As Facebook pushes to Win The Internet, its dazzling growth in usage is still to be reflected in profits, or even revenues. Accurate estimates of exactly what Facebook is bringing in are hard to come by but the best yet now comes from the Inside Facebook blog.

Twitter reasserted itself this week with the publication of two pieces of data designed to blow people's minds and a rumor that should send a little quiver of excitement up your leg (if you like that sort of thing).

With over 400 ad networks, segmentation has become a big part of successful performance marketing campaigns.

Katrina Toft loves sushi. So it’s only natural that the designer, a recent college graduate, started a blog about the Seattle sushi restaurants she haunts. Already, she’s making enough from BestSeattleSushi.com to feed her fish habit. Now, she’s working on a site for gamers.

Protecting Consumer Privacy

Legislators, online marketers and consumer privacy groups still struggle over the creation of mutually acceptable online privacy laws – although all see the need for some level of protection. A coalition of 10 consumer advocates and privacy groups called on Congress to limit companies’ ability to track Web users and serve them targeted ads. Two key proposals under debate are to establish a Do-Not-Track registry similar to the Do-Not-Call registry, and imposing a 24-hour limit to holding consumer data.

Judging by the way our economy has plummeted in the last year, it seems the 2009 holiday season does not bode well for retailers — online or off.

Tens of thousands of people are still getting laid off every week, the job market simply won’t do us the kindness of opening up, and consumers are squeezing pennies so hard that Lincoln feels their pain.

Given this collective reluctance to spend money on anything but essentials, where does that leave online luxury retailers? Better yet, where does that leave their affiliates?

After a rough start, the biggest social network is setting the standard in the newest area of performance marketing.

While most publishers are scrambling to find their place in social media, Facebook is quickly perfecting performance marketing techniques that have the potential of reshaping online advertising on a scale unseen since the rise of search engine optimization. Its recent hookups with some of the world’s biggest brands offer a glimpse of the future, and it isn’t a pretty sight for affiliates.

Many of the smartest marketers I have had the pleasure of knowing, agree that building an email list is essential to long-term success.

Profiling is a term I use to partition my list into separate sub-lists that can help you identify what products or services are of the greatest interest to your list subscribers. A profile can be any way you want to separate the list members into groups of like interests, wants, needs, demographics or any other predictor of future buying behavior.

With the economic downturn, many of us are tightening our belts. What does that mean for travel marketers? Are people still traveling? Should we downgrade our revenue expectations?

Here’s some good news. According to a PhoCusWright report, the U.S. online travel market continues to grow at a pace that far exceeds the overall travel market. Travel is the No. 1 sector in the affiliate industry, and affiliate shoppers tend to buy more than the average shopper. So there are still many opportunities for affiliates in travel – especially when you focus on the trends.

Imagine that you are shopping at a department store and you ask a salesperson for men’s summer sandals and he takes you to the main entrance and drops you off. Your reaction?

There’s a good chance you’re frustrated. You probably think less of the store for its poor service. You’re probably going to leave without buying any shoes. You might even tell your friends and family not to shop there.

Once they’re hooked, use that attention to increase ROI.

Budgets are tightening, and advertisers need to boost ROI- fast. The social Web is gaining value not only as a medium that delivers measurable results, but also as a resource for gaining insight a company can use to make all of its advertising (TV, print, online) more effective, to increase ROI across the board.