5 Star Affiliate Blogs

I wanted to report today on several new initiatives that are being undertaken in an attempt to fight affiliate fraud. Yesterday a Performance Marketing Leadership Summit was held and the focus was on Affiliate Fraud Prevention and Affiliate Screening.

The blog post suggested a marketing ploy that is dangerous, unethical and illegal. He suggested affiliates try to sell various herbal products by saying they will ‘prevent’ the swine flu. The FDA and FTC are cracking down and asking the public to report this fraud.

That $11,000 FTC fine is not true. The interview also discusses how disclosure needs to be made and how enforcement will be handled. Also handy Disclosure Policy Generator.

Today the FTC released the revised guidelines. There are two primary areas that affect affiliates who use testimonials or review products. I’m especially concerned with the reviews and endorsements issue.

Since it passed in 2008, the New York statute has decimated the income of thousands of affiliate advertisers in the state as several large Internet retailers have terminated all affiliate agreements to avoid imposition of use tax collection responsibilities.

The suit targets both supplement sellers and their affiliate marketers. There could be as many as 500 such affiliates. When the bad actors are identified, the complaint will be amended to include them. Fined 100,000 per web site.

There’s a new Sheriff in town and he’s hell bent on cleaning up the wild wild web and the Internet marketing space. Mr. Vladeck outlined plans that could upset the online advertising ecosystem.

One of the options on the table is a possible push to make 3rd party cookies opt in. I hope this option isn’t even considered, but if passed it could severely cripple our industry. If all 3rd party cookies are lumped together and the distinction isn’t made clear

There is advertising tax news and some good new resources scattered around the web so I wanted to do a recap of the most recent updates.

This morning North Carolina and Hawaii affiliates awoke to some really bad news. Ahead of pending advertising tax legislation Amazon took a preemptive strike by dropping affiliates effective immediately.

Affiliate link disclosure is a hotly debated topic. Well now it looks like the FTC is planning to regulate disclosure. HOT TIP for how to disclose and have it be a selling benefit.

The California advertising tax has been revived in a desperate attempt to help California’s budget crisis. AB178 was tabled earlier in the year, but they just added the anti-affiliate nexus language to the budget bill which could be voted on as early as this week.

North Carolina is so close to enacting the anti-affiliate sales tax that Amazon just sent notice to all NC affiliates letting them know that if the law is passed Amazon associates in the state will be dropped immediately.

As I have been reporting, the FTC is cracking down on affiliates on several levels. If affiliates don’t clean up their act the government will do it – in the meantime some CPA networks are imposing limits on affiliates.

Connecticut legislation has changed and we are concerned their #Advertising Tax bill will fast track. Connecticut is a much larger challenge than we’ve faced so far. In California, we’re trying to convince 9 people who are on a committee. In Connecticut, it has moved out of committee, so now we need to convince 151 legislators.

David Lewis, Beth Kirsch and Peter Bordes – the panel will discuss the ins and outs of the law and why it would be bad for the affiliate marketing industry. Also learn how you can get involved in the efforts to halt this legislation.

Amazon announced that if the sales tax bills in Hawaii and Maryland pass they will be dropping affiliates in those states. Last week industry leading affiliates and affiliate managers stormed the California capital

In this economy more people than ever are starting their own company. Cash in on this trend by offering incorporation services and other small business solutions on your site. Payouts 25 – 35.

If you are an affiliate marketer in California, your livelihood is at risk! If this bill passes, a firestorm of bills are sure to follow in other states. If you are a CA affiliate, merchant, network or OPM we need you to sign this group letter opposing the bill.

The CSPI and the AG blasted Acai websites in general and Acai flogs in particular saying they’ll likely sue the people behind them for consumer fraud. The ABC news video below also exposes this as consumer fraud.