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Comment RSSAmazon Re-Invites Affiliates
Written by pacelattinOctober 4, 2011 # 4:30 am # Industry News # 6 Comments
Now that Amazon has reached a deal on the California Affiliate Tax in which the State of California will wait another year to enforce their affiliate tax scheme, Amazon has decided to re-invite their affiliates in California to join them.
Amazon had dumped all their affiliates, arguing that having any CA affiliates would hurt Amazon’s revenue by forcing them to charge tax to California residents. In response to the proposed plan, Amazon had started a referendum to change the law, but as part of the deal with California has stopped this push
Many people have criticized Amazon’s deal as being a way to curry favor with the State of California while abandoning the fight for affiliates. However, in a comment to a recently post about California Affiliate Tax, Performance Marketing Association director Rebecca Maddigan wrote that “Amazon has been the only e-tailer putting their money and efforts behind fighting the affiliate nexus tax around the country, and only Overstock has ever made any public opposition comments. I’ve been hearing rumblings from other e-tailers that they are mad at Amazon over this deal. Well where the heck where those e-tailers in this fight? Nowhere. Not a peep. We couldn’t get them to sign a single petition – not one e-tailer! They let the largest e-tailer in the world fight their battles. Shame on the other e-tailers for not engaging in their own destinies.”
Whatever the purpose of this deal is, one has to ask how many affiliates will re-sign up to the Amazon Associates program, when they know there is a possibility in a year they will again be abandoned. It almost seems like a weird abusive relationship on the part of Amazon, where they abandon affiliates, save their own ass, blame California for being mean and then apologize and say that they didn’t mean it.
Here is a copy of the Letter:
As you may have heard, California Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation repealing the law that had forced us to terminate our California Associates. We are pleased to invite all California Associates whose accounts were closed due to the prior legislation to re-enroll in the Associates Program.
If you haven’t already re-enrolled, please click here:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/reinstatement/main.html
When asked to sign in, please use the same email address and password that were previously associated with your Associates account. To make your return to the Program as seamless as possible, when you re-enroll, your account settings (login, Associates ID, payment information, etc.) will be the same as they were previously. Traffic you referred while your account was closed won’t be eligible for advertising fees.
For further information about re-enrollment, please click here:
Written by pacelattin
Pace Lattin is one of the top experts in interactive advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his dedication to ethics in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the industry, and has written numerous articles for publications from MediaPost, ClickZ, ADOTAS and his own blogs.
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Amazon may also be smarting from the revelation that Amazon mistreats their employees and endangering their lives. See Amazon’s unfair labor practices and click through to the original news story for details on THAT.
Amazon is a ‘fair weather friend’ of affiliates in it for whatever is best for THEM and not for you. There are tons of other book sellers with affiliate programs and I encourage bloggers to promote an independent book seller who cares more about their affiliate’s success than Amazon will.
Researching alternatives to Amazon’s affiliate program is on my to-do list and I’ll get to is as soon as I can. More details in the comments of the post I put in CommentLuv in this comment.
Gail Gardner recently posted..Commission Junction Affiliate Programs and Fees
Good for Amazon! They’re fighting the damn government with its constant, insatiable demands for more, more, more money! You’re criticizing them because they want to “save their own ass” – isn’t that exactly what YOU want to do? As for CA being ‘mean’ – that repulsive state with its uber-liberal government and citizens is going down the tube with its anti-business policies.
Looks like there will be a big opportunity for affiliates of Amazon in the next year with the initial sales of the Kindle Fire and other new Kindles. Hopefully this can all be resolved in a positive way over the next 12 months. It does also give affiliates in Calafonia a bit of time to diversify their income whilst still taking some income from Amazon.
The Amazon taxation fiasco was a game of chicken with the affiliates crushed in the middle. Lack of negotiating skills plus lack of concern for the affiliates. The little guy always seems to pay the price when the big powers clash.
AstroGremlin recently posted..Giant Funnels: Behind the Backlinking Curtain
The Amazon taxation fiasco was a game of chicken with the affiliates crushed in the middle. California was calling a sales tax, a “use tax.” Amazon threw affiliates under the bus to show they didn’t have any in-state facilities and to create pressure. Lack of negotiating skills on both sides plus lack of concern for the affiliates. The little guy always seems to pay the price when the big powers clash.
AstroGremlin recently posted..Giant Funnels: Behind the Backlinking Curtain
I wonder how many people will re-apply? In Il. where I live they just crushed the life out of thousands of us and i think they should have said “sue us” to the state and kept the affiliate program going.
Jan recently posted..Keyless Door Lock