Sometimes you just need to change the rules to stay on message. So when a panel of affiliate marketing experts and consultants convened Tuesday to discuss their industry and how it can evolve and mesh with Web 2.0 ideas, we had to know more.

Joy Culbertson, a member of our production team, was on hand at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco to give us the play-by-play on this one. Her friend Lisa Picarille of Revenue magazine was moderating the panel, which included Stephanie Agresta (Affiliate Karma), Cam Balzer (DoubleClick Performics), Sam Harrelson (Sam Harrelson Consulting), and Jeremy Wright (b5media).

Affiliate marketing is a business model based on earning revenue by driving traffic to Web sites. The industry is comprised of publications, networks, and online marketers. What follows is Culbertson's report: