CJU Course: It’s a TAXing Debate: Don’t Cut Me Off
So many states have implemented affiliate nexus tax laws. What does this mean to you as a publisher? What does this mean to you if you are an advertiser who does not have a store in the state? Come listen to our panel to hear how others are managing the challenge. The panel consisted of:
- Jennifer Lovette, Vice President, Client Development, CJ (Moderator)
- Rebecca Madigan, Executive Director, Performance Marketing Association
This was a very informative discussion, even for someone like me who tries to keep abreast of what’s going on in an effort to help however I can. I should note that since CJ (since this info is about a month stale) that the Governor of CA has signed the deal with Amazon and many merchants have welcomed CA affiliates back into their programs.
Personally, I only accepted a few that I really liked before and declined the pushed offers from the others as I already did my link removal on my sites, but I’m the lowest level of affiliate in terms of how much I personally make, so it’s the bigger affiliates who can really make a difference in leveraging their income figures in this fight!
Bullet Point Review!
- Do we want to fight this on a state by state level or on a national level.
- Publishers aren’t mad at the advertisers, they’re mad at the legislature.
- On average affiliates lose 25-45% of their revenue, the state loses income tax revenue, and never collect the sales tax.
- There are a lot of names, which are confusing, but we’ve chosen affiliate nexus law as a general catchall phrase.
- Quill Corp v. North Dakota: advertising does not constitute physical presence or nexus. It became a constitutional issue.
- Passed: California, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Illinois, Connecticut, Arkansas.
- Big box retailers banded together this year to support this tax to try to get Amazon to pay tax. Rumor is they spent 11 million.
- The PMA surveyed California affiliates after the budget bill was signed here:
- 32% are moving out of state or plan to.
- 20% decided to shut down their affiliate marketing efforts altogether
- 35% of lost over half their income when the law passed.
- Amazon & CA have come to an agreement that will eliminate this tax for 1 year – we need to look at it more long term.
- They want to get a federal sales tax solution in place by July 2012. If they’re not successful, the law gets reinstated September 15, 2012.
- Streamline Sales Tax Project. 24 states have agreed to this. Main street fairness act needs to pass to allow SSTP. The chance of this happening isn’t very high.
- Amazon just cut a deal with the state that benefits their own business, so now all these other advertisers who haven’t been involved in the fight or the opposition will be forced to collect tax. Now is the time to fight for yourself & promote the federal solution.
- Board of directors of the PMA are new and still determining whether to fight nationally or state level.
- What can you do?
- Think before you act.
- Make Your Case
- Simplify actions
- Measure twice, cut once. Advertisers need to make sure you’re doing what’s best for your business before making a knee jerk decision to cut affiliates. Talk to a lawyer if you have to.
- There are ways to work together, identify your threshold of risk.
- Taxes will always exist, think long term when making decisions that are going to affect your business.
- No matter what side you’re on, WE can make a difference
- Things change quickly so don’t give up!
If you were an attendee of CJU and registered for their (awesome!) CJUniverse network, you can download a PDF of Jennifer’s slides here.
Read MoreCJU Course: I Wish I Had Known… #CJU2011
We’ve all had experience with 20/20 hindsight. Here’s your chance to stop looking back and start looking forward. Learn from veteran advertisers, agencies, and publishers about the most important things they wish they had known when starting out in the affiliate marketing industry. Join us to find out how to avoid marketing pitfalls in this informative session for all levels of attendees. The panel consisted of:
- Isabelle Meyer Stapf, Sr. Director, Advertiser Development West at Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Carolyn Kmet of Groupon, Phil Ayers of Hotels.com, Brook Schaaf of Schaaf-PartnerCentric, Jennifer Nissenberg of Upromise, and Mike Allen of Shopping-Bargains.com
This was a great session to kick off the conference. I always appreciate when industry veterans share what they’ve learned along their affiliate marketing careers for newbies. I think I can say I’m not a newbie anymore having been in affiliate marketing since late 2006 myself, but I still learn something new when I go to sessions like this.
Bullet Point Review!
- Do what you want, not what people expect you to do.
- You can’t always recreate success at one company with another company in the same niche.
- Mike had enough sense to get outside help, but not enough sense to evaluate that help. Don’t trust a salesperson off the bat, but do your homework and due diligence to read the fine print & make sure it’s best for you.
- Affiliate programs take time, it’s not a get rich quick.
- You can’t expect to build a business overnight, affiliate marketing isn’t a one trick pony.
- Have realistic expectations.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, diversify your portfolio & traffic strategies.
- New customer acquisition isn’t the end all be all, affiliates bring more than new customers. Don’t ignore the value of repeat consumers.
- Mike would have had a better plan and been more focused on the plan. It ended up working because of persistence. Don’t ever give up.
- Really get to know who you’re working with and their business models and what’s important to them in what they want out of the relationship.
- Play the newbie card & don’t be afraid to ask for help.
- This industry is so vibrant & fun, and people are so personable and approachable and willing to share knowledge. Never be intimidated by someone just because what their brand is, they’re just a person.
- Spend more time on the things that are actually going to drive the business. Invest the time in things that are really going to grow things, not day to day stuff, delegate.
- Everyone is an expert at or passionate about some thing. Find that thing and put that energy behind the business and focus on that.
- Work on developing your relationships with your partners. It’s not just important from a business perspective but from a personal perspective & having a personal relationship goes a long way, and you’re more top of mind.
- Respect the value of your own time. Distraction is easy, so be focused but do indulge those distractions and see a pattern in your own life and really decide what you put your time into.
- If you have the inclination, you can figure something out. Anyone can find a solution. Don’t bang your head against a wall; try a different path to get there. Try a different road.
- Don’t get attracted to all the shiny marketing objects. They’re usually not a long term sustainable strategy.
- Come up with a different twist to something, don’t just try to go do what someone else is doing successfully.
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 45: Interviewing Lucas Brown
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit West 2011, coming up in just a month at the Wynn in Las Vegas. This time, we talk to Lucas Brown about his origins in affiliate marketing & his panel “Identifying Scam Networks”. Lucas tells us about his software-as-a-service product, HasOffers.com, as well. In in this episode we discuss:
- Lucas’ panel with his fellow speakers: Kim Riedell (VP Client Development, Commission Junction), Rebecca Madigan (Executive Director, Performance Marketing Association), & Hersh Sandhoo (CEO, HealthConverter.com).
- Lucas’ origins in affiliate marketing and the high costs that used to exist to get started.
- The HasOffers.com Offer Exchange and what it’s doing to lower the barrier of entry for people to get started as merchants.
- The possibility of a future certification or vetting system for networks within the industry.
Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!
Special thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Affiliate Marketing Fanatics.
Read MoreCJU Course: Feed Me: Why a Product Catalog is Just the Beginning
A product catalog feed for the affiliate channel is critical to the financial success of any advertiser’s program, but that’s really just the beginning. We’ll show you why a product feed is important and what a good, optimized feed should look like. Now for the best part: you’ll learn how to take that feed and expand its use across a variety of other channels. This session took place September 22, 2010. The panel consisted of:
- Ashley Parducci, Product Manager, Commission Junction
- Jim Harriman, Technical Lead, Commission Junction
Bullet Point Review!
- 40% of CJ advertisers submit feeds. Out of the 40%, half update the feed daily. 33% have not updated in at least a month, 17% haven’t updated this year. So only 20% submitting feeds on a regular basis.
- What is a product data feed?
- Name
- Price
- Product page URL
- Image URL
- Description
- Category
- And more…
- The CJ feeds can also help you push your feed to comparison shopping engines (CSEs)
- Why?
- Distribution
- Performance
- Publisher Business
- Feeds reduce click-to-purchase and increase conversion. Also increase online exposure with distribution to CSEs (with CJ management help if needed).
- Advertisers generally see a 20% – 25% lift in transactions with an optimized data feed.
- Better to have too much data than too little.
- A good feed has high resolution images, lots of good technical specs in the description, accurate SKUs, and is well written.
- Build a feed!
- Get involved.
- It’ll require your technical teams or a 3rd party.
- A solid feed is worth the time and money.
- CJ advertisers who were live before 2010, but just added their feeds this year:
- 20% performed well.
- 20% had zero products.
- 10% had dummy SKUs.
- 80% didn’t upload changes daily – of that, 45% hadn’t sent any updates in the last month, and 35% hadn’t updated since May 2010.
- Product feeds are tools. Poorly designed tools don’t get the job done and don’t get adopted by publishers.
- Feed optimization:
- Names & descriptions.
- Utilize the fields.
- Make sure you have proper categorization.
- High resolution images.
- Submit fresh feeds.
- Have thorough pricing information (tax charged, sale price, shipping costs, retail price)
- Use tools available (analyze product/sale performance).
- Customer reviews.
- Even if there are no updates, send updates to get distribution to publishers.
Points brought up during the Q&A
Explain high resolution images: An image large enough for publishers to manipulate.- A content feed requires slight tweaks to what data you put in what fields.
Conclusion
Read MoreCJU Course: If You Only Knew #CJU2010
Advertisers and publishers each have a unique way of “getting the job done” and often times, neither understands what the other needs to succeed. “If they could just see it from my side…” seems to be a frequent plea. Well, now you can! We’re getting together three advertisers, three publishers, one moderator, and audience feedback to cover all the topics you’d always wished you could. This session took place on September 22, 2010. The panel consisted of:
- Jennifer Lovette, Vice President Advertiser Development West, Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Alexis Caldwell, SurfMyAds.com
- Yung Trang, TechBargains.com
- Tony Pantano, imwave
- Cheryl, Intuit
- Shawn Sullivan, Priceline
- Mike Tabasso, Gen3 Marketing
As you can see, I didn’t catch Cheryl’s last name, so I apologize in advance to Cheryl – especially if her name is spelled wrong! Overall this was a great session. It was nice to see both advertisers and publishers tackle the same questions from different sides of the affiliate coin. None of the panelists promoted their sites, they just used examples that were pertinent to points they were trying to make.
Bullet Point Review!
What are some recommendations on the best way to manage offers and tools to generate quality transactions for everyone?
- Focus on improving your conversion rate.
- Make your coupon code box clear & show the savings.
- Have a really clean Add to Cart product page.
- Enable deep linking.
- The most important tool is the communication between advertisers and publishers. What are the things that advertisers need to give publishers to get the best success.
- Networks need to put some initiative into getting one sheets from publishers outlining what they want from advertisers.
- At the end of the day, everyone wants an order placed.
- Use your CJ account reps to make that connection.Ask for feedback from the publisher account reps.
- If I continue to be small and not have tools and resources, how do I get those tools and resources?
- It’s important for advertisers to work with account reps, because it holds more weight if they recommend a program to a publisher instead of a blind pushed offer.
- Rev-share isn’t as important as showing them the economic value.
- At the end of the day, the channel is managed by ROI.
- You have to be open minded because you don’t know where or when you’re going to meet your next big affiliate.
What are some of the challenges you deal with when it comes to advertiser program guidelines and restrictions?
- You have to talk to the publishers to know what is and isn’t acceptable to help develop your terms and conditions. You don’t know what you don’t know.
- This isn’t a playground – we don’t all have to share the ball. We all have to play by the rules, but there are different rules. You have to determine what’s going to best grow your program.
- Mistakes do happen, but reach out because 8 times out of 10 it’s just a miscommunication.
- If you manage a program & login, and you see that your top affiliate is someone you don’t recognize and you have no idea how they got up to the top, chances are they’re probably doing something wrong.
- Sometimes it could be an emerging market with a business model you’ve not encountered, so reach out and ask.
- If you get no response, or a 2 line response that doesn’t make sense, something’s wrong. Don’t be afraid to ditch the bad people even if they’re you’re top sellers.
- Be transparent – merchants aren’t going to take your secret sauce and spread it all over the place.
If you could ask for one and only one simple thing from your partner, what would it be?
- Alexis: An open ear.
- Yung: Landing page conversion.
- Tony: Be open to having a conversation and analyzing your business to achieve your goals.
- Cheryl: Bring new ideas to merchants – they’re open to testing new things & learning.
- Shawn: Reach out & introduce yourself if you’re new.
- Mike: Be my partner.
Points brought up during the Q&A
- Why aren’t there more self-service tools for merchants? It’s tricky – making it self-service is really difficult. You don’t necessarily get to determine how the publishers use their real estate on their site. It’s not always what’s in your best interest as an advertiser, it’s what in the combined best interest of the merchant and publisher.
Unfortunately, the conversation was so good amongst the panelists that there wasn’t much time left for questions. But considering how approachable all the panelists made themselves, I think there was probably considerable opportunity for them to be asked questions 1-on-1 instead of in front of the entire audience.
Read MoreCJU Course: At Your Service
Unleashing the power of web services can literally change your program. Getting the data you need faster and then customizing it to suit the exact needs of your program or web site—that’s what web services are all about and Commission Junction is the industry leader. Hear real-world examples of clients using the CJ Web Services APIs in all kinds of creative ways to help them run their businesses more efficiently than ever
before. The panel consisted of:
- Bram Roukema, Director, Product Management, Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Adam Viener, imwave
- Michael Khodos, Simply Best Coupons
Bullet Point Review!
- Most APIs in CJ are done in ReST & SOAP (which will be phased out eventually).
- 6 APIs are offered:
- Publishers: Commission details.
- Publishers: Advanced look up
- Publishers: Product search.
- Publishers: Link search.
- Advertisers: Commission details.
- Advertisers: Publisher look up.
- Before APIs, people used feeds. Those took 1 day+, APIs are real-time.
- How to get started:
- Talk to your developers.
- Go to Webservices.cj.com.
- Review the APIs documentation.
- Register for a developer’s key.
- Remember to use ReST, not SOAP.
Points brought up during the Q&A
- All APIs are pull; they’re considering using push APIs too so publishers can apply to the programs, etc.
- When a link expires, they still track – they’re just not promoted anymore.
