Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.
Jim Kukral has published a new, free ebook called The $7.95 Marketing Plan. The tagline is “Build your brand for less than the price of a pizza.”
The ebook is a quick read with good ideas on how you can build a brand with the right domain name.
Take a look, brainstorm, and grab some new domains.
Get The $7.95 Marketing Plan at http://www.795marketingplan.com/.
The Tax Talk & Crab Feast, hosted by Affiliate Summit and buy.at, is taking place this Thursday, July 9 in Baltimore, MD at the buy.at office (1020 Hull Street, Ivory Building, Baltimore, MD 21230), and the event will kick off with a brief presentation from Missy Ward and myself on the advertising tax.
We plan to videotape the presentation, as well as a demo of the buy.at interface, so keep an eye out for a post with these videos.
The presentation can be viewed and downloaded at http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/advertising-tax-primer.
This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about a double branding faux pas of a contractor in my neighborhood.
Not only do they plant these ugly signs in yards when they’re doing work at a house (and leave them behind when they’re done), but they are marketing their business with a lousy sign that says nothing but information overload.
If you are not sure whether your marketing message is clear, Keep It Simple, Stupid!
And get permission for your marketing, because you’re tarnishing your brand when you add your blight to my neighborhood and don’t have the courtesy to ask.
Show Notes
Check out http://brandmouthing.com/ for a collection of all future episodes of Brandmouthing, as well as images, videos, etc. that I mention on the podcast. Subscribe to the Brandmouthing RSS feed.
I Tweeted back on June 1 that I was looking for a new laptop, and got lots of good advice – thanks to @CarissaMania, @Ed, @FiveAds, @gloungepartner, @LionelatDell, @michaelvorel, and @NickRac.
I settled on a Dell Studio XPS 13 and just unboxed it.
Here are some specs…
It’s a pretty, sleek machine in “Obsidian Black with Leather Accent” – I wish I could say it was Corinthian leather. But I didn’t get it for the looks – I love the guts of this thing.
I can’t wait to switch over to this for my full-time laptop and video editing machine. Good night, Vostro.
Q: I am the marketing manager for a software company and I am exploring ways affiliate marketing can help our business. I wondered if you could point me in the direction to see if affiliate marketing would be right for us?
A: I guess the easiest thing would be to take a look at your competitors and see if they have affiliate programs.
If so, dig around at the nuts and bolts of how they’re operating… the affiliate networks or software they’re using, the commission rate they’re paying out, type of affiliate program (revenue share, cpc, per lead), EPC, etc.
The ideal approach would be to create a real affiliate site yourself and apply to the affiliate programs of your competitors.
By doing this you can get an insider view on how they are running the affiliate program. Run the offers and get a sense for their conversion rates, review all of their correspondence, and creative, as well as checking out any public stats available to affiliates for the performance of links.
Also, try asking some questions as an affiliate to see how responsive they are to you.
I’d say it’s a positive indicator for that company if they have a dedicated person or team that gets back to you quick.
If your competitors have well staffed, thriving affiliate programs, it is a sign that you ought to launch one yourself.
Now that I’m working on building my stamina to run the 4th Annual Amber Pizzo Memorial 5K on July 12, I needed to calibrate my Nike + iPod Sport Kit that I use with my iPod Touch – this is a neat tool on my Touch that tracks distance, speed, calories burned, etc.
I went to the local high school to run around the track and get it exact, so I can hit some paths to run and always know where I am in a run.
In the past, I had it calibrated for walking.
Last week, I was alternating running and walking a quarter mile at a time, but now I’m just running. I’m just going a mile and a half currently, so I have to accelerate that distance quickly to reach 5k for the race.
I’ll be running pretty much every day, in addition to other exercise, leading up to the 5k. I need to get drastic, because I’m sick of being at a plateau for weeks. I see that Tim Jones fatblogged this week about the same issue, and he started at the same weight as me and is stuck at the same amount now.
Well, as I polish off an entire P’Zone from Pizza Hut — I can tell you that I’ve almost completely fallen off the diet wagon…I have, however, been much better about working out and exercising on a consistent basis’ though. Therefore, I haven’t gained too much weight back. I’m currently at 218lbs., which is still 7lbs. under my starting weight, but also 18lbs. from my goal.
I feel bad for Tim – when he breaks away from his diet, he is eating that Pizza Hut stuff. At least I get the real thing from my north Jersey pizzerias when I’m packing on the pounds.
Starting weight: 225
Last week: 218
This week: 218
We are just about at capacity for the Tax Talk & Crab Feast, which is being hosted by Affiliate Summit and buy.at next Thursday (July 9) in Baltimore, MD at the buy.at office.
We’ll be getting together starting at 4pm for a discussion on the advertising tax legislation, the impact on affiliate marketers, and how to fight it. This issue is so vital now, and you shouldn’t miss this discussion if you’re in the area.
Also, we’ll use this time to demo the buy.at interface and answer any questions.
Afterwards, the networking runs from 5pm to 8pm with a crab feast, as well as various BBQ foods and drinks (check out the menu) on the promenade outside the buy.at offices.
And we’ll have a big box of these cool affiliate crab feast shirts.
Affiliate Summit and buy.at are covering the tab, so come on out to do some business on the Bay.
Note – this event is for affiliate marketers only. Please do not bring any guests with you. Space is limited, and the RSVP will be closed when we reach capacity.
Don’t forget to register at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/tax-talk-crab-feast/ before we fill up.
I just came across some good news for affiliates in California, Advertising Tax Vetoed from the CA Budget, in a post on Jangro.com.
Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the advertising tax in California, and Overstock.com announced that they will not be dropping California afiliates.
California lawmakers proposed a tax on affiliate advertising and sent legislation to the Governor, but as promised he vetoed it because we cannot solve our budget deficit by raising taxes and driving businesses out of the state.
Overstock.com estimates its internet affiliate advertisers in California create millions of dollars in revenue.
As I stated in an article at Internet Retailer earlier today (Overstock ends affiliate agreements in four states over sales tax rules), states see this as incremental revenue for them, and they aren’t realizing that affiliates that get fired from affiliate programs will pay less income tax and potentially burden the state with unemployment benefits.
It’s great to see that Governor Schwarzenegger saw the big picture.
More details in a press release from the Office of the Governor.
The media is making the state advertising tax issue out to be all about Amazon, but there are many thousands of other affiliate programs out there that may well fire affiliates in proactive or reactive measures against the legislation.
Yesterday, Overstock served walking papers to affiliates in California.
Dear Affiliate:
We regret to inform you that the North Carolina, Rhode Island, California and Hawaii state legislatures have or are about to pass unconstitutional tax nexus and collection laws in an attempt to force Internet retailers to collect and remit sales tax on all sales to residents of these states.
These legislative measures purport to establish a state tax nexus on the basis of contracts with local advertising affiliates, even when none exists under U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Overstock.com, Inc. (“Overstock”) has no tax nexus in any state other than Utah.
Due to the passage or eminent passage of these unconstitutional laws, Overstock regretfully must discontinue its relationships with all of its advertising affiliates in these states.
Accordingly, it is with reluctance that Overstock hereby gives notice of termination of your participation in Overstock?s Affiliate Program.
Any money owed to you, based on your advertising services prior to termination, will be paid in the normal course of business.
Overstock regrets that it has been put in this position. In the future should these laws be vetoed, declared unconstitutional, or repealed, we will cheerfully resume our former business relationship.
Respectfully,
Jonathan E. Johnson III
President
Overstock.com, Inc.
There goes some more taxable income for the California state coffers. And hey, maybe some longer unemployment lines, too.
How cool would that be if politicians acted like successful business-people and adapted ideas that work? I haven’t seen any case studies on how the state of New York was benefited by an advertising tax.
Actually, the elected and selected officials in Albany, NY are possibly the most disfunctional governing body in the country – maybe other states can farm some more clever ideas from them.
Back in May 2008, Jim Kukral, Lisa Picarille, Sam Harrelson and myself talked about Overstock and their actions with the New York advertising tax. It’s an interesting listen on the issue over a year later and you can see feedback from Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock, in the podcast comments.
Update:
Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the advertising tax in California, and Overstock.com announced that they will not be dropping California afiliates.
More details at http://affiliatetip.com/archives/governor-schwarzenegger-terminates-advertising-tax-in-california/.