5 Star Affiliate Marketing Blogs

Wade just pinged me and asked me to share info with you guys about the CAMA Cruise (Christian Affiliate Marketing Association) at Affiliate Summit in Boston.

“Join the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association for an awesome fellowship and networking event and kick off Affiliate Summit East in style on the CAMA Cruise.” More info and register here.

New York Tax Q & A is up! We’ve been working with the State of New York to get clarification on the many gray areas of the May 8 TBS. we’ve been working through Jim Connolly, Staff Attorney in the Office of Counsel to the Tax Department of the State of New York. Jim and some other representatives promised they would post a Q & A regarding the many questions we’ve asked over the past month or so. Jim, just let Cecily know some of the answers have been posted.

None of the important (tough) questions I’ve been asking were answered in this round. I knew the answers to most of the Qs below from previous discussions with Jim. However there may be lots of people who still aren’t clear and this answers one of the questions about networks that I kept hearing people ask about. I’ll attempt to define what the question pertains to (in bold) then link to the Q & A for each.

What merchants are required to collect and pay NY sales Tax?
Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2008 included amendments to the Tax Law that revised the definition of vendor for New York State and local sales tax purposes. The legislation amended section 1101(b)(8) of the Tax Law to provide that sellers of…

Are NY affiliates responsible for collecting/reporting any sales tax?
Assume an Internet based retailer (seller) is presumed to be a sales tax vendor under section 1101(b)(8)(iv) of the Tax Law because the seller has entered into agreements with resident representatives, under which the resident representative…

Are there any reporting requirements for affiliate networks that work on the merchant’s behalf? What if the network has nexus in NY?
Assume the same facts as in FAQ #2422 except that, rather than directly entering into agreements with New York residents, the seller enters into an agreement with an affiliate network

Do networks need to report or substantiate the resident status of any affiliates recruited by the affiliate network?
An affiliate network service provider enters into an agreement with an online merchant. The agreement provides that the affiliate network service provider will recruit New York State resident representatives to solicit taxable sales on beh

How to register to pay tax to the State of NY
How do businesses, including sellers who are presumed to be vendors under Section 1101(b)(8)(iv) of the Tax Law, register for sales tax purposes?

Is the sale of data (like email addresses) taxable in New York?
Heads up to Lead Gen - Pay Per Lead affiliate programs
Is the sale of data or information delivered to customers in New York State, e.g., lists of e-mail addresses and customer contact information, subject to sales tax?

So again the questions in bold are my descriptions in affiliate terms - ONLY for the sake of classifying the questions and helping people get to the specific info they may need. It’s ALL subject to interpretation though, so carefully read and seek legal counsel if needed.

As I said, these aren’t answers to the important (hard) questions I wanted answers to, but it’s a start! I assume they are tackling some of the easier questions that have rather obvious answers 1st. However I’m hopeful more Q&A will be added and there is an option for you to ask your own questions for consideration as well.

Thanks go out to:
- Jim Connolly for listening and helping us get some clarification
- The State of New York for providing answers
- Cecily Lancit, our point person who is in direct contact with Jim

Reminder: Today’s special guest on the Affiliate Marketing Insider show will be Chris Henger, Group Product Manager at the new Google Affiliate Network.

“Chris and show host Linda Woods, will discuss what it means for the industry now that Google is in our midst, what’s new for the platform, plans they may be rolling out and Chris’ new role there.”

Catch the show at WebmasterRadio Thursday at Noon Pacific | 3 p.m. Eastern.

Last night I was checking my Google alerts for a term I regularly scan. I saw a familiar headline from one of my blog posts and my name.

Cool! Google picked up a story I broke and featured it in Google News Alerts.

NOPE! It was that new scraper stealing my content again. I caught him a few days ago and sent a remove content - copyright violation email, to no avail.

When I spend time writing and breaking a big story before anyone even knows about it and some scraper gets the glory in Google news because he ripped my title and content without even linking back so someone can read the full article, I get a little ticked!

If you have a site or blog that’s reached any level of critical mass, then you no doubt have problems with scrapers too. I typically just ignore them if they are linking back and not affecting my rankings. But when they start stealing your rankings and traffic so they can make a few extra Adsense pennies, it may be time to fight back.

As I researched the different options about how to handle this, I found a great post over at ProBlogger about how to deal with scrapers. Fighting Scrapers With Your Left Jab. The article includes info about a WordPress plugin, called RSS Footer that automates the process of adding a link in your RSS feed that points to the original source of your post. It also offers detailed instructions about how to: Report Scrapers To AdSense, Report Scrapers To Google and Report Scrapers To Their Web Hosting Service.

As many of you know, I’ve been working with a small group of people on the NY tax issue and we are in direct contact with Jim Connolly, Staff Attorney in the Office of Counsel to the Tax Department of the State of New York trying to get clarification on the many gray areas of the May 8 TBS and trying to help them understand how this affects affiliates and merchants. Cecily Lancit President of Affiliopolis.com is our point person who is in direct contact with Jim.

NEW YORK MERCHANTS - IMPORTANT. Especially for the merchants that kept your NY affiliates and amended your TOS. Changing your TOS is NOT enough to avoid nexus. Read on! (more…)

This week’s special guest on the Affiliate Marketing Insider show will be Chris Henger, Group Product Manager at the new Google Affiliate Network.

“Chris and show host Linda Woods, will discuss what it means for the industry now that Google is in our midst, what’s new for the platform, plans they may be rolling out and Chris’ new role there.”

If by chance you missed the news about DoubleClick Performics becoming the Google Affiliate Network, here’s my post from yesterday which includes links to many of the leading affiliate blogs that covered the story.

Catch the show at WebmasterRadio Thursday at Noon Pacific | 3 p.m. Eastern.

Major announcement! DoubleClick Performics after being acquired by Google has evolved into a new brand and is now the Google Affiliate Network.

From Chris Henger - Group Product Manager - Google Affiliate Network
“We are pleased to introduce Google Affiliate Network . Effective Monday, June 30, 2008, DoubleClick Performics Affiliate will operate as Google Affiliate Network. The integration with Google’s brand is a reflection of efforts to quickly assimilate our business and teams, as well as reinforce Google’s commitment to the Affiliate channel. Together with our new colleagues at Google we are creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion and innovation in Affiliate Marketing.”
More details can be found at the Performics Blog

I think this is great news for our industry and will help get affiliate marketing more into the mainstream. I’ve watched DoubleClick Performics grow by leaps and bounds over the past year and knew the Google acquisition would really expand their network. With this announcement they should grow even faster and stronger. It’s going to create increased competition for the other networks. Competition can be good and is often a catalyst for positive change!

CONGRATS to Chris, Kristen and the rest of the DoubleClick Performics team. I’m sure this is a very exciting day for all of you!

One of the reasons I’m personally excited, is that the Google Affiliate Network is going to be a Premiere Featured 5 Star Affiliate Program.

DoubleClick Performics was supposed to join 5 Star Affiliate Programs in April but everything was put on hold, due to the Google acquisition. So now I know what they were waiting for. I will make an official announcement once I get the new creative and we are ready to launch.

Here are all the details about the Google Affiliate Network. If by chance you never joined the DoubleClick Performics network, I’d encourage you to get started with the new network today!

Other industry blogs referencing the news:
TechCrunch
AffiliateTip
Revenews
Pepperjam Blog
Jangro Blog

UPDATE: 7/1 10AM - Curious to find out what impact the GAN will have on our industry and what changes are coming? TUNE IN! Google Affiliate Network’s Chris Henger on Webmaster Radio this Thursday

We’ve renamed our DoubleClick Performics forum so if you want to discuss the GAN come to the new Google Affiliate Network Forum

Shawn just announced that the Blue Man Group is kicking off Affiliate Summit East 2008 with a small show before the keynote address on Monday, August 11. Now I really wish I was going to the show.

I blogged in December that my friend Karen White from Partner Fusion was launching the Blue Man Group affiliate program. Then at Affiliate Summit West affiliates were treated to an exclusive performance by Blue Man Group to celebrate the launch of their Affiliate Program at WebmasterRadio.FM’s AffiliateBash. Below is the promo video for the Affiliate Bash with some great Blue Man clips. See anyone you know??? (more…)

OK, I’m going to admit it, I’ve hit a wall. I’ve tried SO hard over the past couple months to keep up with my business and blogging no matter what - but when devastating health issues come up with your family, it’s really hard to keep all your balls in the air. Some of you know, my 2 year old grand daughter is having some serious health issues. (edited to remove details)

On days like today it’s just hard to focus on blogging. So I’ll just take the easy way out and recap some of the posts I’ve discovered at the BUZZ this week that I think bring up interesting industry news or good points and tips. (There should be a blogging mantra - when you hit a wall and all else fails, just link out.)

Ask Kirsty - How To Improve Traffic & Conversions On My Affiliate Site?

Lost? Check Out My Map To The Affiliate Maze!

FTC Approves New Rule Provisions Under CAN-SPAM Act “The FTC has set forth new rules that could have a significant impact on email practices for affiliate marketers.”

Using .htaccess to Hide Affiliate Links

Using PHP to Redirect Affiliate Links… MORE>

How do you fight duplicate content problem?

Once again I can’t make Affiliate Summit East this year due to health issues. One of my clients, Advaliant, invited me to go on their pre-show fishing cruise and out to dinner afterwards. When I told them I could not make it, they generously said “lets have a contest and let one of your 5 Star Affiliates win your seat!” So here ya go! WIN MY SEAT!!!

Here’s a cornucopia of great stats for affiliates, niche marketers & PPC affiliates.

Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: May 2008

1. ProFlowers 35.70%
2. Office Depot 31.40%
3. Blair.com 23.80% More…

I haven’t been to the SearchengineWatch stats and ratings section for awhile. Some pretty interesting data for affiliates to take a look at.

Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories, May 2008

Average Search CPC Data by Category for May 2008

(more…)

To Inc. or not to Inc. that is the question I often see affiliates asking at the 5 Star Forum as well as other affiliate marketing communities. Jonathan Volk had a great post last week I wanted to share with 5 Star readers.

Best Corporate Structure for Affiliates - “So you’ve decided to become an affiliate or perhaps you’ve been an affiliate for a while and now things are taking off and want to know the who, what, where, when, and how of incorporation. Please note that most of the information here applies only to USA Affiliates.”

Please don’t start an affiliate program IF your site is brand new and especially IF the product or business model is new.

It’s not fair for affiliates to be your guinea pigs, since they are paid on straight commission and won’t make a dime if your site is not optimized for conversions. Affiliates can’t help your ailing sales either if conversions are sub par, because the responsibility of closing sales is on you.

I do free phone consultations for merchants all the time. 99.99% of the merchants I talk to don’t qualify to be 5 Star programs and many are interested in management which I no longer do, so I end up just giving free advice, which is fine because I like helping people.

One of the common calls I get is from retailers saying “we are almost ready to launch our site so want to get an affiliate program started right away.”

I tell them not to even think about starting an affiliate program at this stage. They ALWAYS object and say how great the new site will be or how hot the product is and insist they are ready to start an affiliate program immediately. Below, I’ll try to share some of the advice I give in this type of situation. (By phone it works like a charm, however I’m sure I’ll lose a lot in translation to the written word.) (more…)

The pros know this already, but I thought this may be a good post for fairly new affiliates who may be reading up and trying to learn this game on a hot Sunday afternoon. (BTW Tomorrow when more of the merchants are online I have a great post about why retailers should not start an affiliate program on a new site until they’ve done conversion testing and optimization and tell them how to do it by becoming their own pseudo-affiliate. This makes the merchant the guinea pig instead of affiliates and is a really smart way to do it.)

So for newer affiliates - today there was a post over at Jonathan Volk’s blog by Dave Martinez, ” 7 Things to Consider in an Affiliate Program“. He makes some good general points about things to evaluate before joining affiliate programs. (more…)

I’ve been debating whether to blog the stuff that came up last week at the Internet Retailer Conference IRCE 2008. A record breaking 5,000 people in the eCommerce space attended, including some of the biggest eTailers out there. A large majority of these companies have affiliate programs.

Around 400 merchants attended a session that was essentially “a 90 minute rant about what scum-bags affiliates are.” (HIS words, not mine. See more choice quotes from the IRCE below) I haven’t seen any other AM blogs talk about this and almost decided not to share any more negativity. But sometimes we need to talk about these things if we ever hope to influence change and clean up our industry. (more…)

Was talking with Kevin Webster about a blog post he just wrote. OPM (Outsourced Program Manager) and AM (Affiliate Manager) ethics is not a subject I see blogged about very often. However considering the large amount of private information OPMs and AMs have access to, that is vital to an affiliate’s survival, I think it’s a really important topic to bring up.

Kevin does a great job addressing some of the concerns I have and that many affiliates raise, regarding the private information that OPMs and managers have about them and their business models. He is now an affiliate, but was previously an OPM, so he can see both sides of the issue. (more…)

Recently I’ve been reading about Harrison Gevirtz, a 15 year old super affiliate that has his own media company and has a goal of becoming a millionaire this year. Harrison owns CPA Share and blitzlocal.com. I don’t know Harrison and have never spoken to him, just know that stories of super young affiliates are inspirational to many aspiring affiliates, so thought I’d share.

In researching his story, I discovered today is Harrison’s 16th birthday, so I decided I’d save this blog entry and post it on his birthday. Below is a video interview from MediaTrust and a blog interview with Harrison from Pepperjam. (more…)

I scan Affiliate Marketing BUZZ several times a day and that’s where I find most of the news that interests me. I’m starting to use it now more than my feedreaders and other sources of information.

So I thought I would just recap some of the posts I’ve discovered at the BUZZ over the last few days, that I think bring up interesting industry news or great points and tips. So here’s the buzz from the BUZZ in no particular order. (more…)

JupiterResearch just publicized a study they did that predicts affiliate marketing “spending” will hit $2.1 billion this year and grow to $3.3 billion in 2012. The PR says: “In 2008, online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees.” That’s not sales, that’s “affiliate marketing fees” so I guess they are saying 3.3 billion in commission will be paid out? Curious to know how they come up with that number and wonder how much that equates to in retail sales volume?

JupiterResearch Finds That Online Affiliate Marketing Spending Will Continue to Grow, Reaching $3.3 Billion in 2012

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that affiliate marketing continues to play a key role in online marketers’ ability to reach and acquire customers. In 2008, online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees, with US online affiliate marketing spending reaching $3.3 billion in 2012, as indicated in a new report US Online Affiliate Marketing Forecast, 2007-2012, published by JupiterResearch. More…

The report is available here for $750.00
US Online Affiliate Marketing Forecast, 2007 to 2012

the Performance Marketing Alliance, the new affiliate marketing association that is in the formation stages, has put out a call for working groups. The working groups will develop the formation proposals that the FAB will ratify. The working groups are extremely important in this process because they will provide a broad perspective on each area, as well as recommendations for the FAB to consider. Strong leadership in each of these working groups is extremely important, so we’re looking to you for your involvement.

Get involved and help shape this organization! Affiliates who want to make a positive difference in our industry are encouraged to apply. Here are the working groups being formed:

Initial scope and objectives of the PMA Below (more…)