GTO Management

Today on the podcast, I was joined by guest host Ian Larsen of IanLarsen.com to chat with Gary Marcoccia of the AvantLink affiliate network.

Here at GTO we’ve recently launched the C28.com affiliate program on AvantLink and we’ve been really impressed with the tools that they provide to both affiliates and merchants. Gary and Ian and I chatted on the history of AvantLink - as they have roots as both affiliates and affiliate managers, which I think contributes the the practicality of the AvantLink tool and some of the cool datafeed handling tools that AvantLink offers.

We talked in detail about a few features in particular, the Affiliate Link Encoder (ALE) which allows bloggers, webmasters and forum operators to put affiliate tracking in place for any AvantLink merchant without having to actually login to the affiliate UI or so any special coding. Once the ALE javascript is in place, the affiliate tracking is put in place on the broswer side of the equation. Gary told a great story of an affiliate who operated an Outdoor Sports focused online forum. Using the ALE script, he was able to place affiliate tracking on many of the links that both he and his forum members placed over several years of content… all with a quick copy and paste. Talk about easy money. This feature is the blogger or review affiliates dream.

We also chatted about AvantLink and their on-board support of video creative and some of the cool things that they do with RSS syndication and tying affiliates to referrals from feeds that they host from merchants. This is really cool stuff - effectively, AvantLink has provided affiliates with a "long tail" creative.

In addition to some of the big tools that AvantLink provides, they have also put some little things into the mix that are pretty cool. For instance - as a merchant, you can subscribe to RSS feeds that give you transaction info and affiliate application information. They also provide FireFox and Thunderbird extensions that scroll program stats at the bottom of your screen so you are never out of touch with your affiliate program data.

Ian chimed in with his experience as an affiliate and applauded the flexibility of the AvantLink datafeed tools and the accessibility of support and development to get what you need as an affiliate. Gary applauded the affiliates out there for driving innovation.

We had a great time chatting and I look forward to speaking with Gary again. If you are a retail merchant with a product catalog and you are looking for a really powerful, but reasonable priced affiliate network with some awesome tools included - check out AvantLink.

Enjoy the podcast!

We have been doing a lot of thinking and research on the topic of the New York decision to hold non - New York based merchants who have affiliates doing business in New York accountable for collecting state sales tax.   We’ve been speaking with lawyers, other affiliate managers, industry colleages, our clients and each other on this.

We don’t by any means claim to know all the answers in this - no one does until the Amazon and Overstock lawsuits are decided or settled with clarification of the law.  We encourage all of our clients to meet with counsel with understanding of the New York law and it’s details to make the decision that is best for them.

If the client has no objections, we’re recommending that our clients incorporate language suggested by Deb Carney  on ABestWeb to add this language or something similar to their affiliate agreements:

If Affiliate is based in New York State or has office(s) located within
New York State, Merchant will only allow Affiliate to promote Merchant
brand(s) and/or web site(s) via Affiliate’s web site. Affiliate may not
promote Merchant through any other marketing channel, that targets NYS
residents, including, but not limited to: paid search marketing, e-mail
marketing, offline marketing, (including flyers and physical
newsletters), lead generation, mobile marketing or telemarketing.

New York State affiliates CAN use these methods to market their *own
website*, as long as the ad copy, email, etc does NOT mention the
Merchant directly.

We feel that the affiliates from the State of New York really are pawns in this game and we stand by them and their right to earn a living through affiliate marketing.  Unfortunately, this language may put a crimp in some of their efforts for a time, but we’d rather change the way that we work together a bit than have to lose them altogether.   We’re adding this language to the Agreement’s of our clients C28 and Geoff and Drew’s Cookies, as well as any other retail merchants we work with until this issue is clarified.

Happy Selling!

Wade Tonkin