72 Kilowatts Affiliate Marketing

Shareasale raises the cost of entry… just enough

I’ve often been critical of this industry, and the lack of responsibility put on the networks for watching the bad actors, and contract breakers. When all of the onus gets put on the merchant to monitor everything all the time, it keeps the small business from being able to effectively launch and manage an affiliate program, given the responsibilities of watching restricted keywords 24/7 etc.

The price of all that adds up.

At the same time, I always thought Shareasale was undervalued, perhaps to their own detriment, as well as ours.

In announcing the new merchant set up increase, I think Brian Littleton and company have done us a favor. The new price won’t discourage serious merchants from applying, but may cut back a bit on the crap we see over there on occasion.

Kudos to SAS on a wise move.

Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing networks, new affiliate programs, shareasale

Hmmm. Silly Code

Having some issues with my page headers not actually paying attention to what page is being displayed. This will be a nice distraction today, trying to fix it.

Tags: wordpress

The Boston Affiliate Tea Party

It occurred to me this irony:  Affiliate Summit East is in Boston this summer.

In light of all of the talk of taxes, how curious that we would all be heading to the official Headquarters of “No Taxation without Representation” in just a few months.

Maybe we should dump photos of Spitzer, Patterson (and by then maybe Governor Arnold too) into Boston Harbor.  Then we could march through the streets, decrying unfair tax initiatives.

Then we could go get a beer.

Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate summit

Amazon to hold onto their Valuable New York Affiliates

An update was made to the recent New York Times article:

UPDATE
Amazon.com will not cut off New York affiliates, according to an e-mail from Patty Smith, a spokeswoman. She wrote:

Nothing is changing with regard to Amazon’s relationships with Affiliates in New York state. We expect to begin collecting sales tax (as the new legislation requires) no later than June 1, 2008.

This is a start. Amazon has the popularity and brand power to still be able to sell even with adding on the taxes. It’s less likely that smaller merchants with affiliate programs will be able to maintain a competitive edge after adding on the sales tax.

Tags: affiliate marketing, new york state internet and pay for performance tax

Who else is affected by the Nexus Syndrome?

Andy Beard quoted the NYTimes as saying that Overstock went beyond terminating the traditional affiliates in yesterday’s action. Instead, they ended nearly all (if not all) pay for perfromance relationships with firms listed with New York State addresses, including:

Jellyfish A comparison shopping engine. This is still traditional affiliate marketing in my opinion, but comparison shopping, to me, doesn’t represent a “sales force” in the classic sense, so it’s of note (considering that it had been determined by the courts previously that a Nexus only occured when a “sales force without which a company would not be able to market to a state’s residents)

NextJump Who apparently leverages affiliate relationships to provide employee benefits. Their homepage clearly indicates that they are headquartered in New York, and are in “stealth mode” until their IPO. Good luck with THAT ipo considering these circumstances.

And it broadens from there:

Remember those Entertainment coupon books you all are asked to buy around the office or door to door? Overstock withdrew their relationship with them as well, citing that it was a pay for performance relationship, and thereby under the auspices of the Nexus Syndrome.

So, multi level marketers? That means you too. So you can stop recruiting me on Facebook.

Tags: affiliate marketing, new york state internet and pay for performance tax

More on the New York Tax Initiative

I’ve been pondering solutions to this New York Tax law for the better part of a month, and I’m not finding a clear way out of it, short of Amazon winning it’s lawsuit.

What can happen:

New York wins, other states follow suit, and affiliate marketing suffers a serious blow. Since affiliates are the crux of the whole Tax nexus (initially), it’s likely that quite a few affiliate programs will fold.

Some will hold on though, based on how specifically the judgment in the case is written. Large retailers may not be affected at all, if it’s decided that affiliates aren’t the only means they have for attracting New York business.

Secondly, the law can then be expanded to affect advertising agencies, PPC engines, other forms of banner advertising on websites, etc. Seemingly, any third party that may influence a New York buyers decision to purchase may at some point be considered a Nexus. It’s a slippery slope.

What Can’t Happen:

Unfortunately, the problem cannot be solved by applying sales taxes on all internet purchases made by New Yorkers on out of state websites. That has already been deemed unconstitutional. No taxation without representation, right? It’s one of our founding principles.

What NEEDS to Happen

Amazon needs to clearly demonstrate that New York affiliates:

1.) Do not represent a significant portion of their marketing efforts to New Yorkers.

2.) Are not targetting New York customers, as a rule, to begin with.

Personally, I believe Amazon will be successful. I just hope it’s soon, before this ball starts rolling across the country, and affiliate programs start to close as a result.

Tags: affiliate marketing, new york state internet and pay for performance tax