By Tech Powered Dad | November 20, 2013
This is way off topic from what I usually post about on this blog (regular readers, I beg your indulgence), but I wanted to do a brief post as a public service to those in the internet marketing community. After more than 2 years of being shut out of the Amazon Associates program due to a short sighted state legislature and governor passing the so called “Amazon tax” here in Illinois, a few weeks back, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the law. That paved the way for Amazon to allow Illinois residents back into the Associates program.
Still, despite looking for information on this on a regular basis, I’ve found nothing other than the initial statement from Amazon that they planned to reopen the program to Illinois residents shortly. The Amazon Associates page has continued to say that Illinois residents were barred from applying. Today, however, I got an interesting reply from Amazon when I inquired about when they would be reopening the program to Illinois residents.
Hello,
Yes, the Associates pages have just been updated and we are able to accept Illinois participants in the program again. Your old account was closed due to unconstitutional tax collection legislation enacted in your state. Unfortunately, we cannot re-open your old account. You’ll need to re-apply to participate in the Associates Program.
You can re-apply on the following link:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com
Your original Associates ID is no longer active. If you have links on your web site that include that ID, you’ll want to update them to use your new Associates ID.
I hope this helps.
Best regards,
XXXXXXX
Sure enough, I went through the reapplication process and my Illinois address no longer barred me from entry. On a related note, I contacted Viglink, an affiliate program that can monetize links for Amazon and other online retailers, and they quickly reinstated my Amazon links as well.
I’m glad the Illinois court system was able to bring common sense into this situation. It has been sadly lacking throughout most of our state government.