Google and Amazon are not friends...

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   paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

   "Google Copies Amazon's Playbook"
   
   http://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-co … 00495.html
   
   Personally, if I had any nonperforming Amazon ads, I'd get rid of them.
   
   Contemplating doing same with eBay, since they just pay pennies anyway.
   
   Can't do anything about hpads, what with what I keep hearing about Google Adsense and their ongoing penny clicks.

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      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'd love to dump some Amazon capsules.  Problem is I DO earn from Amazon but have no idea what product link is being clicked, or even what hub it's on. 
      
      Most of my sales are not the product I advertise, so I have no way of knowing where the income is originating from.

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      1. 96

         Bedbugabscondposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         That income is coming from a cookie. If someone clicks your product and allows cookies while browsing, then you get the referral of that users for 24 hours.
         
         So someone may not buy the product you advertise, but sometime in the 24 hours after they clicked your link they went back to Amazon and bought something.
         
         PDS: My thoughts exactly.

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            wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            That's right - it's from the 24 hour cookie Amazon gives us.  It seems that clicking my links (and probably lots of other hubbers as well) starts a "surfing" spree on Amazon where they buy anything and everything that comes to mind. 
            
            I've sold kid's books, bras, car accessories and clothing - none of which I have ads for.  Or for anything remotely similar for that matter.  While I certainly appreciate that cookie it does make it really hard (impossible) to figure out where the clicks are coming from.

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               Bedbugabscondposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I wish someone could buy a new car on Amazon.

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2. 60

   paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

   My bottom line here is...
   
   Does Google rank pages that just have adsense ads higher than those pages that mostly contain competitors' ads?

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3. 88

   modernalchemystposted 10 years ago

   Well, since I live in one of the handful of states that Amazon doesn't accept as affiliates due to tax laws, I can't say I'm terribly affected by this but it is definitely an interesting look into the back room of the affiliate marketing world. I'm about to start with Clickbank on my blogs, now I'm wondering how this will affect my rankings.

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   1. 96

      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      There is hope for you, you know - congress is considering a bill that would requiring tax collection for every state.  If they pass that, Amazon will have to collect for your state whether they like it or not, whereupon all you "lost" affiliates can re-join the fold.

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4. 78

   brakel2posted 10 years ago

   It may not happen - the Internet tax - I have read too many jurisdictions exist, making it too difficult a procedure to collect the tax. What have you heard?

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      Healthy Pursuitsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I've been trying to keep up on it a little, and have read that each state would have to do sales-tax modification to reduce all of the rates to just a few per state before they could participate in online sales tax gathering. That way the internet businesses wouldn't overwhelmed with all of the jurisdictions. 
      
      I can't say I'm against having sales taxes for online buying, because people would buy local more. Of course, the big box stores would pick up part  of, and in some products, most of that trade.

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      psycheskinnerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      No internet businesses manage to pay their taxes even if they are national/international. I see no reason why Amazon can't do the same.

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         wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Problem is that Amazon doesn't owe the tax; the purchaser does.  Along with the enormous number of constantly changing laws that must be conformed with.  It is one thing to require your local grocery store to collect state, county and city sales tax and quite another to require someone else to keep track of what is owed in every one of thousands of locations, collect it and get it to the right government.

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            livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Well stated...

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            psycheskinnerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            All the non-internet business pay that tax from their end and add it to the purchase price, including chain stores and emporiums that have sales volumes just as high and various. Including stores like Target and Walmart that sell online as well as offline. What makes Amazon so frail and incompetent that they cannot just do the same as everyone else?

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               livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               It's not that they are incompetent... the current law does not require a retailer to collect a sales tax from online purchases unless the retailer has a physical presence in the state where the transaction was initiated.  Some jurisdictions claim that the affiliate becomes the nexus that provides that physical presence, thus requiring the retailer to collect the sales tax on behalf of the jurisdiction.  The problem is, which jurisdictions sales tax do you apply.  ex.  An affiliate in Texas places an Amazon module in his hub and the server to that hub is in California. Someone in Chicago purchases from that module.  Which tax is paid, Texas, California, or Illinois?  It's even trickier because Chicagoans pay a city sales tax, a county sales tax, and a state sales tax...

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            2. 96

               wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               It can be done, of course, and I understand (without knowing for sure) that Amazon contracts out to take care of the sales tax for more than one large brick and mortar chain stores.
               
               But it will cost, and why should Amazon pay the price for collecting and remitting Arizona sales tax?  Because an Arizona citizen can't be trusted to follow the law themselves and the state (or county and city) doesn't want to cover the collection costs to get the money they are owed from their own citizen?

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                  psycheskinnerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  That is an issue of the entire tax system, which for every other vendor, involves the vendor paying the tax because that is the easiest method with the highest yield.
                  
                  If we change the practices of every other company in the country to do what Amazon demands, look forward to paying more state tax directly out of your pocket to make up the short fall and pay the salaries of all those tax collectors that will come to your door for their 2% of the stick of gum you just bought at the corner store.

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                  1. 74

                     livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     No... look forward to ingenious software that provides cloaked proxy redirects of online purchases to Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon, one of the 5 states that have NO sales tax.  Better yet... move to one of those 5 states and have no worries...

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                     wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Actually, Amazon is pushing to have every vendor collect tax for every purchaser.  They don't mind that much spending the money as long as their competitors spend it, too.  This state by state thing is hurting them; changing it to a national requirement will help.
                     
                     I guess my biggest objection is the thinking behind it.  The state feels they have an innate moral right to my money, AND that they have an innate right to demand someone else get it for them.  The attitude behind the whole nexus thing is quite objectionable to me - aside from the whole idea behind taxation in general, the state feels that they want money and doesn't care who picks up the cost.  Except that it won't be the state, and that's just wrong as far as I'm concerned.

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   faythefposted 10 years ago

   California was a restricted area...but they lifted that about a year ago....California residents were told to re apply and were accepted into the program.

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   Jennifer Sucheyposted 10 years ago

   Wow. This is all very interesting information. I'm new to HubPages and just trying to understand how all this ad stuf works. You guys are a wealth of information.

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