This showed up in my inbox this morning:
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account has been closed as of June 26, 2009. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional tax collection scheme expected to be passed any day now by the North Carolina state legislature (the General Assembly) and signed by the governor. As a result, we will no longer pay any referral fees for customers referred to Amazon.com or Endless.com after June 26. We were forced to take this unfortunate action in anticipation of actual enactment because of uncertainties surrounding the legislation’s effective date.
Please be assured that all qualifying referral fees earned prior to June 26, 2009 will be processed and paid in full in accordance with our regular referral fee schedule. Based on your account closure date of June 26, 2009, any final payments will be paid by September 1, 2009.
In the event that North Carolina repeals this tax collection scheme, we would certainly be happy to re-open our Associates program to North Carolina residents.
The North Carolina General Assembly’s website is http://www.ncleg.net/, and additional information may be obtained from the Performance Marketing Alliance at http://www.performancemarketingalliance.com/.
We have enjoyed working with you and other North Carolina-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.
Best Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team
You can read more about this issue here. This isn't as huge a loss for Dave's Lounge as it is for some others, as I was only making $20/month on the average from Amazon, and that was in part because of some help from other listeners. (Robert Fischer was a big help in this regard.) Still, Amazon Associates commissions were usually enough to cover web site and podcast hosting for a year, and now that's gone.
So until this matter between Amazon and NC lawmakers is settled, I would advise everyone out there not to use the Amazon links on this web site. I plan to remove some Amazon links from this site in the next few days. I'm also going to look for some alternatives to Amazon, because unless iTunes sales pick up (or lots of listeners start signing up for eMusic accounts this weekend), I'll need some other way to help cover this podcast's expenses. Dave's Lounge has always been able to pay for itself, and I'd really like that to continue.
Well. Shit.
wow, that’s rotten news! will they start shutting down other affiliate programs in your area, too?
since you’re on libsyn, why don’t you try taking on advertising with their wizard media setup?
http://www.wizzard.tv/blog/producers/
i don’t know much about it, just that they are mevio’s competition. anyway, just a thought.
Are you signed up for the CD Baby referral program?
Bummer; sorry to hear about that.
Might want to change those voting habits of yours…:)
So if I understand this right, because I live in North Taxolina, whenever someone in another state clicks on an affiliate link on my website that is hosted on a server in another state, and buys something shipped to them from yet another state, with none of the transaction, data or merchandise actually passing through North Carolina, they expect to collect a tax above and beyond the income tax I pay on my affiliate income simply because I, the website owner, live in North Carolina?
Yep, that sounds unconstitutional to me.