From Performance Marketing Insider, 2011 to 2020

Performance Marketing Insider (performinsiders.com) was Pesach Lattin's affiliate marketing and lead generation trade site. Its original posts were lost. The ones the web still links to have been rebuilt here, at the same addresses, from the public record.

• September 2020NutraClick Fined by FTC

  Settled with the FTC in 2016 over "free" samples. Sued again in 2020 for doing it again. This time the ban was permanent.

• September 2020Amazon Deletes Tens of Thousands of Fake Reviews in the UK

  The Financial Times found Amazon UK's top reviewers flipping free products on eBay. Amazon deleted about 20,000 reviews. Regulators took five years to catch up.

• August 2020Why Evergreen Messages Fail During COVID-19

  Somber piano, empty streets, "we're here for you." By spring 2020 every brand had made the same ad, and someone cut them all together to prove it.

• August 2020Inside Sam's Club's Affiliate Marketing Program

  A warehouse club that sells memberships, not products, runs an affiliate program. That changes what a conversion is worth.

• August 2020Feds Go After Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical for Fake COVID-19 Cure

  A $23,000 "Emergency D-Virus" treatment plan, billboards, and a claim of FDA acceptance. The FTC got a court order five years later.

• March 2019Bot Form Fills Are Destroying the Lead Generation Industry. What Can Be Done?

  Fake leads came with real phone numbers attached, and real people got the calls. Consumer advocates are still citing this post in front of the FCC.

• October 2018$500 Million Android Advertising Scam Busted?

  Someone bought popular Android apps, watched how real people used them, and taught bots to do the same. Nobody agrees what it cost. Nobody was charged.

• January 2017Accenture Just Makes Sh*t

  In early 2017 a consulting firm was buying its way into the agency business and calling itself the biggest digital network on earth. The headline survives. The original text does not.

• September 2011Jesse Willms Assets Frozen

  A federal judge froze the money behind the free-trial empire, some of it already sitting in Cyprus. The affiliates who drove the traffic were never in the dock.

• September 20115 Tips for Better Affiliate Product Reviews

  In 2011 the advice was disclose, use the product and say what's wrong with it. By 2024 the FTC had turned most of it into federal penalties.