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Online retailer Amazon has ended all Colorado-based affiliate accounts after a new law passed by the state's legislature would have forced them to collect and pay state sales taxes. The law, HB 10-1193, states that any affiliate marketer making more than $10,000 for a retailer is declared a legal agent, and a state presence, of that company. Rather than be forced to pay the state taxes, Amazon has instead side-stepped the law by closing its doors to all affiliates based in Colorado.

Any web developer knows that it's a lack of universal standards that can make designing and maintaining a web site unbearable. Startup venture VigLink says it's here to handle at least one consistent issue - keeping affiliate link programs bringing in the bucks. The service says it is going to go even further and recover affiliate dollars you didn't know you were losing.

Google has just announced that it will sell its Performics search marketing business to Paris-based Publicis Groupe. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2008. Google acquired Performics when it bought DoubleClick and after this deal closed in March, Google had already announced that it was going to split up Performics into a search marketing and an affiliate marketing division. Google rebranded the Performics affiliate marketing business in June, but hadn't announced any plans for the search marketing business until now.