I was planning on redirecting my Amazon links at the end of the month so that I would not get more than $600 in payments this year from the Associates program. Amazon reports earnings of over $600 to the IRS, meaning I would have to put that down as income and lose a third of it in taxes. Even if I earned another $300, I would only break even. There is a chance that in July, August, September, and October I could get a little more than $300, but I didn’t think it was worth it.
What really got me close fast was someone ordering a $200 book yesterday for which I received a $13 commission. That puts me at $581 on the year and I still will have a few more items ship before the orders dry up. That also put me at $1,000 from Amazon since I started.
I wanted to find some non-profit organizations that have Amazon programs, but it wasn’t easy. I did pretty well when I searched on “Amazon” and “portion of the proceeds”. In addition to the Opossum Society and American Cetacean Society, that I already knew about and would use when I ordered things from Amazon (since I can’t receive money from my own purchases), I discovered the San Diego Natural History Museum, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Rainforest Alliance.
So tonight I updated my web pages to use those different organizations’ links (I also used Movable Type’s search and replace to fix links I have on the blog). The only thing I don’t like is that I won’t be able to monitor how well my website is doing in terms of sales. But in November I can switch back since payment for November won’t come until January 2008.