I’ve had lots of great conversations about data feeds in the last 24 hours. Advertisers (merchants) and publishers (affiliates) recognize the value of data feeds, but it seems they’re just getting going. If merchants are submitting data feeds to CJ, Linkshare, ShareASale, or Google Affiliate Network, the feeds are very basic. If affiliates are using data feeds, they’re more advanced than most.

So there’s some great potential, but data feeds just seem to be an alternative marketing tool in the affiliate space. In fact, I actually talked with a representative from a well known merchant last night who is responsible for data feeds/shopping engines as well as affiliates and the person’s title was ‘alternative’ online marketing… Got a kick out of that!

My panel is this morning. Will let you know how it goes and recap the main discussion points.