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A group of states calling themselves the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) is lobbying Congress to give them the authority to require out of state businesses to collect and remit sales taxes for Internet commerce. The complex rules and tax rates could be regularly modified and changed by a Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, comprised of a group of state tax officials from the member states.

The SSTP does not propose establishing a single sales tax rate among the states, nor does it even require a single sales tax rate within each state. Instead, the Internet sales tax regime envisioned by the SSTP would be complex and costly to small business sellers, who would be responsible for thousands of state and local tax jurisdictions across the country.

Congress can protect small business from new tax burdens by including a robust small business exemption. eBay supports including a "Small Business Exemption" provision in any proposal to change federal law related to sales tax collection and remittance that would empower the US Small Business Administration to determine which small business retailers would be exempt from the new Internet sales tax regime.

In a tough economy, we should empower and protect small businesses. It does not make sense to increase tax burdens on small businesses in such a tough economy. Instead, Congress should work to protect and help grow small businesses and empower consumers.

Tod Cohen, Vice President for Government Relations and Deputy General Counsel at eBay Inc, made the following statement upon the introduction of legislation to expand sales tax collection on the Internet, H.R. 5660 by Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA).

“Year after year supporters of increased Internet sales taxes recommend legislation that would impose significant new costs on hundreds of thousands of online small businesses and ecommerce entrepreneurs, which is sure to harm the economy and kill small business jobs.

“At a time when unemployment rates are high and small businesses across the country are closing shop, we are confident that Congress will protect small internet retailers and the consumers they serve from another Internet tax scheme.”

Four Facts:

• Internet sales tax would require small businesses to navigate a very complex system.
• Internet sales tax would place a disproportionate burden on small online retailers.
• Uncollected taxes from online transactions would not generate enough state and local revenue to justify the increased financial and administrative burden on small businesses.
• SSTP legislation gives a self-appointed group of state officials the power to determine national tax policy with limited federal oversight.

Download the full SSTP Factsheet

Some people are under the impression that blogs are good for SEO only if they’re updated frequently. How much does frequency play into PageRank for blogs & other dynamic sites? Isn’t the content more important than the simple # of posts per day/week?

In an exigent rate case filed July 6 with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Postal Service proposed a rate hike averaging 5.6%.

The U.S. Postal Service Governors recommended increasing the price of a First-Class stamp 2 cents to 46 cents and authorized the production of a pane of four evergreen tree branches as the newest image for Forever Stamps. The price of a postcard would increase 2 cents to 30 cents.
The Postal Regulatory Commission must approve the recommended price changes. The increases would not go into effect until January 2, 2011. It would be the first stamp price increase in almost two years.

Catalog or Standard Mail flats rates would go up 5.1%, first-class mail stamps would increase 2 cents to 46 cents, first-class mail postcard prices would rise 2 cents to 30 cents, periodicals would see an 8% increase and Standard Mail parcel rates would increase about 23%. If passed, the rates are slated for implementation Jan. 2, 2011

The USPS no doubt feels the steady drop in mail volume since 2007 and its mounting financial losses count as extraordinary circumstance. Even with the proposed increase, the agency’s projected net loss would be $4.7 billion for fiscal 2011.

Without the proposed price increases, postal officials estimate a $7 billion net loss in fiscal 2011. The Postal Service says it would have needed to raise rates an average of 20% across all product lines to completely close that projected gap.
But for mailers, a 5% increase is far too much right now, and the mailing community is outraged. “Volume is dropping and the answer is to raise postage?  It makes no sense,” says Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association and member of the Affordable Mail Alliance.

“The Postal Service’s plan to right its ship is to hit its customers first,” Cerasale says. “It should be looking to reduce excess capacity and control the inflation of postal costs.”

Tony Conway, the executive director for the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, says the USPS is equipped to handle 300 billion pieces of mail per year, and this year it will handle about 170 billion pieces. “The system is twice as big as it needs to be. The rate increase shouldn’t be the first shot. It should be the last shot.”

I know and I will admit that I am a complete and total nut some days but hey you get what you pay for right? But when I got something that is so evidently crappy, I’ve got to put it out there. So here is Auctionbytes blog today, I find it odd that they would romance the hell out of eFashion Solutions (the eBay Fashion Vault guys) with a lovy-dovy kissy face article just one week after I show how shoddy there service was on eBay in this video/article.

So I got to pull out the "keep it real" card on Auction"BITES" for such a load o’ crap story, this one gets the "gas face"!!! Yo, is this an advertisement or a story? It sure looks like a long form infomercial to me?!?

Given the fact that we just blew the lid off last week about these guys and their horrible customer fulfillment practice. Feels like this was a GIANT slap in the face to the ecommece folks that read the Auctionbytes blog. Again, fair is fair.so I will give them just a ticket and won’t revoke their pass completely. Next time, hopefully they will at least do some back end homework/research before opening up so wide for such piss-poor DSR (shipping is rated at 4.3) supplier, jeesh.

That my friends is the million dollar question. Actually the funny thing about the question is there is NO answer! Yet companies are already spending millions to get into the game. Recently I did my talk about how “Social Media For Business Sucks” and put up the video for the entire talk. The key to this whole industry was laid out from my perspective as a social media ‘evangelist’

Now available for FREE download is the all new 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner. In this report there are details about how marketers are using social media to grow leads and business. This study set out to understand how marketers are using social media to grow and promote their businesses.

• The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered: We analyzed
  nearly 1356 open-ended responses and summarized all the major questions that
  marketing pros want answered.
• The time commitment: We examined the weekly hours marketers invest in their
  social media efforts. This analysis will be helpful for marketers just getting
  started or seeking support staff.
• The benefits of social media marketing: This rather beefy section reveals all
  the major advantages marketers are achieving with their social media efforts. We
  also look at how time invested and experience enhances the benefits.
• Commonly used social media tools: Wondering which social media tools
  marketers are using the most? Those questions are answered, along with an
  examination of which tools experienced folks are using.
• Social media tools people want to learn more about: In this section, we
  examine the up-and-coming tools that marketers are most interested in learning
  about.
• Other analysis: We also examine social media outsourcing and smartphone
  marketing. In addition, we take a look at how B2B (business to business)
  companies vary from B2C (business to consumer) companies and whether the
  size of a business has any bearing on results. We also highlight significant
  changes since our 2009 study.

To download a FREE copy of this insightful study, simply click HERE and download the PDF. Get an 5-minute overview of the report from the author by watching the video below…

Today Twitter has announced a new "daily deal" called @earlybird Exclusive Offers, this will be time-sensitive deals on products and events that will appear on the @earlybird Twitter account. People can follow that account to get access to the deals.

The idea borrows from private and limited-time sale sites, like Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which Amazon.com recently acquired), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like eBay, which attributes volumes in sales to posting deals on the Daily Deals, are already doing.

The deals could be on products, like iPods or diapers, or on events, like concert tickets or travel. In a post on a company blog, Twitter hinted that it could filter deals by category, like apparel or gadgets, in the future. Twitter stressed that it would be selective about which deals were offered and “try and make these deals interesting and of value to you.”

The retailers will determine the price of the items and how many are available. Twitter will earn money from the sales. It is experimenting with different models, like a cut of each sale or a fixed price per deal, said Sean Garrett, a Twitter spokesman. The retailers will collect shoppers’ credit card numbers and otherwise fulfill the transaction.

Many of you use Twitter to stay on top of timely, relevant information, and lots of businesses are already sharing special offers on Twitter. We believe that surfacing deals through the @earlybird account will help you discover the best of those deals, as well as find and follow accounts that consistently provide exceptional value.

Twitter @earlybird Exclusive Offers are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account. We partner with select advertisers and retweet offers that they have crafted only for the Twitter community. Our advertising partners determine the terms of the offer, including availability, amount, and price. As with other forms of advertising from Twitter, we are focused on bringing value to our users and will keep your interests in mind as we develop this program.

How does @earlybird choose these deals?

Every couple days, our Earlybird at Twitter HQ lays a golden egg. Inside this wondrous egg is a piece of parchment with the day’s magical deal.

Seriously… how do you get these deals?

Ok, ok, we partner with advertisers to choose exciting deals we think our users (that’s you!) will like. If you have suggestions of a product/event you want to see featured on this account, feel free to @reply to @earlybird.

Does Twitter make money from this?

Yes, we earn revenue through our relationships with advertisers. Our focus will be to try and make these deals interesting and of value to you. We take pride in being selective about the type of deals we highlight and hope they will be an exciting way to start your day.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This explains it all, I simply am not able to communicate it better. I said it too that social media relevancy must come with some defects. These are all areas for improvement in our use of these tools. I love the freedoms that social media has made common to us all as a vehicle. But this is too damn funny not to post here on ColderICE.com

Editor Update: The team at AdCommerce contacted me with the following for clarity…”saw your adcommerce post and wanted to respond. You are right about the timing of the launch. That was an oversight on our part and we appreciate you pointing it out. AdCommerce did launch in 2008, not 2009 as we indicated in the blog post. We will update the blog post accordingly. It was always, however, a beta product. The beta logo has always been on the site. Just thought you might want to know…”

eBay has announce the end of the AdCommerce program. What I do find interesting is how they made it “LOOK” like it was a beta program. At some point in the last few weeks they added this little beta sign to the logo?!? I interviewed Alexis Van De Wyer who is the Dir. or Marketing for eBay back in late January 2010 and I know for a fact that “beta” sign was NOT there?

What else is odd is that in the official announcement on the AdCommerce blog they state “As you probably know, the AdCommerce pay-per-click ad program launched last year as a trial to test various ad placement opportunities on eBay…”

BUT in reality this was launched in November of 2008. That is kind of odd behavior.

November 12, 2008 | 01:36PM PST/PT

Hi everyone…I’m Caroline Malifaud with eBay’s Advertising team. I’m pleased to let you know that our new advertising program eBay AdCommerce (announced earlier) is now live at www.adcommerce.com.

AdCommerce is a pay-per-click advertising solution that allows eBay sellers to advertise their listings and eBay Stores via a text ad on eBay search result pages.

Top that with the fact that just a couple of weeks ago, eBay suggested that sellers use AdCommerce in response to the ending of the Featured First program. Why would eBay make the AdCommerce program look like it was in Beta and that it was only started last year? Not sure why they did it that way, but I thought it was kind of weird. So anyway, here is the full announcement from eBay on the official ending of the program…

AdCommerce Placements for On-eBay Promotion to be Discontinued

July 1st, 2010

As you probably know, the AdCommerce pay-per-click ad program launched last year as a trial to test various ad placement opportunities on eBay.

During that time, we’ve determined that providing the best possible experience for eBay buyers and sellers means highlighting in Best Match search results the most relevant listings from sellers who offer the best prices and service.

In order to focus on the best selling and shopping experience, the specific AdCommerce program that allowed eBay sellers to purchase pay-per-click advertisements on search result pages linking to their eBay stores and listings will be retired for eBay.com and eBay.ca as of August 4, 2010. The service will continue for eBay sellers using AdCommerce in Europe and Australia.

We understand that you may be disappointed and that these AdCommerce ads may have provided an advantage to your business. However, we are confident that consistently displaying the most relevant items highest in the search results is in the best interest of buyers, sellers and the eBay marketplace overall.  We appreciate you participating in the AdCommerce beta program to date and wish you continued success with your eBay businesses.

If you have recently purchased AdCommerce ads for your store or listings, you do not need to do anything at this time—the AdCommerce placements you have already purchased to appear on these sites will automatically expire on August 4. Your final billing will be sent out in early September.

In the meantime, to continue to ensure maximum exposure for your listings in Best Match, the best thing to do is focus on sound business practices and on delivering great value and service to your buyers. Here are a few best practices:

• Provide great service to your buyers
• Retain or achieve eBay Top-rated seller status on eBay.com
• Offer good prices and reasonable shipping
• List in the right format and the right categories
• Write accurate and relevant titles
• Write clear item descriptions
• Include great photos
• State your terms clearly

Thank you,

eBay AdCommerce team

Last night Mr. Bigfoot (Bryan Goodman) was talking to Betsie Bloger (eBetsy) about the eBay Radio Party in Vegas on the RRB Radio show. I was listening to the replay and heard his comments about my keynote presentation at the event. WOW!!! Thank you so much, I was truly humble by your comments. I respect him lots and his feedback was really shocking. THANK YOU Very Much. And thanks to eBetsy for allowing me to speak at the eBay Radio Event.

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