Wednesday, June 02, 2010

I'm no longer an Amazon Associate

It came as quite a surprise to me when I got a payment from Amazon for my Associates account that was smaller than their minimum payment. But it came as an even greater surprise a couple of days later when I got a letter from them telling me that they'd completed closing my account.

I never asked them to close my account, so I was quite confused. An e-mail to them got the response that my account had been closed because I live in Colorado, and the Colorado government had recently enacted a law taxing on-line merchants.

This was all understandable, and I can actually agree with Amazon's decision to close the Colorado Associates accounts, but I don't agree with their decision to do it without contacting the associates themselves. What if I hadn't e-mailed them? Would I have ever found out? Still, I can't say that I'm actually unhappy with Amazon, because this is pretty much business as usual for them.

Look for all of the associate links to disappear from my site over the next few days.

5 comments:

Cellophane Queen said...

That is weird.

How does Colorado get off charging sales taxes on the "open" internet?

I'm not an Associate, but I do sell as a 3rd party vendor on Amazon and create my own Kindle editions. You might try those routes instead, J.

Sarah Butland said...

Very strange. Haven't heard a thing until now but I'm not in Colorado. I'm sure you'll find other ways to supplement your income and wish you luck :)

Sheila said...

I had that happen to me, too. Am thinking about re-signing up using my rental property in NH as my address.

And yes, it was annoying to have it just suddenly happen, with no notice.

Spencer said...

that kinda sucks...but business is business, after all. hope you find another outlet soon.

Keith said...

Colorado figures that the associate originated the sale and the associate is located in Colorado. They tried to do this in NY, but since I am still an Amazon associate I am guessing they were able to stop it in court. You may be able to put them back on in a few months.
Amazon sales have been very slow for a year or so, at least for me. Google Adsense and eBay partner network ads have been slow since the economy crashed. I have been experimenting with alternatives, but so far nothing has clicked.
You might try www.kontera.com - the income is slow but steady.