The first Affiliate Day will be held on September 14 2009. Missy Ward and Shawn Collins, co-founders of Affiliate Summit, have organized Affiliate Day for two reasons; to acknowledge the importance of affiliate marketing and to increase awareness. To mark the day there will be several promotions and giveaways including passes to Affiliate Summit West in January 2010.  Contact Affiliate Summit if you have a prize you’d like to donate.  Entry to win prizes will be simple – tweet on Affiliate Day (9/14) using hash tag  affday09 (#affday09) to enter and then random drawings from entries will be conducted on September 18 to yield winners. Find out more information by reading Affiliate Day and AffiliateTip.

The concept of Affiliate Day is a good one. We do however need to expand it beyond our industry to really reap the benefits. We should seize this opportunity to educate and inform those outside of our industry about what we do and how we do it. Of course Twitter will help but why not take it one step further.

Part of the problem with recent legislation is a lack of understanding of what we do and how we do it. From Governors, State Senators and Representative to those that serve on the Federal level, education is the key to fair legislation. All one has to do is read any of the recent quotes from our legislative “leaders” to see how woefully uninformed and uneducated they are about affiliate marketing. Perhaps if they understood that we are involved in advertising and not really sales people or affiliates (as in affiliate companies) they could enact fairer legislation. Perhaps, with education on our industry, they would see the need to address Internet sales tax on the Federal level.

If every one in our industry who has a blog or traditional website (isn’t that all of us?) took the day to write about one aspect of our work wouldn’t that help educate the general public and legislators about what we do?  Post the article on your blog, tweet about it. More importantly, get your information out to those outside our industry. Letters to the editor, email/write legislators and if you have contacts use other media to help spread the word. Use your Affiliate Voice to educate!

 Put Affiliate Day in front of a larger audience to reap even more rewards.

I already have two articles and emails planned, how about you?

Affiliate Summit East 2009 is just a few days away! It is being held at the Hilton Hotel in New York City and starts Sunday, August 9, and ends Tuesday. Although the first day of Summit is Sunday, like many others, I am arriving Saturday and leaving on Tuesday. You’ll find me in many places including the Affiliate Voice, LLC table at Meet Market and speaking at the Tax Impact and Issues session.

On Monday and Tuesday I will be meeting with several people getting feedback on various industry issues. I will also be attending several of the other sessions and visiting other exhibitors. If you would like to set up a time to meet, send me a dm on Twitter, Mellies, or send me an email. You can also just stop by the Affiliate Voice table at Meet Market (table # 28) or just stop me when you see me.

Sunday is the Meet Market. For most of the day, you will find me at the Affiliate Voice table (table 28). Rhea Tannenbaum and I look forward to meeting and talking with everyone. Be sure to stop by.

On Sunday at 1:30 I am also a speaker at the panel discussion “Advertising Tax Impact, Accomplishments and the Future” (Session 2c, Classroom C – Concourse A). The advertising or Internet sales tax is an issue that impacts everyone in the online marketing industry. Please join, Brian Littleton, (CEO ShareASale), Karen Garcia (partner GTO Management), Beth Kirsch (volunteer Performance Marketing Alliance) and myself, Melanie Seery (President Affiliate Voice LLC) as we discuss this issue. Bring your questions!

Advertising Tax Impact, Accomplishments and the Future
Session 2c
Location: Classroom C – Concourse A
Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm

Discussion on the Advertising Tax by industry leaders that have played a key role in organizing industry advocates and educating legislators on the impact of state tax nexus legislation.

•Brian Littleton, President / CEO, ShareASale.com (Twitter @Brianlittleton) (Moderator)
•Karen Garcia, Partner, GTO Management (Twitter @karengarcia)
•Beth Kirsch, Volunteer, Performance Marketing Alliance (Twitter @bethkirsch)
•Melanie Seery, President, Affiliate Voice (Twitter @mellies)

Affiliate Summit is a great event, lots of informative sessions and great networking both formal and informal. There are several parties, and Missy Ward has a great list on her blog. Be sure to see Missy Ward’s Party List so you don’t miss anything!

There is also a Silent Auction to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters taking place on Sunday.

I am really looking forward to attending another Affiliate Summit and hope to see you there!

The impact of the NY advertising tax or the NY Internet sales tax has been devastating for many NY affiliates. I’ve chronicled several of  our stories in the series “Story of NY Affiliates”.  I interviewed and wrote until it became too overwhelming for me. Affiliates lost their entire business, suffered severe financial and emotional stress.

As other states are working on similar legislation we often hear the official numbers of sales tax collected. Last year from June 1 2008 through early December NY claims to have collected around $46 million in additional sales tax revenue from newly registered out of state merchants. This year it is estimated that the figure will surpass $62 million. While other states who are contemplating similar legislation hear these figures, they do not hear the other side – the income tax revenue lost.

Affiliate Summit is conducting an important survey to determine the impact the advertising tax has had on income.  I urge every NY affiliate who was in business last year to take the survey. Impact of NY Advertising Tax / Impact of NY Internet Sales Tax

The results of the survey will be used to help educate legislators on the impact of the new nexus laws. As we continue to work on this critical issue it is important to have a more concrete analysis of the impact. 

Since last year, Affiliate Summit has shown NY affiliates their support. This was clearly demonstrated in many ways. This support included adding the NY Tax Issues and Solutions session at Affiliate Summit East last year even though the deadline had passed and  made sure that NY affiliates were well represented.  Over the past year, many of their podcasts discussed the Internet sales tax issue, they invited me to be a guest to help inform others, they blogged about it and helped disseminate information as we uncovered it. Throughout the year they have shown us support; it is now time to give back. NY affiliates need to complete the survey. Results will help us as we continue to fight for repeal and reinstatement to hundreds of programs. Every NY Affiliate Voice matters!

Please, New York Affiliates,  help Affiliate Summit help us.

Complete the survey –  Affiliate Summit – Impact of  NY Advertising Tax Survey