The Affiliate Tax and CPC Programs

David Lewis at Revenews wrote an interesting article entitled "The End of Affiliate Marketing or the Rebirth of CPC?" related to the 'affiliate tax' that is hitting many states.  Specifically, he dives into how those CPA affiliates who are impacted may benefit from switching to CPC affiliate programs like the Shopzilla Publisher Program.  

For those who may be unfamiliar, several states are in various stages of passing laws that would change the definition of nexus.  Nexus means that the business has a legal presence in a given state, and must therefore collect sales tax on sales originating in that state.  The proposed change to the definition of nexus will include affiliates as 'salespeople' of the internet retailers they are affiliates of.  

For example, in California (one of the states where such a law is being advanced), although a business may not have previously had nexus in the state, under the new rule if a business has any affiliates based in California, they would need to collect sales tax on all California sales. 

Of course, most retailers would rather kill their affiliate programs in states that pass these laws rather than start charging sales tax on all sales in the state.  This is exactly what Amazon has done over the past week when it made the tough decision to end its CPA affiliate program in both North Carolina and Rhode Island.

As of today, New York and Rhode Island have already passed such laws.  Hawaii is predicted to pass its law (it's on the Governor's desk), and the situation is still ongoing in North Carolina and California.

As Lewis points out in his article, all is not lost if an affiliate tax passes in your state.  Using a CPC program like the Shopzilla Publisher Program is one way of for affiliates to work around it, since payment is made on the click, regardless of whether a sale is made.  Merchants may continue to list their offerings on CPC-based comparison shopping engines without fear of nexus being established in any other states.

If you are an affiliate based in one of the aforementioned states, we invite you to apply for the Shopzilla Publisher Program.  Don't let the affiliate tax wipe out a valuable revenue stream.

New Ways to Create Dynamic Assets

Hey Publishers,

For those of you who are unfamiliar with creating dynamic assets, now might be a good opportunity to try adding a few to your website.  Within the Shopzilla Publisher Portal you are able to build dynamic assets based on top keyword or category search results, as well as build comparison shopping assets for specific products.  These dynamic assets refresh their content each time your website page is loaded, offering your users a fresh shopping experience each time they visit your website.

We are pleased to announce a couple enhancements to the creation of dynamic assets:

1) Create dynamic assets with keyword OR category, or both
Previously, you were only able to create dynamic assets based on keyword or keyword+category search criteria.  You are now able to also create dynamic assets based solely on category.  This will allow for creation of more generic dynamic assets.  A good use of this sort of dynamic asset would be placement on a fashion website.  Rather than displaying products defined by a keyword, you will now be able to create a dynamic asset displaying results according to product popularity in a chosen category.

2) Create 'Product Pod' dynamic assets within any category
Previously, you were only able to create a 'Product Pod' dynamic asset within certain categories.  We have now expanded upon your category options.  Keep in mind, however, that the function of a 'Product Pod' asset is to allow for a comparison shopping experience, so you may find instances of a category not retrieving any results.  This is because there aren't any available products with multiple offers aligned to them that would support a comparison shopping experience.  (For instance, we don't have any products in category "Chocolate & Sweets" that have multiple offers aligned to them...I know, seems crazy...so, sadly, you won't be able to build a 'Product Pods' asset for your favorite chocolate-covered ants, but you will be able to build one for your favorite pans.)

To create a dynamic asset, log into the Shopzilla Publisher Portal and choose the 'Get Content' tab. From here you will find a "Dynamic Assets" link. If you need any help creating these assets, please Contact Us.

Enjoy!
Shopzilla Publisher Team

Earnings Report Not Displaying Data

Hey Publishers. 

You have probably noticed by now that we are experiencing some technical difficulties with our earnings report.  We understand how frustrating it is to all of you who login to your accounts but are unable to view your clicks and earnings.  Please be assured that your traffic is being tracked accurately and that we are logging all impression, redirect and earnings data in our database. 

We realize the importance reporting holds for you, our Publisher. This is a very high priority problem and our team will soon begin working to rebuild the entire earnings report structure.  In the meantime, please feel free to contact us and let us know if you would like to begin receiving your earnings reports daily via email.  We would be more than happy to set you up with a custom report that will be sent to you each morning showing your clicks and earnings from the previous day.  On top of the daily earnings report, we can also run comprehensive reports for any date range that we can send to you upon request. 

We thank you all very much for your patience and understanding while we work through this issue.  If you would like to request daily email reports, a comprehensive one-time earnings report, or both, please contact Talia Drake at tdrake@shopzilla.com or Bryan Byrne at bbyrne@shopzilla.com.   

New Categories in Beauty and Women's Clothing

Hey Publishers!  If you are using our Catalog API or our FTP data feeds, please note that we have new categories available for use.

You can download our new categories below:

Download New Atoms_06-03-09 (FTP data feed users)

Download New Nodes_06-03-09 (Catalog API and dynamic asset users)

IMPACT
FTP Data Feed: There will be new category files representing each new atomID.  There will be fewer offers in related category files as offers are recategorized into the newly created categories.

Catalog API & Dynamic Content Assets (excluding product pods): If you are making dynamic calls within 'Beauty' & 'Women's Clothing' categories, and not specifying a keyword, you may want to consider tuning your specified category to continue displaying your desired results.