Several things — important to affiliates, and affiliate marketing industry as a whole — have happened in the course of the past few days, unfortunately not all good, and today I’d like to draw your attention to the following four:
1. Pennsylvania Enacts Affiliate Nexus Tax law — Late last night (on December 1, 2011) the bad news came from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue which “in a surprising move… issued a press release and memorandum… stating that an existing statute has been reinterpreted to include a definition that states out-of-state retailers have nexus (and must collect PA sales tax) if they have affiliate marketers” [more in today’s post by the Performance Marketing Association].
2. Bing Bans Holiday Deals Sites — On November 30, it was reported that Bing, in its “version of the Google Panda Update”, has “completely removed some sites deemed thin from its search engine.” Ironically, among others they’ve also banned CyberMonday.com, a website owned by Shop.org which coined the very term “Cyber Monday” back in late 2005 [more in Danny Sullivan’s post here]. As Tricia Meyer has rightfully summarized, this article is “eye opening for affiliates” — “especially those who rely on search engines for all their traffic.”
3. Federal Sales Tax Reform — The reform which can remove the Affiliate Nexus Tax, “potentially getting 60,000 devastated affiliate marketers back in business”, is gaining a “growing support” and “has a very good chance of passage” [more in the Performance Marketing Association’s article here].
4. £1 Million Incubator for Affiliate Marketing — In the U.K. TradeDoubler has launched The Zoo Project, a unique initiative “offering £1m worth of business resources and industry mentoring to help” affiliate startups, fostering/encouraging affiliate marketing innovation [more in this article from November 30, 2011 at MyCustomer.com].
It certainly is a dynamic industry we work in… If I’ve missed a important news that belongs here, please do submit it through the “Comments” area below.