[Mr. Sal]

Originally Posted by delsol

Thanks to all that testified. For those making 100% of their income using aff. marketing I recommend preparing to relocate NOW.

The frame of mind you have to get into is "this bill has passed, what do I need to do now". I hope it does not pass but this will help you be prepared to stay in business. You might have wasted a little bit of money but see this as insurance money.

We might defeat this but the chances are very low. It appears that just like the House process the Senate process will follow party lines. I'm more and more convinced (based on some evidence) that the only way to stop this bill, is with the acquiescence from the Governor's circles (Governor's legislative liaison).

This plan of action might help you:

1) Find a residency in another state. If you can't find your own condo in this short amount of time, ask a familly member or good friends if you can share their residency.

For those making 100% of their income using affiliate marketing, you recommend preparing to relocate now, and find a residency in another state in order to stay in business?

To me that sound like a bad idea!

What if this thing spread like cancer and little by little, it hit every state at the end?

Are you willing to keep on the run, and keep moving from state to state until you run out of the country?

Then what, what would you do next, where are you going to go next?

I think it's better to stay and fight, or at last resort, stay and adapt!

Do you really think that no one can still make 100% of their income using affiliate marketing on any state that comes up with this new tax idea crap?

You better think again!

[delsol]

I don't think it's really fair to parse out my post, one sided like that. Life ain't fair I know ;-)

If I offended you I apologize.

Of course you should fight similar bills in your state. Every situation might have it's particularities. When you determined that the chances are not good for defeating a bill, it could be a good idea to prepare a contingency plan.

Friend, I sent over 300 emails, made around 100 calls. Even offered charity money for then to read my emails. I sent long emails, I sent short email, I sent friendly emails, I sent angry emails..same strategy with phone calls..... I've been talking about this with my rep., before this even came to the surface.You will not find a stronger believer in fighting. I've actually interacted with 4+ representatives (not their assistant) and formed my own opinion of the situation.

When you determine that this situation does not look good, I'm simply saying prepare for the worth case scenario.

Being bllindly bullheaded, just like the democrat in the house and senate of Colorado are behaving, might be dangerous for the family you first have to protect, just as passing this bill might be for Colorado.

I think it would be difficult to do business with only the Colorado merchants. If in the end the only place we can do affiliate marketing is a foreign country, I would consider it. I came to the United States as a foreigner (many years ago), I'm not affraid to experience new places. It can be an enriching experience.

I'm not saying you should be like me or that you should do this or that. I'm just trying to share my experience/opinion, it might help some.

Peace,

[Mr. Sal]

No need to apologize man, I was just posting what I think about what you said about moving to another state, just because of that bill...

[ladidah]

We all have different situations regarding our family, lives and websites. Some of us have very young children and some of us are single not having to worry about impacting other lives. Some have websites with millions of merchants and some of us have sites that are more niche focused on selected merchants. Some of us make a decent living at it and some are just making money to barely survive. We find ourselves together at this crossroads and forced to make the decision to decide which path to take. You choose based on what's best for your own personal situation and your own family. No one can fault you for that.

[nsusa]

It definitely pays to diversify and to plan for this. Right now the momentum in on the lawmaker side of things. 40 other states are working on the same bills and the ones that fail to get them through will adjust and follow the ones that were able to push them through. Do I agree with the attempts and efforts? Hell, no but I have to keep these things in mind and adjust my business automatically.

I am not going to move out of Colorado, but I will adjust. And one of those adjustments will be to be better in accounting and to be less lazy with my deductions.

[Trust]

So to be clear, it passed and they have the amendment to exclude online affiliates, similar to what NY had. And with that, most merchants dropped anyway, so not to take any chance that affiliates would go beyond online marketing activities and do more causing a nexus.

[loxly]

Originally Posted by Trust

So to be clear, it passed and they have the amendment to exclude online affiliates, similar to what NY had. And with that, most merchants dropped anyway, so not to take any chance that affiliates would go beyond online marketing activities and do more causing a nexus.

It passed out of committee and is going to the next committee, and if it passes there it goes to the Senate floor, if it passes there it goes to the House floor, if it passes there it goes to the Governor.

The admendments are commendable, but who is going to get the merchants that *could* be liable to understand that? Who is going to do the accounting and pay for the audits if a company has to have one? And since it is now all about "face to face" how does that get determined and enforced?

[Trust]

Originally Posted by loxly

It passed out of committee and is going to the next committee, and if it passes there it goes to the Senate floor, if it passes there it goes to the House floor, if it passes there it goes to the Governor.

The admendments are commendable, but who is going to get the merchants that *could* be liable to understand that? Who is going to do the accounting and pay for the audits if a company has to have one? And since it is now all about "face to face" how does that get determined and enforced?

Yeah, I know a lot of people put in some good work, fought hard but these aren't wins if the end result is people still getting dropped. And this isn't against those who fought it, it against those who are passing this kind of stuff. And what was brought up before, some other states might be looking at this and say, ok, we can just add in some amendments as well, end result would still be affiliates getting dropped. And if they're watching or reading affiliates being happy about this, like I read at some other places, they will use that. A win is a bill getting defeated.

[redtagdeals]

Delsol - I am with you on the need to move. Though I can't agree more that we need to fight against the Ad-Tax, you've to move when a state's policies are threatening your livelihood. I am open to moving out from this country too if I am convinced that this country is going in the wrong direction (not just Ad-tax but overall). I think this country is digging itself into a failed pattern of India's socialistic policies in 70's and 80's. We need a strong leader/visionary at this critical stage and I see that is lacking in both parties!

[loxly]

This is an excellent post by Scott Jangro: What really happened in Colorado yesterday http://is.gd/7LM8s

I was thinking the same thing, if they remove the online affiliates from creating a nexus, there is no one left so the bill is meaningless. If someone figures that out will they make changes again before the final vote?

[Linda - 5starAffiliatePrograms]

The whole Shopathome thing, I'm still riled up about even though I think I understand what the affiliates that were there are saying over at Revenews. I can sorta see their point, but also agree with Angel that it still sounded bad for our side and sent the wrong message.

This is all so convoluted! The exclusions and amendments and weird politics. If those of us who are trying to stay right on top of this are confused then how are merchants supposed to understand and make informed decisions? Heck even the politicians in charge last night weren't clear on whether Jen qualified as an exempt or non-exempt affiliate.

[loxly]

If you want to follow the conversations on twitter that were posted during the streaming audio you can follow the hashtag #noadtax using the Twitter search. There is ongoing discussion there as well.

[Trust]

Originally Posted by loxly

This is an excellent post by Scott Jangro: What really happened in Colorado yesterday http://is.gd/7LM8s

I was thinking the same thing, if they remove the online affiliates from creating a nexus, there is no one left so the bill is meaningless. If someone figures that out will they make changes again before the final vote?

Just read it but have to disagree:

"If the amendment bears out and all the above is true, I have a hard time seeing any merchant terminating their entire Colorado affiliate base unless (a) they are taking a strong stance to make a legal point (like Amazon probably feels they must do to support their case in New York), or (b) they are simply misinformed. Given that the Colorado State legislature was going to pass this bill and all the other tax bills by hook or by crook, this seems as close to a win as we could possibly expect."

I guess we'll find out when this passes and see if affiliates get dropped. But can somebody point out specifically how this is different from NY?

I don't see this as a win at all. I see this as you basically gave the other states a blueprint to pass this stuff. A state might even use this as an example. You might even have somebody leaning on saying no to this bill, check out Colorado and say, hey we can pass this, just put in the amendments to protect affiliates and then use all the positive praise from affiliates to make them feel better about passing it but if the end result is merchants dropping affiliates, then that's a loss. Even the bolded saying it's close to win, I think does nothing but hurt future battles because it's going to be used against us. You're just making it easier for these bills to pass. And as evidenced by NY, most merchants aren't taking the chance and dropping affiliates anyway.

[Trust]

Again NY -

"Prohibition against solicitation activities by New York State resident affiliates.

As a condition of its participation in the (Fill in Merchant Company Name) Affiliate Program, Affiliate agrees that its solicitation activities on behalf of (Fill in Merchant Company Name) within the State of New York shall be limited to providing a link on Affiliate’s website to the (Fill in Merchant Company Name’s) own website. Affiliate acknowledges that under current New York State law, further solicitation and promotional activities by Affiliate within New York State may subject the (Fill in Merchant Company Name) to liability for collecting New York State sales tax on all sales to New York customers. Therefore, as a condition of participation in the (Fill in Merchant Company Name) Affiliate Program, Affiliate is prohibited from engaging in any solicitation activities in New York State intended to refer potential customers to the (Fill in Merchant Company Name), including, but not limited to: distributing flyers, coupons newsletters and other printed materials, or electronic equivalents of such materials; engaging in verbal solicitation, including in-person referrals or initiating telephone calls; and sending emails intended to refer customers to the (Fill in Merchant Company Name)."

Still got dropped. They're worried about the further solicitation, they're not taking chances.

[delsol]

Originally Posted by redtagdeals

Delsol - I am with you on the need to move. Though I can't agree more that we need to fight against the Ad-Tax, you've to move when a state's policies are threatening your livelihood. I am open to moving out from this country too if I am convinced that this country is going in the wrong direction (not just Ad-tax but overall). I think this country is digging itself into a failed pattern of India's socialistic policies in 70's and 80's. We need a strong leader/visionary at this critical stage and I see that is lacking in both parties!

Thanks. I agree with you.
I like the way one of my brothers puts this (he is a financial expert). He and I, were basically talking about all these taxes and how the country will get out of the recession/depression from the work of the entrepreneurs. He was saying something along the lines of "What we are seeing right now, is a basic misallocation of funds. We (as a country) should be allocating more funds to the most productive versus the less productive, since most productive individuals have a multiplier effect versus the less productive". "Cash for clunkers" might be an example of this misallocation. If we continue on this path, we could be on a second leg down (ala great depression). For those not familiar with this the second leg down, it was a slow and painful downfall to new lows (Point D to E on this graph: http://www.signaltrend.com/Stock-Market-Great-Depression.html). So far our "great recession" is strickenly similar to the great depression. The behavior of the Colorado dems plays into this scenario. They are so panicked that they have stopped listening and thinking.

[loxly]

From Twitter: @SenatorBrophy I will be running same amendment to completely exempt affiliates from 1193. contact CO Sens ask them to support.

[meadowmufn]

Originally Posted by loxly

From Twitter: @SenatorBrophy I will be running same amendment to completely exempt affiliates from 1193. contact CO Sens ask them to support.

His latest tweet said "Got it! Affiliates win! 1193 fix on Monday, stay tuned, be diligent. I think we're there."

Btw, I've enjoyed reading all you guys tweeting the news about CO, since I don't have access to the live stream during the day.

[nsusa]

Brophy is cool. The Senator asked many good questions and really tried to understand the issue and the real impact.

[jgoode]

I can't post specific just yet because the amendments havent been passed in the Senate yet - but this bill will be different because of a few things..

stay tuned and keep the faith - we are very influential when we stick together and stay positive

[Linda - 5starAffiliatePrograms]

Keep fighting the goode fight Jen! Proud of how you guys are standing up for the industry!

[Trust]

If this all translates to affiliates won't be getting dropped, that's great news. I guess we have to wait and see how this plays out first.