Microsoft attended the Affiliate Summit - rumour has it - for the purpose of researching options for a new affiliate program for MSN Shopping. I think this would be HOT! Especially since MSN Shopping has an RSS Datafeed which I have blogged about before. I also think that it would rock the industry due to the fact that some of the older players in the industry, like Amazon, have become so saturated with affiliates that it’s difficult for new Amazon affiliates to profit in this space. Affiliates that take 1st mover advantage with the MSN affiliate program if and when it launches will have a big competitive edge. Just remember when you make your 1st million you heard it on the 5 Star Channel 1st! ;-)

Tanya Martin reports from her blog - Conference Who’s Who - » Microsoft at Affiliate Summit

So I asked Mr. Sampathkumaran (Aravind Sampathkumaran - Product Manager for MSN Search) why was Microsoft interested in the Affiliate Summit. He said they were there to research what and how much to pay affiliates. He mentioned in November Microsoft had announced they will be adding an affiliate system to MSN Shopping. He also mentioned they would be including toolbar installs that would have payouts as well.

He asked what I would suggest. I suggested that he make sure affiliates can get links for targeted products. That I would rather send traffic to programs that convert over programs that offer high payouts and rarely convert. I went on with an example, if someone has a site about golf and they want to promote MSN Shopping, they will need to be able to get links for golf type products.

I discovered this thread by Tanya over at the V7N webmaster forum: MSN who would be an affiliate?. She’s asking for feedback from affiliates and SEOs regarding how much MSN should pay out in affiliate commissions. Go weigh in on the thread. You never know… maybe “Big Brother” is reading!

Edited to add: The CEO of AffiliateClassroom confirms this story in a recent blog as well.