

Why the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program Is Highly Underrated - acangiano
http://technicalblogging.com/6-reasons-why-the-amazon-associates-affiliate-program-is-highly-underrated/

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richbradshaw
Just as I saw this I got this email:

Dear Amazon Associate,

We're writing to tell you about several important changes to our Operating
Agreement, including revised advertising fee rates. All of these changes will
be effective July 1, 2012.

We will be changing rates for the following product categories within the
Amazon Associates Program:

* Magazine Products sold on Amazon.com will increase to a 25% fixed rate from a volume-based rate of 4 - 8.5%

* Grocery Products sold on Amazon.com will move to a 4% fixed rate from a volume-based rate of 4 - 8.5%

* MYHABIT will move to a fixed rate of 8% from a fixed rate of 15%

* Industrial Products sold on Amazon.com and all Products on AmazonSupply.com (previously known as SmallParts.com) will move to a fixed rate of 8% from a fixed rate of 15%

For more information on the upcoming Operating Agreement changes including a
comparison of the advertising fee rates visit [https://affiliate-
program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/oper...](https://affiliate-
program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/operating/compare).

We appreciate your continued support and participation in the Amazon
Associates Program. If you have questions, please visit the Advertising Rate
Change FAQ at Associates Central.

So, if you selling Magazines then it's pretty awesome, everyone else loses
out.

~~~
jc4p

      So, if you selling Magazines then it's pretty awesome, everyone else loses out.
    

Huh? I got the same e-mail too, all I got from it is that they're increasing
incentives for new things they're focusing on (magazines, MyHabit,
AmazonSupply) to get people to use the services. Where are you getting the
"everyone else loses out" from?

~~~
richbradshaw
The rates on the others are dropping. MYHABIT and Industrial Products go from
15% to 8%, which is quite a drop.

~~~
excuse-me
But if the volume of industrial products they sell goes up. then having just
discovered that you get a cut of everything the customer buys - not just the
book you linked to.

This could be good, especially when Amazon start selling 747s

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dazzla
Don't count on being able to use Amazon Associates in a mobile app, mobile
formatted site or getting commission for mobile visitors to a regular site.

[https://affiliate-
program.amazon.com/gp/advertising/api/deta...](https://affiliate-
program.amazon.com/gp/advertising/api/detail/agreement.html) 4\. (e) You will
not, without our express prior written approval, use any Product Advertising
Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended
for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device, or any television set-
top box (e.g., digital video recorders, cable or satellite boxes, streaming
video players, blu-ray players, or dvd players) or Internet-enabled television
(e.g., GoogleTV, Sony Bravia, Panasonic Viera Cast, or Vizio Internet Apps).

I have never heard of anyone getting any response for prior written approval.
Myself included after many attempts.

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nik_0_0
"I’ve had visitors buy all sorts of expensive and odd items when they left my
site to check out a $10 book on Amazon. And trust me, pink vibrators can add
up quickly."

I am mostly in the dark on how this program works, does this mean the Amazon
Associates Affiliate Program allows the referrer to see exactly what the
people who click through their link purchase within the next 24 hours?

I assume it would be anonymous, and I guess it makes sense to understand the
demographic of your site, but it certainly seems a bit invasive if clicking on
a referral link tells that blogger your Amazon purchase history for 24h...

~~~
acangiano
You only get an aggregate view of what people bought and in what quantities.
There is no way to know who bought what.

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tocomment
Relatedly, does anyone know if Facebook allows the Amazon affiliate links in
posts? I posted a couple of links but I never saw any affiliate revenue from
the purchases.

~~~
timaelliott
Would need to test it to verify but most companies based upon user-generated
content will swap out your affiliate ID for their own.

If not, they should be starting to do so :)

~~~
redslazer
Didn't pinterest use to do that and then people got pissed so they removed it?

Edit: Yes they did. Source: <http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/07/pinterest-
affiliate-links/>

~~~
jedberg
Someone suggested we flip out affiliate links for our own on reddit. We
thought that would be pretty evil.

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michaelpinto
If your site lends itself to selling things that are high ticket items Amazon
can be great, but if you don't it becomes a great deal of work for little
reward.

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NonEUCitizen
Is the Affiliate Program open to Californians again?

~~~
acangiano
Correct. People from "Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode
Island, or Connecticut" are banned from entering the program. [1]

1\. [https://affiliate-
program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/oper...](https://affiliate-
program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/operating)

------
stevencorona
The net-60 payout is kind of a bummer too

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huggyface
_It is natural for bloggers who start to gather a following to consider
revenue opportunities to reward their time and effort._

Incidental ads from a third party are one thing, and it's hard to imagine that
they coerce the opinions and perspectives of some mid-level blogger. Outright
Amazon Affiliate links, on the other hand, are a direct and obvious conflict
of interest. Suddenly the author's opinion is rendered self-serving and
questionable.

I stopped reading or having any faith in the statements by Atwood after he
started peppering his entries with Affiliate links. Oh look, he's decided that
routers are suddenly a super important topic, and wouldn't you know it the one
he likes super best is available via his affiliate link. Who doesn't think he
needed to make bank, searched Amazon and then spun an entry around that
monetization? It is a tax on the gullible.

~~~
cstejerean
The thing is just about every router is available on Amazon. So there's no
incentive to recommend an inferior product just to make money. Given that it
also doesn't cost you anything I don't see the aversion to letting someone
profit from driving traffic to Amazon for products they happen to like.

On the other hand I can see frowning upon writing a completely off-topic post
just to drive affiliate traffic.

~~~
huggyface
_So there's no incentive to recommend an inferior product just to make money._

There is an incentive to overstate the importance of something that is
entirely unimportant for most users in efforts of encouraging self-serving
consumerism. In Atwood's recent router piece (a subject he continually
revisits, each time littered with a new set of affiliate links) he says, in
pitching the importance of his router migration-

 _QoS is the difference between a responsive Internet and one that's brutally
dog slow._

Ignoring the massive complexity of QoS (you don't simply turn it on and
everything is great), as someone running a whole household on wireless (every
desktop, smartphone, tablet, and game machine), I have never enabled or
configured rules for QoS. My daughter is watching Netflix while a son online
games and the iPad downloads the latest season of Mad Men in HD @ 20Mbps.
Internet != dog slow. QoS not needed. If this were a large office and I needed
to prioritize...I dunno...VOIP, then sure, but for the average user it is an
_entirely irrelevant_ consideration.

Unless you're pitching an affiliate link and really want people to think that
this purchase is going to make a difference. It will make their internet super
fast, their muscles stronger, and get rid of those nagging headaches. I don't
mean to single Atwood out -- this sort of ridiculous narrative appears every
time I see someone pitching an affiliate link. Book reviews -- hah! -- like
someone is going to not like a book that they are directly monetized by
liking. There is a universe of content of people pitching will-change-your-
world coffee accessories, so many so suddenly interested and motivated by burr
grinders the moment Amazon added it as a category.

~~~
runjake
> I have never enabled or configured rules for QoS. My daughter is watching
> Netflix while a son online games and the iPad downloads the latest season of
> Mad Men in HD @ 20Mbps. Internet != dog slow. QoS not needed.

That must be great with your super connection, but the rest of us with measly
10Mbps broadband connections do not share your great experience and so QoS can
be a good thing.

~~~
huggyface
QoS can be a good. QoS is not magic, however, and you need to actually
prioritize by packet type. No one who follows Atwood's advice is going to do
that, however.

