Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Last fall, Melissa Salas of the Buy.com Affiliate Team and BuyTV started getting some TV time with her show being broadcast in markets around southern California.
Well, I just found out [...]

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There is an article in the May 2008 issue of AVN Online, “Misbehaving Affiliates,” about the risks of working with affiliates in the adult space.
I think it can be instructive to track the issues for adult affiliate program, as many of their issues are also going on in the mainstream, and others will likely make [...]

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Kevin Webster of the 72 Kilowatts blog started a post on ABestWeb, “Merchants who ALREADY collect New York Sales Tax.”
“In an effort to clearly identify who NY based affiliates can feel safe in working with during this rocky time, I’d like to open this thread to be posted in by merchants who ALREADY collect New [...]

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The May 21, 2008 episode of Affiliate Thing kicked off with a discussion on Overstock kicking out all of their New York affiliates.
I’ve got to wonder if this will be something of a “grubby little affiliate” incident for Overstock - something that mobilizes affiliate sentiment against Overstock for a long while.
Lisa Picarille and I also [...]

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I just wanted to provide a quick recap for the ongoing saga in the state of New York regarding the affiliate tax, which kicks in June 1, 2008.
Back in November 2007, then Governor Spitzer tried instituting the plan to tax all online transactions for companies that had no physical presence in New York.
The premise was [...]

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This week on the GeekCast, Jim Kukral, Lisa Picarille, Sam Harrelson and myself talked about Overstock.com and the upcoming affiliate tax in New York.
The show featured helpings of criticism and suggestions for Overstock.com in the wake of their move to boot NY affiliates and potentially alienate many more affiliates.
We all seemed to agree that [...]

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One of the recurring concerns I see from affiliates (and have myself) is that tracking isn’t working properly when I am sending traffic through affiliate links.
Sometimes technology breaks, and there isn’t anything an affiliate manager can do about that. But the way they react tells me whether they run a top flight affiliate program.
So it [...]

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This episode of GeekCast, which was recorded last week and hidden in the vault a while, is the self-described worst GeekCast ever.
Early on, it seemed like it was doomed, and I bailed from the call.
But I made the ill-fated decision to return to the podcast mid-show, so I must share part of the shame.
Listen at [...]

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I saw on the Small Business Blog earlier today that LinkShare sent a message inviting affiliates to a teleconference on the New York State sales tax change and affiliate marketing.
LinkShare reports that they have been actively working with, and providing support to, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to clarify this law.
LinkShare has joined up [...]

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We are nearing the date (June 1, 2008) when the state of New York will start charging taxes for online transactions for companies that have no physical presence in the state.
As I reported last week, Overstock dropped their New York affiliates to avoid their customers having to pay the tax.
That move threw affiliate marketers into [...]

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