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Affiliate network ClickBank is offering several guidelines regarding best business practices for continuity program merchants in the wake of several merchant account closures, due to “ambiguous continuity program terms” in the eyes of major credit card companies.

Clarity is key, according to Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank Vice President of Sales and Business Development.

Some more advice from Ramachandran…

• If you are engaged in a practice in which goods or services are provided automatically, and the customer must either pay for the service or specifically decline it in advance of billing, you must be very clear and upfront about it. This type of practice is not unethical unless buyers do not fully understand the terms or sellers do not accept the consumer’s decision to discontinue the service or return the product.
• Credit card companies are no longer going to support merchants engaging in ‘free’ offers that are not actually free.
• Customers must receive good or contracted services in exchange for a credit card payment and, for any offer, must provide an affirmative consent such as a mandatory “I agree” statement checkbox where the customer acknowledges the terms and conditions of the offer and consents to be entered into a continuity program.

Further, Ramachandran says “At ClickBank, we’ve found that the best way to avoid compliance issues and keep our client’s continuity programs up and running without interruption is to be completely transparent with consumers regarding the terms of continuity programs.”

Get more details on Clickbank.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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The final numbers are in for Affiliate Summit West 2010 and we ended up with 4,125 attendees – the biggest Affiliate Summit to date.

We are very excited about the sustained growth during such a fragile economy – it’s a testament to the strength of the affiliate marketing space, even during a recession.

As far as the types of attendees at Affiliate Summit West 2010, once again the biggest group were affiliates.

More details on the growth of Affiliate Summit and the origins of the conference at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/about/.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Affiliate network RevenueWire has announced that they now have affiliates based in 74 countries.

There was big growth in Europe in 2009, where the affiliate network grew by 82 percent, largely attributable to increases in affiliates in France, Italy, and the UK.

The affiliate network also reported a large increase of affiliates in Australia.

I’d be curious how many of the 74 countries have steady earners month to month for the RevenueWire. Hopefully, there will be a case study of some sort down the road.

More details RevenueWire at http://www.revenuewire.com/.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Epic Advertising put on a big event last year, where a bunch of winning affiliates were treated to an all-expense paid party at the Playboy Mansion, as well as two nights in a luxury hotel in Los Angeles.

This year, they are planning An Epic Publisher Challenge, which they promise will be bigger and better than last year.

ShoeMoney posted lots of photos from the 2009 party at the Playboy Mansion.

You’ve got to join AzoogleAds to be in the running.

There will be 40 winners of an all-expense paid party at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, CA, plus two nights accommodations in LA, and more.

Also, the top five will have a charitable donation made by Epic Advertising in their name to the charity of their choice.

More details at http://www.themansion2010.com.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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There is a new podcast at GeekCast.fm for you to check out: PMA Industry Report.

On this podcast, the Performance Marketing Association covers the most pressing issues impacting advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies.

Listen to both sides of the tracks and other GeekCasters at http://geekcast.fm/. Also, be sure to subscribe to the GeekCast RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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I came across an image on Jason Calacanis’ Flickr account where he displayed the 2009 affiliate referrals from Mahalo to Amazon.com as an affiliate.

According to his photo title, Mahalo generated over $250,000 in sales to Amazon with over one million clicks. The conversion was 1.17%.

I was going to laugh at his conversion rate, but then I checked my 2009 numbers with Amazon, and while I converted at 1.99%, I didn’t refer nearly the volume of traffic as Mahalo.

Anyhow, within the title of the photo, Jason says they hit the quarter of a million plus figure in referrals without trying and asks if anybody has “Any ideas to grow this 10x?”

Just a little less than two years ago, Jason was experimenting with affiliate links and we had him on to chat about it on the GeekCast Podcast.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Do you have a blog, publication, site, podcast, video series, or some other outlet where you’d like to review Internet Marketing from the Real Experts?

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts is a collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social media rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.

The dozens of contributors in the book are the people that do this stuff every day, and the chapters in the book are comprised of their voices, their ideas, their action items, and their lessons learned from mistakes – all for Internet marketers to grow their business the day they start reading the book.

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts is the first book from Velocity NYC Press, an imprint of Morgan James Publishing, and a division of Affiliate Summit.

Please note – your audience should be focused on entrepreneurs, small businesses, etc., and the place where you plan to review the book must be regularly updated with original content.

Submit your request for a review copy of Internet Marketing from the Real Experts.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Overstock.com sent a letter to their Colorado affiliates earlier this week to let them know they will be removed from the affiliate program if the state passes HB 1193, an advertising tax bill declaring affiliates as a nexus for out of state retailers.

There is a hearing on the bill today, and a number of folks in the affiliate marketing community are testifying against it.

Stephanie Lichtenstein shared the following letter from Overstock.com to Colorado affiliates in the Fight Against the Advertising Tax group on Facebook.

January 25, 2010

Dear Affiliate:

Overstock.com values your advertising efforts on our behalf, and we hope to be in a position to continue our business connection for years to come. However, we are writing to inform you the Colorado state legislature has introduced a bill which puts our continued relationship in jeopardy. HB 1193 (Concerning the Collection of Sales and Use Taxes on Sales Made by Out-of-State Retailers) was introduced on January 22, 2010. We are told the bill is moving quickly. This bill is modeled on a bill first passed in New York. The legislation attempts to establish responsibility for collection of sales tax for out-of-state retailers if those out-of-state retailers use Colorado?based affiliate advertisers. We believe such bills are not only harmful to business, but unconstitutional and contrary decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.

More importantly, if HB 1193 passes, Overstock.com will have to sever relationships with Colorado Affiliates before the bill becomes law. We have done this in each state where such legislation has passed: New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island.However, in at least 3 states last year, the voices of local affiliate advertisers were heard. They pointed out that such legislation was unconstitutional, would be bad for local business and would not increase state revenues. Those bills were either not passed or vetoed by informed governors.

You may want to make your voice heard on the matter. Currently, we have information that the bill is on the agenda of the House Appropriations Committee for hearing Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at
8:30AM. It is uncertain if the Committee will hear public comment at the meeting, but they may, and you may want to attend the hearing. If you cannot, but would like to voice your opinion, you may do so by contacting the bill’s sponsor Rep. Jack Pommer (jack.pommer.house@state.co.us; (303) 866-2780) or your local legislator.

Again, Overstock.com values your work, and we are confident that, like other states recently examining and rejecting this legislation, Colorado will also see that this bill is bad for business and bad for Colorado.

Respectfully,

Jonathan E. Johnson III
President
Overstock.com, Inc.

If you’re an affiliate marketer in Colorado, make sure your voice is heard! If the bill passes, Overstock.com won’t be the only affiliate program that removes affiliates.

More details at http://www.performancemarketingassociation.com/blog/2010/01/27/overstock-will-terminate-affiliates-if-colorado-hb-1193-passes/.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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I was reading “Top 10 Wordpress Plugins That Affiliate Marketers Need” at MarketingElf.com the other day and came across a really useful WordPress plugin I wasn’t using.

The plugin is called Pretty Link, and it enables affiliates to shrink the huge affiliate links and get a branded URL with the affiliate’s domain name. Plus, the plugin enables affiliates to track clicks, specify the redirection type, and nofollow the link.

The plugin has an interface within WordPress with all of the options, and it also adds a quick Pretty Link took in the WordPress dashboard.

The basic Pretty Link plugin is free, and there is also a Pretty Link Pro version with lots of added features.

Pretty Link Pro provides keyword and URL replacement options, auto creation of Pretty Links to post to Twitter, customization of your Pretty Link base URL and more.

I’ve been using .htaccess redirects for my affiliate links for years, but I really like this slick, easy, time saving functionality.

Time for a change.

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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