I spoke to Todd Crawford, Vice President of Sales at Commission Junction, earlier this morning about Google’s recent announcement to limit the number of displayed PPC ads from a shared URL to a single listing and it’s likely impact on the affiliate industry.

Crawford is a long-time veteran of affiliate marketing. He was calm, articulate and recounted historical developments during our conversation. Here are a few snippets from our phone conversion:

GoYaMi: What impact do you believe Google’s new affiliate policy is likely to have on CJ’s business?
TC: This is still a wait and see situation. We really don’t know just yet how this is going to play out.

GoYaMi: So – are you telling me no one is worried about this turn of events at CJ?
TC: Actually, we’ve run our own internal analysis and, we’re not too alarmed. There will certainly be affiliates that are impacted by this change. Being in the business as long as we have, we feel there will be an evolution in terms of how affiliates market and generate revenue.

GoYaMi: That sounds fine but only one ad will be displayed and it may not be the affiliates. How do you make money?
TC: Again we’re run our own analysis and

GoYaMi: You’ve mentioned before that ValueClick will always have “seat at the table” and is strongly advocating for affiliates. Can you tell me how receptive Google was to CJ’s concerns during meetings and how this change might impact affiliates?
TC: I can’t confirm or deny we were involved in any meetings. However, let me just add Google is going to do whatever it thinks is best for it’s business. Let’s just leave it at that.

GoYaMi: When can we expect an announcement from CJ?
TC: I’m not leading this effort but I don’t believe we’ll be making a public announcement.

GoYaMi: Then what are your plans in terms of communicating with affiliates? What support do you plan to provide?
TC: I’m sure we’ll be taking to individual affiliates, and it’s likely that we’ll produce a best practices guide. I don’t head up the affiliate side of business and focus more on working with advertisers.

GoYaMi: You’ve seen this space move in many different directions, What actions do you beleive should affiliates be taking now?
TC: Wait and see how this affects you and prepare to build out content sites to support revenue generation. If you’re only looking at keyword buys your going to have some serious short term challenges.

GoYaMi: I blogged last year that affiliate data feeds are dead. I believe Google’s announced policy will be applied to organic listing. Do you agree that affiliates can no longer successfully use data feeds to market a merchants products and services?
TC: I think using data feeds to spam search engines is dead. There are a number of affiliates who are successfully using data feeds. AdWords technology and the organic side of Google’s business are two separate technologies and businesses.

GoYaMi: Do you envision many merchants changing program Terms and Conditions so that merchants can prevent affiliates from securing the only display ad against a core search phase?
TC: I think affiliates should be working closely with affiliate managers to come up with solutions that work for both.

In terms of additionally recommendations, I suggest the following:

· Forecast conversions from existing sites generating impressions and clicks to determine a minimum allowable payout by program

· Contact your affiliate managers or better yet the merchants directly to renegotiate your payouts

· Begin development of text-rich content sites to support organic search listing

· Don’t use datafeeds to build out content sites

Good luck – it’s safe to say we’re all going to be rather busy the next few weeks.

Todd