Clickbank now using PayPal for recurring subs…
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Online Marketing
I just got this email from Clickbank this morning. This is great news for those who need instant management of their recurring subscriptions:
“BROOMFIELD, Colo., June 25, 2008 – ClickBank, a privately held online retailer for buyers and sellers of digitally delivered products and services, today announced it is offering PayPal for recurring billing – yet another strategic option for product publishers seeking to increase business and meet customer needs.
ClickBank is using PayPal’s recurring billing solution to give product publishers an easy way to sell subscription-based content and services, such as online newsletters or annual software licenses. It has proven to be very popular with customers, growing rapidly each month since its introduction.
“Currently, nearly 20 percent of ClickBank’s total business transactions are conducted using PayPal,” said Bob King, ClickBank CEO. “Allowing customers to use PayPal for recurring billing will further fuel demand for our popular subscription-based products and services and, by providing a new payment option, enhance the ClickBank experience for publishers, affiliates and customers.”
“We are excited to have ClickBank on board using PayPal,” said Jim Hunt, director of merchant relations at PayPal. “Using our recurring billing functionality gives customers security and convenience when shopping online.”
ClickBank is a world leader in online commerce systems with more than 100,000 active affiliates, 35,000 unique digitally downloadable products, such as e-books and software, and over 12,000 product publishers from around the globe that register more than 25,000 daily transactions.”
Testing out a new free add-on to blogs…
mage by jim270 via Flickr
I’m currently testing out a new free add on to this blog which is called “Zemanta“. It’s not really so much as an add-on to this blog as it is an add-on to my firefox browser. It doesn’t matter which blogging platfrom you use, Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, etc, it will still work.
Here’s what intrigued me about it:
As I write, Zemanta picks up different keywords and phrases that I’m using in my post. As it does, it will then update information for me to my right (which you can’t see because I’m in the admin area) but Zemanta not only picks up photos that may be of interest to me but posts and news stories that others have made that might be of interest to me.
You see that image there on the right? All I did was click on it when it came up in my Zemanta gallery and it was added to my post in nothing flat.
Another nice part? Whenever you write a blog post, (and have the Zemanta extension installed), this blog post will now get recommended to others to potentially use on their web site.
Also, you see that little icon down below on the right that says “reblog”? If I click on that, I can write a brand new post, select a quote from this post, add my thoughts, comments, etc., and these will show in Zemanta’s “popular page”.
I’ve just started playing around with Zemanta and I’ll keep you updated as to how our relationship works out.
- K
New York, Amazon, Affiliates & Taxes…Oh My…
The story goes this way: The State of New York has decided they need more money. So I’m sure after lots and lots of precise and thoughtful ideas (heh), they’ve now decided to start collecting taxes from online retailers.
Affiliate Marketer Shawn Collins on his website had this explanation:
“In the past, online retailers were held to the same standard that the U.S. Supreme Court set for mail-order vendors: The seller only needs to collect the tax on purchases in states where the vendor has a physical presence, such as a storefront or salesman.
Nicknamed the “Amazon Tax,” the premise is that companies with no physical presence in New York, which means their sales to New York residents don’t get taxed, will now be taxed, because Amazon has affiliates in New York.
If it passes legal challenges, I would imagine many other states would follow with similar plans, which could be bad for online merchants and affiliates.Anyhow, if the whole tax is based on affiliates living in New York, I would imagine (note – I am not a lawyer, and I am simplifying things as a layman) that if Amazon were to cease working with affiliates in New York, such a tax would be invalidated.
I’ve got to wonder if Amazon is considering such a move to keep their business as attractive to New York customers as it is now.”
Amazon of course is fighting back – and you know what? *yeah!* for them.
I do however agree with a Newsday article (which I can no longer find) that states:
“But the reality is that Amazon and other merchants with affiliate programs won’t bother adding the additional capability to collect New York tax; instead, they’ll take the far easier step of blocking any New York – based site from their affiliate programs. The result will be a tremendous loss of income for the numberous small New York businesses now participaing in afiflaite programs.
The law will also hurt companies like New York City-based LinkShare, which generates revenue by managing others’ affiliate programs. And it may make it harder for New York-based online retailers to find their own affiliates.”
And so far, I have in fact seen this prediction come true with CafePress who will discontinue supporting affiliates as of July 1, 2008.
In my humble opinion, New York simply saw the dollar signs, said “Hey why aren’t we doing this?” and didn’t even think for a moment what the implications would be – especially to their own actual brick-and-mortar businesses.
I also believe that every last State right now is sitting back drooling over what this could mean for their economy and letting New York be the guinea pig (while silently sitting in their offices with their little flags raised that say “Go New York!”.)
Know of any other companies that have decided to discontinue supporting their affiliates due to the New York Tax? Let the world know and click the comment link above!
