AffiliateTip's Shawn Collins points out that David Hasselhoff is popular in Europe so he's cautious to suggest German-based zanox's new solution has got legs. The solution, dubbed zanox-Shop is a "shopping portal in a box" -- allowing affiliates to set up a slick looking store in little time.

Sound familiar? It should and isn't this rather 1.0 in a 2.0 world?

Specifically, many affiliates are struggling to survive in a changing world -- from affiliate networks changing link structures to Google and Yahoo Search continually weeding out "thin affiliates" (those providing little or no value in the eyes of search engines). Specifically, affiliates are being forced to provide some kind of tangible value in order to attract regular visitors (not just capture them in search engines and shuttle them on to advertisers). Many affiliates have evolved into areas such as shopping comparison to keep things "sticky."

Affiliates need solutions that can help them build value -- not so much those that help shuttle traffic. No doubt that the multi-million (if not billion globally) "domain industry" is thriving based on Google and Yahoo Search affiliates sending traffic from "parked" (not actively used) domains on to advertisers (a practice that is under fire by Ben Edleman among others). But is this the future? Likely not.

What is the future for affiliates? The answer seems clear: owning the customer relationship and playing an active role in providing value. In fact value should reside with the affiliate just as it resides with super affiliates FatWallet, FlamingoWorld and Smarter.com (sister site CouponMountain.com). Why do these affiliates (dare I call them businesses!?) have in common? They have advertisers by the hoo-haas because they have active relationships with customers.

Are stores that provide links pointed at advertisers the future for affiliates or are stores like those facilitated by Shopster.com that point inward -- at the affiliate -- the future?