CostPerNews - Latest Comments in Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Michael Vorel — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:02:30 -0000

Hi Sam, nice summary. I spent some time today outlining some ideas / plan on how to start an association and what can be done to encourage involvement from many parties as we are all in this together. Time to stand up and make more people aware of this. http://www.vastplanet.com/v...

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:59:46 -0000

Seesmic video reply from Disqus.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Jonathan (Trust) — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:51:14 -0000

I've asked Brook to start the discussion there, he won't do it. He started the topic over at Revenews. My feeling is you need to get people involved from the start and get as much input as possible from the start. Don't see that happening. I bring up some possible problems and I get, well if you don't like it, you don't need to be here type of attitude, move on. Instead of taking a look at what's brought up and discussing it.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:44:58 -0000

Why aren't they discussing this on ABW?

I completely agree with you, btw.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Jonathan (Trust) — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:40:41 -0000

Actually what I meant is that I don't see it happening, when it should be. I don't see this topic being brought up on one forum and I don't mean just ABW, i don't see it on any of them. Just a small group talking about it amongst themselves, out of public view, is not a way to go about things. And forums are more highly trafficked than blogs. Even Andy brought up Warrior Forums and their 81,000 members. Not a fan of that forum but I guess they're part of this industry too, so start the conversation there as well.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:31:07 -0000

Yep, it's happening all over the place.

I think we need a neutral territory to organize and coalesce that isn't on a particular blog, forum or email discussion list because there are too many politics involved.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Jonathan (Trust) — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:12:48 -0000

Same thing I asked Brook. If you really want more input, why not ask for it, it needs to be more than emails. This doesn't have a chance if you don't include everybody in the conversation and that's already happening.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

lisariolo — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:57:28 -0000

I think your point about having an organized group with the mission of preventing these types of laws/regulations (etc) is really important. Our failure (to date) to have a representative voice places Affiliate Marketing at continued risk of having to react.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Rebecca Madigan — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:55:17 -0000

Brook Schaaf blogged yesterday about the discovery investigation I'm doing to see if we can get support and momentum (finally) on an industry association. http://www.revenews.com/bro...

I've been hired by Anik Singal of Affiliate Classroom to see if we can get this organization off the ground, and we have received input and support from some of the industry's top thinkers. I'm looking for more input from more merchants, affiliates, OPMs, networks, vendors, etc. If you're interested in sharing your views and hearing about ideas that are bubbling up, please email me at rebecca@affiliateclassroom. com.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:44:56 -0000

The trick part of the law is that what differentiates affiliate marketers from cpm marketers (or newspaper buyers in your example) is how direct revenue is generated by an affiliate from the action.

The other difference is that newspaper/tv/radio media buyers and publishers do have organized groups that would never let this happen to them.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:42:46 -0000

Thanks, Brook.

I think a highly organized group of concerned networks, affiliates (and even merchants) could quickly and efficiently make the best case as to why this taxation approach benefits no one, especially the residents of NY and the other states considering taking this approach to taxing online ecommerce.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Tim_Jones — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:37:08 -0000

It's New York, they're going to tax everything they possibly can and sometimes can't; asking for forgiveness later, rather than checking for permission, first.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Brook Schaaf — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:36:16 -0000

"Instead of making the case that affiliates are being treated unfairly, I think our best bet as an industry is to make the case to state governments that this is an economically short minded tactic."

Sam, this is a great point and the damage this could do goes well beyond affiliate marketing. We should have an industry organization to combat this.

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Pranav Chavda — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:28:54 -0000

What I don't understand is that many networks, including CJ, call their affiliates, "publishers". something that they did a few years ago as an amendment to their Ts and Cs, A publisher, unlike an affiliate can be interpreted as an independent entity, and in this case, simply as carriers of advertising material. Is there such a law, that if a company advertises in an NY newspaper, that'd mean they have a presence in the state?

Re: Thoughts on New York Affiliates Situation

Tim_Jones — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:27:10 -0000

How would you define an industry organization? More like a union or lobbying group or just a like-minded group of business people?