Perhaps you’ve heard about anti-affiliate state legislation that can have a devastating impact on affiliate marketers.
This has occurred in several states, and now it is being battled in Minnesota.

Today I attended the Senate Hearing regarding Bill S.F. 282, at the Minnesota State Capitol. According to sources, there are about 2500 affiliates in Minnesota yet I was the only one in attendance.

The basic premise of S.F. No. 282 is flawed and incorrectly targets affiliates.
Affiliate marketers are not traditional associates or an extended sales force for these retailers.
Rather, we are paid for performance marketing advertising. Affiliate marketers do not sell for the retailer – affiliate marketers advertise. We do not own the customer or know who the customer is; we do not transact a sale; we do not accept money for sales; nor do we deliver products or services to consumers. S.F. No. 282, Minnesota is attempting to define affiliates as a physical sales presence for out-of-state merchants such as Amazon or Overstock.com, so that out-of-state merchants would be responsible for collecting sales tax from all residents in Minnesota.

Many merchants have stated their intention to sever their ties with Minnesota affiliates if this bill is passed. So instead of gained tax dollars, the state will end up with more people out of work, more families devastated and in need of aid. If merchants sever affiliate programs in Minnesota, the state will not gain tax dollars, and many businesses will be devastated as a result.

The hearings ran long and they ended up postponing the hearing until Monday the 20th of April.

The Author of the bill, Senator Thomas M. Bakk is also the committee chair. He is a democrat.
Democrats have the majority in the house and senate. Unless we take drastic measures this bill will pass.

According to paperwork, the state isn’t expecting that much revenue from this bill.
We need to make it clear that while this may seem like an easy way to increase state tax revenue
they need to consider the devastating ramifications this bill can have.

Email your senators.
Use this Minnesota Senator Letter Template as a guide.
Email the newspapers.
The Star Tribune is a good place to start.
Do something, do anything!

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I can’t remember the last time I got so many frustrating emails in one day.

Here is one:
“As a valued XXXXX affiliate partner, I wanted to let you know that we are currently working to make our program, and our partnerships, as successful as possible. In order to continue to support the success of our current partnership we are unable to continue to offer you a flat 4% commission on all goods. Starting at the end of February, our new offer will be lowered to 1.5% on all goods.”

This merchant is on all the big loyalty sites, which have software applications and toolbars. Many times they end up paying commission on sales where the shopper directly went to the merchant site, but then the toolbar reminded them to go through the loyalty site, or it automatically set their cookie so the merchant pays out where they never should have. These same affiliates cost them extra money when a shopper goes through the merchant paid search link but then the loyalty software overwrites the cookie and takes credit for the sale. So the merchant pays for their paid ad and pays commission to the loyalty site.

Maybe if they worked on cleaning up their program, maybe lowered the commission on those who really did nothing to make the sale except activate their software, us hard working honest affiliates who play clean could earn what we deserve.

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Rumors have been swirling that Twitter had noticed big brands using Twitter for customer support, general conversation and brand promotion and was planning on charging fees for commercial use.

Twitter, a micro-blogging service where users write short updates about what they’re doing, has attracted companies who want to create buzz online as well as those who want to see what customers are saying about them.

The source of the speculation was an interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, which appeared on the Marketing magazine web site early on 10 February. Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone told Marketing: “We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them. We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts.” He would not comment on the level of charges. Stone said it could also create revenue-generating features to tap into the way brands use Twitter as a hybrid marketing and customer-service tool.

Twitter denies reports that it will charge companies.

In a Twitter blog post, titled “Nothing to report just yet”, Stone noted that Twitter had been “thinking out loud” for over a year about the use of the service by commercial organizations, and how the offering could be improved.

“We hope to begin iterating on revenue products this year,” Stone said. ” However, it’s important to note that, whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone – individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we’re thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services.”

Stone has stated that there was no official announcement at present as the plans are still at a very early stage but plans are afoot to generate cash from value-add services.

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Linkshare announced in their blog (looks like Linkshare now removed the blog post) today that they are parting ways with long time partner Overstock.com.

No word from Overstock.com on this yet to affiliates, as a matter of fact we just got their affiliate newsletter with a ton of Linkshare affiliate links to put up. I don’t know if Overstock is going to go in-house, move to another network or what, hopefully they let their affiliates know soon.

Overstock is a huge program and will be a big loss for Linkshare. There must have been some major issues if Linkshare decided to not work with Overstock. Or Did Overstock quit Linkshare and Linkshare is just posting damage control before word gets out from other sources?

Let the speculating begin!

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