Amazon Wants You to Use Your Amazon Affiliate Link to Promote Your Books

Bear in mind that Amazon does restrict where their affiliates live. There are a number of states where Amazon refuses to accept affiliates, specifically states that have tried to use the presence of Amazon affiliates in a state as a sledge hammer to force Amazon to collect sales taxes on any sales made to residents of the state.

This legislation is referred to as "Affiliate Nexus" laws. Under current rules, the U.S. Congress said in 1965 that in order for a state to claim that a mail order business must collect sales taxes on residents from that state that there must be a physical presence for that business within the state. In other words, Amazon should not be compelled to collect sales taxes for any state where they did not have a physical presence. The U.S. Supreme Court validated that position in a 1992 ruling.

In recent years, some states have decided that in order to bypass that ruling that they would declare Amazon affiliates as evidence of a "physical presence within the state."

Due to these attempts by state legislators to force Amazon to collect sales taxes on products sold to their residents, Amazon has limited its affiliate program to states where there is no "Affiliate Nexus" legislation. The states that are currently prohibited from the Amazon Associate (Affiliate) program are: Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.

In order to stay current on the list of prohibited states, check this page on Amazon.

If you reside in a state where you are permitted to participate in Amazon's affiliate program, and you are an approved affiliate in their program, then you can use your Amazon Associate ID within all links that you use to promote your books on the Internet. Doing so will allow you to recoup part or all of your advertising costs.

Additionally, if the people who follow your affiliate link make another purchase at Amazon within the first 24 hours, then you will also be able to collect a commission on those sales as well. I have made commissions on some pretty bizarre products that are being sold on Amazon -- things that I would never have thought to promote myself.

Within Amazon's lengthy Terms Of Service (TOS) spread over dozens of pages on their website, they do say that you can use your Amazon Associate ID (affiliate ID) and affiliate link to promote your books. In fact, they encourage it.

However, it should be noted that there are a number of restrictions that apply to the use of your Amazon Associate ID and link, as it applies to your book promotions:

1. You cannot use your Amazon Associate link in an email, PDF or inside one of your Kindle books.
2. You can use your Amazon Associate link inside of a Redirect Link, so long as Amazon can see how that link is being promoted on your website.
3. You cannot use your Amazon Associate link within any mobile media - i.e. mobile apps, mobile books, or ads displayed on a mobile platform.

The bottom line is that so long as you are willing to follow their rules, you can make affiliate commissions on top of your book royalties, if you are a legitimate Amazon Associate (affiliate).

I actually do recommend that you read all of Amazon's TOS, but following links is such a painful way to do that. You can download all of Amazon's TOS in one place, within this PDF file.

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Bill Platt
Stillwater, Oklahoma
http://ProfessionalBookMarketing.com/