Amazon Associates Gives Colorado the Shaft – Is Your State Next?
The Amazon Associates affiliate program has always intrigued me. I know for a fact that many people are making really good money simply referring others to buy Amazon products through affiliate links. I have had a hard time finding material online that breaks down exactly how to make money as an Amazon associate. Whenever I talk to people who actually make money with this program, most of them seem to be tight lipped about how the whole process works. I have even tried to find an ebook online that details how get started as an Amazon affiliate ?? no luck.
My guess is that you simply choose a product line, find out which keywords work best and then see if you can get easily ranked on page 1 of Google for this term. If so, you would simply build an online store and post photos of the product and then a ??buy now? button which is an affiliate like to Amazon. Sounds simple, right? Well I am sure it cannot be this easy. One blog that I have found entitled ??Make Money on the Internet? and written by Chris Guthrie shows some amazing Amazon associate earnings. Chris makes about $5,000 a month from his Amazon earnings ?? but I can??t find enough exact details on his blog as to how to actually get started. He does give some great tips that show how to optimize your Amazon product listings. You can check out Chris’ blog here: Make Money on the Internet. (Chris, you can PayPal me $10 for that backlink…lol)
Getting started with Amazon associates is not my only problem, now that I live in Colorado and I am a resident of the state I am not longer qualified to be a member of the Amazon associates program. This may sound crazy, but I just got this email from Amazon a few weeks ago?
Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.
We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.
There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.
You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.
Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.
We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.
Best Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team
Needless to say ?? this SUCKS! Fortunately, I have never made any Amazon associates sales and I had only a handful of affiliate links online. But, can you imagine the people who live in Colorado and have spent months or even years building Amazon associate websites and pasting their links all over the web? Imagine opening up your email and seeing that all of your hard work had been for naught. I would be pissed!
The worst part is the fact that Amazon is leaving all of these links from Colorado members active ?? they just are not paying their Colorado associates for their referrals! When I received this notice my first thought was to simply change my state of residence ?? after all, I could use my parent??s address in Connecticut or my friend??s address in Los Angeles. But I went to my account and I am completely locked out of making any changes. This is complete bullshit! I understand if you have to drop your Colorado reps, but at least allow us to change our address. After all, plenty of people open up businesses in various states ?? why not let your associates change their address?
If you have any opinions, ideas on getting started as an Amazon associate please let me know by commenting below. If someone can show me a sample link of an actual Amazon associates blog or online store ?? I would love to see it! If you are a Colorado Amazon associate who has figured out a solution to this problem ?? please inform myself and my readers!
You can join Amazon??s associate program here: Amazon Associates
Best regards,
Michael-John Wolfe
Tags: make money online, residual income, royalties
15 Comments to “Amazon Associates Gives Colorado the Shaft – Is Your State Next?”
Leave a Reply
I am another Colorado blogger, and I got the letter as well. I am like in, in that I have not made any Amazon sales. It is irritating that the company would take out their frustrations on affiliates who have been supporting the site. It is not a big deal for me, but I am sure many small businesses and blogs were seriously impacted by this retaliation against Colorado.
I think you are right Eric, I am sure there are a lot of people in Colorado who have probably lost a consistent source of monthly income. Best of luck with your blog. It looks like we have more snow coming in!
MJ
Wow, that really is a bummer. I just recently set up an Amazon Associates account and have begun experimenting with putting a few affiliate links out there, but earnings yet, but I am always hopeful.
The best resource I have found online for Amazon Affiliates has been through this website: http://www.affiliateblogonline.com/
They even have an article detailing how they made $14,000 in one month on Amazon with the screenshots to prove it.
The advice and system they use seems fairly straightforward.
Thank you DJ – it looks like there is a lot of good info there, I will be sure and spend some time checking that website out.
MJ
I have plans for an Amazon site, sure hope legislators in my state don’t do something dopey. That stinks.
Hi Carrie – I hope not! I am condsidering opening up accounts in both California and Connecticut to keep my options open.
MJ
I read about this on John’s Passive Family Income blog and all I can say is that this sucks! Shame on both parties, for they both screwed over the residents.
Amazon locking you out of your account? That is b.s. I would contact them and let them know you’d like to change your address. What would they say…?
I have not called Amazon yet, mostly because I had no earnings anyway – like I said, I may just start a new account or two in different states. But maybe I should just call to see what they say, it would be interesting to hear their response if I wanted to change states. I will let you know what happens! Have a good weekend Moon!
MJ
lol love the comment about the $10 paypal for the backlink.
I’m actually going to put together a really in depth guide that outlines more details. Unsure yet as to whether I would charge or give it away freely.
In either case, I’m getting back to your email in just a moment
Chris Guthrie
Sweet – than you can just give me the ebook for free instead of the $10 bucks…lol. Talk to you soon – thanks for taking the time to reply!
MJ
I would hope that this would be a lesson for other states. By imposing this type of law, they are losing valuable income taxes. I don’t know if other states will want to anger the Amazon Giant. I have big plans for Amazon as well so I hope this isn’t coming down the pipe in my state.
I hear ya George! Luckily, I called Amazon and changed my state of residence to Connecticut and they re-activated myaccount. I am using my parents address, the only thing is that Amazon said that they may ask for “proof of residence” in the future. If this is the case, they may want a bill in my name or something – which would be a pain in the arse! But if I was making enough money from Amazon, I would just put one of my parent’s bills in my name.
MJ
I frequent your site, and I am sad to hear this. Being a native, I am saddened on both fronts. Not only do I now have to pay sales tax on online purchases, my Amazon affiliate site is basically worthless.
Anyway, love the site, and thought I would pass this one along. I haven’t checked it out yet, but it’s a site where you test websites and get paid to write them up.
http://www.usertesting.com/
Much luck and fortune to you.
At least we both get to live in this beautiful state! Maybe they will pass a “beauty” tax now – lol. Thank you so much for the “User Testing” website, that looks very interesting! Were you making good money on Amazon? If you are/were – would you consider opening a mailbox in a neighboring state to use as your Amazon associate address?
MJ
I was just really getting started, but it looked promising for a minute. I am more annoyed at the sales tax.