For several years affiliates in many states have been fighting the affiliate nexus tax. Many of us have hoped for a federal solution to put an end to the fights and the legislation coming back time after time. Is this the solution we have been looking for? I am all for fairness and the way the states have been dealing with the issue have not been fair.

Senator Dick Durbin Friday introduced a bill that would require all retailers to collect sales tax. If passed, the bill would overturn a Supreme Court decision that prevents states from forcing Internet retailers to collect sales tax unless they have an in-state physical presence.

A few years ago I was frustrated trying to keep up with the thousands of coupons to hunt down in the networks and add to my coupon site FlamingoWorld.com. There were so many emails coming in daily and it was hard to keep up. Some of the networks had rss feeds or coupon feeds but they were sorely lacking. Because of the issue I decided to become the solution to the problem by founding ForMeToCoupon.com.

ForMeToCoupon.com is a service that aggregates all of the network coupon feeds, all of the emails and edits them, makes sure the links work, make sure the coupons work and put them in a standard form. It is a lot of work and I really wish the networks did a better job so ForMeToCoupon.com wasn’t needed.

I am heading a Coupon Feed Standards Working Group for the Performance Marketing Assocication. We a have a few people already interested in joining, but could still use some members. I would really like to see network involvment so we can fix the issues from the source.

Too many merchants add their offers and coupons into the network coupon feeds, but much of the information they add is not standard. They add the coupon code in the deal text, not in a separate field, they do the same with the expiration dates instead of putting them in the expiration date fields. Some add long descriptive text and it isn’t a deal at all. Maybe the networks themselves could do a little quality control before the offers go out? And if they notice issues they could contact the merchants to train them better. I really think if the networks were to require certain information, and in specific fields it would be easier for affiliates to use.

If anyone is interested in joining me on the working group email me at connie(at)flamingoworld.com Or feel free to just email me your gripes and suggestions on the network coupon feeds.

With all the talk of toolbars and loyalty sites lately, it reminds me of an issue that I have heard discussed at almost every network advisory board meeting I have been to.

Many times loyalty site members forget to shop through the loyalty site and perhaps either go direct to the merchant site or go through a different affiliate site. When that member then asks the loyalty site why they didn’t get their reward, the loyalty site does a transaction inquiry with the network. “Missing transactions” seem to be a big issue. The real issue is user error most of the time, but usually the network will fix it so that the loyalty affiliate gets their credit so the member gets their reward.

It doesn’t matter if that person actually went through your site, you have no way of knowing that do you? But the loyalty site has that member who will give them their information that they can in turn forward to the network.

Is it fair that the loyalty site gets credit just because they have the information needed to claim credit for a sale and no one else is none the wiser? Isn’t this just as bad as having a toolbar that overwrites a cookie or pops on another affiliate’s site or links? Does it matter to the network who brings in the money as long as they get their cut?

Shareasale in the past did not allow software or toolbar affiliates into their network. This was one of the things that made them well liked and trusted in the industry. When well respected affiliate Fatwallet, with a long history of ethical behavior, let it be known months ago that they were going live with a toolbar, Shareasale decided now was the time to revisit that choice.

Shareasale held a Roundtable on Tuesday February 3rd to discuss the issue with affiliates, merchants and others in the affiliate industry. I was quite disappointed in the webinar, I had expected there to be much more discussion and more passion in the debates. To me it seemed a non event considering all the vocal people voicing their opinions on affiliate forums; I didn’t hear any of that at the webinar.

Was it because people decided it was futile, did they assume Shareasale had already made their decision? The timing did seem to many to be questionable, that right at the time Fatwallet was coming out with their toolbar, Shareasale was discussing letting toolbar affiliates into the network. Is it because historically Fatwallet has been upstanding and ethical and Shareasale thought it would be good to make this exception? And is it really just about Fatwallet as many had assumed or is Shareasale getting pressure from their merchants wanting to have software affiliates in their programs?

And even though word had been out to networks and some merchants for quite a while about the Fatwallet toolbar, why now say this issue has just come up? Some think Shareasale was waiting for the right time, figuring out how to handle letting Fatwallet stay in the network.

Even if the Fatwallet toolbar follows all the rules of fairness, does this open the door for less scrupulous affiliates to enter Shareasale? Will there be constant compliance checks? Bigger networks can’t seem to do a good job of it with their compliance and quality control departments, how will Shareasale a smaller company be able to keep up? Would they just limit the number of software affiliates to a select few? Has affiliate marketing lost its white knight? Or are we all in an uproar about nothing? Time will tell I suppose.

As a coupon site, many times we will work with merchants and offer special placements or special terms in order to get exclusive coupons. One longstanding problem has been other coupon sites taking other coupon site’s exclusive coupons and posting them on their own site. Many times these coupons include our site name, FlamingoWorld or another coupon site’s name or some variation there of.

There are some merchants that track the sales back to those exclusive coupons and they make sure that the affiliate given the coupon code gets credit for all sales. This way the site that lifted the coupon from another site does not benefit financially at all. But most of the time whatever site the shopper clicks through the link on will get credit for the sale no matter what coupon code they use.

Coupon Cabin, a popular coupon site has decided they aren’t going to take it anymore. Coupon Cabin has decided to take legal action against competitors who have been posting and financially benefiting from their exclusive coupons that include their trademarked name. They have started to send cease and desist letters to those using their exclusives, or suing for damages.

There are a lot of coupon sites out there that claim their coupons are entered by users of their site and that their model is a community based website and they have no control over the content. In reality many of these sites are actually posting these coupons themselves and using the member’s as an excuse to post coupons they shouldn’t.

The networks don’t do anything about these websites, They get away with posting any coupon they find whether it belongs to another affiliate or if it is unauthorized for affiliate use. Some merchants kick these affiliates out of their programs while some networks give them awards.

Coupon sites beware if you post other coupon site’s exclusive coupon codes there may be consequences.