Google adds privacy link to home page!
Interesting that for so many years we were always told by Google that we had to have a privacy policy link on web sites, landing pages, etc. and now Google has finally added one themselves. An excellent article in NY Times you can also read Google’s Privacy Policy
The word “privacy” now appears on Google’s home page, with a link to the company’s privacy policy.
With that one word, the Web search giant heads off the growing controversy over whether its previous practice ran afoul of a California law, the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, which requires the operator of a commercial Web site that collects personal information to link to its privacy policy from its home page.
In addition, the following pages describe privacy practices specific to certain products or services:
Privacy videos
Google Search Privacy: Plain and Simple
4:28
Added: August 8, 2007
1:33
Added: June 23, 2008
Google Privacy: A Look at Cookies
5:01
Added: January 25, 2008
Google Privacy Tips: Unlisting Phone Numbers
0:56
Added: December 19, 2007
See all videos on our Google Privacy Channel »
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Internet Sales Tax Initiated on Location of Buyer vs. Seller in Washington State and Potential Effects on Small Business - Get Informed
An unfortunate thing has happened in the state of Washington on July 1st as they initiated a new Internet sales tax. Tax will be now collected based on the location of the buyer, not the location of the seller and this will create a significant change in how tax is collected. You can read more at SeatllePI and on Affiliate Tip. This should be interesting to see how online vendors see the Washington marketplace and the effects on small business as this tax migrates to other states. Also of interest is the reaction by Washington residents when they start to see taxes being collected on purchases from internet retailers. On a side note -Mail-Order Merchants Exempt - a 1992 Supreme Court decision which held that mail-order merchants did not need to collect sales taxes for sales into states where they did not have a physical presence. So why is this different?
Who wants this?
- Large retailers who have to pay tax anyway - Walmart for example
- Local business who feel they are at a disadvantage
- Retail lobbyists
- States who want more income
- Proponents of a national tax on all Internet sales
Why is this a problem?
- There are more than 8,000 state, county and local tax rates, which change constantly, and more than 12,500 tax regions in North America - how could a small business sort this out?
- Internet Retailers will have to collect and file tax when they don’t have a location in the state and don’t use local or state services - Not Fair
- It will create a new strategy for other states to follow and pave way to a National Internet Sales Tax
- Catalog merchants still exempt, good but shouldn’t the Supreme Court ruling play into effect on the similar issue?
- Florists are exempt for some reason (if your industry don’t have a large lobby you are in trouble as we have seen with the affiliate tax in the state of NY and Amazon)
- In a down economy it’s one more tax that we all don’t need as a buyer or as a seller running an online business
The change does not affect deliveries to outside of the state, wholesale sales, services, sales of vehicles, aircraft, mobile homes or boats or towing companies.
Get Involved!
You should contact your local representatives and voice your opinion on this matter.
DoubleClick Performics Affiliate will operate as Google Affiliate Network
Hot off the presses - received this email from Google today. As a Performics affiliate manager and affiliate we are excited to see the changes. Especially to the interface as it is need of a major overhaul. An interesting day in the world of affiliate marketing!
We are pleased to introduce Google Affiliate Network . Effective Monday, June 30, 2008, DoubleClick Performics Affiliate will operate as Google Affiliate Network. The integration with Google’s brand is a reflection of efforts to quickly assimilate our business and teams, as well as reinforce Google’s commitment to the Affiliate channel. Together with our new colleagues at Google we are creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion and innovation in Affiliate Marketing.
Within the next couple of weeks you will see some exciting changes to the user interface reflecting the new brand. The platform will continue to be hosted at www.ConnectCommerce.com, but will eventually migrate to a google.com product url.
As noted in earlier communications, DoubleClick Performics’ Search operations are being spun off and sold to a third party. While many advertisers have relationships with both DoubleClick Performics’ Affiliate and Search, there have always been separate account teams and product-specific specialists servicing clients’ search and affiliate programs. These teams remain intact. While the formal separation will occur when the Search business is sold, the businesses are functionally separate today.
We are proud of what we achieved as Performics and this name change signals a new milestone. Google provides world-class resources and enables us to continue to attract the best talent to support our advertisers and publishers. Now as part of Google we have an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to advance our industry. We remain committed to ensuring you receive the quality service you have come to expect from us.
We appreciate your business and look forward to doing great things together.Sincerely,
Chris Henger
Group Product Manager
Google Affiliate Network
Second Life - Day 1 - My journey into a new virtual world
Decided to jump into Second Life today and was really interesting. Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Labs with 11 million worldwide users inside and growing at a rapid rate. For reference, 17 million play world of warcraft. The concept is that you can create a virtual identity and live in a virtual world. You can explore, meet new or old friends, customize your look and stay up all day and night if you like as no one sleeps in second life. Today, I choose my user name and installed the local client on my laptop. Everything went smooth and really have no idea yet what I am doing in the virtual world.
I spent time flying (yes you can fly or walk) around the virtual world and talking with random people in both voice and chat. One person asked me if I spoke German and another commented on the lemonade at my table as yummy. I came across 10 guys that seemed to be hanging out together and chatting in voice to each other as if they were in the real world.
It was an amazing journey through various islands and for some reason could not control my arms correctly. Also, because I was drinking my lemonade i was doing this drinking move and had no idea how to stop it. While inside you see people standing around working on appearances and is something that must be part of the learning process.
I am in Second Life since I recently heard an excellent talk from Internet Retailer 2008 (Head of marketing for Crown Plaza / Intercontinental, etc.) on Second Life and the impact of virtual branding by hotels, car companies, beverage companies and more. Brands include; Nissan, BMW, Dell, Weather Channel, CNN, Reuters, IBM, Crowne Plaza / Intercontinental Hotels. Apparently, 150 major brands are in this world and growing.
Interesting thing happened…
A married man in the real world signed up for a virtual Second Life Account and meets a girl in Second Life. He decides to have a wedding in Second Life and has a house and more in the virtual world. Question - is he cheating?
As an Internet marketer the trend is growing and was time to jump in! To sign up for a free account at Second Life click here and I can earn some points I believe. Thank you as I have no money in the virtual world and if i want to be a regular resident need to start somewhere!
This was a cool house I came across today: (you can take pictures too)
Amazing tool to publish blogs - windows live writer video demo - loving it!
I started using Windows Live Writer 2008 and really love it. I can control multiple blogs and add posts with ease from my system. With ability to flip between Wordpress 2.5 blogs without logging into each one is a dream so thank you Microsoft. Watch out bloggers here I come…
Instructional video demonstrations for how to use Windows Live Writer are now available. Check them out on Soapbox and YouTube!
1 – Getting Started
2 minutes, 26 seconds
This instructional video demonstration shows how to setup Windows Live Writer to work with your blog and, if you don’t already have a blog, how to create a new blog on Windows Live.
Video: 1: Getting Started - Windows Live Writer
2 - Basic Authoring
2 minutes, 16 seconds
This instructional video demonstration shows how to do basic authoring of a blog post using Windows Live Writer.
Video: 2: Basic Authoring - Windows Live Writer
3 - Pictures, Videos, Maps and Plug-ins
5 minutes
This instructional video demonstration shows how to insert and edit rich content - like pictures, videos and maps - using Windows Live Writer.
Video: 2: Basic Authoring - Windows Live Writer
4 – Open, Save, Publish and Help
2 minutes, 44 seconds
This instructional video demonstration shows how to open, save, print and publish blog posts using Windows Live Writer. You will also learn about how to get more information and send feedback to the Windows Live Writer team.
Video: 4: Open, Save, Print and Publish Blog Posts - Windows Live Writer
5 - Windows Live Writer
11 minutes
This is a single video that covers the all the same content in the videos listed above (1 - 4).
Video: 4: Open, Save, Print and Publish Blog Posts - Windows Live Writer
Enjoy!
2008 Linkshare Affiliate Marketing Awards Video - sums it it up
Catch up on the 2008 Linkshare Affiliate Marketing awards in New York. Linkshare did such a good job summarizing it in a video that I shortened the post! Congratulations to all winners! You can also read Shawn Collins breakdown on the Linkshare Awards event, Linkshare official event page, Scott Jangro’s take on the event.
Here you go:
Online affiliate marketing spend $3.3 billion in 2012
It’s not common to see affiliate marketing studies so caught this one on Shawn Collins AffiliateTip.com blog. Jupiter Research published the US Online Affiliate Marketing Forecast, 2007 - 2012.
As Shawn reported - JupiterResearch has published a study on affiliate marketing that indicates online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees, with US online affiliate marketing spending reaching $3.3 billion in 2012.
I am not clear what that means… “affiliate marketing fees”? I presume that is the aggregate cost of running an affiliate program: affiliate network fees, affiliate commissions, etc.
According to the report, affiliate marketing remains a highly attractive endeavor because it is performance based, presenting low risk and requiring low initial investment. Over time, marketers tend to work with affiliates that drive the most traffic to their sites, resulting in a small number of affiliates driving the majority of traffic and sales. Because affiliate marketing is so heavily intertwined with the search engine marketing industry, Google is the one wild card that might affect the overall growth of the industry. Google’s dominance over SEM forces affiliates to be sensitive to Google’s Quality Score, which prevents lower-quality affiliates from buying paid search.
After reading this I also have a similiar question in what constitututes affiliate marketing fees. This report sends a strong message to states like NY that revenue is being driven through affiliate channels and would like to see more detailed data by segment. I am sure that Patti Freeman Evans who wrote the report will be able to shed some more light on this at the Linkshare Symposium as Shawn noted. Personally, I am more interested in the $3.3 billion in 2012 and what the trend has been since 2000 on an annual basis and how they calculated it.
Internet Retailer 2008 - Top 50 Trends (2-20) Michael Vorel
My Top 50 Trends from Internet Retailer 2008 in Chicago. This the 2nd of 5 videos that make for a total of 50 trends in e-commerce, internet marketing and web 2.0. Enjoy this episode covering tips 11-20. Click here to access the first 10 Trends by Michael Vorel
Internet Retailer 2008 - My Top 50 Trends (#1-10) by Michael Vorel
I was writing up a really long blog post on what I learned from Internet Retailer 2008 in Chicago and decided to shoot a video on it. This the first one of 5 videos that make for a total of 50 trends in e-commerce, internet marketing and web 2.0. Enjoy the first 10!
performance marketing professional association
I spent time recently discussing the formation of the performance marketing professional association aka Affiliate Marketing Association and this just arrived from Rebecca Madigan. I am going to be involved and if you would like to as well please see below as you can voice your opinion in surveys and participate.
We’re on our way! After talking to over 40 industry leaders, there is overwhelming support to start a performance marketing professional association, with the strategic objective of bringing visibility and credibility to the performance marketing industry.
We have a lot to do yet to get this started. There is a fine balance between gathering enough input and support from the industry, and getting traction by taking action. While we continue to solicit feedback from a broad base of performance marketing professionals, we’re also moving forward with the nomination of a formation advisory board, and a call for volunteers for working groups who will develop organizational and policy recommendations that the advisory board will approve.
To communicate our efforts and track our progress, we’ve started a website: www.performancemarketingalliance.com. There are links to interest surveys on this site, so please forward this URL on to all your performance marketing friends and colleagues. We will need the support of as much of the affiliate community as we can muster, and we’ll be successful by meeting the needs of the industry and individual members.
Thank to those who have already contributed their thoughts and ideas, and I hope we can count on your help and support.
Rebecca Madigan
Affiliate Classroom, Inc. and Performance Marketing Alliance