I never pulled in a lot – maybe $10 to $15 a month on average, enough to buy an extra book or two (though recently it’s mainly been baby supplies), or counteract some of my hosting costs. That’s over now, though, because California just declared me (and other affiliates, of course) to be a local agent for Amazon, requiring them to pay local sales tax within the state. In response, Amazon has shut down the affiliate program within California so that they won’t fall under the new requirements.

I guess I’ll leave the inline links, since those are mostly the ones I would have included anyway, but there’s not much point in including those “Buy this thing I was writing about from Amazon!” ads anymore.

Also, notice the banner indicating 2 days to April 15. Recall that this was on Saturday… in other words, April 15!

Of course, because of the weekend, income tax is due on the 17th this year, so the countdown was correct if you think of it as a countdown to the tax deadline. I figure they just didn’t want to get a different banner just for this year. But it just sounds like celebrating the Fourth of July on July 3.

This poor guy—yes, guy—was dancing around in front of a tax preparer’s office last weekend. Faces have been blurred to protect the innocent.