Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, an affiliate marketer since 1997, co-founder of Affiliate Summit and author of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.

Thanks for visiting the Affiliate Tip blog. Subscribe to my RSS feed or enter your e-mail on the top left to get updates by e-mail.The advertising tax issue was discussed this afternoon on Fox Business. Shibani Joshi talked about Amazon.com’s war against the various state plans to institute Internet advertising taxes.
The segment was just a [...]

This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about the legacy of a brand after a person passes away.
I was thinking about the impressions left behind for each of the icons that passed away in the past week: Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, and Ed McMahon.

Here is a quick rundown of what I think [...]

There are three groups of people that have emerged since the announcement of the death of Michael Jackson yesterday: devastated fans, haters, and marketers.
Well, if we drew up a Venn diagram, most marketers probably also belong to one of the first two camps, too.
Anyhow, it didn’t take long for fans to express their despair with [...]

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that the FTC plans to monitor blogs for disclosure.
The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as [...]

Q: From your experience, what is the best platform for an affiliate marketing website, in terms of faster, natural search engine rankings, landing pages, etc.?

Traditional silo structured website with a multi-level navigation bar
WordPress blog with an SEO plugin by itself
WordPress blog with an SEO plugin installed in a sub-folder of a traditional silo structured website

A: [...]

This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about the lack of consistency by companies when employees write out the company name.
I see this every time I check company names for Affiliate Summit, where companies with multiple employees seem to have just as many ways to spell the name of the company.
Here are some variations [...]

There was a kerfuffle a few months back about the use of affiliate links in Twitter. Scott Jangro posted about his foray into Twitter affiliate links and the accompanying self-loathing at the time with Damn Marketers. Affiliate Links in Twitter.
That was the latest in an ongoing war on the Interwebs about affiliate link disclosure.
The debate [...]

I started using direct mail for affiliate recruitment and retention back in 2000, and experienced really nice ROI consistently.
So, I’ve always been curious why more affiliate marketers aren’t sending mail.
The email is excessive and essentially useless. I don’t open 90% of affiliate program and network solicitations in email based solely on the subjects. And that’s [...]

I’ve been considering a return to living in Maryland, after 15 years or so in New Jersey, but the current affiliate tax legislation, SB 1071, is giving me cause for concern.
In addition to my brother living in Maryland, as well as many friends from high school and college, I have a growing frustration with living [...]

I visit Digg.com several times a week and Digg various Technology and News & Business stories there. On rare occasions, I’ll submit a story from my domain or third party items. But when I tried today, I was labeled a spammer.
I wanted to share what I considered an important story, Maryland Affiliates – Fight Senate [...]