Comments Off on Intermediate Metrics

I am growing to detest intermediate metrics, which are often used in deceptive ways. Read more »

Comments Off on North Carolina’s Advertising-Nexus Sales Tax Law

It now appears almost certain that North Carolina will become the third state (after New York and Rhode Island) to enact a blatantly unconstitutional “Advertising-Nexus” law, attempting to force out-of-state merchants to collect sales tax if they pay in-state web publishers for advertising.  Although Amazon responded to New York’s secret, retroactive enactment of the law in 2008 by collecting sales taxes from New York residents, the laws are having perverse effects in Rhode Island and North Carolina. Read more »

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It’s amazing how “buzzwords” and jargon continue to drive attitudes and behavior of companies and investors. For the past year, “social media” and “social networking” have been the hot buzzwords, and everybody wants to hire marketing people with a proven track record in “social media.” The problem? Nobody has figured out a way to profit from “social media” marketing. Read more »

Comments Off on Common-Sense SEO

Search-Engine Optimization is probably the single most profitable “marketing strategy” for most e-commerce retailers. The reason is simple: if your SEO strategy works well, you’ll draw traffic and generate sales, without paying anyone for that privilege. But every day, I find retail e-commerce sites that ignore (or fail at) this critically important strategy. That’s very sad, because in my opinion, effective SEO requires very little more than common sense. (Most other marketing strategies are also more effective if the site is optimized for search engines.) Read more »

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Okay, I’m going to leap out on a ledge and suggest something that none of us (in the “affiliate marketing” community) like: Merchants should seriously consider adopting the “New York Solution” for all of their web publishers, whether located in an “Advertising-Nexus” state or not. Read more »

Comments Off on Quick Report: Search Engine Strategies (San Jose)

I spent half of my day yesterday visiting the exhibitor booths at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. My primary goal was to learn more about some of the advanced PPC search management tools, but I was also looking for anything new that might help my clients or me. Read more »

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California is considering a bill which would effectively terminate advertising by out-of-state merchants on web publications owned by Californians. Read more »

Comments Off on What to Call It? “Amazon Tax” or “Advertising-Nexus Tax Law”

What should we (web publishers, merchants, and others in the affiliate-marketing industry) call the unconstitutional law which NY enacted (and which RI, NC, HI, CA, TN, CT, and MN are considering)? Read more »

Comments Off on Web Site Checklists for Merchants (draft) (2007)

This is a “work-in-progress” checklist that I created in December 2007, but never finished. It is essentially a list of “issues” to consider when evaluating a merchant’s web site. Read more »

Comments Off on Types of Affiliates (Web Publishers)

Most merchants find it useful to divide prospective and current affiliates into major categories, which usually have different performance characteristics and concerns. Read more »