Pop Gonna Build Me a Shop

A friend of mine asked if I had seen Popshops? I hadn't, so I investigated at popshops.com. Its a pretty cool way to build little "stores" stocked with affiliate items and I think I'm going to have to spend a little more time tinkering with it. In the meantime, here is my first Popshop store...anybody wanna buy a telescope?

PopShops™ affiliate stores


hmmm, my store doesn't seem to work so you can put your wallet away. No telescope for you. Probably I've misenterfied my affiliate code. But it is pretty. Will work on this later.

Cafepress Dropping New York State Affiliates

An excerpt from an email I received from Cafepress today:

As you may know, the State of New York recently enacted new legislation that addresses tax registration, collection and remittance, which challenges the CafePress affiliate business model.
Due to mounting uncertainly over these new laws we will no longer be able to support affiliates residing in the State of New York, effective July 1, 2008.

If you're not aware of what is going on in New York, the state enacted new tax law June 1st that requires companies to collect tax on affiliate business in the state.

I'm not a tax policy expert, but I know enough to see stupidity in action. If companies are forced to pay additional taxes to do business in New York, then they will discontinue doing business in New York. Doh!

Here's an excellent podcast by Affiliate Marketing Insider on the New York Affiliate Tax Law and how it aaffects affiliate marketers...Linda Woods moderates this discussion with Brian Littleton of ShareASale, Linda Buquet of 5 Star Affiliate Forum, and Cicely Lancit of Affiliopolis.

Tinyurl.com Helping eBay Sellers

I've been playing around with an idea...posting a daily recap of my eBay items sold to this blog. Just items that have sold. Just putting them out there. No, you can't buy them...they've already sold. Don't you wish you could have one? You can't. It's sold.
In the course of setting up this exercise in scarcity marketing, I've discovered that tinyurl links to expired eBay items do not go directly to the expired eBay auction page. Instead they take a transitional stop at a tinyurl-hosted affiliate page. Check it out:

http://tinyurl.com/5qt5ap

I think this is a really good thing! Tinyurl.com is creating another sales page for my eBay items...and they're doing it at my request! I tell them to create a page for me when I create the link. Sure, it only shows 5 items, but that's five more than anybody else is doing. I have to think that the more chances to put my product if front of potential customers, the better. And if you're worried about tinurl's affiliate money, that comes out of eBay's pocket, not the seller's.
I gotta play with this and see if I can get the tinyurl affiliate page indexed. That would be cool! If anyone else sees a good way to play this, please leave a comment.