Chris Dessi - Vice President zanox, Inc

zanox is the only global player that offers a Global Alliance Partnership. This cooperative approach to performance based online marketing is unique, and certainly not something that his common in the US. Most of our competition depend greatly on protecting their publisher base, seen by most as the Holy Grail of performance networks. Zanox takes a cooperative approach, and is able to woo larger brand advertisers by providing transparency, and offering global reach via their GAP partnerships worldwide. This unique platform allows zanox to easily penetrate international market by identifying, and cooperating with major competitors in each market. Zanox is the only performance based marketing network offering an indirect sales solution for third party cooperation with international ad networks. The GAP partnership offer participating networks exposure to advertisers and publishers in 30+ countries, 200 currencies and instant access to a portfolio of 200 international advertisers and campaigns. We've been successful in executing this partnership in the US, UK, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Asia, and Australia.

A Shameless plug of my article that appeared yesterday in DM News.

Christopher Dessi
VP of advertiser sales, North America, Zanox

Some advertisers flinch at the idea of affiliates generating results on their behalf. No matter what doubts you may have about affiliate marketing, the exciting reality is that it has proven to be effective.

If you don't employ affiliate market­ing tactics in your e-marketing strategy, you're missing out on new markets and a guaranteed expanded workforce at no cost. For example, if you decide to partner with a network that offers inter­national affiliate reach – you now have an instant international e-marketing strategy. Similarly, if you allow search affiliates to proactively bid on search words – you've now just penetrated the search market, without internal staff and at zero cost to you.

Once you have decided to leverage affiliate marketing, the next step is to select a preferred partner. If you ask these four questions before you move forward, you'll find an affiliate market­ing partner that is significantly more valuable to your organization.

First, is your affiliate network trans­parent? As larger brand advertisers start to spend more money with networks, a real need for transparency has emerged.

Ask if you are obligated to pay for the conversion when a pixel fires. Savvy networks rely on delayed confirmation of a pixel firing. Then, look for a part­ner that offers international reach.

Finally, ask your potential partner if it will allow your company to work with other affiliate networks. If a partner is attempting to lock you into a contractual obligation of exclusivity, they're only limiting your market reach