Has Amazon Killed Your Income Too?

This is a very interesting trend simon.

I tried marketing Amazon Products last year and it didnt really pan out the way I intended it to be so I actually put amazon in the back seat for now.

Anyways, I am assuming with Amazon closing its doors to a few states, a lot of marketers would be devastated with this change.

-Yan

I too tried to promte Amazon products without much success. I'm based in the UK so it shouldn't affect me much - but if you use a proxy service like geo edge you should be able to open a new account from a different state.

I actually started my amazon affiliate sites a month before they shut down affiliates in california. I put a months work into 6 sites and had just started receiving traffic and made $60 in sales from just one of the sites.

Really sucks because all these sites are just sitting there now and I would have been making commissions and probably much more by now.

Although they shut down the accounts, amazon has made a deal with california to postpone this for a year so they can figure it out. Amazon affiliates should have their accounts back very soon

can we use VPN from the places we have been banned as affiliates?

I am from NC, and it happened to me. I know it's happened in several other states as well like CO. The messed up part about it is that the legislation that caused me to get dropped from Amazon also caused me to get dropped from Linkshare all together. I don't think I can promote physical products at all--unless they are pay-per-lead and pay a flat rate for something like a dating site. I still occasionally get payments from stuff I did years ago when I used free sites.

As for what I did about it, I started a blog that focused on digital-info products and learned to appreciate other networks like Clickbank (found some quality programs on there -- just got to wade through all the "not-so-stellar" stuff) and other independent affiliate networks that pay via Paypal. Also, starting your own PLR store is an option. It provides you the opportunity to generate residual income, develop multiple streams of income, get paid via Paypal and more.

Once you get over the shocked of what has happened to you and learn to build something else and have money coming in, you'll forget all about it. It made me made at first. Then, I remembered how low the affiliate commissions were and felt better about it. I do wonder if starting a business registered with the IRS from a different state is a way to get around that. Oh, well.

Good luck,
Joey

Yes, unfortunately if you have been affected by this you just have to look up the actual product affiliate program or check out CJ.com or Shareasale.com for the same product and affiliate programs.

Chris

I have been talking about a free solution for those dropped by Amazon for a couple of months now. It may be that because I'm having WordPress problems that only a handful have found it (my side bar on the homepage often drops to the bottom, so you have to scroll all the way down to find it...).

But's it right there if you look for it - and as I said, it is free... "Dropped by Amazon? ...it doesn't matter here!" The idea is that you point your links to the new sponsor who has the actual Amazon affiliate status... you still get credit for the sale based upon their terms... decent solution!

Yeah...I remember the day all the NC affiliates received the email stating they could no longer participate in the affiliate program.

The good news was that we at least had done all the promotion from our own hosted sites...and not just from article marketing or other "3rd party" promotions. It didn't take long to switch out the offers.

One thing that may help...if you already have sales on certain items and know what they are (via Amazon), just do a search for the product + affiliate and see who else offers an affiliate program for the same item.

We recently did this on some boating equipment and actually found a much better commission % from another reputable reseller than Amazon was offering.

It does take quite a bit more work, but it can be a temp fix if your state is shut down and you just need some time to work on a plan B.

All the best,
Jack Duncan

Actually, many of us have been forced to relocate to states that are friendly to amazon. Problem is we could soon see a national sales tax and that could be the final nail in the coffin for all of us. Truly, amazon has been great for us. Yeah, even with their low percent commission. That is because our customers trust amazon. Also, because they deliver quality products on time and have superior service.

Another option to consider is that if you are in an "Amazon unfriendly" state, you can sell Amazon products through Squidoo and use their Amazon ID. True, you will have to split your commission with them BUT squidoo lenses selling Amazon products do convert VERY WELL!

Here's a link with more info:

Using Squidoo's Amazon Referral ID

you can use VPN but It is half of the solution .

There is ways to get round amazon banning you state . That you can still sell.

Losing the ability to monetize through Amazon was bad but losing the content streams provided by Amazon have been worse.

I really liked the ability to be able to link and post useful information for my readers to a site like Amazon.

Pretty credible, relevant linking that improved my visitor's experience.

I agree with Big Mike.

Having multiple streams of income is always a good thing.

The trick is to balance expanding into new areas while also growing the ones that are already working.