Amazon is one of the biggest, most successful businesses on the planet. Everybody uses it. It's convenient, it's easy, it's reliable; the list goes on. With all that success comes a target on their back, as many say that Amazon should have to pay for any myriad of things. You hear it a lot, it's a go to for many people on the internet.
But, what if I told you that there were already mechanisms that you yourself could use to achieve that same goal? What if, instead of waiting for a legislator, we actually (with minimal effort) got that ball rolling ourselves? Hard as it may be to believe, these tools do exist, and you'll find out about them....right now!
1. Raise wages --- Affiliate links
You've seen these before on this blog, as well as several others. If you click on one of these links, it will take you to Amazon's page for the item in question. The only difference is that, because you used that specific link, the person who posted said link gets a small portion of that money. Amazon doesn't pay a dividend, but this is a way to get a piece of those profits into the hands of individuals. Even better, that's taxable income, so you are (admittedly indirectly) getting Amazon to pay more in taxes.
If you're looking to boost your own income, these can potentially help. I know a lot of people bring these up when talking about blogging as a side hustle, but there is no guarantee. You could just as easily end up with a perpetual goose egg.
Even if you don't have a blog or website, you can post links directly to social media channels and pages. Again, no guarantee of revenue, but it could be worth trying out if you're looking to up your fiscal game.
2. Strengthening Social Safety Nets ---- Amazon Smile
There are a lot of problems that need addressing. While there are organizations doing things to address them, they need money to do what they do. With Amazon Smile, you can help provide them with said funds. Much like the affiliate link, buying a product through Smile redirects a portion of the funds from your purchase and puts it towards a charity of your choice. You might recall that this was an aspect in the "stimulus plan" that I laid out back in the early days of the pandemic. They have a lot of options too, so whatever issue you feel compelled to champion, odds are pretty good that you'll be able to advance it through this avenue.
3. (1b/2b?) Stacking
For the longest time, I thought that these two things operated independently of each other. I figured you could either do an affiliate link or Smile. How cool would it be, though, if you could stack the two? With one purchase you could raise a wage and fund a cause simultaneously. Well, it turns out that you can. Smile affiliate links do exist. Two birds, one stone. It's pretty awesome. I've been making a point to use them since I found out and I would urge bloggers who do use affiliate links to make the switch, especially if you are one of the people who pull in regular income from their use of affiliate links.
4. Support Small Businesses
Amazon is a goliath that has often been charged with putting smaller businesses out of...business. It's understandable, they have reach and resources that a lot of companies don't. But, you can actually get the convenience of Amazon while still supporting smaller chains and stores. See that "buy used and new" button that's near the "add to wish list" and "add to cart" buttons? That'll take you to a list of smaller, independently run stores and individuals that also sell the product. Admittedly, this isn't "making Amazon pay" the same way that the other items in the list are, but it is using Amazon's infrastructure to elevate the little guy.
Now the downside is that, more often than not, items bought this way won't qualify for free shipping. So, even if you buy multiple items and break that $25 threshold, you'll still have to pay S+H on all of them. It's not too big a deal if you're just buying one item, but if you get a few, it can add up to a pretty good chunk of change.
In the case of buying a single item, you could potentially get the item at an even lower price (even factoring in shipping and handling) so everybody comes out ahead.
So, there you have it. A bevy of tools to get Amazon to do what we want it to do. They have some substantial capital, now we just need to use the resources we have to put it to work.
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