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Hydra Networks has announced that with immediate effect it has terminated the accounts of over 15,000 publishers. The news comes as part of a new push by Hydra to attract mainstream brand advertisers and set themselves apart from “ad networks peddling nutraceutical diet remedies, cash grant opportunities, tooth whiteners and other non-branded campaigns of low consumer value.”

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).

Five million people use Twitter every day. Each month, more Americans visit YouTube than watch the Super Bowl. It's clear that the Internet is fundamentally changing. What does this change in online behavior mean for e-commerce?

ValueClick this week announced the divestiture of their lead-gen business unit, Web Clients. The stated reason is that ValueClick wants to stay focused on their online marketing services and technology businesses. That’s fair enough, but a look at the history of ValueClick and Web Clients raises questions in the minds of the curious.

With a name like “negative option billing” it should come as no surprise that this practice has received a lot of negative attention lately from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), various state attorneys general and other regulatory bodies. Despite this trend, marketers and consumers alike have found this billing method to be a convenient and useful payment option over the years.

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.

New media such as blogs and social networks have opened vast territory for information dissemination, networking and connectivity. Due to their low costs, every “netizen” with an opinion can set up a Web-based soapbox from which to broadcast to the world. As a result, like-minded communities of writers and followers have sprung up around any number of topics large and small: from politics to film, video games to parenting tips.

Cost-per-action networks are all the rage today. But what will it take for a network to win with 400-plus competitors? And how does a network keep ahead of the curve (and the FTC) while building its publisher and advertiser base and fending off tracking and fraud issues?

These are the tough questions that CPA networks face.