I am fortunate enough to live in a state (New Jersey) where the lawmakers have not attempted to explore the ways to hurt affiliates. But I am not holding my breath. In fact I am a little surprised New Jersey did not follow our neighbors to the East, the New York State.

I admit that I know very little about the issue and still am trying to educate myself more should the time come for NJ affiliates to take a stand. If you are in the same shoes as I am, I highly recommend Geno Prussakov’s interview with Jen Goode of JGoode Designs about Colorado Internet Sales Tax.

Here is what Jenn says affiliates can do to have a better chance fighting the “Internet Sales Tax Laws” in the future:

• Educate your merchants. Let them know that the Colorado [Instead of Colorado insert the state you live in] internet tax does not apply to affiliates nor nexus.
• Get to know your legislators so you can educate them on the way this industry works, most really have no comprehension of the enormity of this industry let alone how it all works.
• Build relationships within the industry so that when issues like this arise, you’re not alone trying to figure out what to do next.

It is amazing what Colorado affiliates managed to accomplish and we should follow their example in the fight in our won respected states.

It has been some time now since Commission Junction introduced a platform called “CJ Pay Per Call” – you probably see it every time you login into your publisher account.

I have signed up for the pay per call deals but have done much with it until last night. One of my big disappointments is how few merchants are participating or take advantage of this new product.

So how does pay per call works? In a few words, a merchant offers you creative to use with an 800 number assigned to them (just like the one you see for eFax to the right). When a potential client calls that specific 800 number you are credited ones required time elapsed. This creative can be clicked on and the clicks are tracked (as far as I know) via your regular CJ publisher account.

As I mentioned above the limited number of participating merchants is not encouraging so I don’t plan to sepnd much time or money promoting these offers. What about you? Have you been successful with CJ’s pay per call?

There are still many things I do not understand about affiliate marketing. One of such things is the way many merchants choose to handle commissions that need to be reversed. Depending on the products or services you choose to promote, 5 or 6 reversals can very easily amount to over $1,000 in commissions. This may not be a huge deal for affiliates earning 5 figure a month, but it certainly is from me.

So if you are an affiliate manger I ask you these questions. How do you handle reversed commissions? Do you explain to your affiliates why?

I am a big man, I can handle bad news. I understand my referral could have canceled the service or returned the product. It does not take that much effort or time to explain why you are reversing my commission. But it can also can help me to improve my campaigns, which in the end is a good thing for you as well.

I imagine that all the legal mambo jumbo in the agreement between you and me may not require you to provide any explanation. If this is your approach, I don’t want to work with you.

For the last few weeks (or maybe months) every affiliate logging into their Commission Junction account was greeted with the announcement about FTC Guideline which will take effect just a few days from today:

I find it interesting that one of the videos on FTC website aimed to answer this question – “Is the FTC planning to sue bloggers?”:

I tend to react emotionally whenever word “blogger” and “lawsuit” are mentioned in the same sentence. If I were to advise anyone from my personal experience- I would say try to avoid lawsuits at all cost. There are of course situations you can’t avoid them….

Much of the fear that is being spread about the new FTC guidelines is likely as emotional as my comment on Andy’s latest post. Some fear that bloggers might get in trouble for promoting products and services. There is one simple solution not to get in trouble- disclosure and transparency. All five of the videos put together by FTC in one way or another address the issue of disclosure and transparency.

I think the bigger issue missed by most pundits is whether or not FTC will enforce their guidelines evenly and justly?

Personally I believe there is a greater danger for a blogger to get sued by many other parties before you get in trouble with FTC. Just think about it- if you disclose and are transparent about possible conflict of interest you should not have anything to worry about.

Runing a business from home has it’s advantages. You may enjoy working in your pajamas and make your own schedule.

I on the other hand have always struggled with working from home. Not only managing my own time was an issue. But the comfort of working in my pajamas resulted int he fact that many days I had no idea what was the weather like outside.

Since the launch of my Interpreting and Translating business over a year ago other factors began to influence my desire to move my home based business outside of my home. And while my primary focus will be my interpreting business, I plan to continue to share my experience in affiliate marketing as well.

Today I am writing my first blog post in my new office. I feel very fortunate because I realize that not every blogger and affiliate marketer can afford to have an actual office, not to say that many are not enjoying working from home. I am double fortunate because my office expenses are next to nothing- besides the cost of my internet connection I really have no other expenses.

Originally I did not anticipate to move into this office until December 1st, things went much batter and faster then I thought or planned.

If you are ever in the area feel free to look me up and stop by.

Finally I would like to thank all of my friends for the support and advice that made this move an absolute pleasure.