LinkShare Becomes Charter Member of Inbox Defense Task Force - A New Anti-Spam Initiative
Leading Performance-Based Marketing Provider Supports Proactive Initiative Against Spammers
NEW YORK, April 8 -- LinkShare Corporation, a leading provider of technology and service solutions for managing performance-based marketing and business initiatives, has announced its charter membership in the Inbox Defense Task Force. This new coalition was founded by Andy Sernovitz, CEO of GasPedal, and will seek to lead an industry effort to eliminate spam by proactively creating deterrents and consequences to spamming, as well as removing potential economic benefits.
"LinkShare was the first solution provider to take a stance against predatory advertising activities and to enforce it. In our continued efforts to foster respect for the affiliate community and the efforts of LinkShare affiliates, we are expanding our policies to address unsolicited emails," says Stephen D. Messer, Chairman and CEO of LinkShare Corporation. "Unethical email marketing must be stopped so that legitimate and effective email can thrive."
Most spammers currently do not face any real consequences. As a result, email marketing is being threatened as a viable platform, which also impacts the affiliate marketing industry. LinkShare`s involvement and commitment to solving this problem demonstrates firm support for legitimate email marketing initiatives as a viable method for increasing reach and distribution across the affiliate sales channel. Spam can negatively impact a company`s brand and reputation, and it can often be resource intensive for affiliate marketers to police and monitor their affiliate sales channels. For affiliates, spam creates unfair competition that often allows spammers to earn commissions from unethical and/or illegal activities. It also tarnishes the affiliate image, causing merchants to abandon affiliates and destroy valuable relationships.
"Legitimate marketers are being blamed for spam. Blocking, filtering, and clutter are destroying email ROI," states Andy Sernovitz, founder of the Inbox Defense Task Force. "LinkShare has been and continues to demonstrate leadership of the industry in protecting the interests of its clients and the affiliate marketing industry. Together, I am confident that we will solve this problem and restore email marketing as a viable channel to reach consumers."
The Inbox Defense Task Force will seek to work alongside trade associations and consumer groups as a catalyst for effective private sector enforcement actions against spammers. The group`s effort will focus exclusively on the clear abusers, rather than legitimate business email. An end goal will be the greater acceptance of business email as consumers` inboxes are uncluttered.
"LinkShare is in a unique position to turn the tide against spammers," says Messer. "Hundreds of top internet marketers rely on LinkShare to find, track, and compensate for the success of legitimate email partners. Our participation in the Inbox Defense Task Force will allow us to protect the viability of our client partners` email efforts by eliminating the negative element of spam from the affiliate channel."
The coalition will seek a broad range of members and active participants from the business community to demonstrate the solidarity and wide commitment to solving the problem. Members will collectively seek to differentiate themselves from email abusers by educating consumers about the distinctions between spam and legitimate email marketing, demonstrating efforts undertaken against the abusers, and promoting seals of approval.
"Our task force is based on proven models used by existing industry groups to stop piracy of intellectual property and counterfeiting of legitimate products," continued Sernovitz. "Spammers are neither invincible nor invisible. With the support of partners such as LinkShare, Inbox Defense is going to end this assault-by-email."
About LinkShare Corporation
LinkShare Corporation is the leading provider of technology solutions to track, manage, and analyze the performance of sales, marketing, and business development initiatives. Combining patented technology, the reach and distribution of a robust network, and expert account management services, LinkShare empowers clients with the ability to collaborate with partners online and develop cost-efficient pay-for-performance campaigns. LinkShare facilitates these partnerships across multiple channels, providing the platform, tools, and reporting to help clients acquire new customers, increase revenues, drive results, and measure success. LinkShare clients are Fortune 500 and prominent companies doing business online, and include OfficeMax, J.C. Penney, 1-800-Flowers.com, AT&T Corp., American Express, Avon Products and Dell Computer Corporation. LinkShare was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Denver, and Chicago.
LinkShare is proud to receive financial, operational and strategic support from Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:MITSY) , Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A), Inc., Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ:ICGE) , and Comcast Interactive Capital, an affiliate of Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSK; CMCSA). Please visit http://www.linkshare.com/ for more information.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties including but not limited to risks associated with the uncertainty of LinkShare`s future performance, additional financing requirements, and the effect of economic conditions in the B2C and B2B e-commerce market.
CONTACT:
Cheryl C. Ho
LinkShare Corporation
+1-415-995-1760, Ext. 324
cheryl@linkshare.com
Andy Sernovitz
Inbox Defense
+1-646-298-0440,
andy@inboxdefense.org
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