Now that I’m working on building my stamina to run the 4th Annual Amber Pizzo Memorial 5K on July 12, I needed to calibrate my Nike + iPod Sport Kit that I use with my iPod Touch – this is a neat tool on my Touch that tracks distance, speed, calories burned, etc.

I went to the local high school to run around the track and get it exact, so I can hit some paths to run and always know where I am in a run.

In the past, I had it calibrated for walking.

Last week, I was alternating running and walking a quarter mile at a time, but now I’m just running. I’m just going a mile and a half currently, so I have to accelerate that distance quickly to reach 5k for the race.

I’ll be running pretty much every day, in addition to other exercise, leading up to the 5k. I need to get drastic, because I’m sick of being at a plateau for weeks. I see that Tim Jones fatblogged this week about the same issue, and he started at the same weight as me and is stuck at the same amount now.

Well, as I polish off an entire P’Zone from Pizza Hut — I can tell you that I’ve almost completely fallen off the diet wagon…I have, however, been much better about working out and exercising on a consistent basis’ though. Therefore, I haven’t gained too much weight back. I’m currently at 218lbs., which is still 7lbs. under my starting weight, but also 18lbs. from my goal.

I feel bad for Tim – when he breaks away from his diet, he is eating that Pizza Hut stuff. At least I get the real thing from my north Jersey pizzerias when I’m packing on the pounds.

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 218
This week: 218

We’ll be getting together starting at 4pm for a discussion on the advertising tax legislation, the impact on affiliate marketers, and how to fight it. This issue is so vital now, and you shouldn’t miss this discussion if you’re in the area.

Also, we’ll use this time to demo the buy.at interface and answer any questions.

Afterwards, the networking runs from 5pm to 8pm with a crab feast, as well as various BBQ foods and drinks (check out the menu) on the promenade outside the buy.at offices.

And we’ll have a big box of these cool affiliate crab feast shirts.

Affiliate Summit and buy.at are covering the tab, so come on out to do some business on the Bay.

Note – this event is for affiliate marketers only. Please do not bring any guests with you. Space is limited, and the RSVP will be closed when we reach capacity.

Don’t forget to register at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/tax-talk-crab-feast/ before we fill up.

Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the advertising tax in California, and Overstock.com announced that they will not be dropping California afiliates.

California lawmakers proposed a tax on affiliate advertising and sent legislation to the Governor, but as promised he vetoed it because we cannot solve our budget deficit by raising taxes and driving businesses out of the state.

Overstock.com estimates its internet affiliate advertisers in California create millions of dollars in revenue.

As I stated in an article at Internet Retailer earlier today (Overstock ends affiliate agreements in four states over sales tax rules), states see this as incremental revenue for them, and they aren’t realizing that affiliates that get fired from affiliate programs will pay less income tax and potentially burden the state with unemployment benefits.

It’s great to see that Governor Schwarzenegger saw the big picture.

More details in a press release from the Office of the Governor.

Yesterday, Overstock served walking papers to affiliates in California.

Dear Affiliate:

We regret to inform you that the North Carolina, Rhode Island, California and Hawaii state legislatures have or are about to pass unconstitutional tax nexus and collection laws in an attempt to force Internet retailers to collect and remit sales tax on all sales to residents of these states.

These legislative measures purport to establish a state tax nexus on the basis of contracts with local advertising affiliates, even when none exists under U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Overstock.com, Inc. (”Overstock”) has no tax nexus in any state other than Utah.

Due to the passage or eminent passage of these unconstitutional laws, Overstock regretfully must discontinue its relationships with all of its advertising affiliates in these states.

Accordingly, it is with reluctance that Overstock hereby gives notice of termination of your participation in Overstock?s Affiliate Program.

Any money owed to you, based on your advertising services prior to termination, will be paid in the normal course of business.

Overstock regrets that it has been put in this position. In the future should these laws be vetoed, declared unconstitutional, or repealed, we will cheerfully resume our former business relationship.

Respectfully,

Jonathan E. Johnson III
President
Overstock.com, Inc.

There goes some more taxable income for the California state coffers. And hey, maybe some longer unemployment lines, too.

How cool would that be if politicians acted like successful business-people and adapted ideas that work? I haven’t seen any case studies on how the state of New York was benefited by an advertising tax.

Actually, the elected and selected officials in Albany, NY are possibly the most disfunctional governing body in the country – maybe other states can farm some more clever ideas from them.

Back in May 2008, Jim Kukral, Lisa Picarille, Sam Harrelson and myself talked about Overstock and their actions with the New York advertising tax. It’s an interesting listen on the issue over a year later and you can see feedback from Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock, in the podcast comments.

Update:
Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the advertising tax in California, and Overstock.com announced that they will not be dropping California afiliates.

More details at http://blog.affiliatetip.com/archives/governor-schwarzenegger-terminates-advertising-tax-in-california/.

I wasn’t able to record the Affiliate Thing show this week, so my trusty co-host Lisa Picarille soldiered on with guest co-host Scott Jangro, super affiliate and president of MechMedia.

The covered the latest in the advertising tax saga with media depicting Amazon vs. the states, as well as winners of the LinkShare Golden Link Awards, a tender moment between Mr. Jangro and Joan Rivers, Affiliate Convention, and CJ going green.

Also, they covered the death of Michael Jackson, and how Scott apparently likes to dress up as the gloved one from time to time.

And a special tribute to Billy Mays at the end.

Show Links

• The winners of the 2009 LinkShare Golden Link Awards
• Jangro and Joan Rivers share a moment
• Commission Junction Goes Green
• Parties at Affiliate Convention got mixed reviews -Melissa Salas of Buy.com tweeted about it
• Amazon is ending its relationship with affiliates in Hawaii, Rhode Island, and NC. Is California Next?
• Scott Jangro wrote a letter to his senator and state representatives trying to get ahead of any potential tax in Mass.
• 20 useful WordPress plug-ins

Subscribe to the Affiliate Thing RSS feed or listen on iTunes. You can also send a blank e-mail to affiliatething@aweber.com to get each podcast delivered by e-mail.

The segment was just a few minutes, so it didn’t go too in depth on the issue, and it was mostly about the impact on Amazon.

There was no discussion on the countless affiliates in affected states who are basically being fired from their jobs.

This is very significant, as those affiliates will not only produce less taxable income, but they may well end up on the unemployment line, depending on how much they rely on Amazon and other affiliate programs that drop them.

The segment included a comment from Forrester Research Inc analyst Sucharita Mulpuru…

“It’s a double-edged sword… Affiliates are nice to have but by no stretch of the imagination are they going to make or break Amazon’s Web site.”

Mulpuru further estimated that 10 percent of Amazon’s sales could come from affiliates and included her assumption that much of that could be from “margin-eroding coupon sites” and that “There may be some incrementality but they’re often low-margin orders and there’s a cost associated with it.”

Lots of speculation. It would be nice to see citations behind these comments.

Watch the clip at http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/23895490/amazon-battles-states-on-sales-taxes.htm.

For the third year in a row, she has organized a team under the Affiliate Marketers Give Back banner to participate in a walk – this time Team Affiliate Marketers Give Back will be doing the 40-mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Los Angeles on September 12-13.

Over the past couple years, the fundraising efforts organized by Missy have resulted in more than $100,000 in donations, including an annual Team-Walk for Susan G Komen for the Cure.

As far as the walk in Los Angeles this year, Missy is still looking for some people to join the team. Melissa Salas of Buy.com, Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com and Chris Pearson of DIYThemes have already joined the team.

Interested? Register on the Avon site and select “Affiliate Marketers Give Back” as your walking team. Missy will need your support – not just for the charity, but also as she’s walking and texting – somebody needs to catch her this time.

As anybody who attended BlogWorld Expo last year remembers, she fractured her foot during the 2008 Seattle Breast Cancer 3-Day/60-Mile Walk and had to ride a scooter around Las Vegas during the conference.

Even if you can’t make it to the walk, there are a number of Affiliate Marketers Give Back sponsorship options to show your support.

More details at http://missyward.com/2009/06/28/please-support-team-affiliate-marketers-give-back/.

Categories let advertisers describe their program to publishers, who can then search for advertisers by category in order to locate those that best fit their program. In response to current retail trends and client requests, we’ve added nine new green program categories for advertisers.

Advertisers will be able to list their affiliate programs in new “green” categories under these top level (primary) categories:

• Beauty
• Clothing/Apparel
• Computer and Electronics
• Food and Drinks
• Gifts and Flowers
• Health and Wellness
• Home and Garden
• Recreation and Leisure
• Travel

Nice to see. A little more than a year ago, the CJ newsletter urged affiliates to focus on green affiliate programs, too.

More details at http://help.cj.com/faq_archive/Green_Categories_FAQ.pdf.

This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about the legacy of a brand after a person passes away.

I was thinking about the impressions left behind for each of the icons that passed away in the past week: Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, and Ed McMahon.

Here is a quick rundown of what I think of for each person:

• Farrah Fawcett: the poster, Charlie’s Angels
• Michael Jackson: King of Pop, dark cloud of allegations by young boys
• Billy Mays: informercials, the “Pitchmen” show
• Ed McMahon: Tonight Show sidekick, Star Search host, American Family Publishers sweepstakes guy (I mistakenly refer to this as Publisher’s Clearing House in the podcast), and having financial woes

What will come to mind when people think of you when you’re gone?

Show Notes

• Farrah Fawcett
• Michael Jackson
• Billy Mays
• Ed McMahon

Check out http://brandmouthing.com/ for a collection of all future episodes of Brandmouthing, as well as images, videos, etc. that I mention on the podcast. Subscribe to the Brandmouthing RSS feed.

Q: What is the best service for recruiting super affiliates and “quality affiliates” for a new product? I’d like to outsource affiliate recruitment to a reliable service.

A: There isn’t any one company, to the best of my knowledge, who offers affiliate recruitment services. Well, there isn’t a company performing this sort of service that I would recommend.

However, this is a standard service when you outsource an affiliate program to an OPM (outsourced program manager), as well as an option from many affiliate networks.

So, you’re going to have to either outsource the whole affiliate program or pay a fee to your affiliate network (if that’s an option).