To be completely honest, this has made me sick to my stomach, and there is only one thing that would make me sicker, and that is to know that I have been sending customers to Amazon and not receiving my duly earned commission. As if Affiliate Marketing was hard enough to learn and maintain, I now am faced with this horrendous situation of hundreds and hundreds of links to Amazon.com that I have to remove. Oh, I guess I could just leave them as they are, but I don't feel particularly inclined to send any more business Amazon's way, so removing them is what I feel I must do.
I have been using the free platform Squidoo for my affiliate marketing and was just about to branch out into Hubpages and Wizzley.com when this all hit. This has seriously put a dent in my goals and plans, and I am still reeling from it. Since receiving the email I have done very little except consider my options. Knowing which is the best way to go is not easy. For anyone that knows anything about Squidoo, I have the option of changing all my links over to their links and use their affiliate codes to generate commissions, but I have to share it 50/50 with them. Whereas I was making 6.5% or more per month directly from my Amazon affiliate links, the best I can do with Squidoo is 4.25%. By my not-so-mathematical figuring, I calculate that I need to sell somewhere in the vicinity of 150% of what I have been doing to generate the same income I have become accustomed to. It isn't impossible, but it isn't going to happen straight away.
All is not lost. There ARE, fortunately, other options besides Amazon.com, and I am in the process of looking into them now. I guess I am just squirming at the thought of changing all of those links. Seriously, it will be hours upon hours of work, and I readily admit I am dreading having to do it, but if I don't I won't earn a brass razoo! One of the options I have considered, and we will see if it flies, is to use an out of state address in one of the states that so far has not been Nexussed to death. If Amazon.com accepts my change of address, then perhaps I can continue on without any interruption. At least for the time being. Word is that there are very few states that are NOT considering introducing the Nexus law, so it may just be a matter of time.
One of the things I forgot to mention, is that immediately upon the Governor signing it into state law, Amazon.com dropped its affiliates in California! Not 'it's going to happen on such and such a date so make alternative plans'; no, immediately we were dropped like hot potatoes. It's not even as if I had a chance to do anything about my links. I knew there was a very real chance of this happening, but I worked on the theory that I needed to be mentally prepared but changing any links before it was set in stone seemed like a waste of time and effort. There was still some slight hope that it wouldn't happen.
No matter what I end up doing, there is a ton of work involved. Long hours and late nights. Not that I am a stranger to either of those, but at least previously it had been my choice and not something that has been foisted on my unceremoniously.
What's done is done, and I really have no choice but to try and find the silver lining to this cloud. I think it is hiding really well today, but perhaps by tomorrow I may see a glimmer of it. If you have had this happen to you also, then I sympathise. I hope you find a solution that you can live with, and that it doesn't take you too long to rectify all your Amazon.com links.
Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, it will be a cold day in hell before I buy anything myself from Amazon.com. There were other options for them, but they chose to try and get affiliates to fight their battle for them, and that does not sit well with me. They have a helluva lot more power than I do, and a darn sight more money also. Especially now that I won't be getting my affiliate commissions from them!
