Dear Legislators,

The Amazon Tax is unconstitutional and is a desperate measure to raise tax revenue.

First, the law is unconstitutional because it ultimately would require sellers with no physical presence in your State to collect sales tax based exclusively on contracts with affiliate marketers that reside in your State.

Second, while your intent to raise needed funds to run your State during these difficult economic times deserves considerable respect, the Amazon Tax won’t raise the tax revenue you intend it to raise.

I am aware that the intent of the Amazon Tax is to use the presence / residence of “affiliates” in a particular State to require an online business to pay State sales tax.

The flawed logic goes….if an online business has an affiliate program and that program has affiliates who reside in a given State then the State can require the online business to pay sales tax based on a nexus argument. The allure of this type of legislation is that the perceived amount of sales tax revenue that could be generated can be several hundred million dollars per year, especially in larger States like New York and California.

Here’s the problem.

The Amazon Tax legislation already passed in New York and under consideration in numerous States around the country REQUIRES that the online business have affiliates within the State in question.

While this poses a hurdle to online businesses wanting to conduct affiliate marketing business in a given State the remedy to this problem for online businesses is easy: Terminate all affiliates that reside in a State where the legislation has passed…then the legislation fails and the online business doesn’t have to charge sales tax.

While both the online business and the affiliate marketer lose so does the State who passed the legislation.

Let’s do the math.

The affiliate marketer loses because he or she is terminated from the affiliate marketing program and as a result they either go out of business or move to another State to conduct business. That’s a loss for the State and a loss for the affiliate.

The online business loses because they are deprived of the revenue that was being generated by affiliates within the given State (remember, they will be terminated from the program because they resided in a State where the Amazon tax was passed). In addition, the State loses because the law didn’t work as intended. No affiliates in State = no power to levy sales tax.

The State loses because (1) they don’t collect the revenue they intended to collect, (2) they contribute to the loss of thousands of jobs and potential closure of a similar amount of affiliate marketing businesses, and (3) they lose income tax from the employees and businesses that once conducted business in their State.

The entire affiliate marketing community can sympathize with the fact that the last 12 months have been very difficult economically.

In fact, many affiliate marketing businesses have been forced to lay off employees, while just about all of us have taken unprecedented steps to reduce costs.

During this challenging time we need to take a step back and not act out of desperation.

The Amazon Tax is a desperate measure that will not fulfill its intended consequences.

As a example, Amazon.com recently wrote a letter to the State of California suggesting that it will terminate all affiliates from the Amazon Affiliate Program that reside in the State of California to avoid having to charge its CA customers sales tax.

We all lose.

It’s fair to conclude that other online businesses will follow Amazon’s lead.

The end result will be that the so-called Amazon Tax will fail.

During this difficult economic time legislators around the country must look elsewhere to raise tax revenue.

The Amazon Tax is a dead end piece of legislation.

Think twice before you support this legislation.

RE: Facebook Vanity URL’s

Did you sign-up yet for your Facebook Vanity URL? Just last week Facebook started allowing FB members to change their profile URL’s so they would be easy for others to remember.

CLICK HERE if you haven’t secured your FB vanity URL yet.

Well….I tried to get “pepperjam” and that was taken….I tried “krisjones,” “kristopherjones,” “kjones,” and several variations and they were all taken.

So………I decided to go with “pepperjamceo.” @pepperjamceo is my Twitter alias so I guess it makes sense.

Since we own the trademark “pepperjam” I’m confident we will be able to get the rights to that.

If you are on Facebook (that’s an oxymoron, isn’t it) friend me – http://twitter.com/pepperjamceo

Hat tip to Shoemoney who notified his readers the day before the event actually took place. Shame on me for waiting several days after that to secure my vanity URL.

We don’t typically blog about our affiliate network new advertiser launches on Pepperjam Blog, but it seemed important to let our Pepperjam agency followers know that today we launched the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Affiliate Program on Pepperjam Network.

You will know SMX as the recently launched (about two years ago or so) search marketing conference led by industry veterans Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman.

Danny is one of the original thought shapers of search marketing and was the founder of the Search Engines Strategies (SES) Conference.

We are really proud to launch the SMX Affiliate Program and we are confident that the program will be a hit with our search and blog affiliates.

The program pays 6% of all ticket sales, which can equal hundreds of dollars in commission since ticket prices can be several thousand dollars a pop, especially if a company is purchasing multiple tickets at once.

If you are an affiliate or blogger you need to promote this one!

CLICK HERE to learn more about the SMX program. Joining Pepperjam Network and the SMX Affiliate Program is FREE!

Here are my tops five strategies for building your business with Twitter.

(5) Manage Your Brand. Use a service like EasyTweets.com to monitor people who mention your brand – Easy Tweets will send you an e-mail when someone on Twitter mentions your brand. Similarly, you can use the service to monitor any keywords that you’d like.

(4) Better Serve Your Customers. Twitter is real-time and so should your customer service – leverage Twitter to address customer concerns and answer questions in real-time.

(3) Develop Edge. Twitter is the hottest new social network in the world. Every one and their sister are talking about Twitter. Incorporate Twitter into your marketing and sales strategy; include a “Follow us on Twitter” icon on your homepage and your visitors will think your totally cool. Edgy / cool companies don’t have to spend as much money on advertising because others do it for them through word of mouth and viral buzz. Get it and excel.

(2) Follow People with Similar Interests. You are a business – you want to sell people your stuff. Leverage Twitter by following every one who has ever Tweeted about anything remotely similar to your line of products or services. Once you’ve built your following it’s up to you to keep things interesting and build credibility and interest. Leave your sales hat at the door, seriously.

(1) Join the conversation. Use Twitter Search (www.search.twitter.com) to find people talking about topics related to your business. For instance, if you sell gourmet foods you should use Twitter Search to find people Tweeting about different kinds of gourmet foods. Once you locate the conversations make sure to follow the people involved and add something of substance to the dialogue. Don’t be stiff; instead, be friendly.

Have fun!!!

Twitter is FREE. JOIN HERE. Follow me @pepperjamceo.

I’ll be leaving tomorrow afternoon for Denver, Colorado to keynote Affiliate Convention.

Affiliate Convention is a multi-day conference and networking event for the affiliate marketing industry.

This is the first time tha Affiliate Convention has been held “in the States,” but the conference has been going on for years to sold out audiences across the world.

I’m keynoting Day 1 of the conference.

Other than some opening remarks my keynote will be totally interactive…leveraging Twitter, Facebook, and other sources to take questions from people around the globe. In addition, Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker will be moderating the interactive Q & A part of the presentation, which is exciting (Shoemoney is an “old” friend and was a member of my wedding party a few years back).

I’m really excited about the format.

If you’d like to submit a question for me to answer during the presentation you can do so through Twitter using #affcon-kris , DM @affconvention or submit via Jeremy Schoemaker’s (Shoemoney) Web site HERE. I’m also told that people will be Tweeting LIVE (and taking additional questions) during the speech with the hash #affcon.

Hope to see you in Colorado!

If not, I’ll see you at Affiliate Summit in August or at another conference soon.

I am proud to announce that I will be the featured speaker at the University of Pittsburgh on June 9, 2009 (details below). The title of my presentation is “Get to the Forefront of the Customer Mind: Make the most of your Web site with Search Engine Marketing” and will focus on Search Engine Optimization, with a focus on leveraging social media tactics to generate buzz, Web site traffic, and links.

If you are from the Pittsburgh area I’d love to see you at the event. Tickets are $75, but you get a copy of my best-selling book and a Continental Breakfast.

Click here for a PDF detailing the event.

WHERE: Pittsburgh Athletic Association
WHEN: Tuesday, June 9, 2009
TIME: 7:30 Continental Breakfast / 8:00 Program / 10:30 Book Signing
COST: $75 (includes breakfast and book)

Register today by calling 412-648-1542 or e-mailing ieeregistration@katz.pitt.edu

This event is sponsored by The Institute of Entreprenuerial Excellence (IEE) and the Small Business Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh – the IEE is part of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business.

It’s always easier to find gifts for Mom on Mother’s Day, but Dad is often a bit more difficult.

Come on…does Dad really need a new Tie or box of golf balls?

This year you can please dad with some Jelly Beans from Jelly Belly!

You may be thinking – why the heck is Kris blogging about Jelly Belly Jelly Beans?!

Well…Jelly Belly is a featured Pepperjam Network advertiser so I thought I’d give a Father’s Day gift recommendation from a PJN Advertiser that everyone has heard of, but may not be thinking about in terms of a great fit for Father’s Day.

I also really love how the products appear within Pepperjam Store Builder:

If you are an affiliate an want to promote Jelly Belly this Father’s Day you can apply to the program through Pepperjam Network HERE.

We launched Pepperjam Store Builder last year as part of our next generation product feed technology.

If you are an advertiser with an affiliate program or an affiliate marketer not familar with Pepperjam Store Builder this post will provide you with a bit of insight into our thinking and the benefits of the technology versus what you’d find on other leading affiliate networks like Linkshare, Commission Junction, or Google Affiliate Network.

Rationale Behind Pepperjam Store Builder

As many of you know we launched Pepperjam Network in January of last year as a “Next Generation” affiliate network.

In short, the momentum behind launching an affiliate network was to leverage Pepperjam’s 10 years of affiliate marketing experience, while also engaging leading advertisers and affiliates to build an affiliate marketing technology that addressed many of the shortcomings that existed at the time (and continue to exist outside of Pepperjam Network) across the affiliate marketing industry.

The two drivers of Pepperjam Network were a goal of (1) increasing affiliate transparency and (2) improving communication between advertisers and affiliates. Aside from those two goals…we set out to improve the user experience, provide substintive educational tools and resources, speed-up reporting functionality, build a better couponing technology, and release a product feed technology geared to both novice and expert product feed affiliates.

Before we started to build the actual product feed technology we conducted in-depth interviews with leading product feed affiliates the likes of Scott Jangro (i.e. Costumezee) and Connie Berg (FlamingoWorld), among others.

At the same time we spoke with less technical affiliates who were frustrated with their inability to easily manipulate static product feeds.

See…on networks like Commission Junction and Google Affiliate Network you are required to download product feeds in a flat file format (i.e. CSV) and manipulate the feed on your own – this requires a skillset enjoyed by very few affiliates. In short, 99% of affiliates don’t have the technical skillset to download, manipulate, and integrate product feeds into their Web sites – as a result, product feeds have been traditionally used by a very small portion of affiliates, which we have also felt was a shortcoming of being an affiliate on the big three affiliate networks.

Pepperjam Store Builder was built to cater to both advanced affiliates and non-technical affiliates thereby opening up product feeds to all levels of affiliate marketers, regardless of technical skillset.

Our advanced affiliates told us that a next generation product feed technology would provide additional product information that is not typically required in data feeds. These affiliates suggested that they still wanted to manipulate the actual product feeds on their backend and were happy with downloading the feeds into a flat file format.

Our non-technical affiliates gave us examples of “Store Builder” technologies like Build a Niche Store (BANS) and GoldenCan – these affiliates were most interested in a system that allowed them to manipulate the product feeds without needing advanced technical skills. In addition, the non-technical affiliates wanted to be able to easily build stores including products from one or more Pepperjam Network advertisers at the same time.

From the first line of code to the last line of code we incorporated the interests of both advanced and non-technical affiliates.

We also kept in mind the needs of advertisers such as NetShops that have over 150 niche stores on Pepperjam Network with tens of thousands of unique products – imagine if every affiliate had to download individual product feeds for each NetShops store and then manipulate those feeds – that would require a significant allocation of resources. The goal here with Pepperjam Store Builder was to provide a solution to NetShops affiliates that allowed them to easily and quickly build stores using NetShops products….and / or efficiently download feeds in a flat file format (their choice).

Finally, the rationale for Pepperjam Store Builder followed a similar rationale to PepperjamAds in that our goal was to allow affiliates to easily MIX and MASH products from one or multiple advertisers. I’ll talk more about this concept in a second, but in short….with Pepperjam Store Builder affiliates can select multiple Pepperjam Network advertisers, filter results by things such as color or type, and build a store within 60 seconds – the same is true for PepperjamAds, but in the case of PJ Ads the affiliate is creating widget-like contextual ads from one or multiple advertisers….in less than 60 seconds.

What is Pepperjam Store Builder?

Now that you have the general rationale and approach to Pepperjam Store Builder I’ll discuss what it’s all about. After I provide a high level overview the best way to give you a sense of the technology is through examples (see below).

With Pepperjam Store Builder an affiliate has the ability to access real-time inventory (product feeds) from all Pepperjam Network advertisers – the only requirement is that the affiliate must first be accepted into the advertiser’s affiliate program on Pepperjam Network.

Once accepted the affiliate goes to the dedicated Pepperjam Store Builder section of Pepperjam Network (here’ what that looks like):

From the Pepperjam Store Builder console the affiliate can easily select any one or more advertisers they want to grab products from. This page includes a real-time demo so that the affiliate can see what the feed / store looks like. Affiliates can then manipulate the feed through a series of filters. Filters refine the feeds to allow the affiliate to showcase specific products or types of products. In addition to the filtering technology the affiliate can also customize the feed to agree with the look and color scheme of the Web site or blog that the feed will reside. Let me show several examples.

Example #1: This is a feed with the default color and for only one advertiser (Nutcracker.com)

Example #2: This is a feed with five products from one advertiser (Nutcracker.com) instead of two like Example #1 and a red border color instead of the default color

Example #3: This is a feed with seven products from five advertisers (GiftBaskets.com, Dressers.com, ChristmasLights.com, BeanBags.com, and Benches.com) and a blue border color

Example #4: This is the same feed as Example #3, but products are refined by the keyword “Gift” and the background has been changed to black

As you can see Pepperjam Store Builder allows affiliates to easily manipulate product feeds and build storefronts all within 60 seconds or less – it’s really that easy. At the same time, advanced affiliates can use the Pepperjam Store Builder system to manipulate one or more product feeds and download them as flat files to either be uploaded into the affiliate’s Web site or manipulated further (although that shouldn’t be necessary) on the affiliate’s backend.

In addition, affiliates can select any one or multiple advertisers to select products from (we call this MIXING and MASHING) – like the other networks there is no need to make requests, wait for e-mails or flat files to appear in your e-mail box or be available via FTP – not on Pepperjam Network. The affiliate can ultimately do anything they want to build a product feed using Pepperjam’s technology – the end result makes them look and feel rather sophisticated, but the tool is as easy to use for beginners as it is for advanced product feed experts.

This is a pretty long post so let’s end it with a “Top Five” list of Pepperjam Store Builder feaures.

Top Five Features of Pepperjam Store Builder.

With Pepperjam Store Builder you can quickly and easily:

(5) Build a store front with millions of products.
(4) Select products from one or more Pepperjam Network advertisers.
(3) Filter products so that your feed / storefront displays only the products you want to display.
(2) Customize the look and feel of the feed so that your storefront blends in with the look and feel on your existing Web site.
(1) Unlike other affiliate networks you’ll always have two choices – download your feed as a dynamic storefront or download your feed in a flat file format. If you select a dynamic storefront you no longer have to worry about products appearing out of stock on your Web site since our dynamic technology will automatically update your site with the most current inventory available.

BTW – did I mention that you get paid on every sale you generate through your Pepperjam Store Builder product feeds? Absolutely – it’s that easy and the benefits of using the feeds are easy and clear. Your users will love the feeds!

If you have any questions about Pepperjam Store Builder post them here, Tweet the Q’s to me @pepperjamceo or attend an upcoming advertiser or affiliate Webinar (www.pepperjamnetwork.com)

I was reading the New York Times this morning on my Amazon Kindle and took interest in an article entitled “Per-Per-Click Web Advertisers Fight Costly Fraud.”

The article notes that the ONLY form of advertising that grew in 2008 was pay-per-click advertising (despite the recession).

This makes sense since pay-per-click is one of the most measurable and effective forms of advertising ever – as an advertiser, you are supposed to only pay for clicks from keywords that you select (these keywords should reflect your specific products or services and therefore tend to have high conversion rates) and advertisements you draft (these ads reflect your value propositions and allow you to differentiate your products or services from competitors).

This highly relevant form of advertising has revolutionized internet advertising. Save behaviorial advertising (which I believe is an even more effective and cost efficient form of online advertising than search pay per click) and affiliate marketing (which is the most accountable form of ALL advertising…since you only pay for performance….performance defined by actual conversion [not clicks, which Google requires]), Pay Per Click represents an incredible way for businesses of all sizes to generate new business leads and sales.

However, as reported by Tom Cuthbert, President of Click Forensics (a Pepperjam partner)….there is a very serious and growing concern with Pay Per Click advertising. In fact, Click Forensics reports that 17% of all clicks in 2008 were FRAUD.

17% of all clicks were fraud!!!

That is a very serious claim and one that raises serious concern about how Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers are being charged.

In other words, with this finding….does Google or Yahoo credit their respective advertisers 17% of all clicks?

The answer is no.

Back in 2006 I wrote a post about how Yahoo credited Pepperjam (the agency side of our business) $10,000 as a courtesy after we claimed that much in click fraud for one of our clients. This post was quite popular at the time and was covered by hundreds of other blogs across the internet.

Let’s be fair, Google and Yahoo have click fraud filters in place. Based on our internal agency data on any given month Google will credit up to 1% of clicks as a miscellaneous “credit” to each of our client accounts. In addition, both Google and Yahoo claim to take click fraud seriously and they admit click fraud poses a serious risk to the viability of their business. At the same time, if an advertiser claims click fraud beyond Google and Yahoo’s detection systems there are processes in place for the advertiser to get compensated.

However, according to a 2007 report on Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Land Google appeared to suggest that click fraud is no where near the 17% recently reported by Click Forensics – in fact, Google claimed Click Fraud Is 0.02% Of Clicks.

Someone is wrong….Click Forensics or Google.

Regardless, today’s New York Times article raises a very serious issue that has certainly been swept under the rug by the major search engines.

Click Fraud is a real issue, especially during a recession where every penny matters.

Are you having trouble with click fraud?

Do you believe the problem is overblown or underestimated?

For more information on Click Forensics visit http://www.clickforensics.com/

To read today’s NYT’s article CLICK HERE.

To read my 2006 article about Yahoo CLICK HERE.

Pepperjam Network officially launched on January 15, 2008.

We positioned Pepperjam Network as a next generation affiliate marketing platform that addressed two primary shortcomings that were (and continue to exist) on other major traditional affiliate marketing platforms: (1) lack of affiliate transparency and (2) poor communication tools.

While these two factors drove the technical development of Pepperjam Network, a process that took place over 18-months, we also tapped the knowledge of over 100 well-known advertisers and affiliates.

In short, the approach taken to develop Pepperjam Network had never been done before.

Leading affiliate networks like Commission Junction and Linkshare were built by developers – while these platforms definitely innovated over the years the reality was that most advances were technical in nature and failed to address some of the real issues. Remember, our development process took 18 months – during that time any of the major platforms could have addressed these issues, but they either didn’t find them that important or they just had gotten so big that technical innovation such as Web Services were more important. For Pepperjam, Web Services, a sleaker interface, faster reporting, and a real educational resource center were part and parcel to our development process.

From the first line of code to the last, Pepperjam Network was built by advertisers and affiliates. Yes – we hired an internal team of ninja coders, but the development process from beginning to end was lead by advertisers and developers.

Ok. Ok. You are thinking – why would the CEO of Pepperjam Network attempt to “sell” me (the advertiser) by saying he thinks his platform is better than the others?

I’m not.

In fact, here’s my guarantee to you – the prospective advertiser – you will drive more sales and revenue through the affiliate channel by launching an affiliate program with Pepperjam Network.

It’s that easy.

We’ve got case study after case study of advertisers who launch with us and grow overall affiliate sales 10%, 20, 30%, and even 100+%.

Some advertisers launch affiliate programs exclusively on Pepperjam Network, while other advertisers launch supplemental affiliate programs.

Regardless, the reality is that over the last 10 years we’ve built friendships and loyalty with many of the leading affiliates in the world. This is what realy makes Pepperjam Network different than the others. Take everything else away from us and we are most proud of the affiliate loyalty we have built.

These are the types of affiliates who are driving 85% of the volume across most platforms.

These affiliates exist on many of the major platforms and they also exist on Pepperjam Network, but on Pepperjam Network the difference is the technological innovation (i.e. Pepperjam Store Builder, Pepperjam Chat, lightening fast reporting, etc.) and the level of support (and friendship) that we provide to our top affiliates that makes the difference.

There you go.

A case for why you should consider launching an affiliate program on Pepperjam Network.

If you have any interest send me a direct messae on Twitter @pepperjamceo or simply fill out this form (Click Here).

Want to see an advertiser demo of Pepperjam Network? Sign-up here – seats are filling up fast.