New York is currently in the process of repealing the so-called Amazon tax or affiliate tax. How this turns out could have drastic effects on affiliates living in the US.

What is the Affiliate Tax?

Back in May there was a law passed in New York that mandates online stores to collect sales tax on Internet purchases to state residents (you can thank Eliot Spitzer for this). The law is basically translated that if your an affiliate in New York you’re an extension of the online store and required to collect taxes. Amazon filed objecting to the new law, thus it was termed the Amazon tax. The law went into effect on June 1, 2008.

Overstock’s Casualties

Overstock.Com made headlines when instead of collecting taxes from their affiliates customers in NY, they decided to just kick out all the affiliates living in New York! Bad news for affiliates.

What about PPC?

Here is an excellent article interpreting the new law. You’ll be somewhat relieved to read that the law hinges on what determines the nexus of doing business in the state of New York. Apparently having just a referral link doesn’t create a nexus and using Pay Per Click is deemed as advertising and doesn’t fall under these terms.

Coverage

Funny, there seems to be little info covering the Affiliate Tax if you do a search on the web right now. Just a handful of bloggers and news sources even have anything on it.

Linda Buquet has extensive coverage of the New York Tax Law that can be found here. Shawn Collins of the Affiliate Summit has also blogged about it here and posted a video as well.

For those living in New York, there is also a blog post on what you can do now over at 5Star Affiliate Programs.

Why this is Bad

If the repeal fails, other states may take this as the green light to enact the same legislation. At the time, it doesn’t seem such a big deal, but I believe this could be the start of a slippery slope. Other states will want their piece of the pie and begin to enact the same legislation. States will get greedy and just blanket all affiliates affecting everyone in the affiliate world.

This can also bring back the issue of the so-called internet tax, then again maybe not …

Love to hear your thoughts, and would be interested to know if this is your first time hearing this …

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Well another lawyer is not happy advertising with Google and claims the company committed “fraud, business code violations, and unjust enrichment.”

You can read the full story here over at information week.

He claims that he lost money due to Google showing his ads on parked domains and error pages which resulted in 0 conversions or leads for his firm. What did his losses amount to? A grand total of $136.11 …

Granted its not the amount and I understand where he’s coming from, but really. I give him less than a 1% chance of winning this lawsuit. It is kind of silly to blame Google for the type of advertisement it serves, the fault here lies with the advertiser more than anything. If you want to play the game, now the risks involved. Also, with the option now of placement targeting, you really can’t blame Google anymore. (Another reason to fire up the content network)

Did he not see the Adsense for domains page or read the adwords help center before turning his campaign on?

Yes, Google can improve the content network and we all know click fraud is alive and well, but if it was as easy as saying, “hey I got all these clicks and no conversions, give me my money back,” every advertiser would want a piece of that class action suit. I guess one solution would have two more check boxes to opt out of parked domains and error pages. Who knows?

I know I’ve been silent for awhile but I’m still in Korea and come back next week. So hope to post more regularly once Im back! It’s been a great trip and I’m recharged ready to pump out some more campagins!

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If you read other affiliate blogs you will know that there have been a handful of market leverage contests floating around. Uber Affiliate recently held one, where the entry was an article on the mistakes you’ve made as an affiliate marketer. I entered but didn’t win You can read about the winning posts here.

Below is the article I submitted, outlining 5 of the hundreds of mistakes I’ve made. I hope you learn something from them and don’t repeat them. They’re not so much mistakes as they are things I didn’t do … I call them the 5 not’s

1. Not Tracking

If you’re not tracking your keywords or where your sales are coming from, you’re flying blind. You will find the 80/20 rule at work here, about 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your keywords. Shave off the keywords that don’t convert and manage the ones that are.

2. Not Split-Testing

Split testing is easy to do, but few people seem to do it. From the ads and headlines, to the images and even domain names. Try to test something out new at least once a week. One of my sites collects opt-ins, I decided to test the placement of it out, and they literally doubled overnight. I’ve been a believer ever since.

3. Not Collecting Leads

You’ve heard it a million times, the money is in the list. Well there is a reason for that. Instead of building someone else’s business, start building your own. Collecting leads is the huge step in this direction, once it grows you can perpetually communicate with them and send them offers. Go ahead, learn email marketing, join aweber, pick a niche, build a site, and start collecting leads. Aweber is always sending out great tips on how to effectively use email marketing to maximize sales.

4. Not using the Content Network

When I first started my affiliate marketing journey, I read in many affiliate ebooks the content network has poorly converting traffic and is waste of time and money, so turn it off. I’m sure many of you have it off right now … well you’re missing out on tons of traffic, boatloads of it. Yes, it is a different beast, but once learned can astound you. Start learning it. And by the way, did I mention it is much much cheaper!

5. Not Doing Anything

This one takes the cake, how many of you have read countless ebooks, forums, blogs, etc … but fail to take any action? Instead of trolling forums, chatting up IM, or trying to come up with a post to outwit that moron on your lovable forum, outline a plan and start taking action. Knowledge without acting on it is really nothing. It says in the Old Book,

Lazy hands make a man poor,
but diligent hands bring wealth.

Get to it …

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Confused with all the terms that are thrown around with affiliate marketing or pay per click? What about the acronyms: CPC, CTR, CPA, etc …

Google adwords has their own Adwords Glossary and it can be helpful if you’re new to affiliate marketing.

Consider the terms:

• Double Serving - Displaying more than one ad for the same company or person at a time.
• CPM - This stands for cost-per-thousand impressions. A CPM pricing model means advertisers pay for impressions received
• Opening Image - The opening image is the static image that will be displayed on your video ad before the user initiates the video. When a user clicks the opening image or the play button, the video component of the ad will be played.

Here are some other glossary lists you may want to check out:

• Affiliate Scout
• Affiliate Wiz
• Sempo

Just a helpful resource …

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There’s a lot written about CTR and how to get more clicks. While this definitely has its place, this is not always a good thing. When I first started out, I was always obsessed with getting a higher CTR. Writing goofy or shock and awe ads can usually do the trick, but is this the type of visitor you really want?

I would much rather have 10 clicks looking to take action, than 100 clicks landing on my site just because I had cleverly written copy. You can use ad qualifiers to filter your traffic and hopefully get more bang for your buck.

Below are some common ways to do this:

Include Price

Stating the price in your ad will definitely reduce your CTR, but those that do clickthrough will not be surprised to find on your landing page that you’re selling something.

For Men/Women only

If your product is gender specific, state so. Yes, the reverse psychology is strong and will most likely get the curious clickers, but even if you can get the ratio from 50/50 to 70/30 you still win.

Target Users

This is the same idea as above, but using it in a more general way. Beginners only, 21+, seniors only are all ways to try to narrow your focus to get those targeted clicks in your niche.

What to expect

It may also benefit to test putting your call to action directly in your ad, so when they land there will be no surprises. Is it an email or zip submit, state so … “email only” or “zip only”. If it’s a form to fill out state “simple form” or something. “Buy now” or “purchase today” etc… will also let them know you have something to sell.

As always test this out, you may find it to lower your CTR but increase your bottom line. There will always be a balance to this, as a higher CTR will lower your quality score. That’s something that you will just have to find yourself ….