Sunday, September 7, 2008

Our industry is on the defensive at Performance Marketing Alliance

Our industry is on the defensive at Performance Marketing Alliance

I attended an interesting session at Affiliate Summit today, conducted by four attorneys who discussed litigation and legislation activities around internet marketing. Bennet Kelley, an attorney for the Internet Law Center, made what I thought was a very relevant comment, after describing several industry lawsuits. He said that as an industry, we don’t pay attention to legislation, certainly not at the state level (as the NY tax law demonstrates), which puts us constantly on the defensive. And we’re often outmaneuvered as a result.

He then offered this quote by Carl von Clauswitz, an 18th century military historian:

“Superiority of numbers is the most common element of victory.”

I think that pretty well sums up motivation for forming the PMA. Collectively, we can be more effective than individually. Monitoring state, federal and international legislation is an excellent activity for the PMA to undertake, as well as providing education to help influence legislation. And perhaps we plan our strategy to grow to a size where we can actually employ lobbyists to have a direct impact on legislation that can help or hinder performance marketing.

Thoughts?

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