How to Become an Amazon Affiliate in Colorado, California or Illinois
Do you live in one of the ‘banned states’ where Amazon won’t let you become their affiliate? These currently include: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It’s not your fault – you didn’t make the stupid tax law that tries to gather more sales tax revenue from online sales, but now you’re being punished. There is a ‘workaround’, if you will, that I found, and it seems to work.
What Not To Do
My first idea was to form a Nevada corporation. I would then register that entity as an Amazon affiliate, and that corporation would pay me as a shareholder. But that would not only add time, but cost several hundred dollars. Not to mention this process would add more red tape at tax season. This intimidates most affiliate marketers of the badlands to just forget about it and move on. Then I found a secret weapon to use for my sites.
What TO DO
I found Viglink. To put it in simple terms, Viglink is a very large affiliate aggregator. They’re not registered in one of the banned states, so they qualify for Amazon affiliate. Also, due to their volume, they get the top 8.5% commission rate on all Amazon items. What they do is allow you and I to monetize our sites with their affiliate account, as kind of an ‘affiliate’s affiliate’. So you’re not actually an Amazon affiliate, but you’re kinda a contractor for Viglink.
You install a snippet of code on your site and from that point on, any links you post out from your site (that can be affiliated) will automatically convert to an affiliated link. Have a WordPress site? It couldn’t be any easier. Just install the plugin and add your Viglink key. You can also set it to automatically add affiliated links to your pages. For example, the application saw that I typed ‘Amazon’ on this page, but I didn’t create the link, Viglink did. This makes affiliating your pages much simpler- and automatic.
The bonus, Viglink has thousands of merchants, not only Amazon! You don’t have to apply to dozens and dozens of affiliate programs, only to be rejected, then weed through the specific pages and products you want to link to. Simply go to the page you want to link to, copy the URL, paste it into your site, then Viglink will automatically convert that link to an affiliate link. Viglink takes 25% of whatever the affiliate program pays. The good news for someone in an Amazon ‘banned state’ is even after their 25%, due to the fact they get the 8.5% tier, you actually get 6.4%, which is still more than most Amazon affiliates make at the bottom tiers. So what are you waiting for? It’s a very simple workaround, and trust me, it will make your life easier.
Written by: Kyle Marvin
Husband and father of three, Kyle resides in Colorado, where he owns and operates Strike Web Marketing and helps small businesses get discovered online. Add me to your circles on Google +
Thank you a lot for sharing this with all people you actually understand what you’re speaking about! Bookmarked.
Hey, thanks for this great info. I signed up with VigLink through your blog. Can’t wait the start using it.
Thank you for your post. I have been looking for a solution and this seems to be it. However, there one thing related to this topic that I cannot figure out. If you are affiliated with Viglink are you still able to use amazon plugins on wordpress?
I am not sure about specific plugins Levi, but you can use other affiliate links. It will only affiliate the links that have not been affiliated. If you are referring to a plugin that needs your affiliate ID I would assume not.
Thank you very much Kyle Marvin as this something that I have been looking around for months.
HI Kyle:
I live in Colorado, and what a pain to try to get Colorado to reverse the House Bill passed in March 2010 taxing products on the internet, which led to Amazon banning Associate Accounts here in Colorado.
My questions are below this: When you say to do this: You install a snippet of code on your site and from that point on, any links you post out from your site (that can be affiliated) will automatically convert to an affiliated link. Have a WordPress site? It couldn’t be any easier. Just install the plugin and add your Viglink key. You can also set it to automatically add affiliated links to your pages. For example, the application saw that I typed ‘Amazon’ on this page, but I didn’t create the link, Viglink did. This makes affiliating your pages much simpler- and automatic.
Question 1. What do you mean by Just install the plugin and add your Viglink key?
Question 2. And where do I get the VigLink Key??
After signing up through your Site or blog at http://www.kylemarvin.com/how-to-become-an-amazon-affiliate-in-colorado-california-or-illinois/, I did get the snippet of code from VigLink.
Question 3. Is that the same Snippet of Code to Copy and Paste on all sites, whether they be WordPress Blogs, or Regular html Pages created in an HTML Editor, like Adobe Dreamweaver 6?
Hi there Jon. The WordPress plugin is here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/viglink/ then in the plugin settings you just input your Viglink API key (which they give you when you create your account- It’s under “Account”). If you don’t want to bother with the plugin, just install the snippet of code in the body tag. You need to get a new key for each site you might install the code on. Just email support@viglink.com and say “I would like a key for my site (site URL) under my account. You will probably get an email in a few hours – from a real person. You can paste the code in any kind of site (not just WordPress). Just make sure it’s in the body. It would make more sense to do that on the template/sitewide end rather than dinking around installing on each page individually. Any other questions like that just email their support- they’re pretty helpful and it’s a small company so you usually get the same couple people helping you out.
HI Kyle: Thank you for the prompt reply. I appreciate it.
Jon Lutz
Promoter Power LLC
if i have a residence in wisconsin – is there a way around this law?
Just get yourself a Viglink account and that way you won’t be the actual affiliate.
I signed up with viglink from your affiliate link. Thanks for the info. I’ve placed a couple of orders from Amazon from viglink, but I don’t see the commission. The viglink dashboard does show # of clicks, but no commission yet.
Thanks for letting me know, Scott. I hope it goes well for you! Sometimes, the commissions can be a few days or even a week or 2 behind. But you can always contact Viglink to have them track down a specific missed commission.
Scott,
Does the Vigilink dashboard show your commissions?
Kyle,
Thanks for checking back with me. Yes, Viglink missed my Amazon conversions and they did reconcile with me. They explained that they have a limited Amazon Affiliate Click IDs, and there are times when the Amazon conversions will be missed and they will be thrown into a bucket.
I have a few conversions since so this is a good addition to my passive income stream. Once again, thanks for sharing good tips with me.
Scott
Thanks Kyle, I came to your blog thru the Warrior Forum, Coolice HarwareClone offer.
Your info about Viglink Network is much appreciated and useful for me as Amazon affiliate here in California, and other States, with similar Internet Tax Laws.
The nice thing about VigLink, not only it solves the Amazon affiliate problem, but it also includes eBay and many other major and well known merchants. It is a time saver !
I’ll be using its WordPress plugin to build Amazon and eBay niche sites.
Thanks again.
You’re right Nick. It makes it easier and painless to sign up for any affiliate program you want instantly. No need to ‘be approved’. Boom, you’re in. Best luck in your future ventures!
Thanks, Kyle!! As a Colorado native, this is great news.
Also, you should be glad to know that if you were to Google “amazon affiliate colorado,” your post is #2, right behind the official amazon page. You are doing it right.
Thanks for stopping by Ryan!
Kyle, this was a terrific solution to the Banned Amazon States problem. I have been really frustrated by the ban and not sure what to do. I bought a Kindle recently and got caught up in the Amazon Prime fever – and have started to use Amazon a lot personally – and wanted to use their stuff on my sites.
I’ll sign up for the affiliate account as suggested. Glad to meet you fellow Coloradoan. I’m on my way to Ukraine again for a few months – but the blog liveth and Ill tell others.
Also, I hit you on all the social media links from FB to LinkedIn post. Best wishes.
Hey thanks for stopping by Rick! We won’t let some law keep us down now will we?:)
Does VIGLink via Amazon payout for automotive products? I didn’t see that on the VIGLink site…
Thanks
Yes Bryan. Any products on Amazon should be affiliated. If you ever want to test if a link will be affiliated, go here: http://www.viglink.com/tools/explorer
Hello Kyle,
My name is Jimmy and I currently reside in the western suburbs of Chicago. I’m mentioning this because I went to both high school & college in Colorado during the early to mid 80′s. High school was in the Cherry Creek District and college up in Ft Collins. I miss it quite a lot so when I see someone like yourself living out there I mention all of this so that you will eventually feel compelled to invite me out for a visit! lol
The real reason for my commenting on your post is that I wanted you to know that I think your idea is absolutely brilliant! When all of this first happened it immediately cost me over $1500-$1800 per month! I wasn’t too thrilled about the change. My lawyer set up an LLC for me in Nevada and I have used that for all Amazon related activity since then. As you mentioned, this is a possible remedy, but it is somewhat complicated and expensive and most importantly, if you are not diligent with keeping records you could end up easily qualifying for a free visit from a friendly IRS agent. That’s always a real treat.
Your solution on the other hand is so simple and easy to implement that it should immediately open the doors back up for everyone who wanted to sell on Amazon but thought they had been shut down forever. Great job. Keep up the good work. This is another excellent example of how truly powerful information can be. I feel blessed whenever I have an opportunity to give back and help other people to discover a much better way to live by working for themselves and creating multiple streams of income. I hope we have a chance to talk someday soon. Thanks!
Take care & God Bless.
James Stanitz
James, thanks for taking the time to comment! I totally get how people can easily get overwhelmed in the most expensive option. One of the things I’ve learned in my experience is to figure out what the lowest risk option is, proving concept, then if it warrants further cost, go for it. Viglink helps us put the horse before the cart as intended. I’m glad the info was helpful, and I hope you get back to Colorado someday!
SO happy to find this! I’m here in Colorado, and growing a blog. I’ve wanted to send bizness to Amazon (and collect affiliate checks too, not gonna lie) but I thought it was bookoo unfair that I couldn’t do it as a Colorado resident. Going to vigilink right now… Thanks for posting this info. Permission to quote you and repost this info on my blog as well? Thanks Kyle.
Keep Stepping,
Kurt
Sure, feel free to quote me. Best of luck with Amazon Kurt!
I’m new to all of this. I have a blog on blogger and have installed the viglink. I have also followed the steps of adding the url links. Am I supposed to hit publish or save after that. I did hit save but what happens now? In other words, are these links supposed to be shown on my page? Guess I’m confused as I thought a link is supposed to appear somewhere for a reader to click. Help…..
Just saw this, I’ll reply to your other comment.
Here is an update. I have some links that I placed in my blog and they are showing up. When the link is clicked the reader is taken to the website (amazon, macy’s, etc.) Here’s my main question; do i need to sign up with any of these affiliate programs or is viglink going to do it for me? Thanks for any help you can provide.
If the code is properly installed, no you won’t need to do anything. The relationship will be between you and viglink and between viglink and the merchant, not between you and the merchant. I’m not sure if it properly installs to Blogger, you’d have to check. If all else fails you can email their support and ask if it’s properly set up. You could manually affiliate links if they’re being posted on sites like Twitter or Facebook by using this page: http://www.viglink.com/products/anywhere This is new since I’ve written this post. If the code doesn’t properly install to Blogger you may need to just use this as a worst case scenario.
Thanks for sharing this. Hopefully Amazon will let up on some more states as it did with California recently.