I love shopping at Amazon. So I was thrilled when I learned about the Associates Program that allowed us bloggers to make some money from doing what we already do anyway, referring people to Amazon. This week however, I’m going through all my blogs to remove badges and links back to Amazon. Why? because I can’t be a part of the Amazon Associate’s Program anymore. They’ve closed down my account and I won’t be earning anymore money from them either.
The reason I’m no longer an Amazon Associate is because I live in North Carolina and North Carolina is about to pass a bill that will tax affiliate type companies like Amazon for doing business in the state. Amazon claims that this is unconstitutional and therefore decided to drop all their associates in NC. That means me among them.
From what I hear, NC is not the only state that has been dropped from the program because of their tax policy and with California being in the economic morass its in, I hear they are contemplating a similar tax scheme which means that the days of Amazon Associates in California may now be numbered.
I can of course understand the rationale behind these states wanting more revenue but it comes at my expense. Now I have to find another revenue stream. Got any good ideas?
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Rhode Island was also chopped from the program, and I think there are 4 or 5 others coming up …. I can’t remember them off the top of my head though. Amazon isn’t the only affiliate program cutting folks either, affiliates in those states are going to be hearing from other companies as well.
Short of moving to another state there isn’t a lot to do but wait for the government to wake up.
That’s not fair… So if it turns out that all the states will follow eventually, are they gonna end up dropping all their affiliates?
You could apply to be an affiliate with ebay, slightly different format of course but cover all the same products.
Tons of bloggers are dropping Amazon anyway because they aren’t making much money, don’t feel bad! I heard their new cookie only last 24 hours, so if I user comes back after a day, it will not be through your ID.
I’ve never made any money from Amazon. Don’t know why I keep trying. I’ve been working with other affiliates now and am trying to earn with them.
Hi Fitness Family, Brian, Heidi and Connie! I’ve never made a whole lot of money from them either but my revenue just started to pick up this year. And since I link to Amazon pages all the time anyway, it was nice to generate some income from that.
Now I almost hesitate to link to their pages because i can’t make money from them anymore; but that’s what I was doing before I got into monetizing anyway. So am I just being petty with my linkbacks now?
Now i hear of another affiliate program who will also do as Amazon and drop their affiliates in states that tax them.
But then, as someone mentioned, affiliate revenue is tricky anyway.
Brian thanks for the ebay tip. I’ll check them out.
Ok. i recently joned the amazon associates program, I am from the Philippines, and I didn’t know that they do not have an alternative payment method like paypal to send the payments to. Would the check payment option be ok? or if they do not accomodate associates from other countries, wouldn’t they say otherwise, or deny the application in the first place? Need help
Hi KI, I know of some people who used the check option (even for Adsense) and it worked for them even if they are located in the Philippines. I think if Amazon is not willing to send payments outside the U.S. they would have told you when you applied already. They also have the Amazon gift card option where you can use your earnings to shop. good luck with them!