The PMA has announced that the anti-affiliate tax law in Minnesota has not passed! This is great news for Affiliate Marketing Industry in general and Minnesota Affiliates in specific.

It gives us hope about the future of our Industry. Collaboration, act and talk up as one voice shows its strong impacts on live and dead issues of Performance Marketing Industry.

The PMA is so proud with the affiliates who sent in their letters to Minnesota representatives. This is one of most effective methods to participate in the legislative process and help to make a difference. If you posted warnings about the legislation on your blog or sent e-mails to your fellow affiliates in the state warning them, you helped to spread the word against this type of legislation. The PMA would like to sincerely thank everyone for their help! The victory is yours!

Members of Performance Marketing Alliance do not stop fighting against any issues which troubles out the status of development in Performance Marketing Industry. Do not hesitate to become a member and do it now before June 1st in order to become a Founding Charter Membership. We have a lot in common. Please just check out PMA’s website.

If you would like to check out the current status of different states who are fighting against Anti- Affiliate Tax, here is the fact sheet.

Connecticut
Status: File no. 599 - Still at the foot of the Senate calendar. Nothing new has been reported on the web page regarding the bill’s status. Session adjourns June 3rd. If you would like to send a letter to your representative in the Senate, you can look up your representative here.

You can find an e-mail template here (Note: do not send letters/e-mails to the representatives listed below the template since the bill has passed out of that committee into the full senate. Sending one to your representative is best).

Tennessee
Status:  SB 1741 - website shows the last action taken was on May 14th when it was placed on the Senate Tax Subcommittee of the Finance, Ways and Means committee calendar to be heard today (May 19th). HB 1947 - website shows last action taken was on May 13th when it was moved to the last calendar date of the budget subcommittee of the House Finance, Ways and Means committee. That calendar is not available online yet. Tennessee adjourns in late May.
If you have not send a letter yet to the committees, please do so now. You can find a template and contact info in our older post here (Note: remember to change the text to HB 1947 when e-mailing the representatives and keeping it as SB 1741 for the senators. Also, be sure to fill info about your business in the second paragraph to personalize it).

Hawaii
Status: HB 1405 - On webpage the last action listed was on May 11, when the bill was passed to the Governor. However, it was reported to PMA that the Governor received the bill on May 8 and has 45 days to sign or veto. If she does not sign it in 45 days, it will become law. We will use the May 8 date for the 45 day countdown, so we have until June 23. Please e-mail the governor if you live in Hawaii and haven’t already.

Rhode Island
Status: H 6164 - Still scheduled for the House Finance Committee. There are no updates online of actions taken by the committee. It was not on the House Finance Meeting list for May 18 or May 19. Agendas are posted for May 20 and 21, but bills have not been listed on those agendas yet. The session ends in late June. If you live in Rhode Island, please send in a letter or two. A template and contact info can be found here.

North Carolina
Status: Nexus Legislation is probably part of the overall budget buried in the Senate tax bill, which may pass later in the month. However, the House is committed to not raising taxes of any kind. AB 178/ H 558 (the bill to modernize Sales Tax Stat/ Digital Goods) may have at one time had the e-commerce legislation in it, but it has been taken out and pooled with other tax issues in the budget package. The senate has been quiet on the specifics of what will be included in the package.  They adjourn in early July. We will keep you posted on any action that might be needed by the affiliates, but for now, we are waiting for more information.

Wisconsin
Status: AB 75 - determined that the budget bill text does not pertain to us. It is a generic affiliate bill, not internet specific. We will not have to worry about Wisconsin for now! Hooray!

Have a great Weekend!

California hearing for AB 178 has been postponed. Although it sounds a very Good News, who knows what it will bring us in the near future. This bill is expected to be taken from the shelf within a few months time again with the efforts to raise funds for 2010 budget.

No time to stop or take a sigh relief. Instead, we have to work hard to keep it together and even stronger than ever before. I always would like to see the good side of any angle. The tax issue is binding Performance Marketing Industry so tight now we Now we can clearly see who we are. It is like finding your own personality at your adolescence age after running several crisis which builds up you as who you are.

In reality we are growing a strong economic power that many states would like to interrupt or even block our progressive steps and see Performance Marketing units as “Cash Cows”.

We have to prove them wrong. We have to show them how organized we are and how technologically and creatively we are challenging the tax attacks.
We have to show them how Performance Marketing becomes matured up after those attacks. We are not blind or deaf anymore. We are getting to know each other personally, contacting via facebook, twitter, linkedin and other social media means. Many of us are blogging and twittering regularly to keep this spirit fresh.
I am so proud of being a member of Performance Marketing and act along side with all of the affiliates, merchants, affiliate networks and vendors.

So let’s become united.

Let’s become members of PMA (Performance marketing Alliance) to have a much louder voice and act organically to fight against any obstacles and to raise the standards of our industry.

Let’s use the Affiliate Tax Issue to our advantage to unite.

Only we can make this industry credible and respectable one. Wouldn’t it be nice to tell our adventurous story to our grandsons and granddaughters and say we did it? Don’t forget that we are the ones who are shaping this industry and next generations will carry out to other levels. So exciting!

What are you waiting for? Please join PMA before June 1, 2009 and become a Founding Charter Member!
I will be so happy to see you there:)

It seems like consequent Tax Bills for affiliate marketing is being followed and will be followed by each State. Unfortunately if we do not unite and act as one living organism, we can not make our voice heard and we cannot evolve.

We have to take the Tax Bill issue as the first sign of next threads for Performance Marketing Industry as a whole. States are desperate to find resources to patch their budgets but they are searching for the wrong side to collect taxes.
We cannot risk staying behind those Bills. Instead we have to proactively show ourselves everywhere and put our claims on the table so that everybody becomes aware of our industry. Unfortunately, up until now Performance Marketing Industry kept in a closed box. Thus so many people have got little or no understanding of it.

Until the day our industry becomes a mainstream industry with a unique voice and will be mentioned about in each marketing or business magazines such as Inc, Fast Company, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Wired, Business Week etc., we have to fight Tax Bills or other coming threads.

• We need a public voice.
• We need public to know about us.
• We need to create a true public opinion.

I strongly believe that “Performance Marketing Alliance” is the right way to achieve these goals.  I am so proud to become A Founding Charter Member and work together with great people for the good of our industry.

I believe that PMA wants to unite and work with all the people who are involved in this industry. What are you waiting for?  It’s only you who can create value for yourself and for the members of our industry.
Don’t wait for someone else to save you, come on board, work together and get your voice heard!

There are two types of membership

Individual membership is $500 for two years. Individual membership includes:
-         Voting in the charter board of directors (you can even run for a seat)
-         Lifetime use of a charter member logo
-         Other benefits yet to be determined

Corporate charter membership is for 2 years and is $5,000. Corporate memberships can be held by anyone you assign as the representative of the company. Corporate membership includes:
-         Voting in the charter board of directors (you can even run for a seat)
-         Lifetime use of a charter member logo
-         Joint press release announcing your membership
-         Other benefits yet to be determined

For more information and to become a member please visit Performance Marketing Alliance.com

I love to be a part of Performance Marketing Industry because I feel fresh sprit of entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity everywhere.

This is why I care so much about what’s happening in the Performance Marketing Industry recently. Many US States are mimicking each others actions after Californian Government initiates a Tax Bill for Affiliate Marketing. Unfortunately this Tax Bill is trying to punish affiliates, merchants and networks. It is so ironic to see that the US Economy is punishing its own resources of revenue because Performance Marketing is the future of Marketing. However, this action is just cutting the main roots of the Performance Marketing  early before its branches grow up.

I know that desperate times bring desperate measures but those measures are supposed to be wise and risky. However, “Affiliate Tax” solution is neither wise nor risky. It is the easiest way to find short term patches to raise some funds. It is a way to kill the industry at its infancy and never give it a chance to grow stronger which will give rise to enormous amount of funds being returned as enormous amount of taxes in the future.

US is the leader in Affiliate Marketing Industry but this chain reaction will put great pressure on Affiliate Marketing Industry which in return bring less creativity, innovation, technological development and free spirit of enterpreneurship.

Historically the progress in any field of business flourishes only when that business has enough time to accumulate capital. America is always proud as a free economy and free country. However, this situation shows just the contrary.

Unfortunately if those Bills pass, Performance Marketing Industry can not find enough time to mature up.  Current capacity of this industry is nothing compared to its future expected volume and size.  Of course Performance Marketing Industry has its decent members who are proud to pay their taxes but the reality is it is not the right time to push taxes on this industry.  All the sectors are trying to transform themselves into internet and e-commerce to become recessionary proof. It becomes a common opinion that E-commerce will grow up since more people are ready to check out coupons, deals and discounts from e-commerce sites and reluctant to pay high gas bills for driving to shopping.

Affiliate Marketers, Affiliate Networks or vendors in this industry are symbolizing the Free spirit of entrepreneurship which is the key development factor of US the Economy for ages. This why I can not figure out the reason why Performance Marketing is being punished, while mortgage industry or auto industry have their own incentives. Is it fair to give privileges to conventional industries and left the new ones alone and pay the expenses?

For more references and recent news please visit, http://www.performancemarketingalliance.com , become a member and fight against this bill.