URGENT! California AB178 is BACK!
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!
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 9: Meetings, Skype, and Pure Vanity
Podcast: Play in new window | 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!
Okay, I got caught up on Friday with lots of work, so I didn’t get this episode edited until this weekend so we talk a lot about dated stuff, unfortunately. But never fear – there’s plenty of good stuff that we cover in our sweet, sweet 30 minutes of podcast.
- We chat about the Bay Area Affiliate Managers Coalition meeting held at eBay.
- The countdown excitement to getting vanity URLs for our Facebook profiles, and the nice aspect of having unique names.
- The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s video featuring Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com.
- Affiliate conferences coming up, including my excitement about traveling to Denver for the first time and a long foodie aside on bagels and pizza in the now SOLD OUT (exhibitors and meet market tables) Affiliate Summit in NYC.
- Using Skype for business calls, podcasts, and actually paying for a subscription.
- Finally a big shout out to custom bumper stickers giant John Fischer of Sticker Giant for helping us out for our upcoming Getting Noticed FAST panel in August.
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 8: Twitter Obsession and Some Real Tools
Podcast: Play in new window | 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!
Another two weeks has passed and we’re back. We started with a good sized agenda and elaborated into areas we didn’t expect. Despite trying to keep it short since Mike’s not feeling well, we still ran a hearty 45 minutes. Remember to drink your fluids, kids! In in this episode we discuss:
- Twitter Job Search?
- Twitter TV Show?! Twitter says not so fast.
- Blink 182 Tweet Deck
- Whatever happened to WeFollow?
- Server issues Mike’s having with GoDaddy Shared Server Hosting. Might try Host Gator, BlueHost, HostMonster, JustHost. Not ready for dedicated servers like Rackspace.
- Update on DataFeedR data feed plug-in Mike’s using
- Blogger LinkUp Update
Cribbed Content for May 22nd
It’s been a slow week for news coming across my desk. Then again, it’s been a slow week for me in general. We’re doing Affiliate Marketing Fanatics about every other week now when news is slow. Hopefully with the upcoming LinkShare Symposium in New York, Affiliate Convention in Denver, and a smattering of other events we should have more to talk about soon! In the meantime, check this stuff out.
- Geno Prussakov posted some pretty great articles on his blog this week, 7 Common Problems with Affiliate Data Feeds and Common Mistakes of New Affiliate Program Managers. I have to give Geno kudos for some great articles!
- Andy Beard wrote an insightful entry on his blog about his Product Launch Affiliate Strategy, and what checklist he uses to determine if he’ll support a new affiliate launch or not. It’s definitely a good read for any affiliate starting out, and any merchant who wants to optimize their launches to make them attractive to affiliates.
- FeedFront Magazine has issued a call for entries for their 7th issue, which will also serve as the conference guide for Affiliate Summit East 2009 in NYC, at which I’ll be speaking!
- Speaking of Affiliate Summit East 2009, they’re all sold out of booths! You snooze, you lose!
- More interesting posts about whether or not you should disclose affiliate links with Shawn Collins’ Affiliate Link Disclosure Manifesto. Good stuff.
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics #7: Tweeting, Speaking, & Blogging
Podcast: Play in new window | 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!
We’re back after a fortnight away! We don’t do it on purpose, it just happens that way, we swear! We’re back in the swing of things this week with a relatively short show for us clocking it at an even 30 minutes and 30 seconds! This week we delve into our favorite topic of Twitter… I think we might as well just rename this the TwitterCast! Specifically we discussed:
- Twitter monkeying around with the @replies and the #fixreplies fiasco that ensued.
- Commission Junction has finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, and we ponder why larger companies take so long to make the social media move.
- We excitedly ham it up about the fact that we’ll be speaking on a panel at Affiliate Summit East 2009, and another show I’ll be at next month.
- Mike’s discovered a HARO-like service specifically for bloggers called Blogger LinkUp run by Cathy Stucker and we talk about the two.
- Finally we give some well deserved shout outs to our fellow ASE09 panelists Jen Goode, Stephanie Lichtenstein, and our fabulous moderator Lisa Picarille.
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics #6: ad:tech, Cafepress, and Hootsuite
Podcast: Play in new window | 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!
We’re back after two weeks away. Here’s a rundown of what we ramble about this time around. In in this episode we discuss:
- Trisha is the newest member of Paulson Management Group.
- TweetDeck, Seesmic Desktop, Digsby, and Hootsuite.
- ad:tech San Francisco Recap.
- The enormity of the Affiliate Summit Beer Garden.
- Cafepress changing pricing structure to standardize pricing.
- CA tax development.
- Shout outs: Shawn Collins, Lisa Picarille, Todd Farmer, Angie Seaman, Brian Caldwell, Teresa Caldwell
