Is CPA (Cost per Action) dead?

[UPDATE - THE OFFER MENTIONED BELOW HAS NOW BEEN PAUSED BY THE ADVERTISER SO I'VE DISABLED THE LINK]

Maybe not, and CPA for freshly dead pop musicians is alive and well.

It only took a few hours and the first "email submit offer" is out by one enterprising affiliate network.

The interest in MJ right now is huge and this offer is clearly tapping into the flood of people searching to reconnect with Michael Jackson's productions, since he died so suddenly on June 25th 2009.

FOR USA TRAFFIC ONLY

Check out this offer which shows you how to get all 7 Michael Jackson music albums. 

You just enter your email address and on the next page it's explained.

Now how do these people make money, you're thinking? Well in most of these email submits the advertiser ties the offer to a "participation" in other offers, where they are paid a commission or CPA action for the lead.

Companies like Blockbuster and other "trial offer" businesses pay for someone to signup to their offer. Even if the person cancels, the commissions passed around are still worth it because a small % of people stay on with those offers.

This is similar to the free ipod offers that have created complete industries around incentivized CPA offers like this.

Affiliate networks drive traffic to these offers because they are paid a fee for the email submit, which they in turn pay a % of that fee to the referring affiliate.

I'll admit my affiliate link is above, but I'm not into this to make money. Anything I make will be used to buy his albums and beyond that I'll donate to his charity for kids.

Personally I think it's a little too soon after his death to be promoting this, but the wave of traffic must be huge and although it may upset some people there are many who will go for this offer.

Rest in Peace Michael

--- (Edited on 6/29/2009 11:08 am [GMT-0500] by Peter) ---