Kukral

Global performance marketing firm Forge Corporation Ltd. has acquired the BlogKits blogging network and is launching the first performance-marketing network built for bloggers, the company announced. BlogKits, intended to help match bloggers with advertisers, was acquired from Jim Kukral - recently appointed to Forge as the VP of branding and marketing. He will be responsible for operating the BlogKits Offerforge Network, including working to recruit and educate new bloggers, as well as assisting merchants with developing performance-based offerings.

According to a BlogKits 2005 survey, 73 percent of bloggers surveyed agreed that using affiliate links on their website was an acceptable practice. Some 93 percent of bloggers said the reason they use AdSense is that it's easy. "Bloggers want control and ease of use. They want to "place it and leave it", said Kukral.

"The reason bloggers haven't embraced the standard affiliate networks as a viable model is because those networks don't specifically cater any offers to bloggers. There's too much clutter going on. Bloggers don't want to work that hard. BlogKits eliminates that," Kukral said.

"BlogKit's approach is not to recommend to replace Adsense, but to add to it without penalty. We believe there's a lot more money to be made on a well-matched cost-per-action (CPA) offer for bloggers as opposed to a few pennies per click from Adsense."

Forge CEO Jonathan Miller said, "By acquiring and developing BlogKits, Forge now has a unique stable of highly targeted blogs in our network that no other network has. Merchants can join BlogKits even if they have other existing network relationships. We're not interested in taking business away from anyone; only bringing new business opportunities that they can't get elsewhere."