I am still hoping to get the IAB further involved in performance marketing. not just LeadGen. one of the main reasons they have not been active is the reputation issue from the earlier days of affiliate marketing (not that there still aren’t issues) this is a good time to get everyone together. Collaborating and finding a focused united voice.

This is the main reason why we moved Advaliant to being the performance marketing division of MediaTrust and decided to create the MediaTrust brand. There are to many issues in the market regarding trust, integrity and more. Lets get this giant bay cleaned up and acting like the adult that it is ready to be. Globally!

The assoc won’t even be formed til the end of the year and that’s with luck, so it’s def not geared to react to NY. However it could help us with other industry issues down the road, including other states that may follow NY’s lead in the future.

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/05/13/amazonlaw-states-rights-oped-cx_scjw_0514amazonlaw.html
A must read ( like your blog ) for everyone in the industry.

This is a big turn with Overstock turning around after taking a different stance. This law is ridiculous and has absolutely no thought in it or understanding of the interactive market and how the world is becoming border (less) when it come to media and ecommerce.
http://www.relevantlyspeaking.com/2008/05/23/affiliate-marketing-community-tax-issue-update/ is the post we did about this.

We are heading into our second conversation with the IAB and will be making further posts. We need more pro activity thru new posts or comments in the posts and forums about the issue. We have been posting every article into Facebook, StumbleUpon and Digg. We encourage everyone to do the same and also set up Google ALERTS so when you see any content you can leverage the social media by posting, digging, Twittering, commenting.

The beginning ground swell has already turned Overstock and others. Think about how powerful the communities voice would be if we 10x it!

We dont have time to create an association (but should in the long run) but we do have time to create a very large SHOUT OUT!

Thanks so much for commenting and caring about the issue.

I am just beginning on the path that I hope will lead to internet income through affiliates. My web host is SBI and yes, the forum is heating up over the New York State law.

I will join Debbie in thanking you for bringing this to light and taking a roll in trying to prevent it. I plan to contact the prominent New York senator as was suggested on our forum. I will follow the lead of other suggestions as well.

Thank you for you help
Connie

The 1st time I saw the headline today, I almost didn’t read it, assuming it was just another old regurgitated news about the original Overstock issues. So it’s possible I missed it yesterday for that reason too.

I tried to get into the SiteBuildit forum yesterday because I saw I was getting hits from there and assumed it was people talking about NY. But my Username/password would not work. Need to try again.

Anyway there are several movements but the efforts are very fragmented into different groups. A few of us are in direct talks with the NY government to get answers on so many of the contradictory points and gray areas. Cecily Lancit from Affiliopolis.com is heading up that effort and about 5 of us are involved. She’s had 2 conference calls with them. We’ve submitted a list of questions. They say it will take a month to answer them in will do it in the form of a public FAQ, but we are pushing to get our 3 main questions answered before our Thursday Radio show.

You can let Ken and everyone at SBI know we are planning a panel discussion with several key people for next week’s Affiliate Marketing Insider radio show at Webmaster radio. Airs Thursday 3 EST.

Last weeks show they had important info about an industry assoc that’s is in the process of being formed. Here’s the info and the show is up in the archives so anyone that missed it can listen. Affiliate Association Forming? Affiliate Insider Discussion
Ken may be interested in getting involved.

The assoc won’t happen fast enough to deal with the current NY sitn but could help with other states, if this spreads.

OTHER EFFORTS: I’ve heard that a group of NY affiliates is trying to schedule an affiliates only meeting. I’ve also heard that Affiliate Summit is trying to work in a session for discussion on the issue.

Cheers,

Heather Paulson

Thanks so much for staying on top of this issue and keeping us all informed. I was directly affected by this yesterday, as one of my affiliate sites terminated all New York affiliate marketers.

Ken Evoy, CEO of Site Build It, is interested in this as well and is posting in his forums about it, in a thread that I started yesterday. Many of us are wondering if there is some grass roots movement afoot somewhere that we can join, something that we can make viral to really put some uncomfortable pressure on the New York politicians to make them re-think this terrible idea. If there isn’t anything yet, there needs to be. How can we start this up? Any ideas from anyone?

Will be following this very closely and joining whatever “movement” I can find.

Thanks.
Debbie