Shortly after California governor Jerry Brown signed the budget which includes the affiliate nexus tax, Amazon affiliates in that state received the following email from Amazon:

Hello,
For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Affiliates in the following states are now affected by the affiliate nexus tax:

1. California
2. Colorado
3. Illinois
4. North Carolina
5. Rhode Island
6. Connecticut

The Performance Marketing Association advises California publishers and out-of-state advertisers to consult a tax or legal professional regarding this issue.

Are you a California publisher? Thoughts? Comments? What are your plans?

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Check out this video to see how easy it is to add Amazon and eBay product listings and reviews to your affiliate blog with the WP Shopping Pages plugin for WordPress.

The video shows how I am using it on MyEnergyPal.com.

For the amount of time this plugin will save you, at $69.00 it’s an inexpensive investment in your affiliate marketing business.

Learn more about the WP Shopping Pages plugin.

Amazon just announced that they’ve integrated their Associates program with Google Blogger accounts. The post, “Amazon Associates and Google Blogger Now Integrated” reads:

Today we are excited to announce Amazon Associates for Blogger, a direct integration between Amazon Associates and Blogger. This new collaboration enables Bloggers to monetize their content by adding relevant Amazon products to their blog posts without interrupting the blog editing process. Amazon Associates for Blogger is available now at http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/blogger. Amazon Associates who don’t have a Google Blogger account can set up a free Blogger account with their Associates ID and start earning right away.

How does it work?

The new tool allows Bloggers to add links and images to their blog posts in just 2 easy steps:

1. Bloggers highlight the relevant text and the Amazon Product Finder will search Amazon’s millions of products and recommend the ones that are most closely associated with the text
2. Bloggers can then insert a link or image to that product which includes their Associates ID, enabling them to earn up to 15% in referral fees from Amazon

Bloggers will also be able to show dynamic content in their blog sidebar using a new set of integrated Sidebar gadgets, such as gadgets for MP3 clips from the Amazon DRM-free music store, an Amazon Deals gadget, and an Amazon Search box.

Also as part of this new integration, Bloggers who don’t have a free Amazon Associates account can create one directly within Blogger so tell your friends that use Blogger how they can start earning with Amazon Associates today.

Of course, the only way a REAL affiliate blogger would use a Google Blogger account is in addition to their own blog on their own domain for driving more traffic back to their own domain.

But hey, if a few visitors exit your Google Blogger account and head to Amazon, rather than back to your own site — that too might prove profitable.

On November 4th, Amazon announced the launch of a new feature called Share on Twitter that can be accessed through their Site Stripe.

To use it, login to your Amazon Associates account, visit the page that you want to share, click on “Share on Twitter” within the Site Stripe and that will open up a new window in your Twitter account, pre-populated with the product details.

The tweet is prefaced with “Great Deal on Amazon:”, followed by the title and a shortened URL, coded with your affiliate link. I suggest that you change the prefix to something more personal and specific, i.e. “What I’m reading now”, as shown in the sceenshot below.

Once you’ve altered the message, click on Update and your Tweet goes public, with the potential to earn referal fees.

Gotta like that!

Well, it just had to be done. I made this blog (NetProfitsToday
) available on Kindle for .99 cents a month.

And it’s risk free—all Kindle Blog subscriptions start with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price.

Do you have a popular blog? Think people will pay either 99 cents or $1.99 per month to read it on their Kindle? Then you might want to try Kindle Publishing for Blogs, a new Amazon service which launched yesterday.

Set up is pretty simple. You have to open a new account with Amazon (as you can’t use your existing affiliate or Amazon account username and password) and enter your blog feed url, title, tagline, description, your full name and a screenshot of your blog.

Once you’ve done that, you can save the settings, see a preview and then submit your blog for review to Amazon. Amazon advises that reviews will normally be processed in 24-48 hours.

OK, you won’t be doing it for the money!

Compensation works out to 30% of the subscription price. How many folks will read your blog on their Kindle when they can access it for free online is anyone’s guess unless you’re publishing a TechCrunch or writing about Kitchen Contraptions. Or maybe your mother will read it on her Kindle, just like Mashable’s Ben Parr.

Moreover, international publishers will pay a hefty $8 per check sent out by Amazon.

So if not fortune… publish your blog on Kindle for the fame. Perhaps you’ll gain just a little more traction and free traffic to your blog and that’s always a good thing.

Bad news for search affiliates (arbitragers) out of Amazon today.

Here’s what was posted to their Associates Alerts.

After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you’re not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.

As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.

This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.

So the PPC affiliates get slapped again.

Although I sincerely hope that no one reading this is singularly dependent on Amazon product sales through PPC, if you stand to lose even a small percentage of your affiliate earnings due to this new policy, this is definitely the time to change your strategy – or at least add to your current arsenal of marketing methods.

One thing you might consider is running those Amazon feeds on a niche focused blog with a product like Datafeedr. Get some (core) content to add value. Build a list and connect with your readers regularly.

In other words, build a business blog that doesn’t run the risk of getting slapped by the likes of Amazon or Google.

Amazon just announced that they’ve made the following changes to widget creation:

1. You can search for widgets by size, and;
2. You can Select a predefined IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) size or create a custom-sized widget for My Favorites and Search widgets.

Too, most of the popular widgets are now available in additional IAB sizes:

My Favorites is now available in 300×250, 336×280, 180×150, 160×600.
The Search widget is available in 300×250, 336×280, 160×600

There’s certainly no shortage of Amazon widgets available. Here’s a quick list:

• Auto Part Finder Widget
• Search
• Carousel Widget
• My Favorites
• Deals Widget
• MP3 Clips Widget
• Slideshow
• Page Recommender Widget
• Your Video Widget
• Movie & TV Show Preview Widget
• Amazon Blogs Widget
• Product Cloud
• Wish List
• aStore Widget
• Search Box
• Recommended Product Links
• Omakase

Shown at the top of this post is an MP3 clips widget — created in about 3 seconds flat. Would take longer if you were to actually pick and choose specific songs, as opposed to a general category.

To learn more, visit Amazon Widgets.

How do you know what people want buy online?

Fortunately, a number of sites make answering that question very simple by publishing weekly, monthly, and annual trends; interest comparisons, top lists and market research reports. Various online services publish the number of times keywords and phrases are searched over a given period of time.

Here are 10 of my favorite market research sites and services.

1. Google Trends lets you compare the world’s interest in your chosen niche markets.

   For example, I entered ‘coffee’ and ‘tea’ and discovered some significant spikes in the interest in coffee (shown in the graphic below).

   

   You may enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched for on Google over time. It also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.

2. Google’s Insights for Search lets you compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. Check out the examples of how you can use Google Insights for Search accessible from the homepage – you can go DEEP with this one!

3. Magazines.com lists their 10 Top Titles on their homepage.

   At the time of writing, these included Sports Illustrated For Kids, Time, People, InStyle, Woman’s Day, Money, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Women’s Health and Disney Adventures.

   So what topics do we see there? Sports, general news, women’s issues, fashion, kids and finances.

4. eBay Pulse is a daily snapshot of current trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay, listing popular searches, largest stores and most watched items.

   Alhtough eBay Pulse page shows an overview of the entire eBay marketplace, you can use the drop-down menu to refine and filter the lists to show content for specific categories on eBay.

5. Yahoo’s Buzz Index focuses on the entertainment industry, providing their most popular searches on a daily basis for actors, movies, music, sports, TV and video games.

6. comScore Networks provides insight into consumer behavior and attitudes by compiling reports based on a global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing.

7. JupiterResearch provides research, analysis and advice to help guide technology vendors and service providers on market opportunity. Guest access is available, however, to quickly gain access to salient sections of recent Jupiter Research reports, try Googling “jupiter research ____” (_____) being the name of the topic you wish to study.

8. Amazon best sites for doing market research. Search any of their departments, i.e. books or baby or and you’ll see either a link for Bestsellers or Top Sellers as well as:

• Hot New Releases
• Most Gifted
• Most Wished For
• Movers & Shakers

9. Google Adwords Keyword Tool is also a free tool that reports on search performance and seasonal trends on keywords and keyword phrases that you enter into the search box. Statistics show the relative amount of users searching for that keyword on Google.

10. WordTracker shows you exactly what people are looking for online by showing you exactly which keywords and phrases they’re searching for. Wordtracker’s suggestions are based on over 330 million keywords and phrases that people have used over the previous 90 days.

    Although Wordtracker offers a free trial, I recommend that the week-long pass for $27.59 is really worthwhile if you want to do justice to your market research!

Whether it’s golf, gardening or grandfather clocks you want to sell, use the sites recommended above to find out how much of a potential market exists BEFORE you make the leap to a full-scale site on the subject.

Amazon has just made it SO much simpler to get your affiliate links from them.

With their new Site Stripe, you just navigate to the page of a product that you want to promote, click the ‘Link to this Page’ link in the Site Stripe bar (as shown in the graphic below), login (if you haven’t done so already) and voila! you’re at the Customize and Get HTML page.

To see the full size image on Flickr, click here.