Two recent articles about Behavioral Tracking, the monitoring of web surfing and TV watching habits in order to deliver more relevant ads to consumers through targeting, show that affiliate marketers in the U.S. might be able to capitalize on the ability to know more about consumers’ interests.
Marketers (especially affiliate marketers) are generally behind the idea of behavioral tracking. They know that targeting is the best way to achieve results in the marketing game.

So, you’re probably wondering, why does behavioral tracking matter to you as an affiliate marketer?
A more targeted ad = better results every time. As an affiliate, you know that the more you know about your customer, the more you can tailor your advertising, and products, to their needs.
And the good news is that, according to an article by Karlene Lukovitz in Marketing Daily, nearly a third of Americans are open to the idea of behavioral tracking, “as long as the data collected could not identify them as individuals.”
However, some consumer groups are concerned about how this data could be used, and by whom.

Yahoo is addressing the concerns of the other two-thirds of consumers by offering to give them control over how behavioral targeting is used in their Yahoo profile.
Called the Ad Interest Manager system, Yahoo will displays the content categories — such as financial, mail, or entertainment — associated with a user. This helps users understand how they’re profiled based on their searches and which pages they visit.
Yahoo has plans to release this new tool to European users in late 2009 or early 2010.
Stay tuned, wider acceptance of behavioral targeting might just lead to great opportunities for your affiliate marketing business.
One-Third May Be Open To Behavioral Tracking

Yahoo Opens Behavioral Ad Data Curtain