Over the previous 12-18 months there have been several historical and destructive legislative decisions that have challenged the current and future viability of the affiliate marketing industry.

As I’ve (and Pepperjam Network) already discussed publicly numerous times the State of New York passed legislation that requires online businesses based anywhere in the United States to pay taxes to the State of New York based on a broad legal interpretation of “presence” defined through affiliates who reside and conduct business (affiliate marketing) in the State of New York. In short, Pepperjam believes this interpretation of the law is overly broad, is not fair to both affiliates and merchants, and should be overturned (aka, we are against it).

Most recently other states are following or threatening to follow suit with New York. As a result, affiliates, affiliate networks, and thousands of online businesses have reason to be concerned.

This is a very serious situation and there has never been a more important time for the affiliate industry to join together to fight New York and any other state that attempts to pass legislation that puts the future of the affiliate marketing industry (and online commerce) in jeopardy.

It’s with the above message in mind that Pepperjam Network has pledged $5,000 to the Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA) with hopes that PMA will provide the (one) voice that we need to represent us (the affiliate industry) during this important time.

As a former affiliate marketer, affiliate manager, and as President & CEO of one of the fastest growing and most celebrated affiliate marketing companies in the world I strongly encourage you to follow our lead and pledge money to PMA to help fight existing legislation and stand as one voice for our industry moving forward.

I imagine you have questions about why Pepperjam Network has selected PMA and what went into our decision making process – Feel free to post any questions you have to this post and we’ll be happy to provide a response.

Finally, I’d like to let you know that Pepperjam continues to be on the front lines of affiliate marketing innovation, while also making sure that the entire industry survives and thrives for many years to come.

Pepperjam Network conducted extensive due diligence over a several month period, met with PMA board members and representatives, as well as non-PMA members that currently have leading voices within the affiliate marketing space, and we’ve concluded that PMA is the organization we need right now to help our industry come together at this most important time.

Learn more about the Performance Marketing Alliance at www.performancemarketingalliance.com

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 10:47 am and is filed under Pepperjam Network, affiliate marketing, affiliate network, pepperjam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.