Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 10 [26:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics - A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager  (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing.  From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!

Unfortunately this week we had a mic failure on Mike’s part, so even though I could hear him when we were recording the podcast on Skype, when listening back he was inaudible.  I tried amplifying it and leveling it and everything, but it was a lost cause.  So instead, we decided I’d give you a recap on what we talked about since they were all pretty important issues.  Basically, we’re taking a page from Shawn Collins’ book on podcast failures ;).  So the title refers both to all the changes going on with tax rules and disclosure regarding affiliates AND to the change Mike has to make to get the recording right next week!

The recap episode is a short and sweet 26 minutes on the dot since it includes a Jackson tribute at the end.

In this show, we discussed:

• A recap of Affiliate Convention.
• Amazon dropped North Carolina affiliates and sent a warning letter to Rhode Island affiliates.  Darren Rowse wrote about it on Problogger.
• The FTC is tightening it’s rules regarding disclosure, but it’s still ambiguous enough to leave affiliates questioning what this means for them.  Daniel M. Clark wrote an article on the FTC disclosure issue, as well as Brian Clark of Copyblogger’s wrote about how to turn disclosure into a selling point.
• Twitter servers took a hit yesterday when the news about Michael Jackson’s sudden death broke.  Are they ready to be a major search engine?
• Rumors swirled about other celebrity deaths - this doesn’t make Twitter look like a legitimate resource in the eyes of skeptics.
• Finally, Rest in Peace to Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, who both passed away yesterday.  We pay tribute to MJ and pontificated on whether or not we’d see affiliates attempting to capitalize on these events.  I see just now that Shawn Collins is thinking about this topic as well on his blog.

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The first ever Affiliate Convention took place last week at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO.  I came, I saw, I networked, I spoke, I left!  All of my pictures are up on Flickr and Facebook, and video is coming soon!  All in all, I’d say the conference was a success for both Paulson Management Group and for the event’s organizers.  PMG hosted a classy party downtown which turned out to be the only party without women in various states of undress!  We at PMG had a great time: Heather Paulson spoke on two panels, I spoke on a panel, and Tony Cohn and Clarissa Cutrell both moderated panels.  Overall it was a great time to be had.

Unfortunately, the only panels I was able to attend were the Super Affiliate Strategies panel and the Final Debate panel, both of which involved Heather speaking, so I was focused on taking lots of pictures and video and not taking notes to share here like I normally do.  But the plus side is that I’ll be sharing the video of some of Heather’s bits of knowledge soon.  The irony in this is that Affiliate Convention was definitely geared more towards the education of affiliates and less about trends in the industry.  With affiliates getting free entry, there was an overwhelming show that I’ve not seen at past Affiliate Summit’s I’ve attended.  Paulson Management Group was the only OPM in strong attendance, which was good for us that we stood out, but a little frustrating to explain 100 times that we weren’t a network of some kind (almost all of the other exhibitors were networks).

We avoided the opening night’s party being held at a gentleman’s club (in full operation), and instead spent the evening in Boulder, where PMG is based and Tony & I (both having flown out from California) were staying. The following day, the first day of Affiliate Convention offered a huge turn out of affiliates wandering the exhibit hall floor, which was a quite intimate setting with about 20-25 exhibitors divided between full booths and table tops.  We were always busy telling affiliates about the programs we manage that they’d be interested in, and it wasn’t just because we had plates of cookies!  We took turns in the booth, making sure we all got a chance to network, wander around to check out the conference, and took PLENTY of photos with various affiliates and other industry folks that stopped by to chat!

Later that night, as I mentioned before, PMG threw a great party at Alto Restaurant in the lower downtown (LoDo) area of Denver.  It was a fantastic venue that offered plenty of room for people to wander around and network.  Jazz filled the rooms at first, but once the in-house DJ showed up, we let him do his thing and the result was a strange yet awesome mix of newer hip hop, rock, and some 80’s songs thrown in.  We gave away a Flip Mino HD Video Camera to CPA network XY7 for all they did in helping Affiliate Convention happen.  Afterward we headed to the WebmasterRadio.fm Affiliate Bash just around the corner, where libations and good times were had.  The party had hired some wait staff ladies to be topless and painted with scenes of Colorado on their fronts and the logos of the sponsors on their backs.  It was definitely interesting to see the artists work freehand trying to recreate photos of scenery and the logos (and some men behaving questionably as the night wore on).

The second day was a bit slower in terms of the exhibit hall, but I know the session in which I was a speaker, Social Media Marketing, was standing room only!  I hear most of the other sessions were that way too.  Moderated by Dave Taylor, our panel featured myself, Wade Sisson of PartnerCentric, and David Snyder of Search & Social.  David trucked through despite a cold, and I forgot the last point I was going to make during the Q&A, but otherwise I think it was fantastic.  I heard some good feedback, and if you were there and have more feedback for me I’m all ears!  I’ve spoken before at the Social Media Marketing Summit back in October, but this was definitely more of an industry conference, so I was a tiny bit more nervous.  But it was excellent practice for my upcomming panel at Affiliate Summit East 2009 in August!

Heather spoke on the final panel, which was billed as a debate but ended up more like an “Ask the Experts” panel, which was cool too.  I busted out my Flip and took some video of her nuggets of information, which I’ll share soon.  After the event was done, some people headed over to a final party, but thanks to Dina and MarketLeverage, Tony and I headed over to Coors Field to check out a Colorado Rockies game!  So, yeah big thanks while I’m at it to MarketLeverage for being awesome and getting a sky box that had tons of food, a great view, and awesome company.  Another quick shout out to Tony & my new network BFF’s NDemand Affliates’ Mike & Robert for the ride back to Boulder and good times.

Saturday our team decided to sleep in and skip the Webmaster Pub Social and have a team BBQ.  Tony did a great job corralling the fire and the chicken drumsticks were awesome.  The flight home was uneventful and I’m glad to be back at sea level and ready to hit the ground running with all the new stuff I picked up from attending!

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As forewarned, the “affiliate nexus” language has been added to the state’s budget in an effort to generate more revenue for California.  So, we need support again!  LinkShare sent out a letter to all affiliates on behalf of the PMA, and Commission Junction sent out one of their own.  In part, the PMA email read:

You may remember the grass-roots campaign we waged in April, to defeat an anti-affiliate tax bill that would have a detrimental effect on affiliate programs. Even though we defeated that bill, it has been revived, in a desperate hope to help California’s budget crisis. The bill was originally defeated thanks to the affiliate community in California, who was responsible for convincing the sponsoring committee that this bill was a bad idea. Now it is time to repeat that stellar effort, because we have a few more people to convince.

So we need your assistance again!  Below is a list of important California officials that need to hear from you that this is a BAD idea!  Also below is the copy you can feel free to paste into the email you send to them!  Some folks are going back to Sacramento today to do what they can, and unfortunately I won’t be able to join them this time.  So I sent emails.  I checked these against the website and they all seem accurate even though several of mine bounced back, so I’m also including a link to their website’s contact form.  Note, however, that some won’t accept correspondence from an address outside their district, which I think is complete fail of the system, but that’s just me.

• Senator Lois Wolk - Senator.Wolk@senate.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Senator Darrell Steinberg - senator.steinberg@sen.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Senator Elaine Alquist - senator.alquist@sen.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Senator Roderick Wright - Senator.Wright@senate.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Senator Ronald Calderon - senator.calderon@sen.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod - senator.mcleod@sen.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Senator Lou Correa - senator.correa@sen.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Senator Denise Ducheny - Senator.Ducheny@senate.ca.gov - Contact Form
• Jennifer Kent (Gov. Schwarzenegger’s tax adviser; please address as “Ms. Kent”) - Jennifer.Kent@gov.ca.gov

Here is the email copy you can paste into the email.  Remember to edit the parts I’ve italicized in red below.  Commission Junction’s template can be found here.

Subject: OPPOSITION to Sales/Use Tax Nexus Bill (AB 178 Skinner)

Dear Senator [Insert Last Name]

I am a small business owner with a website, and I am in strong opposition to Sales/Use Tax Nexus Bill (AB 178 Skinner), which would require retailers that receive referrals from advertising on websites, such as mine, to collect sales tax in California.

I am opposed to this bill because it would substantially harm my small business by reducing a large source of revenue that I depend on to survive. This revenue results from providing advertising on my website on behalf of out-of-state retailers. [Describe briefly how your business model is set-up and what you contribute to the local economy.]

If retailers believe that doing business with me will result in their having to collect sales tax on all California sales, they likely will sever ties with my business, putting the viability of my business at risk. Such was the case in New York State where Overstock dismantled its affiliates program and hundreds of other business followed Overstock’s example. This left thousands of small and medium-sized affiliate businesses with a 50% loss of income.

Unfortunately, this bill is futile. If enacted, retailers will drop me as a partner, California won’t collect sales tax as a result - and my business will be devastated in the process.

For these reasons, I respectfully oppose this legislation.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Please be sure to spread the word to your fellow affiliates potentially affected by this bill!

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