Affiliate Marketing Ban, Free Report, Success Story, MLM PLR
August 28th, 2011 | 
Author: Hi everyone! Off to a party in a bit but wanted to check in with some updates first. Let’s jump right in!
Shove Your Affiliate Success Right in the Faces of Those State Bans
The other day one of my readers mentioned in the comments section for that PLR ATM affiliate program that her state of Illinois didn’t allow affiliate marketing. That’s all in regards to the horrid Amazon debacle.
But most people seem to think you can still launch an affiliate program and have people OUT OF STATE promote for you! Read this Warrior Forum thread. I can’t imagine this to be true – so does anyone know for sure? I want to get pure clarification on this so if you have any insight, share it, please! From what I understood, it’s the fact that Amazon had a physical warehouse presence with PRODUCT in it that caused them to get banned. At least that’s the Texas debate here.
Free Report for You PLR Store Owners Who Want an Affiliate Program
Many of you asked me to give more information on Jrox Jam and DLG for setting up an affiliate program for your PLR store. I flat out told you I’m not the person who can help with that because…well, I suck at techie stuff! I paid the little fees to have them do it for me. I whined, nagging, and pouted until everyone else did it for me. LOL!
But Peg Baron, Wonder Woman that she is (and person who walks me through all this stuff when it comes to PLR affiliate runnings), decided to whip up the report you guys asked for and GIVE it to you! Yeah, she puts me to shame. Right click and save this report here.
She asked me if I wanted to create it with her but I was a fail. My brain shuts down with this sort of stuff, so I’m very grateful that she stepped up to the plate. Let’s all send out a virtual hug and thanks to her for this selfless act!
Everyone Loves a Good Success Story!
I’m in such a rush sometimes that I read, respond and delete email too quickly. This week I got many emails about people having success with something I taught them. But two were a little bigger than a first sale. The first one, I can’t find – it’s lost in hundreds of emails somewhere from last week. But I saved the second one and want to share it with you because it’s inspiring to see people start getting a foothold in this business!
Gary emailed me to let me know he’d been contacting me to ask questions for the last 18 months. He said he followed what advice I had – “offering a service to make money, then a product, then affiliate sales.” He started ghostwriting on Elance, then quickly created his own eBook and put it up for sale and as a WSO. He made $3,000!
For You MLM PLR Seekers
One of my subscribers, Nicole Cooper, launched an MLM PLR store and I know many of my readers are into the MLM niche. Now she has a stable of 4 writers who she oversees while some of the content, she writes herself. I looked at a couple of articles that looked good. Here is the type of stuff she offers:
- Action Plans (1)
- Article Bundles (10)
- Articles (26)
- Autoresponders (3)
- Blog Post Bundles (3)
- Checklists (1)
- Ebooks (3)
- Free Brandable Reports (1)
- Free Reports (1)
- Individual Articles (53)
- Mini Ebooks (1)
- Network Marketing PLR (38)
- PLR Bundles (5)
- Prospecting (2)
- Social Media (3)
- Workbooks (2)
Nicole told me in an email that “Our site focuses primarily on MLM techniques, Internet Marketing for MLM’ers and Personal Development for MLM’ers.” You can check out her MLM PLR store and let me know how you like it!
Some Special PLR Coming!
I’m working on some new PLR stuff. I did some research on two areas I feel are HOT right now! I’m debating on whether to make these eBooks limited or for everyone. Hmmm. I took down the other two limited packs because they both sold out. So now that section is empty. But I hate limiting packs. Will have to decide. Limited packs cost $2 per page instead of just $1 per page.
Tiff 
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Posted in Career
I bought your Empire book to learn how to market my books, but I am not computer-internet savvy enough to understand your terminology. Even in the above email, I don’t understand MLM PLR, WSO, to mention only a few. I could almost follow your book until I reached Chapter 6, at which time it may as well have been written in Chinese.
Do you have or know of any similar books on internet marketing that would be suitable for newbies and non-techies?
Thanks,
Brian N. Cox
Hey Brian,
MLM = Multi Level Marketing
PLR = Private Label Rights
WSO = Warrior Special Offer (relevant to the Warrior Forum).
If you want to get into any sort of online marketing, you may not be very ‘techie’ but you really have to learn the lingo
Just a suggestion… If you come across terms you don’t understand, go to our friend Google, and search for what the term means. Likely you will find it.
Also, if there is something ‘techie’ that you are called to do, and you want to learn, then at least as a start, go to YouTube and search on there because there are load’s of ‘how to’, videos showing you how to do ‘techic stuff’.
Hope that helps, but when it all boils down, there are some bare minimums we just have to ‘learn’ if we want to do this business.
There are tons of ebooks and courses on how to get started, but really for the beginning stuff you can learn heaps for free.
Wishing you all the best with your online efforts.
P.S. Perhaps you should have another go at Chapter 6 and see if you can’t ‘nut it out’. (You know you can even translate Chinese on Google!)
Great to read about the success others are having – sounds like their hard work is coming to fruition.
Thanks Peggy!!!
As far as limited vs unlimited, I prefer unlimited. See, you have an empty spot where you could be selling more of that particular product, IMO.
Have fun at the party!
Personally I am not bothered whether things are limited when I buy them – generally they get re-written anyway and secondly a significant percentage of people never do anything with them so that reduces the actual usage:-)
The store from Nicole looks good – but I very nearly clicked away straightaway
Why? Because the first thing that happened when I arrived at the page was I had a massive pop up asking me to sign up to something? Presumably a newsletter. Personally that is one of the most irritating things I encounter on a page – I haven’t even had chance to look at what you offer and you want me to sign up for a newsletter? I would suggest a time lapse before you ask me to do that as a minimum.
Thanks for your insight Paul – I value it a TON!
You are welcome as always Tiff. I was concerned that I sounded a tad negative about Nicole’s site but felt I needed to say something
Have a great party!
Thanks as well Paul. This is a great suggestion and I will definitely take it into consideration. I love getting feedback from both sides. I’ll definitely fix that!
I remember Peggy Baron from a report that I read long back. I like her writing style. Your style is easy to read.
Great info and perfect timing for me about the affiliate program. I am just looking into it and plan to decide which software to use this week. Thanks so much to you and Peggy.
Great post and Peggy’s guide is wonderful and she helped me out too this last week setting up JAM. It was confusing at first and with the one time offer they will install it for you on your site for free and this includes them adding the CRON job for you.
If you take the free version they include a ugly looking ad box on all the emails you send out. I took advantage of the payment plan and this way can earn the payments each month to cover the costs.
Gary congratulations on the progress you have made so far!
Sue – I would love to know when your PLR affiliate program is ready!
Is it ever too early to add an affiliate program? I’m up to about 12 packages worth of PLR in my store. I hadn’t gone over to seriously offer WSOs, for example, because I still feel like the store is too small…how many pieces of PLR would you have up before you’d start worrying about an affiliate program?
No I would have done it from the start if I’d known I could do that!
How useful of Peg to put that together! I kinda wished I’d used her system when I set mine up, but it’s all done now so nevermind lol
When it comes to buying PLR (not as a seller) I don’t care about limits. I’d rather get it at the cheaper price because I rewrite most of the PLR I buy anyway
Thanks to Peggy for the gift! I want to get an affiliate program up when I have at least 10 packs done. I personally think unlimited is the way to go for sellers!
IMO, to think of the sales tax issue as an “affiliate ban” …no, I wouldn’t call it that. It’s not banned. Some states are trying to use the presence of affiliates to capture sales tax revenue.
What Illinois and certain other states have said to companies like Amazon is that, by having affiliates physically located in their state, it requires Amazon to become a sales tax collector for that state (across its entire book of business, not just affiliate-generated sales…all sales to an IL address).
Instead of trying to comply with the details of all that (different details for each), Amazon sent the in-state affiliates “Dear John” letters. (A Supreme Court ruling from around 1992 that says states aren’t allowed to do such things — that will probably be revisited before all is said and done.)
For the present, the question is not just about the affiliates, it’s about whether Tiffany Dow Inc. has an Illinois sales tax exposure by having Illinois-located affiliates. To be determined.
One piece of the answer…is the “product” subject to sales tax in IL? I know in Michigan, goods are subject to sales tax, but not services. But an electronic “product” that’s not physical? The answer will have to come from an appropriate professional who knows the particulars of IL sales tax law (and NC, AR, RI, etc., the other states that have passed similar laws).
Dumping affiliates is probably not Amazon’s first choice, but being exposed to all the compliance details with, potentially, 4000+ US sales tax jurisdictions (not just states, but those cities and counties, too, that have their own sales tax), is even nastier.
As far as affiliate marketing being banned – that’s not the case at all. Affiliate marketing is banned nowhere. The issue with Amazon is that they yanked their associates progam from members in states that passed (unconstitutional) laws requiring sales tax to be collected. Amazon, rightfully, claimed that this was an unfair burden and that the laws will be overturned (which I believe they will be eventually – there is a lot of precedent) in federal court.
So, affiliate marketing is not, and never has been banned in any state. If one were to do that – any brick and mortar store that sells a product from any manufacturer would be subject and all retail businesses would fail immediately.
OT sidenote: Got my name and my website in the link—how’s that for branding? lol (I also updated the look of the site.)
So glad Peggy put together a report for us. I’m starting to look into the affiliate part for my own store (and getting more packs ready.) This will be a big help. I’ve had techie computer classes, but some days you just want something as simple as, “round peg-round hole”.
Peggy is another one I follow and love her stuff. Big hugs to you Peg!
Thanks for sharing!
~Patti
Hi Tiffany:
Another fantastic post. Great Information. As far as the new PLR, I would like to see it sold as limited. That way, not too many people have the same PLR.
In my experience, the Warrior forum is where experienced marketers take advantage of newbies. I am very hesitant to trust you knowing that you repeatedly mention that forum, WSO’s, etc.
Why are you different from any other “guru” on that site and if you are different, why do you spend so much time there? Is that the only way you make money, selling things to Warrior beginners?
Well Tisha I know there are many bad apples there – and many good ones. For instance…I’m there. Craig Desorcy is there. Ruth’s there. Paul’s there. That’s to name a few. You have to get to know people, do some research on them, and see what value they give before lumping them in the scumbag category. I love the forum because there are tons of giving people there too. They have helped me learn the business. I love to help others there, too. As for WSOs, I’ve run some on my products and bought a few, too. There are good deals – and scummy ones.
I spend time there to help others and still GET help whenever I need it. I would say 5% of my income is from WF, 20% if you focus on PLR WSOs.
You must have gotten really screwed there. If that’s the case, sorry that happened to you
Hi Tisha,
I’m sure I can speak for most of us here when I say that we understand where you’re coming from. But it’s like everything esle, it’s a weeding process. I have an account there but I don’t hang out much because I’d rather spend my time planting seeds right now instead of weeding the garden.
However, I can honestly say that I have been in the weeding process for many years. I’ve followed several marketers for years. I just discovered Tiffany this year and I’ve kept her on my list while dumping many others.
I’m not a guru nor am I an expert (and Tiff doesn’t claim to be a guru either, btw) but I am pretty good at deciding who I can follow and trust and who I can’t. You have to decide that for yourself where you’re concerned, but like I said, I’ve kept Tiff on my list. Lots of people get knocked off my list within two weeks.
I’m a freelance writer. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years. I’ve been following the marketing arena for about 5 years. I didn’t decide to take the plunge into marketing until I ran across a select few people–Tiff, Ruth and Peggy to name three of them. Why? Because I finally saw–with my own eyes—that you can be an ethical marketer and make a living at it. Up until then all I saw were unethical marketers taking money from people–they took mine. I never took the plunge before because I didn’t see how I could mix my ethics into marketing and survive. It can be done and many people are starting to appreciate that.
If you’re still here and on Tiff’s list, I suggest you follow her for a bit longer before you draw a conclusion.
Get off the Warrior Forum and start building something you can be proud of.
Only go there when you have a specific question and look for the answer. Put on blinders to the rest of the stuff.
Also, I’ve purchased WSO’s from Ruth and Peggy. I was not disappointed by either of them. I’ve also purchased Tiff’s products, PLR ATM and Ebook Empire. I’m working on a review of ATM and will do one on Ebook Empire at a later time. From skimming those, I’m not disappointed.
Hope this helps. We all do know how you feel about those scum-bags, we’ve all been burned by them. Keep searching until you find what you’re looking for.
~Patti
Thanks for the replies. I must tell you honestly though, just the fact that Tiffany mentions the Warrior forum so much will continue to make me very skeptical.
I just went there now and there are 1499 members online at this moment as I write this. Total number of members = 350,000+. That is an awful lot of members and Tiffany “named a few” ethical ones. Definitely not a big enough number for me.
So many people there teach other people how to make money with WSO’s. It is an extremely incestuous environment and one that I will take special care to stay away from. It seems to me that any truly ethical marketers would want to stay away as well and distance themselves from it as much as possible.
If you truly know how to make money online why would anyone need to go back there unless it is to sell to newbies?
Well I know I wouldn’t have cared if the ONLY one i found was Craig Desorcy – he is THE reason I am making money online, period. So one out of a million – if they’re wonderful – is perfect for me. Guess you need to get offline then because screw the Warrior Forum – look at how many blogs and websites there are. Maybe only a SMALL fraction of them are good, too.
It’s called tossing the baby out with the bath water. You’re closed minded so if you want to steer clear of the WF and me, I’m fine with that. There’s being a bit skeptical and cautious…and then there’s utter ridiculousness.
And I make over 6 figures but I STILL go there to ask questions, to HELP newbies (is there something WRONG with helping newbies?) Oh wait, I know – I should devote 100% of my time FREE because otherwise it’s scummy.
350,000 on the Warrior Forum? I wonder how many ethical marketers Tiffany would have to name to help you overcome your skepticism? I am thankful that she’s busy giving away free/affordable advice/content I can use instead of gathering up thousands of names of ethical marketers on WF.
Thanks Tiffany – and Peggy too, for your generosity!
Tisha,
You’re right in that there are WSO’s and some scummy people there looking to take advantage of newbies to internet marketing. But, as you mentioned…there are over 350K members as well…you’re bound to get some bad apples in a bunch that big! I’m sure there are several who believe they’ve been abducted by aliens, some that are afraid of leaving their house, etc…that’s an awfully large group.
That being said, there IS quite a bit of good information there, if you can sift through the mis-information and crap. The problem is there’s quite a bit of the latter, making it more difficult to get to the former. It can get frustrating seeing the same questions and same answers posted again and again, but the good information that’s there is (As the blog owner mentioned) worth 6 figures or more per year.
I can say with complete confidence that much of the information I was able to pick up there led to us being able to earn 10K+ within 7 months. There is a level of “buyer beware” and reading between the lines that’s required and that can be difficult for some (you?), I’m guessing.
Tisha, I have learned more from the Warrior Forum than I ever could have researching on my own. I have bought WSOs, sure, and there have been some stinkers, but I can honestly say that the vast majority have taught me *something* and were worth the money. It’s like anything else in life: some winners, some losers.
Don’t judge the entire WF based on your perception of the WSO section. Open that closed mind of yours a little, and you’ll be amazed what can flow in.
So first thing is first. You complain… Complaining gets you nowhere. Second of all beiges you leve such an idiodic statement think about this. Has tif EVER claimed she’s a ‘guru’?.
Let me clue you in on something. Gurus are the ones who make money. Whether you think it’s a scam or not that’s your opinion and the whole world could care less. We as a marketiing community itu and the warrior forum make money. You won’t ever make a dime with that mindset.
Let’s ge this point across to. You probably don’t have a list. Tif does. So in essence she is more successful then you. Keep working your 9-5 and don’t bombard the blog with your trash comments!
Tiff, here’s more info on what happened in CO:
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/03/colorado_law_adds_new_twist_to_amazon_sales_tax_debate.html
I have been pretty vocal about wanting limits on the PLR releases, especially the ones I am buying. However, I have recently given the idea a lot of serious thought.
The three main purposes of written PLR are Autoresponder messages, articles, and reports/books.
A short series of autoresponder emails does not need to be limited. After all, there will be a limited time exposure and then the odds of an exact duplicate to follow drops tremendously. I don’t care if these are limited or not.
A long series of emails, such as a 6 month daily series would be a problem in the IM niche given the nature of the people in it. Since they go unedited and for so long, it would be easy for someone to sign up and get stuck with two or three lists using the same sequence at the same time. Outside the IM niche, I see no problem with unlimited distribution.
Articles probably need to be limited. Assuming they are used by people who want them read, as opposed to SEO fodder, most users will “spin” them rather than edit them. That will produce too many similar articles. Many buyers will mass publish them anyway. If 100 buyers publish, they may publish it 100 time each, and they get picked up from the article directories and published another 10-100 times each. That’s a lot of duplication.
Reports and books: I used to want to buy only limited editions, but now, I don’t think it is necessary. If the product comes with a Resale package, (website, graphics, etc) some buyers will basically sell it unedited with the same name, etc.
However, if a person properly converts a PLR book to their product with new graphics and title, and if they sell it in their email sales funnel, then buyers are buying from the “author” as opposed to the reseller. The limits are really not needed.
I intentionally purchased the source and two converted products to see the comparisons for one product. It was interesting to see how minimal the changes had to be to have produced unique enough products that one would not have recognized them until reading thoroughly. That, and the product quality is still good today.
You don’t really need to worry about limitations on books and reports, if you make a small list of changes. Autoresponder messages don’t need to be limited unless they are long. But, I would be cautious about buying unlimited articles because saturation is a real possibility even among a few users.
Well that’s my opinion!
For what it’s worth
Buck
I researched this and what I found out was the fact that the States who require me to pay their sales tax if I had affiliates in their state.
So my affiliate FAQ specifically states that people from those States can not sign up.
I’m beginning to rethink this because as I delved into it further, I found that most of these States who want Sales Tax have a $10,000 sales exclusion. Meaning if all your affiliate’s sales in each of the affected State doesn’t come to $10,000 then you don’t have to file a report and pay sales tax to that State.
Then again, my thinking is, if they do make more than $10,000 in sales, why not pay the sales tax. It should probably be less than 10 percent.
The bookkeeping end is what I would consider a real headache.
Do I think Amazon is correct to fight it through a court suit that will eventually go to the Supreme Court? Yes I do. The Federal Law specifically (which has been heard twice by the supreme court) states a business does not have to pay a State Sales tax unless they have a physical presence (meaning a building) in the State.
On the other hand, affiliates have buildings (homes) in each State that want Sales Tax so until the Supreme Court rules, we little business owners are in a quandry. Do like Amazon and exclude them or allow all affiliates and hope the Supreme Court rules for Amazon.
Found this, so I think the problem will be sorting out how much you/or who has to pay the state of Illinois.
“If a person in Kansas buys a teddy bear made in Vermont, and an affiliate in Illinois is involved in the transaction, the state of Illinois will force the Vermont company to pay Illinois sales tax. That means the teddy bear company in Vermont now has to muck around with the byzantine layers of state and local sales tax. Potentially different rate for every city and county.”
http://www.perrymarshall.com/14384/illinois-will-crush-affiliate-marketing/
I believe if it was just about the money (a rate applied to a figure) then it wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s still a LOT of paperwork (that is, unprofitable overhead expense) for all the potential jurisdictions.
But that’s not all…
It’s compliance with the monstrous mountain of rules…what is and isn’t taxable, how often you have to file and pay (which is variable here in MI, depending on how much you owe), once you’re on their list you have to file a “zero return” even when you owe no tax, keeping track of all the rule changes…all that kind of stuff.
It’s a compliance nightmare. Any errors, then you’re exposed to penalties and interest.
Just downloading Peggy’s report – Thanks Peggy
I’m not sure on the whole limited vs unlimited thing. I have limited PLR but am seriously considering changing to unlimited. If I don’t change I might at least increase the number of copies sold.
I know a lot of people prefer limited, but when you think about it, so many people buy PLR and don’t even use it anyway.
It’s a tough one but limited PLR also limits our income and we need to make some money – so I think it’s all a bit of a balancing act!
Hello Tiff
As allways a very useful post Thanks for Penny for heruseful info and freebie. To me unlimited plr is ok with me and do agree with the posts above agreeing with this.
I also agree with being put off with a pop up imediately you land on a site
cheers for now
Charles
I have yet to make a dime in internet marketing. But! If I were making six figures as an affiliate marketer, I would just move. If you work for IBM for your 100K a year and they send you to Singapore, your whole family goes to Singapore. I’m not exactly kidding.
IM is pretty thready to begin with, with Pandas and shutdowns and new technologies. Why hang around a place that won’t let you do business at all?
I have a feeling they’re going to dump this model of taxation for internet business eventually. I think at some point we’re going to have to pay for licenses, or every registered domain is going to pay a tax, or something like that.
Hey Tiff,
Thanks so much for the shout out! I saw the feedback regarding the pop-up and would like your take on this as well.
I honor constructive criticism and wandered your feedback.
Thanks
I’m of the same mindset to be honest. I love a sidebar opt in but he’s right – if I land there not knowing you, I want to see your stuff before I’m opting in. I hate pop ups anyway – never once read them, I just click out.
Got it!! Thanks for the insight!
Thanks Tiff and everyone regarding the JAM and DLG guide! I’d been asked by a few people to put something together and that, combined with the comments I saw on Tiff’s post the other day, finally pushed me to do it.
This solution is not for everyone, but I encourage you to get an affiliate program up and running no matter what your online business is.
Carmen asked if it was too soon to start an affiliate program because her PLR store is still “small”.
I feel it’s never too soon! Get it up and running BEFORE you need it. That way you can get that headache out of the way, have it customized how you want it, and it’s ready to go when you are. One day you’re going to write an incredible big, awesome PLR package and you want to have others promote it. No hassles – you’ve already got your affiliate program in place. You can even list your PLR as a WSO and still have your affiliates promote it.
I don’t notify my affiliates every time I put out a new 5 pack – just the larger packs, reports and ebooks. They already know they can promote my main site and everything in there is cookied.
If you feel like your site is too small yet, you don’t have to actively go looking for affiliates until you’re ready.
Like Tiff, I wish I’d done it sooner. Having affiliates on board has really done wonders for my business.
Thanks,
Peggy
Peggy,
As always you rock! Seems like there’s always a technical thingy we have to get set up so that everything’s in place. This was one I’d put off because I just didn’t want to work thru another one yet. Thanks to you, I can get it done!!
I was going to comment on your blog so that everyone knows how awesome you are with this one…but there’s nothing I can find about it there. So why aren’t you showing off your awesomeness over there?!! ;P
Keep up the great stuff and thanks again Peg!
Debi J
Thank you Debi! I just haven’t gotten to posting it on my site yet. I know, I know, not very good marketing on my part. Sometimes I like to wait and look at the feedback to see if I’ve missed a crucial step or something before I go any further. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
ARRRRGH – MY BRAIN!
affiliate or not, limit or not, sales tax or not, pop-overs or not, WF or …?
Here I was just checking the emails and now you’ve all got me trying to put together a whole NEW business plan, when I was just settling into the old one!
OK, so I just have a couple of comments (as usual)
Peggy – AWESOME! Even though my head is still spinning from setting up the PLR site you have certainly broken down some of the ‘fear of the unknown’ of setting up an affiliate program.
Sales Tax – too hard basket.
Tisha – Yes WF is full of ratbags, but it is also full of good people too. BUT….
NOT using WF for your ghostwriting and PLR site promotion is like owning a pub and telling everyone to sod off down the road because you don’t like some of the drunk customers.
Quite apart from that fact It is a VERY difficult task to try and promote your site without using WF. At least there you have a willing market that wants to buy your PLR. (Of course – how you handle yourself onsite is up to you).
OK, done now – back to thinking ……
Everyone DOES love a good success story, and I am no exception! Thanks for sharing Gary’s, I enjoyed reading it and this post.
~Natasha