Form (or Name) Versus Substance

I’ve never noticed this one before, but apparently Facebook now has an “On This Day In [Year Here]” widget in the sidebar. Here’s what mine says today:

Yes, I surely remember that one. It was probably the most surprising one I’ve ever seen.

Russians have a proverb “Как корабль назовешь, так он и поплывет”. Some translate it as “A ship begins with its name”, but its literal translation is really: “A ship will sail the way you name it”. Needless to explain why this particular proverb came to my mind when I saw the name of the above-quoted affiliate in a program application.

On a separate note, it also seems that some especially beginning affiliate marketers believe that the more serious the name of their company/business sounds, the more credibility it adds; and so they include words like “Corporation”, “Solutions”, “Marketing”, etc. For me, as an affiliate program manager, the name is irrelevant (unless it’s as obnoxious as “Rogue Marketers”, of course). In fact, it’s not an element that I consider for longer than half a second when evaluating affiliate applications. There are other, more important, things to consider, and I’ve mentioned them in my How to Evaluate Affiliate Applications earlier.

As always, the comments are all yours, and I’d love to hear other people’s opinion(s) and/or observations on this front.

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