Alternatives to Amazon's Associates Program

[Murray]

I got an email tonight saying that something to do with my state's law is causing my Associates program to close. I'm kind of devastated and don't know what I should do. I was building a blog network using the Associates program and things were looking up.

What's some alternatives I can look into?

 

[A C Nelson]

What state do you live in?
Check out this blog http://www.problogger.net/archives/...te-programs-for-small-and-medium-sized-blogs/
it lists 10 other programs that may interest you.

If you are successful, let me know how it works, because I'm really trying to get into this myself.

 

[vash]

You can always move to a different state.

If you can't move and must have something else to monetize your web site, there are

1. CPC
Yahoo/Bing ads served through http://media.net

2. CPM
Tribal Fusion, ValueClick media, Burstmedia

3. CPA affiliation
Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank.

4. Selling ad space
Buysellads.com
Or you can use OIO Publisher if you are willing to promote your own ad space.

There is also Viglink. It is a program that can automatically turn all the associated merchants' product links into affiliation links without anyone noticing. It is an alternative to still use Amazon Association program without directly getting involved. Although Viglink will take a 25% cut on the commission. Viglink has tens thousands merchants working with them. Almost all major vendors who have an affiliation program can have their web links affiliated by Viglink. Everything sold through these links will earn you the regular commission minus the 25% cut by Viglink.

 

[Mayvin]

It's great to see so many alternatives to the amazon associates program if you run into an issue. What was the issue that caused the program to shut down in your state. That sounds so strange.

 

[Cammie27]

What sort of issue is forcing the closure of the program in your state? I use Amazon Affiliates on my blogs and have been happy with the program, so I'd like to know what sort of legislation to be on the lookout for that might cause problems with it in my state in the future.

 

[Murray]

The email says that they are closing my account because of the "unconstitutional Missouri state tax collection legislation".

I'm not sure what that legislation is other than there's probably some form of state tax being collected now by Missouri. It sucks, I was really getting into using the Associates program. I'll check out the other links, thanks for sharing guys. It sucks to change a business model midexecution.

 

[MercyL]

I got an email tonight saying that something to do with my state's law is causing my Associates program to close. I'm kind of devastated and don't know what I should do. I was building a blog network using the Associates program and things were looking up.

What's some alternatives I can look into?

Amazon refuses to pay state sales tax.

I had an associate account. My state hit hard times during the big crash, so it started reaching out for revenue. The state government enacted sales tax fees for affiliate programs operating inside state lines and Amazon definitely fits that description. As soon as Amazon got the notice, I received an email booting all of us out of their affiliate programs.

I will never shop for anything on Amazon again!!!!!!!

Any business making the sort of money they make, then refusing to help the states where they make that money is no different than the investment firms that ruin good paying jobs. They are no better than the Koch brothers or the wealthy who sit on their butts and refuse to do their fair share in paying taxes.

They want to sit on their butts and rake in profits, giving nothing back to the country that made their sweet little set up possible.

I will never shop at Amazon again and have been pushing for people in my state to refuse to do any business with Amazon.

 

[Jodiann12]

You can always move to a different state.

If you can't move and must have something else to monetize your web site, there are

1. CPC
Yahoo/Bing ads served through http://media.net

2. CPM
Tribal Fusion, ValueClick media, Burstmedia

3. CPA affiliation
Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank.

4. Selling ad space
Buysellads.com
Or you can use OIO Publisher if you are willing to promote your own ad space.

There is also Viglink. It is a program that can automatically turn all the associated merchants' product links into affiliation links without anyone noticing. It is an alternative to still use Amazon Association program without directly getting involved. Although Viglink will take a 25% cut on the commission. Viglink has tens thousands merchants working with them. Almost all major vendors who have an affiliation program can have their web links affiliated by Viglink. Everything sold through these links will earn you the regular commission minus the 25% cut by Viglink.

Vigilink partners with Wizzley an article sharing site. You can link your Wizzley account with your Vigilink account when you sign up with Wizzley. I haven't had the chance to sign up with Wizzley as yet but I read an ebook about it which told me that it could be done. that is how I found out about Vigilink in the first place.

 

[thevirtualtraveler]

The email says that they are closing my account because of the "unconstitutional Missouri state tax collection legislation".

I'm not sure what that legislation is other than there's probably some form of state tax being collected now by Missouri. It sucks, I was really getting into using the Associates program. I'll check out the other links, thanks for sharing guys. It sucks to change a business model midexecution.

Hmm... that's strange because the address I use with my Associates account is my Missouri address (I currently live in Nicaragua but my home in the States is in MO) and I didn't get any such email. Are you sure it was not some sort of spam email?

 

[Murray]

I'm not sure if its a spam email or not, I never actually followed any links on the email.

Just to give everyone an update. I played around with ClickBank a little bit after this. I'm at the beginning of figuring out how best to affiliate market it seems because ClickBank's stuff versus Amazon Associates is a bit harder for me to go through.

Amazon Associates, I find stuff that I like, I can talk about it, show it off on youtube, give good reviews about it. ClickBank appears to be a similar but entirely different beast in some regards.

I've been on holiday for a bit and just getting back into things so I'll jump into my associates account and see what it says.

 

[MercyL]

Hmm... that's strange because the address I use with my Associates account is my Missouri address (I currently live in Nicaragua but my home in the States is in MO) and I didn't get any such email. Are you sure it was not some sort of spam email?

Thee are not spam emails. Amazon has done this to other states. Someone, in my state, started a boycott drive when it happened here, but I didn't sign up, I had already decided I wasn't using Amazon again.