Drs. Foster & Smith and LiveAquaria affiliate network shuts down

As a regular to this site, I’m sure you’ve noticed the LiveAquaria banners on this site – and if you’ve visited numerous other popular reef blogs you would have seen these on those sites too. But these banners will no longer be displayed as Drs. Foster and Smith & LiveAquaria have put their affiliate program on hold as today, 22 February 2010. The reason has something to do with the ‘Regarding pending state nexus/sale tax legislation’. Here are a few of the details:

It is with great regret that we have to inform you that we are shutting down affiliate marketing at Drs. Foster and Smith & LiveAquaria effective immediately  February 22, 2010.  This closure is across the board in all states with all affiliates and is not related to you only as one of our affiliates.
We regret having to do this for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that so many of you have done a great job for Drs. Foster and Smith and will be adversely affected by the loss of revenue from Drs. Foster and Smith sales.  Thank you for all you have done to promote our company on your web sites.  We apologize for the hardship and inconvenience that this creates for you.

We wish there was clarity on this issue from state to state and nationally, but there isn’t.  So until this matter is cleared up nationally, we are shutting down all affiliate marketing.  We apologize for any hardships this brings to you and your team.  We have greatly appreciated the work that you have done on our behalf.  The sudden nature of the move by California to reintroduce legislation late last week and to push for a quick vote, emphasized the ever-changing nature of this issue and our need to be ahead of such votes and decisions.

- The LiveAquaria Affiliate Marketing Team

For those blogs who were paying some of their bills with the traffic they sent to LiveAquaria will need to find another source of income, because who knows when or if the affiliate program will be activated again – hopefully LiveAquaria will invest directly with the various forums, blogs and other websites that have helped them and keep everybody happy.

It might be interesting to see if any other affiliate networks will be affected by this pending legislation in the future. What do you think?