Archive for Affiliate Marketing
CafePress Terminates New York Affiliates
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In a stunning move today, CafePress abruptly announced that it would be terminating New York affiliates effective July 1, 2008.
The problem stems from newly enacted legislation in New York that requires companies who have affiliates that reside in New York to collect taxes if their revenue passes a certain threshold. A memo from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Office of Tax Policy Analysis, Taxpayer Guidance Division that addresses the new legislation can be viewed here:
http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pdf/memos/sales/m08_3s.pdf
The announcement from CafePress is as follows:
Due to mounting uncertainly over these new laws we will no longer be able to support affiliates residing in the State of New York, effective July 1, 2008.
While CafePress has no tax nexus in any states other than California, Nevada and Kentucky we feel it wise to discontinue our affiliate business in New York State at this time.
Regrettably, our hand was forced into making this difficult business decision, and we openly acknowledge the loss of income this means for our New York affiliate partners. Should circumstances around this law change we will eagerly reconsider this decision.
Effective July 1, 2008 CafePress affiliate agreements with all New York residents will be terminated.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Steve Root
Affiliate Manager
CafePress
sroot@cafepress.com
650-655-3055
This is a bitter pill to swallow for the New York based CafePress affiliates. Not only have they been terminated, but the window on that termination is a scant week. For anyone involved in affiliate marketing, you know the tediousness of removing hundreds, if not thousands, of links across the internet.
If you are an affiliate who does not reside in New York, do NOT be complacent. Amazon has challenged the law, but as most court cases go, it will probably be a few years before a verdict is reached about its legalities. This court case will be very interesting to watch….. if Amazon loses and the New York law stands, you can bet your bottom dollar that every state in the nation will follow suit with similar legislation.
If you are a New York affiliate, Haiko de Poel, Jr. from A Best Web fame has set up an area specifically for you to discuss the law’s implications at NY Affiliates.
Another question needs to be answered: what are the other PODs with affiliate programs going to do now? Comply? Cut affiliates from NY? We’d rather know sooner than later!
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Commission Junction University
Posted by: | CommentsIf you plan to attend Commission Junction University (CJU) 2008, early registration will be available from May 1 – June 15, 2008. Be sure to save the date and register for CJU 2008, the premier pay-for-performance industry event for publishers and advertisers, held in Santa Barbara, CA, September 16-18, 2008. Take advantage of early registration and save $100 on your registration fee!
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Do Not Put All Of Your Eggs In One Basket
Posted by: | CommentsTable of contents for Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing 101
- Plots, Plans, and Schemes
- Content, Content, Content
- Get Those Visitors!
- Do Not Put All Of Your Eggs In One Basket
Don’t rely on one source of income! I can not stress this one enough! Sure…. right now, you might be lucky enough to cash $50 checks each month. If the one company you’re hawking closes its doors tomorrow…. meh…. 50 bucks….. so what? Maybe I have to eat at a restaurant one less time next month.
Think about the future…. what if you’re good at making money on the internet? What if you’re cashing $3,000 checks per month a few years from now? Now, what if that one company you’re hawking closes its doors?
OMG! THE MORTGAGE! THE CAR PAYMENT! MY TRIP TO THE BAHAMAS! HOW AM I GONNA BUY GROCERIES! I NEED GAS MONEY! I’M DOOMED! THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!
Get the picture?
True story…. when Cafepress began its affiliate program, it was in-house. (That means the company managed its own affiliate program.) Many affiliate marketers relied on that one program. In the spring of 2007, Cafepress announced that it was outsourcing the program to Commission Junction AND the affiliate’s percentage was being lowered.
Result? Several people were sent into a state of panic. Will my old links work? How much is the decrease going to hurt my bottom line? And so on….
Those who had eggs in several baskets around the internet and promoted other companies weren’t as affected financially as those who ONLY promoted Cafepress.
Those who had made a good living promoting ONLY Cafepress faced a crisis. That 5% decrease had a more profound effect on their checks at the end of the month.
Lesson learned!
Affiliate programs are just one type of monetization for your website.
Take a good look at the page you’re on now. What catches your eye?
Maybe you’re building a website and need hosting. Wow! That ad in the sidebar says that Bluehost has a plan for $6.95 per month! Maybe you’re a link clicker? There are AdSense links at the bottom of each post under “More Links.” Oooooo…. cool banner at the top of the website. See? I don’t just stick with one company or one method of advertising. That’s what I mean about diversification.
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Get Those Visitors!
Posted by: | CommentsTable of contents for Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
Actually, this is one of the hardest parts of the whole process for me. I can write the content (brilliantly, I might add) 
and I can plot and scheme better than anybody I know…. but dragging those visitors to my site while they’re kicking and screaming can be a bit overwhelming at first. I quickly learned, thankfully, if you do the planning and write the content well, getting the visitors to come is much easier.
Think of the planning and content like measuring the ingredients for a cake recipe- it gets messy and confusing sometimes, but if you do it well, finding tons of willing volunteers to eat the cake (visitors) is a snap. Search engines will send you free traffic if you’ve done your homework and included a bunch of targeted keywords in a niche that’s not too narrow or over-saturated.
Once everything is in place, then it’s time for you to expand your wings and start marketing your site a bit more. Start with free marketing using social networks. You can do several things like: build a Squidoo lens concerning your niche, Twitter about your exploits, create a MySpace or Facebook account…. the list goes on and on.
After you’ve started receiving search engine traffic and traffic from social networks, it may be time for you to experiment with paid advertising. I’ll warn you though…. GO SLOW! Advertising is sometimes like gambling….. you give sites your money and you may or may not see a good return of your investment. NEVER spend more on advertisement than you can comfortably afford to lose.
Even if you find a great moneymaker, things sometimes happen that are beyond our control. I’ve heard several shopkeepers bemoan the fact that one of our POD companies crashed while they had advertising campaigns running. It happens…. trust me….. you don’t want to spend a ton of money that you can’t afford to lose when there are so many variables involved.
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Affiliate Marketing 101
Posted by: | CommentsTable of contents for Introduction To Affiliate Marketing
So what the heck is affiliate marketing, anyway?
Easy….. you send visitors from your site (potential customers) to a merchant’s website. If the potential customer buys something, the merchant pays you a commission for sending them. Sometimes merchants pay if your visitors perform other actions, like filling out a survey, but for the purposes of our discussions on this site, we’re going to focus on customers actually purchasing products/services.
So…. you have a website…. you promote products/services….. you provide links to the merchant… you work to bring visitors to your site….. is that it?
Yep….. that’s pretty much the basic concept. Once you’ve sent your potential customers to the merchant’s site, the rest is up to them. They get the icky little jobs of providing the actual products/services, processing orders, shipping, handling credit cards, taking care of customer service….. I, in the meantime, am cashin’ muh checks and sittin’ on a beach in the Bahamas somewhere….. *sigh* OK…. I’m not to that point YET….. I’m still stuck here in Arkansas….. but I’m gettin’ there…. I’m gettin’ there!
Anyway, that’s so easy that a chimpanzee could do it, right?
WRONG! Ya gotta plot…. ya gotta scheme….. ya gotta plan….. ya gotta prepare secret formulas in your hidden lair…. *oops… sorry…. that last part is for my world domination plot… heh…. heh….*
Seriously, you can’t just go throw some site up with a bunch of freebie articles and affiliate links and expect to start cashing outrageous checks next week!
There is a method to follow….
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