Chris Dessi - Vice President zanox, Inc

This week on Geek Cast - Shawn Collins goes solo while Lisa Picarille was away running her Social Media Marketing Summit. As usual Shawn does a great job covering new and exciting topics in the Affiliate Marketing world. I would however love to hear more about international affiliate marketing programs on the show. Although I'm obviously biased an an employee of a multinational such as zanox, I also feel that with the economy experiencing the current swoon, that we should be looking overseas for additional affiliates, and advertisers.

What are you thoughts? Do you think we need to focus internationally to avoid the economic crunch? Or do you think we're just fine?

Let me know what you think?

Leading Online Marketing Company Aims to Raise Industry Standards with International Code of Behavior for Its Advertisers, Publishers and Service Providers Worldwide

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--zanox, a global leader in performance-based online marketing, today announced the company has released a comprehensive and detailed code of conduct for its global affiliate network as an industry measure toward establishing a rigorous benchmark for the affiliate marketing sector worldwide. Conceived as an industry-wide call to action, the zanox Code of Conduct will be implemented across the company's network including advertisers, publishers and service providers.

"As the market leader in Germany, where our headquarters is based, and a global player with more than one million sales partners worldwide, we feel we're in a position of special responsibility for the affiliate marketing sector," said Thomas Hessler, founder and CEO of ZANOX.de AG. "With the zanox Code of Conduct, we have the opportunity to promote effective quality standards and are proud to stand up for the entire industry."

The zanox Code of Conduct governs clear quality standards, content descriptions, technical functionality and sanctions for potential infringements in a way that is completely transparent to all participants. In order to develop the new Code of Conduct, zanox referenced numerous international standards such as the ICRA vocabulary, which was established by the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). Additionally, as zanox's global footprint spans more than 200 countries worldwide, the company also took into account the different national legal systems and privacy standards of its global target markets.

"zanox has been at the forefront of the online marketing revolution over the past eight years and recognizes the importance of complete transparency throughout the network," said Christopher Dessi, VP of Advertiser Sales, North America. "We're thrilled to be taking our dedication to quality standards to the next level and hope to set a positive example for our esteemed industry partners and colleagues."

Since the company's founding, zanox has been dedicated to promoting ethical practices and has taken measures to ensure compliance to its code of behavior, including continuously developing and implementing abuse prevention systems. In addition, zanox created a third-party legal framework and established an internal zanox NetworkWatch team to consistently monitor all activity within their extensive global network 24 hours a day.

About zanox

zanox is the market leader for performance-based multichannel commerce and provides a global platform for efficiently marketing products and services on the Internet. zanox's online marketing services include affiliate marketing and search engine management as well as email marketing and customer loyalty programs.

zanox was founded in 2000 by CEOs Thomas Hessler, Heiko Rauch and Jens Hewald and employs more than 350 people. Headquartered in Berlin, zanox operates offices in the United States, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Scandinavia and China. More than 2,000 prestigious international companies across the business sectors - TIMES, Travel, Retail & Shopping, as well as Financial Services - utilize the zanox network.

Since 2007, zanox has been part of the Axel Springer and PubliGroupe. Axel Springer is Germany's biggest newspaper publishing house and third-largest magazine publisher. PubliGroupe AG is an independent, internationally leading marketing, sales and service group for media and advertisers, supporting these in implementing their communication and media strategies with marketing and technology services.

If you've never attended an Affiliate Summit, I highly recommend it. The amount of information you can glean just from walking the floor is enough to make the most senior Affiliate Marketer's head spin, but I suppose that's half the fun.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward have hit upon the zeitgeist of the Affiliate world, and their show proves it. The attendance has soared, and this last summit included a special treat.

Cory Booker

Cory Booker was the keynote speaker, and I have to say - I was blown away. My interest was initially piqued when I read a recent article on Cory Booker in Esquire Magazine to which the most inspiring part of the article wasn't the article itself, it was Bookers response on July 16th to the article in a fiery letter to the Editor slapping author Scott Raab on the hand. To put it bluntly - this guys has balls.

I eagerly anticipated hearing what Mr. Booker had to say, and I wasn't disappointed.

Mr. Booker's natural charisma was contagious. His passion clear by the energy level he conveyed to the audience. His lack of self apprehension was refreshing, and I could not wipe the smile off my face throughout the duration of his presentation.

I found myself reiterating his stories to my family, and more than once during his speaking time, I felt the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand. This guy is the real deal. He shared stories that took the audience from murderous housing projects in Newark to the home of Gandhi. His easy manner helped to set the tone for the show, and I have to take my hat off to Missy and Shawn for selecting such an eloquent, and inspiring person to help kick things off.