OVAL

Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language is an international, information security community baseline standard to check for the presence of vulnerabilities and configuration issues on computer systems. It standardizes the three main steps of the process: characteristics Schema for collecting configuration data from systems for testing; OVAL definitions to test for the presence of specific vulnerabilities, configuration issues, and/or patches; and an OVAL Results Schema for reporting the results from the evaluated systems. Each OVAL vulnerability definition is based primarily on Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE), a dictionary-type list of standardized names for vulnerabilities and other information related to security exposures. The tests are standardized, machine-readable XML Vulnerability Definitions, Compliance Definitions, and Patch Definitions.

EMERGING CONCEPTS
Oval Pagejacking Phishing BitTorrent VDSL ZigBee Ambush Marketing Adjustment Letters Small Scale Services Robust Design Black-Scholes Model Affiliate Marketing

PAGEJACKING
It is the activity of stealing content from a website and copying it into another site in order to drain off some of the original sites traffic to the copied web pages. The term pagejacking is a combination of the words web page and hijacking, indicating that a Web page has been hijacked. Pagejackers rely on search engines to spider the contents of the illegitimate site and index the results so that the copied site will appear in the search result rankings along with the original sites rankings. Users can be tricked into thinking the illegitimate site is the one they are searching for, and once they visit the copied site they may be subjected to mousetrapping . When mousetrapped, the user is unable to leave the scammers site using his or her browsers back or forward or even close buttons. To pagejack, scammers make digital copies of certain web pages including meta tags. Meta tags are hidden text in a websites page that inform the Internets search engines about the subject matter of a site and permit the search engine to properly

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categorize the site in the engine. The scammers then insert one change to the copy of the web page by adding a command to redirect any user intending to go to legitimate site to be redirected to the aberrant site.

PHISHING
Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a website where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers that the legitimate organization already has. The website, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the users information. Because it is relatively simple to make a website look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the HTML code, scams may trick people into thinking they are actually being contacted by a legarahtate site and are subsequently going to the site to update their account or other information. Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on fishing, the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.

BitTorrent greatly reduces the load on seeders, because clients generally download the file from each other. After the initial pieces transfer from the seed, the pieces are individually transferred from client to client. The original seeder only needs to send out one copy of the file for all the clients to receive a copy. The bittorrent protocol breaks the file(s) down into smaller fragments, typically a quarter of a megabyte (256 KB) in size. Peers download missing fragments from each other and upload those that they already have to peers that request them. The protocol is smart enough to choose the peer with the best network connections for the fragments that its requesting. To increase the overall efficiency of the swarm (the ad-hoc P2P network temporarily created to distribute a particular file), the bittorrent clients request from their peers the fragments that are most rare; in other words, the fragments that are available on the least number of peers, making most fragments available widely across many machines and avoiding bottlenecks. The file fragments are not usually downloaded in sequential order and need to be reassembled by the receiving machine. Clients start uploading fragments to their peers before the entire file is downloaded. Sharing by each peer therefore begins when the first complete segment is downloaded and can begin to be uploaded if another peer requests it. This scheme is particularly useful for trading large files such as videos and operating systems. This is contrasted with conventional file serving where high demand can lead to saturation of the hosts resources as the consumption of bandwidth to transfer the file to many requesting downloader surges. With BitTorrent, high demand can actually increase throughput as more bandwidth and additional seeds of the file become available to the group. For very popular files, BitTorrent can support about a thousand times as many downloads as HTTP .

BITTORRENT
BitTorrent is both the name of the peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution protocol and client application for it created by programmer Bram Cohen. It is designed to widely distribute large amounts of data without incurring the corresponding consumption in server and bandwidth resources and typically, monetary fee attracted as a result of that. The original BitTorrent application is written in Python and its source code has been released under the BitTorrent Open Source License as of version 4.0. The name BitTorrent refers to the distribution protocol, the original client application, and the torrent file type.

VDSL
The demand for faster access to the Internet, coupled with new competitive environment, has heightened the need for providers to offer more

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complete, more differentiated services and is accelerating the telecom industrys development of new technologies. Technologies like cable modems and ADSL are not fast enough to support the integration of home services such as digital television and video-on-demand. However, another DSL technology known as very high bitrate DSL (VDSL) is seen by many as the next step in providing a complete home-communications/ entertainment package. VDSL is the most promising technology capable of delivering full service. It is both symmetric and asymmetric and provides up to 52 Mbps of bandwidth over voice on a single twisted-pair copper loop. VDSL is the next generation of DSL, with higher throughput and simpler implementation requirements than ADSL. It is nearly ten times faster than ADSL and is over thirty times faster than HDSL. The tradeoff for increased speed is loop length. Like other DSL technologies, VDSL uses the higher-frequency spectrum available over standard copper above the frequencies used for lifeline plain old telephone service (POTS) and integrated services digital network (ISDN) services. This is commonly referred to as dataand video-over-voice technology. The VDSL spectrum is specified to range from 200 kHz to 30 MHz. Actual spectral allocation varies based on line rates and whether or not asymmetric or symmetric rates are being used. The key to VDSL is that the telephone companies are replacing many of their main feeds with fiberoptic cable. In fact, many phone companies are planning Fiber to the Curb (FTTC), which means that they will replace all existing copper lines right up to the point where your phone line branches off at your house. At the least, most companies expect to implement Fiber to the Neighborhood (FTTN). Instead of installing fiberoptic cable along each street, FTTN has fiber going to the main junction box for a particular neighborhood. By placing a VDSL transceiver in home and a VDSL gateway in the junction box, the distance limitation is neatly overcome. The gateway takes care of the analog-digital-analog conversion problem that disables ADSL over fiber-optic lines. It converts the data received from the transceiver into pulses of light that can be

transmitted over the fiber-optic system to the central office, where the data is routed to the appropriate network to reach its final destination. When data is sent back to your computer, the VDSL gateway converts the signal from the fiberoptic cable and sends it to the transceiver. Like ADSL, VDSL must transmit compressed video, a real time signal unsuited to error retransmission schemes used in data communications. To achieve error rates compatible with compressed video, VDSL will have to incorporate Forward Error Correction (FEC) with sufficient interleaving to correct all errors created by impulsive noise events of some specified duration. VDSL must be lower in cost and lower in power, and premises VDSL units may have to implement a physical layer media access control for multiplexing upstream data. VDSL is a technology suitable for a full service network. As the final length of cable into the home or office, VDSL connects to neighborhood Optical Network Units (ONUs), which connect to the central offices main fiber network backbone. This architecture will allow VDSL users to access the maximum bandwidth available through normal phone lines. VDSL has been designed to deliver a host of asymmetric broadband services, including digital broadcast TV, video-on-demand (VoD), highspeed Internet access, distance learning, and telemedicine, to name a few. Delivery of these services requires the downstream channel to have a higher bandwidth than the upstream channel and is thus asymmetric. VDSL has also been designed to provide symmetrical services for small and medium business customers, the corporate enterprise, high-speed data applications, video teleconferencing and teleconsulting applications etc. Symmetric VDSL can be utilized to provide short-haul T1 replacements at nxT1 rates, plus support a host of other business applications. The use of VDSL for businesses and residences will provide the badly needed increase in bandwidth that the market demands. By using ATM over VDSL, the systems will be reliable and can provide the required quality of service (QoS) that customers expect. VDSL technology will be the solution for providing the market with required bandwidth now and into the future. Once the standards issue is solved, it may be widely deployed.

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ZIGBEE
ZigBee technology is a wireless networking technology based on the newly defined IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.15.4 Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) standard. The protocol is being evolved by members of the ZigBee Alliance whose mission is to bring in reliable, cost-effective, lowpower, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products, based on an open global standard.The relationship between IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee is analogous to that existing between IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance. Adoption of the ZigBee protocol as a single wireless standard helps original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) realize cost reductions and speed time-to-market versus current proprietary wireless or wired sensor networks. The ZigBee standard, which transfers data at a few hundred bits per second, is being developed for use in consumer electronics, automation, controls and remote monitoring. ZigBee also provides multiple levels of security to ensure reliable and secure networks. It is based on the packet radio standard, which uses the frequencies to send data over distances of upto 20 meters. It supports three different frequency bands, providing customers the flexibility to choose what band best suites their needs. These frequency bands include sixteen channels at 2.4 GHz, ten channels at 902 to 928 MHz and one channel at 868 to 870 MHz. The maximum data rates for each band are 250 kbps, 40 kbps and 20 kbps. ZigBee supports Star, Mesh and Cluster Tree networks. Mesh networking can extend the range of the network through routing, while self healing increases the reliability of the network by re-routing a message in case of a node failure. Message acknowledgement helps to ensure that the data was delivered to its destination. It can support 255 nodes per network. It has the potential to last as long as the shelf life of most batteries. ZigBee uses 16 channels Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) modulation in mixed-Mesh, Star and Peer-to-Peer topologies to deliver reliable data service with up to 65000 available network addresses. The basic mode of channel access specified by IEEE 802.15.4 is

carrier sense, multiple access (CSMA/CA), that is, the nodes talk in the same way that people converse; they briefly check to see that no one is talking before they start. There are three different types of ZigBee devices. First device is ZigBee Coordinator, which is the most capable device. It might bridge to other networks, and forms the root of the network tree. It is able to store information about the network. There is exactly one ZigBee coordinator in each network. Second device is Full Function Device (FFD), which can act as an intermediate router, passing data from other devices. Third device is Reduced Function Device (RFD), which is just smart enough to talk to the network. It cannot relay data from other devices. The ZigBee protocols support both beaconing and nonbeaconing networks. In beaconing networks, the network nodes transmit beacons to confirm their presence to other network nodes, and to allow nodes to sleep between beacons, thereby lowering their duty cycle and extending their battery life. In non-beaconing networks, most devices typically have their receivers continuously active, requiring a more robust power supply; however, this enables heterogeneous networks, in which some devices receive continuously while some remain asleep, transmitting only when an external stimulus is detected. ZigBee is intended for the hostile RF environments that are common in mainstream commercial and industrial applications. It is aimed at applications with low data rates and low power consumption. ZigBees current focus is to define a generalpurpose, inexpensive self-organizing mesh network that can be shared by industrial controls, smoke and intruder alarms, building automation and home automation PC peripherals, medical sensor applications, and toys and games. With ZigBee, homeowners can set up a wireless network that is designed to use very small amounts of power, so that individual devices might run for a year or two with a single alkaline battery.

AMBUSH MARKETING
Companies sometimes invest millions of rupees to ensure exclusive sponsorship rights to major sporting event only to see competitors associating

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their products with the event as well. Today, commercial sponsorship is one of the fastest growing businesses. Such sponsorship is to achieve audience awareness and image enhancement. This sponsorship permits marketing communication to talk more directly to particular market segment in a manner that maybe more efficient and less costly than traditional media advertising. But the commercial value of the event is nullified if the rival companies of the official sponsors resort to Ambush Marketing. Ambush marketing , a term first coined by marketing guru Jerry Welsh, has not really been rigorously defined. However, it broadly refers to a situation in which a company or product seeks to ride on the publicity values of a major event without having to finance the event through sponsorship. It is typically targeted at major sporting events like the Olympic games, Asiad or the world cups of Cricket, football or any other game. Ambush marketing, sometimes referred to as parasitic marketing, has been broadly defined as the unauthorized association of a business or organization with the marketing of a particular event gaining benefit for the marketing right or licensing fee applicable in order to be associated with an event, such as a sporting event. Ambush marketing is very much a part of todays corporate sponsorship climate and very much a feature of the Olympic landscape. Ambush marketing can be divided into two broad classes of activities i.e., Direct and Indirect. a. Direct Form of Ambush Marketing Activities traditionally considered as piracies are direct form of ambush marketing. For example, unauthorized use of registered event logo on merchandise or false claims to the official suppliers of particular team. b. Indirect Form of Ambush Marketing Indirect form of ambush marketing is subtle and very much hidden in nature, which damages the entire efforts of the official sponsors. Following are the more subtle practices of ambush marketing, which are indirect in nature.

Sponsoring the broadcast of the event. Sponsoring subcategories within the event and exploiting this investment aggressively. Purchasing advertisement time around replays of the competitors event. Involving in major sponsorship promotions to coincide with the event. Ambush marketing is very complex in nature and has a far-reaching impact on the business practices as well as the promotion of sports events. Though remedies are available for direct form of ambush marketing, the indirect form of ambush marketing needs to be properly addressed through effective legal system.

ADJUSTMENT LETTERS
Attention and response to customers complaints is an important part of customer service. There is growing competition, increased customer awareness, and legislation to protect consumers. Nowadays, providers of goods and services have to ensure customer satisfaction and pay prompt attention to any dissatisfaction or complaint from the customer side. If you are dissatisfied, tell us; if you are satisfied, tell others. This is a very good message to convey to customers. The success of a business depends on the satisfaction of the customers and it is important for a company to know whether the customers are satisfied with its goods/services or not. Dissatisfied customers are likely to talk about their dissatisfaction with a product/service and may write to grievance columns of newspapers; which is bad for the reputation of the company. When a customer complains, one gets a chance to correct faults, make adjustment, explain, and help the customer to use the product properly; one also gets a chance to be in touch with the customers and make sure that they are satisfied with the product/service. Goodwill can be created by prompt and sincere attention to complaints. In reputed companies

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all employees are trained to be alert to customer needs. Some firms offer to make adjustments even without having received a complaint. Offer of adjustment is used as a strategy for sales and for collections. Customers who have bought a product or used a service are offered further service and adjustment in case they are not fully satisfied; thus they are assured that their needs will be looked after. Customers who have not placed orders for a long time are asked if they have been dissatisfied with products/ services; they may be won back by this offer. Customers, who have not paid their dues and not explained the delay in payment, are asked if they are not satisfied with the goods/services provided; it is a useful argument in persuading them to pay or explain. While drafting an Adjustment Letter whether the adjustment is to be granted or not, the letter must follow certain principles in order to fulfill its function of maintaining good customer relations. The letter must reflect the sellers respect for the customers feelings and needs. When a customer finds something wrong with goods or services, his/her confidence in company is little shaken; and the reply to his/her complaint must restore the confidence. The customer may be feeling angry and cheated at not getting what he/she had expected from the brand and the reply should restore that lost goodwill. Adjustment letter must express regret for the inconvenience caused; it must take pains to explain why things went wrong, and what is being done, speedily, to put them right, no matter whose fault it was. One must have a proper frame of mind and a positive attitude for writing a good adjustment letter. First of all, one must take an objective attitude to error; one must be able to (i) locate the error; find out where it occurred and who was responsible for it; (ii) control the error; know what steps to take in order to put matters right speedily, and also know how to prevent such mistakes from occurring again; (iii) forgive the error; use courteous words, and show human

consideration while mentioning or describing the cause of the error, and not accuse either employees, associate businessmen, suppliers or the customer. This helps one have a positive, corrective and learning attitude which is reflected in the letter. Secondly, one has to be helpful and sympathetic. Sometimes, customers who make a complaint have a fear that they may be at fault. If the letter re-assures them about using the product properly and helps them understand how to avoid trouble and get the best service, they will appreciate it. Thirdly, one must remember that loss of money is different from inconvenience suffered. The inconvenience is always suffered by the customer, no matter whose fault it was. It is the customer who has a broken-down machine to deal with, or damaged goods occupying space, or some other problem on account of not getting what was needed. It is therefore important to assure the customer about what action is being taken to reduce the inconvenience. The question of who bears the loss is not to be confused with who takes action to satisfy the customers need; the action must be taken by the supplier promptly and in right note.

SMALL-SCALE SERVICES
From the one-man, corner photocopying shop to the local telephone booth to the downtown coffee shop, the book store, the general merchant, the travel agent, the neighborhood doctor, the auto-rickshaw driver, the plumber, and the dry-cleaner ... we cannot imagine a day in our lives without the services of these providers. We have got so used to them that they may go unnoticed, but their might and impact on our lives is immense. The small-scale services sector represents a huge opportunity for contribution to economic growth and potential for employment generation. Increased disposable incomes and growing complexities of personal and professional life necessitates that individuals seek and get support of a number of services, both small and large. In fact, the larger services create opportunity for a large number of small services surrounding them.

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While GDP grows at 8-plus percentage, the contribution is largely from the service sector. Services have shown remarkable buoyancy. They account for 52 per cent of the GDP and have , grown at almost 10 per cent during current years. A sector with this combination of high share and high growth rate will obviously provide an enormous boost to overall growth. Looking at the components of this sector, the virtuous sharegrowth relationship clearly rests on trade, hotels, transport, and communication. This component contributes about half of the service sector GDP and grew at almost 12 per cent during the recent years. Another way of looking at the national economy is the three tiers-large, medium, and small sectors. The small-scale sector accounts for 92 per cent of employment, contributes 59 per cent to the GDP and takes care of almost 50 per cent of the , total exports. In fact, small-scale services form a large part of the economy and will continue to play that increasingly important role in the growth and development of the economy. As the economy gets better day by day, the need for these services and providers will increase. The capacity for self-employment and employment in small services is enormous. In next few years, close to one crore jobs have to be created annually. Additionally, opportunities for those who are under-employed, especially in agriculture and allied sectors must be created. Another dimension to the issue is that the larger part of the employment will have to be generated for rural and sub-urban populations. Livelihoods will have to be found to suit people, whose current occupations are dictated by their background and who have trade skills handed down through generations. Small-scale services can, meet local demands on one hand, and create livelihoods to locals on the other. More local wealth would be created, more services demanded and, therefore, more employment generated. That would set the development cycle in motion. Thus, they would play a vital role in transition from agrarian, to industry-led, to a service-led economy. Central, state, and local governments should, therefore, create and

support a competitive and extensive small-scale service sector. The service sector will grow in three ways: (1) Growth in service industry, like tourism, health care, education, and communication, etc. (2) Growth in services that support, or are an extension of, a primary or secondary sector, like call centres, maintenance, electricity, freight transportation, and B2B selling, etc. (3) Growth of services that are dependent on local purchasing power that has improved significantly over last few years, partly because of growth in ways 1 and 2. Small services will be created for the following reasons: Truncated Demand for local services (way 3) where larger players will find it difficult because of (i) their lack of knowledge of needs of local segments, (ii) their failure to build and have sustainable relationship with local segments, (iii) their high overheads on the one hand, and lack of economies of scale to serve a disbursed market on the other. Examples here include the laundry service, housekeeping , haircutting , local transport, restaurants (especially in small cities and suburban townships), doctors, lawyers, plumbers, and retailers, etc. As fringe service providers-independents in various service industries or franchisees of bigger service provider (way 1). Examples are tour operators and guides (tourism industry), doctors, radiology, and pathology laboratories (health care industry), schools, coaching centres, personal tutors (education industry), and telephone booths and cyber cafes (communication), etc. There is a growing trend of franchised services, like banking, insurance, schools, eating joints, and communication, etc.

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As support service providers to the agriculture and manufacturing sectors (way 2). Examples include canteens, security services, call centres, retailers (FMCG products), and servicing shops (automobile, equipment), etc.

Lack of finance (especially credit) facilities There are little or no finance facilities that are available to small-scale service businesses. Many of them have little capital expenditures, but the working capital requirements may be huge. Funding this part is often difficult or costlier. The challenge of the small service sector, against the emerging global environment, is to become competitive. While little headway is made in some cases, a lot more needs to be done. Technology upgradation, enhanced credit flow, and professionalism are the major imperatives.

The small service sector has always been there, important but least attended to. Little or no institutional support was available to this sector. Given this state of affairs, this sector has suffered several deficiencies. Some of them are: Poor managerial and professional skills It lacks an understanding of markets and has a myopic approach to selling, rather than using the sustainable approaches via relationship building with customers and other stakeholders. It often uses the shoot and scoot strategy. A change in attitude through education and awareness programmes is a prerequisite. Inadequate human capital There is a dearth of skilled service workers to cater to the needs of these smaller service businesses. There needs to be an investment in creating human pool, with both technical capabilities and interpersonal skills. Adequate facilities for vocational training must be created to cater to the requirements of these small services. Inadequate infrastructure Small services have suffered primarily because of the lack of necessary infrastructure facilities, like roads, power, and communication, etc. The state itself must commit and attract private investment in roads, transport, housing, power, communication, warehousing, storage, banking, schools, and training institutes, etc. Lack of governmental support The government has failed to prioritize the support of small-scale services. It was only recently that a new classification of Small-Scale Service Businesses and Enterprise (SSSBEs) was created and accepted by the Union Government. Still, a number of state governments are yet to provide and extend the necessary benefits to these.

ROBUST DESIGN
Robust Design method, also called the Taguchi Method, pioneered by Dr. Genichi Taguchi, greatly improves engineering productivity. By consciously considering the noise factors (environmental variation during the products usage, manufacturing variation, and component deterioration) and the cost of failure in the field the Robust Design method helps ensure customer satisfaction. Robust Design method is central to improving engineering productivity. Pioneered by Dr. Genichi Taguchi after the end of the Second World War, the method has evolved over the last five decades. Many companies around the world have saved hundreds of millions of dollars by using the method in diverse industries: automobiles, xerography, telecommunications, electronics, software, etc. Robust Design focuses on improving the fundamental function of the product or process, thus facilitating flexible designs and concurrent engineering. Indeed, it is the most powerful method available to reduce product cost, improve quality, and simultaneously reduce development interval. Over the last five years, many leading companies have invested heavily in the Six Sigma approach aimed at reducing waste during manufacturing and operations. These efforts have had great impact on the cost structure and hence on the bottom line of those companies. Many of them have reached the maximum potential of the traditional Six Sigma approach.

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Brenda Reichelderfer of ITT Industries reported on their benchmarking survey of many leading companies, design directly influences more than 70% of the product life cycle cost; companies with high product development effectiveness have earnings three times the average earnings; and companies with high product development effectiveness have revenue growth two times the average revenue growth. She also observed, 40% of product development costs are wasted! These and similar observations by other leading companies are compelling them to adopt improved product development processes under the banner Design for Six Sigma. The Design for Six Sigma approach is focused on 1 Increasing engineering productivity so that new products can be developed rapidly and at low cost, and 2 Value based management.

rate of return, generally defined as the interest rate of short term US treasury notes. The model also works in reverse: instead of calculating a price, an implied volatility for a given price can be calculated. Options traders often refer to the greeks, especially Delta, Vega, and Theta. These are mathematical characteristics of the Black-Scholes model named after the greek letters used to represent them in equations. Delta measures how much an option price will move relative to the underlying, Vega is the sensitivity of the option price to changes in implied volatility, and Theta is the expected change in option price due to the passage of time. There are known problems with the BlackScholes model; markets often move in ways not consistent with the random walk hypothesis, and volatility is not, in fact, constant. A Black-Scholes variant known as ARCH, Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity, was developed to deal with these limitations. The key adjustment is the replacement of constant volatility with stochastic, or random, volatility. After ARCH came an explosion of different models; GARCH, EGARCH, N-GARCH, H-GARCH, etc, all incorporating ever more complex models of volatility. In everyday practice, however, the classic Black-Scholes model remains dominant with options traders.

BLACK-SCHOLES MODEL
The Black-Scholes model, for which Fischer Black, Myron Scholes and Robert Merton were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, is a tool for pricing equity options. Prior to its development there was no standard way to price options. In a very real sense, the Black-Scholes model marks the beginning of the modern era of financial derivatives. There are several assumptions underlying the Black-Scholes model. The most significant is that volatility, a measure of how much a stock can be expected to move in the near-term, is a constant over time. The Black-Scholes model also assumes stocks move in a manner referred to as a random walk; at any given moment, they are as likely to move up as they are to move down. By combining these assumptions with the idea that the cost of an option should provide no immediate gain to either seller or buyer, a set of equations can be formulated to calculate the price of any option. The Black-Scholes model takes as input current prices, length of time until the option expires worthless, an estimate of future volatility known as implied volatility, and the so-called risk free

AFFILIATE MARKETING
It is an online marketing strategy that involves revenue sharing between online advertisers/ merchants and online publishers/salespeople. Compensation is typically awarded based on performance measures such as sales, clicks, registrations or a combination of factors When it comes to the web, amazon.com really started the affiliate ball rolling. In July 1996, it launched its associates program and now counts over 450,000 sites in its network. The basic model works something like this: A small website owner registers with amazon (or any other affiliate program), puts various links, banners, and products on ones website. When

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visitors click through on these links and purchase a book or other product, the small website owner is paid a commission for generating the sale. While amazon remains the most visible pioneer, the concept really isnt new. In fact, one of its oldest practitioners, Amway, has even taken to the web and affiliate marketing with its Quixtar site. Looking a bit farther afield, consider merchants that dont even have formal affiliate programs: auction buying clubs like Mercata and MobShop. These sites work on the premise of variable volume discounts as demand for an item increases, the price goes down. Both sites encourage buyers to get their friends to buy too. Instead of earning a commission, the affiliate is rewarded with a lower purchase price. In all cases, the goal is for marketers to only spend money when their particular performance objective is met. While amazon only pays when a sale is made, merchants selling big ticket items like cars, or marketing services like credit cards, have modified the model paying instead for clicks or qualified leads. In fact, compensation schemes are as varied as the merchants themselves from a 15 percent commission on Amazon books, to 1 percent on Dell PCs. On the financial services side, LendingTree offers up to $14 per qualified application and NextCard offers $20 per enrolled

cardholder. Consumer retailers like FogDog offer a fairly typical 5 percent. As merchants have rushed to build programs, an entirely new category has been born: affiliate networks. Running a network of affiliates is not rocket science, but it does require quite a bit of time and commitment. For that reason, many merchants are finding that outsourced providers offer a compelling solution. Some vendors like LinkShare provide tracking, reporting, and affiliate recruiting. Other programs like Dynamic Trade and Commission Junction offer additional services: cutting checks, sending out end-of-year tax forms, and responding to webmaster queries. Complete do-it-yourselfers should check out the listing of affiliate scripts at the CGI Resource Index. Several dozen scripts are listed, ranging from freeware and shareware to scripts costing a few hundred dollars. In a few short years, affiliate marketing has become a significant force in how commerce on the web occurs. Thousands of merchants now use affiliate marketing to get business done. The model is now being flexed to drive behavior beyond mere commerce transactions. And yet for all the jargon and hype, affiliate marketing is about connecting buyers and sellers and rewarding those that facilitate the connections. After all, the value isnt in the transaction, its in the relationship.

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