I'm one of the many California Amazon associates that got dumped. I didn't make a lot from my Amazon affiliate account, but I made enough to pay my blog's monthly expenses, which was the goal. Now the blog has no way of paying for itself.
GET THE STORY.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
View all posts by Jimmy Akin
Can you set up your web presence out of Arkansas or something?
Similar law here in Colorado and other states:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/amazon-kills-affiliate-program-in-colorado-thanks-to-taxes.ars
Which seems to me to prove that the more government tries to raise taxes rather than cut expenses, the more mess and unintended consequences it creates. Affiliates no longer receive income to help the local economy and no taxes are collected either.
Nooo!!!! Will this mean a possible end to blogging, or just a shift in how/where it’s hosted/paid for?
And since we’re on the subject of blog operations, I’ve noticed that recent posts haven’t been categorized, especially this month. I really liked the whole categorization thing because then I could browse the archives by topic when I’m bored. Also, using multiple categories for one post was a good thing.
Thanks,
Ace
There is a larger issue at stake relating to how the Internet will be used in commercial ventures. We are very much at the beginning of understanding how this will work. As more and more services transfer over to the Internet, the culture-clash between physical and cyber entities will become more apparent. Is a cyber tax equivalent to a physical tax? We are nowhere near close enough to a philosophical understanding of the similarities and differences between cyber commerce and paper commerce to form policies. I, for one, do not want to trust these philosophical discussions to MBAs.
The Chicken
I don’t understand. Is this an additional tax? Amazon is already collecting sales tax. Is this an additional tax for the privilege of shopping online? Good flippin grief!
Such “taxation” is not just, especially given the excesses and the spending or abortion, contraception, etc, etc. That said, there is free blog hosting offered by WordPress. I am not sure if you can get a “good” domain name pointed there for free. But it is possible to get something like your name, for example I got http://MKamoski1.WordPress.com which is fine for me. Not ideal, but OK. Just a thought. God bless you, Jimmy. We are all SO blessed to have you share what you have been given with us. Thank you. – Mark Kamoski