chance the item has of being shared.

 2.) Plan the Message While some viral campaigns are accidental, most are carefully planned. You can’t plan enough to promise that your material will go viral, but you do need to plan to ensure that your message is clear. Make a careful script for your video or a careful plan for your info-graphic so that your ultimate message is clearly received by your audience.
Then, if the campaign does go viral like you are hoping, you will be able to share your message with more and more people.

 3.) Work the Emotions Viral campaigns are the ones that tug on people’s emotions. Often they are humorous, but they can also be sentimental. As you plan the campaign, make sure there is an emotional catch.
That’s not to say that informative posts or videos can’t go viral, but unfortunately, information alone is often not enough. You need to grab the person with something emotional. Play on their fears, hopes, dreams or sense of humor, and your campaign will be far more likely to go viral.

 4.) Know Your Audience As you consider the emotional triggers to tap, make sure you know the triggers that affect your audience.
What is it they want from you?
Are they hoping for some super secret information?
Are they looking to be entertained?
Are they wanting to appear informed and clever?

If you can identify these triggers and work them into your content, it will be far more effective. Remember, your audience is not the same as another audience. A campaign with celebrities going without makeup and taking selfies may work well for a beauty care company, but it’s not going to reach executive level bankers. You must know your audience and its triggers for success.

 5.) Keep the Campaign Simple Your campaign cannot be complicated. If you are sending a novel to your target audience, they aren’t going to pass it on. A short video, a simple infographic or a concise article are the most likely targets for something that goes viral. Stick to two or three main marketing messages, and nothing more, in your campaign.

Once you have grown your audience through your viral marketing campaign, you can give them additional information when they come to you directly. If you can keep these two goals in mind, you can create a successful campaign that has a strong likelihood of going viral.

 -Brian Horn

Merry Christmas to all...

             






             "  May this Christmas bring about a pleasant change in your life. May my wishes find you with a smile on your face. I wish you the best in life this Christmas. Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. "

Facebook’s Year in Review: Remembering 2014

After playing around with ‘Say Thanks’ videos, and the ‘Lookback’ video at the end of 2013, be prepared for a new kind of auto-generated post to fill your News Feed on Facebook. This year’s Facebook Year in 2014 will let you share your most special moments in the form of a beautiful post. 

Already, we’ve noticed that quite a few of these posts are doing the rounds on the News Feeds on the site. According to The Next Web, the feature was mobile-first but we managed to create such posts from the desktop/PCs, so clearly it’s no longer just mobile.

The Year in Review this time, lets you get create a post with photos, statuses based on the months that they were shared. If you’ve shared more photos or life events in some months, those are likely to get displayed more prominently. You can also choose the background setting for your Year in Review post and also remove pictures or posts if you don’t want them inside.

You can also choose two pictures with which to start and end the post. There’s a button at the bottom which will let you customise. Additional descriptions for each particular set of photos can also be added.

Once you’re happy with your changes, you can then share it on Facebook wall. The post can viewed on both mobile and desktop, though the mobile version is much better and fluid as you can just swipe down quickly to see each update.

Compared to last year’s video, this post style actually seems better. It’s cleaner, more intuitive and without sappy music, which makes it a big plus on the videos. In addition, the design of the entire format is pretty sharp and you don’t mind going through all the posts. We’ll have to wait and see on how many people end up creating these and given how successful last year’s video was, this year should be no different.