Thursday, June 30, 2011

No More Amazon Associates

Thanks to a new law signed by our idiot governor, Jerry Brown, I will no longer be a participating member of the Amazon Associates program.  The law seeks to collect sales tax from out of state online retailers like Amazon.com, and goes into effect tomorrow (Friday).  To minimize their connection to the state of California, Amazon.com has discontinued all associates programs for any resident of the state effective immediately. 

Don't get me wrong, I love living in California, but our state government is screwed up.  And I even work for a state agency!  I could go on and on about the reasons why this law is stupid, why our government is too bureaucratic to see the simple solution to our problems, and why the state is going to heck in a hand basket, but this isn't a politics blog, so I will get back to the point. 

In the past I had used the very, very small commission from Amazon links (averaging about $3 a month) to help pay for shipping for contest prizes and other financial costs with running this blog.  Thank you to everyone who supported me through your use of these links.  It has meant the world to me, and I hope you'll continue to support the blog in the future, even just by reading and leaving comments.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm talking just to myself...

From today on, there will be no more new Amazon.com links.  I will be looking into the possibility of a different affiliate system, so if you have any ideas, please email me or leave them in the comments below.  Otherwise I can't afford contest prizes as often, and I don't want to take that away from my readers.  At this point I will be leaving Amazon links found in older posts, as well as the Amazon search boxes because I still find Amazon is often one of the cheapest way to buy books, and I still support them even if I'm no longer an affiliate.  The disclaimer on the bottom of every post will change as well.  I will probably start linking book descriptions to Goodreads, just as a way for people to read reviews of a book. 

If the law ever gets repealed, changed, or I move to a different state then things may change.  And I will certainly let everyone know of that change if it occurs.  But since I don't see any of those happening in the near future, this is the way it stands now.  Thank you again to everyone for your support of this blog in the almost 5 years I've been doing this.  I sincerely couldn't have done it without you.

9 comments:

Amberdenise said...

Sucks that the new legislation is going to affect you. I hope you are able to find a program that will work. Good luck!

Kristen said...

Our state did that a few months ago. Not that it matters, took me two years to get 7 dollars. No big loss.

Melissa @ Mel's Books and Info said...

I thought Barnes and Noble has an affiliates program--you might want to look into it. It might not be as good as the amazon one, but it might be an option.

Dana Burgess said...

That really sucks! And you aren't talking to yourself - I'm listening.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to see the Amazon affiliates program stop. I've used your site faithfully to access Amazon because I enjoy the blog so much and wanted to support you back. Can you set up a paypal donation box or something similar so your fans can still show our appreciation?

M.A.D. said...

I agree! This is asinine, and our state (Illinois) did the same several months ago - so I, too, lost my Amazon Affiliates :(

And - IMHO - while most of us only made a teensy bit of money from Amazon, that's NOT the point of the matter. The real *issue* is that of our state's imposition of yet another (greedy?)(unfair?) tax law upon the people.

misskallie2000 said...

I am so sorry you will not be making a few bucks from Amazon any longer but this is the way the Govt works. If they did more work and less time off this would help us. Also, I think that 70% on our politians are in this for the money, not for us, the people. With a past Pres, former Gov of Calif, our latest Weiner, and other politatians air their dirty laundry, we are in deep dodo. What happened to morals? I think all politians should sign a contract to "DO NO HARM". This might be an option to prevent the stupid politations from doing stupid things. lol
So far Georgia has not made these stupid decisions but they may be down the road.
I do enjoy your blog but don't always comment. Wishing you the best with your blog and hoping you can find another way to help sub. your costs.

misskallie2000 at yahoo dot com

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you've realized this yet, but you misspelled Jerry as Gerry. Not saying it cuz I like the guy, but just wanted to point it out for correction. And yes, the state government is *very* screwed up.

Alyssa F said...

Ack! You're right, I had missed that. And obviously it made it through spell check okay.

I've corrected it, though not because I like the guy either. Might as well call the doofus by his real name. ;)