We’re back from another great trip to New York City for Affiliate Summit East, and I’m happy to report that this show just keeps getting bigger and better!

We met with thousands of affiliates and vendors from all over the world, including many top ClickBank clients that made the trip from places as far away as Israel and Australia. We also met some new vendors with products that we hope will be great additions to the ClickBank Marketplace!

ClickBank's Booth at Affiliate Summit

As always, the highlight of the Affiliate Summit shows is the opportunity for networking, and this show was no exception. Besides the thousands of people at the Meet Market and on the trade show floor, the many parties were a hotspot for meeting potential business partners. On Monday night, we hosted a private party at the beautiful Peninsula Hotel for a group of our top affiliates and vendors. It was exciting to see so many hugely successful Internet marketers in one place, sharing ideas and forming the basis for new partnerships. Thanks to everyone who came to the party!

Another aspect of the show that I enjoyed this year were the educational sessions. Unfortunately you always have to make tough decisions about which sessions to attend, but I was very glad I saw Clay Collins (an information product creation expert) and Scott Stratten of Unmarketing speak. They both brought really interesting perspectives to the Internet/affiliate marketing space, and were entertaining at the same time. Jeremy Schoemaker also held a great session on Facebook advertising, which is becoming more popular all the time, and our own Dush Ramachandran held an interesting and informative session with Frederick Vallaeys of Google’s AdWords division to discuss the “Google Slap.” There were many other interesting sessions this year—the content of the sessions keeps getting better and better with each show.

Even though it was a fast and furious few days in New York and I’m glad to finally get some sleep, it was another amazing experience, and we can’t wait to see many of you in January for Affiliate Summit West!

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Update from Affiliate Summit West 2010
2. Save 20% on Affiliate Summit East Passes!
3. Meet ClickBank at Affiliate Summit East

On Monday night, after the first full day of the show, ClickBank hosted an exclusive invite-only cocktail party at the famous 21 Club in midtown Manhattan. Some of our biggest clients attended and got a chance to meet with ClickBank staff members and network with each other. One of the highlights of the party, outside of the great venue, was the Clickbank Moneymaker, a custom cocktail co-invented by our own Dush Ramachandran and Terra Goeres. It was a delicious hit with the crowd, and we’re pretty sure that some big moneymaking deals were made over Moneymakers!

The crowd at the party included extremely successful vendors and affiliates from all over the world, including Israel, Poland, France, Switzerland, and more. One of the best parts of the event for us at ClickBank was hearing what features and services we should introduce to help make our clients even more successful. We got some great ideas for new features and shared some upcoming features we’ll be rolling out soon that were very popular with the crowd. All in all, the party was a huge success, and when it finally wrapped up, some great ideas had been shared and plans and partnerships made for the future. We look forward to our next party at Affiliate Summit West in a few months!

Below are some pictures from the event. You can see more pics from the event at our Flickr album.

ClickBank Team Members Kylee and Terra

ClickBank Account Specialist Ashley Adamson with several clients

A crowd of top-earning ClickBank clients listen to Terra Goeres speak

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Affiliate Summit Day 1 Wrap-Up
2. Affiliate Summit East Day 2 Wrap-Up: The Show
3. Affiliate Summit East 2010 Recap

In late June, Amazon terminated its marketing affiliate program in North Carolina after a new law took effect that will tax affiliate sales, and on July 1, Overstock.com notified affiliates in Hawaii, North Carolina and Rhode Island that it would immediately cease doing business with them because of similar new tax laws.

But ClickBank, a major online retailer, says it has no intention of terminating relationships with affiliates in certain locations or discontinuing its longstanding policy of collecting and remitting taxes to the appropriate tax authorities in various domestic and international jurisdictions.

“We will continue to honor sales agreements with affiliates in the U.S. and abroad, despite new taxes that are being levied against them for sales and marketing efforts,” said Dush Ramachandran, vice president of sales, marketing and business development for ClickBank.

“One of the benefits of being a ClickBank affiliate is that you can operate wherever you live,” said Ramachandran. “We don’t want to place limits on that now. Our affiliates deserve the opportunity to earn income regardless of where they live, and ClickBank will continue to support them in their efforts to do so.”

New state tax laws aim to collect sales tax revenues from affiliates whose marketing activities lead to ecommerce sales. The key issue is whether the affiliates have a physical presence in a state that taxes ecommerce activities. The state of New York was the first to enact such tax laws, and more states are following suit.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. ClickBank Sticks by Colorado Affiliate Marketers Despite New Tax Law
2. Our Response to the New York Tax Law
3. A New Advertising Frontier for Affiliate Marketers: TV Ads?

The blogosphere and affiliate marketers have been abuzz about New York’s new tax law that requires online retailers to collect and remit sales taxes on purchases by New York residents. The curveball New York threw in there was that the presence of affiliates in the state was a basis to establish nexus for tax purposes.

This got a lot more attention last week when Overstock.com summarily dropped all of its New York-based affiliates so it would not have to collect and remit taxes to that state.

While we are disappointed by New York’s decision, there is no way we are going to cut off our affiliates, our highly-valued business partners, because of an action by lawmakers.

The commitment we have to our New York affiliates goes for all ClickBank users, affiliates and product publishers alike. We do everything we can to ensure that you are successful so that means we adapt to new circumstances ….including changes in tax law. That’s just the way we do things around here.

So, New York affiliates, publishers, and consumers will have the systems they need by June 1. We’ll be sending out a technical announcement in the next few days on how it all works. And, rest assured, when changes in the marketplace impact affiliate marketers or product publishers, ClickBank will be there with solutions.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. ClickBank Stands by Affiliate Marketers Despite New Tax Laws
2. ClickBank Sticks by Colorado Affiliate Marketers Despite New Tax Law
3. We Take Our Responsibility Seriously