Okay, so my head is all wrapped around my recent post where I fleshed out the need to redefine ourselves from Affiliates to Performance Marketers. And in writing that post I was interrupted by news about some of the Affiliate Tax efforts happening in some states. And it came to me that this may be the bad thing (Affiliate Tax Legislation) that gets us to stop and redefine ourselves as Performance Marketers, a good thing.
Now this gets a tad involved (and remember, I’m NOT a lawyer and don’t play one on TV). But it did occur to me that by embracing Performance Marketing as a vernacular for what we do we may very well enable our industry to more closely “mesh” with the advertising and media industries. And what does this mean? It means that we gain valuable allies, easier to understand language, and maybe most importantly… legal grounds.
How can this be? Think about it. Harking back to my previous post. We’re NOT Affiliate Marketers, Affiliates, or any such thing. What we are is a segment of the Media and Advertising communities. We produce, sell, and publish advertising. We are renumerated in direct proportion to the effectiveness of our efforts.
We are Performance Marketing Professionals. More specifically, we are a Performance Marketing CPC firm, a Performance Marketing CPA publisher, a Performance Marketing CPS publisher… etc. And in redefining ourselves in this way we open ourselves up to a wider advertising, publishing, and media community.
But even better than that. Let’s compare what we do to an independent TV Station. We have merchants who engage us as Performance Marketers to publish advertising to appeal to our audience. This is done via OPM firms (specialized advertising agencies, really) and our effectiveness is tracked by a Performance Marketing Network. Simple enough, right?
Now, let’s look at an independent TV Station (this also happens in Radio, and Newspapers as well). A merchant acts via their advertising agency to engage a TV Station to run a commercial for a percentage of sales. In other words, renumeration for the TV Station would be directly proportional to the effectiveness of the advertisement and the TV Stations audience. With the effectiveness of the advertisement being measured by a specialized call center.
If every “link” in the Affiliate Marketing world were to redefine itself as Performance Marketers and integrate ourselves in the overall Advertising and Media communities (indeed, the “Marketing Industry) what would be the effect of so-called “Affiliate Taxes”?
I think a case could be made that TV Stations, Radio Stations, Newspapers, etc. that accept any form of Performance Marketing would then be “in danger” of having to comply with “Affiliate Taxes”. For no other reason than that they accept Performance Marketing programs.
And what happens to politicians who make enemies of EVERY form of media? What’s your State Rep or State Senator gonna do when EVERY TV, Radio, Newspaper, AND Internet media is mad at them over the Affiliate Tax? One, they are more likely to listen. Two, they are more likely to reject such taxes. And, well, you get my drift.
Additionally, by promulgating this updated (and more accurate) vernacular for our industry we are actively building a foundation that some sharp lawyer types can use to help us. If a state passes an “Affiliate Tax” would we be obligated in our legal defense to point out that the State has established a law that applies to one segment of business but not another (taxing Internet, but not TV/Radio/Newspaper) for the very same activity? And couldn’t we point out forms of advertising in other mediums that are promoted on a TV/Radio/Newspaper stations website that are exactly what we do for a living? And are the Affiliate Tax laws being applied to them?
Especially if we redefine our income streams as Revenue Sharing arrangements or Advertising Fees. The same way that TV/Radio and Newspapers define those occasions where they are doing what we do.. Just in their own medium.
Nothing has endangered portions of our industry quite like the movement for Affiliate Taxes. And in redefining ourselves as our industry already needs to do we are also enabling a better case for why those taxes need to be abandoned.
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