vercelocity

Other than maybe one internet post on wral.com there hasn’t been too much debate over what our legislature is doing.   I’m so freaking happy that someone is going to be on the news tonight on NC17 @ 6pm.  If you don’t know what’s going on, please tune in.   In an email sent to the networking group LinkingRaleighNC, this individual sums the events nicely:

Please turn to NBC17 this evening at 6pm. There is a very important issue regarding new taxes that the NC General Assembly will attempt to pass and take effect on July 1. I have been asked to come to discuss the effect this will have on affiliate marketers with Donald Jones.

Amazon.com, which has a very extensive affiliate network, has announced that if this law is passed they will close all NC based affiliate accounts, cutting off a large number of NC Small Businesses from this revenue stream. There are a number of local NC businesses that are growing due to their affiliate networks. This bill will affect them as well.

Here is the general summary of NC Senate Bill 202 Section 27C.2
Go to pg 268 to read the bill http://bit.ly/xRjx2

*Make two higher tax brackets for upper income people
*Raise sales tax by 1/4 percentage point
*Impose sales tax on service contracts, repair, maintenance and installation services
*Impose sales tax on courier services (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc)
*Impose sales tax on digital products – music and movie downloads, ebooks, software, ringtones, etc.
*Impose sales tax on companies with affiliate marketers within NC.
*Charge sales tax on movies, theme parks, races, sporting events, gym memberships, cover charges and so forth and so on.
*Increase liquor tax by 1 1/2 percentage points

If you do not support this bill please take a moment to sign this petition:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ncaffiliatetax/

Whether you support this act or not please contact the following representatives to let them know how you feel about this.
Representative Paul Luebke (the Chair of the House Finance Committee)
(919) 733-7663
Paul.Luebke@ncleg.net

Senator David Hoyle* (the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee)
(919) 733-5734
David.Hoyle@ncleg.net

Even if you don’t partake in internet affiliate programs, can you say that you support the other taxes they’re proposing?

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Trying to make up for budget short falls, NC legislature has a bill that is fore-casted to be signed in the next 2 weeks.  This will directly impact residents generating revenue from Amazon affiliate programs.  A local CEO is attempting to fight the battle here.

A little background on the economic impact of taxing the internet.

Directly from the bill:

A retailer is presumed to be soliciting or transacting business by an independent contractor, agent, or other representative if the retailer enters into an agreement with a resident of this State under which the resident, for a commission or other consideration, directly or indirectly refers potential customers, whether by a link on an Internet Web site or otherwise, to the retailer, if the cumulative gross receipts from sales by the retailer to purchasers in this State who are referred to the retailer by all residents with this type of agreement with the retailer is in excess of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) during the preceding four quarterly periods. This presumption may be rebutted by proof that the resident with whom the retailer has an agreement did not engage in any solicitation in the State on behalf of the seller that would satisfy the nexus requirement of the United States Constitution during the four quarterly periods in question.

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Really good, go here.

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I have a quirky interest in looking at resumes and profiles if nothing more to see what people are doing, where they’re going and get ideas for my own.  If you’re in job hunt mode, consider these helpful resources or new approaches to “branding” yourself.

• Give your resume a face-lift - quality article comparing a before and after resume face-lift.  Note the simplicity, use of white space and ability to quickly find information.   What makes this post valuable is the link to a download-able template.   Read the article though, it might give you some ideas.
• LinkedIn - I guess this one is getting old, but if you haven’t built your profile, seriously start working on it.   And, if you are a recent graduate, take advantage of the free premium account.  (The free account upgrade takes a couple of days - be patient)
• VisualCV - I admit I’m still working on this one, but it looks damn cool once you’re finished.  If anything, it makes you think through the process of getting stuff down and it saves it in a prettier format than a boring Word doc.

I’m not a pro at resume writing, but if you just want somebody to read over it and give you some ideas, feel free to contact me. Or if the abundance of technology is a little overwhelming, I can help there too.

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Interesting post from the Small Business Search Marketing blog.  Yahoo seems to use a different approach than say Google or MSN in its search rankings:

This is a new site, with few links, no authority links, and very little traffic. In two months, the site has less than 100 visits. So why does it rank in the Top 10 for a competitive term like [cityname real estate]?

The site, for what it’s worth, doesn’t show up in the Top 50 on Google for the same [cityname real estate] query. And on MSN, another algo which we all believe to rely heavily on keywords-in-domain-names, the site currently ranks #13.

This is key information for small businesses setting out to choose a domain name for a blog or website. Consider purchasing your company name as well as a keyword URL for optimal exposure to search engines.

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I just added a Contact form to the site using Secure and accessible PHP contact form v.2.0WP.  It was easy to install and configure following the instructions here. Feel free to contact me.

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Google has a Trends option that produces some interesting statistics about what blogs you’re reading.  It’s very helpful in cleaning up subscriptions that are not posting frequently enough for your taste and also gives you sorted access to articles you have starred.   Be sure to check out Most Obscure under Subscription Trends.  To see the results, click Trends in the upper left of your Google Reader.

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