Has anyone out there compiled a list of "NC friendly" affiliates? In other words, affiliates that are cooperating with NC's affiliate tax/ nexus law by accepting affiliates and paying the corresponding taxes to the state?

I know NY has a similar group that was gathering links to NY friendly affiliates, but they don't appear to be as active.

I'm of the opinion that eventually this affiliate tax law will pass for all states (it's already passed for NY, NC, CO, RI, and CA has it back in consideration for this year). I'm disappointed in those affiliates that don't take the time to setup the tax payments. It feels like they're just joining the "popular" anti-tax/ Amazon movement and aren't paying attention to the relationships they're severing and the profits they're losing. I think they're going to end up on the losing side of this war and will regret it...

I've noticed that Search Engine Journal includes the following at the end of articles that include affiliate links:

Disclaimer: This is a Sponsored Review of [affiliate merchant name]. We have included the NO FOLLOW attribute in all outgoing links as this review is not intended to help example.com in their organic search rankings.

Seems like this is the most transparent way to make readers aware of an affiliate relationship.

I think it was officially enacted in 2009 - that is, affiliate marketers are supposed to disclose when they receive compensation for a product or service on a page. However, I don't see that many following the new legislation.

I believe this is the copy typically included in an affiliate compensation disclosure. I simply link to it in my terms of use in the footer.

Affiliate Compensation Disclosure

COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE

This Compensation Disclosure has been provided for your protection and to fully disclose any relationship between this sites product or service recommendations and the owners of those product or services. It is always recommended that before you purchase products or services on the Internet, including those on this website, that you conduct your own research and exercise due diligence.

The owner of this website is required by law to inform you that a relationship exists between this website and the products or services it reviews, recommends or promotes.

1. Material Affiliation.
It is advisable to assume that any mention of a product or service on this website is made because there exist, unless otherwise stated, a material connection between the product or service owners and this website. It should be understood that any recommendation made by the owner of this site for any product or service has been made in good faith. These recommendations reflect the fact that the owner has either tried the product or service or has extensively researched them and can give an honest opinion to the merit of the product or service. When any website makes any recommendation of a product or service it is advisable to assume the possibility of a material connection or relationship with the owners of those products or services.

2. Product/Service Partiality.
Due to the material connection between the owner of this website and the owners of the products or services recommended here, it must be understood that a bias for these products or services might exist. These biases, although based on facts, could have developed because of compensation for such recommendations from the product or service owners although every effort has been made to provide accurate and true reviews of each product or service.

Regardless of whether the owner of this website has, or will receive compensation from product or service owners, it should be understood that a relationship exist between the two so there does exist, established or not, the potential for a material connection between product and service owner and the owner of this website.

Before entering into any agreement or purchasing any product from this website, it is advisable to understand the potential partiality of the website owner due to possible compensation from the owner's of products or services recommended on this website. You should perform your own research and exercise due diligence prior to purchasing products or services from any website.

3. Compensation.
The owner of this website may receive compensation for recommendations made in reference to the products or services on this website. This compensation may be in the form of money, services or complimentary products and could exist without any action from a website visitor. Should you purchase a product or service that was recommended by this website, it is understood that some form of compensation might be made to the website owner. For example, if you click on an affiliate link at this website and then make a purchase of the recommended product or service, the website owner may receive compensation.

4. This Compensation Disclosure Statement
The compensation disclosure statement has been made to inform you of the possibility that a material connection between a product or service mentioned, reviewed or recommended by this website and the product or service owner exist and that compensation to the website owner may be made should you purchase such product or service. Every effort has been made to provide true and accurate statements in regards to any and all products or services mentioned, reviewed or recommended by this website.

Should you have any questions, comments or concerns and would like to receive an answer or ask a question prior to purchasing any product or service mentioned on this website you can contact the website owner directly at:

(Insert your contact info.)

I've been getting into affiliate marketing lately and have been wondering if there's any kind of required disclosure that needs to be made. Ie. if I review a product, and get compensated for sales that are made, how can someone be sure that's an unbiased review?

I feel like there's a need for some kind of affiliate compensation disclosure. Any affiliate marketers out there currently use one?

Hi,

My goal for joining is to assist you in succeeding in Internet Marketing. Enabling you to not only get traffic but to make sales to whatever you may promote. I look forward to connecting & sharing with others.

Thanks, for having me here.

-Nick B.

Here's my vote for the Ebay Partner Network. It takes some time setting up the ads, but it's worthwhile because you get paid based on impressions, not just clicks. The longer you're with the program, the higher your quality will rank, in my experience (so the more $$ you'll earn per impression).

We're in the same boat. There's quite a few alternatives to Amazon's program out there, and you're right - most of them pay better commissions. Your best bet is simply to create relationships with smaller merchants - they often offer better incentives.

As for the best network to use (for a large amount of products) besides Amazon - there is the Ebay Partner Network, they recently changed their payment structure to pay based on visitors sent (clicks), instead of products sold. Most of the larger shopping sites, such as shopping.com, PriceGrabber, PriceRunner, ShopZilla, etc. will have affiliate programs. Your best bet is to visit a site you like and see if it has an affiliate program.

And then of course there's the affiliate networks - CJ, oneNetwork, Clickbank, Connect Commerce (Google), etc., where you can look up individual products and merchants and sell products based on their individual commission structures.

I live in NC and one of our main affiliate program's, Amazon.com's associate program, was axed as a result of an Affiliate Tax law that made it into the budget this year. As much as that upsets me, I'm starting to realize that Amazon was paying measly commissions anyways. On top of that, it seems like it's not the best idea to have all my eggs in one affiliate basket, as this situation clearly shows.

So my question is - what is everyone using in lieu of Amazon? I heard there were thousands of affiliate programs closed in NC, so there must be quite a few of you out there that have found alternatives to Amazon?