They removed volume pricing. For instance, books used to start at 4% (I think), but it you sold even a nominal volume you quickly got a 6.5-7% commission.
Now it's a flat rate 4.5% in that category. Which amounts to about a 33% cut, because almost everyone was earning 6.5-7%.
This is likely to have a massive affect on the blog/article review ecosystem. Most of the review sites that exist today only do so because of amazon's fairly generous programs. I expect in aggregate there will be a shift in what lines of business people decide to get into, based on this.
Of course, there's not really a good, easy replacement for amazon affiliates, so people will still use it. But I expect people will deprecate affiliate marketing as an activity to some extent: this is a major change in the niche.
That's true for some categories, but the HN headline says electronics rates were cut in half, which I don't see when I'm comparing the two tables. Electronics were already excluded from volume pricing, and had a flat 4% rate under the existing fee structure. The only electronics subcategory in which I see fees being cut in half is for televisions, which were previously under the general electronics category (4%) and are now in their own category (2%). Most other electronics stayed the same, e.g. PC parts were already at 2.5% (and stayed there), videogame consoles were at 1% (and stayed there), and miscellaneous/other electronics were at 4% (and stayed there).
Oh, I didn't note the electronics in the headline. Not sure where that's from – quite probably an error, based on what you wrote. In fact, the headline should have been something like "Amazon cuts volume pricing, greatly reducing affiliate commissions"
I don't think it's half in most categories.
(To be clear, I didn't write the headline. Had just been attempting to explain it)
Now it's a flat rate 4.5% in that category. Which amounts to about a 33% cut, because almost everyone was earning 6.5-7%.
This is likely to have a massive affect on the blog/article review ecosystem. Most of the review sites that exist today only do so because of amazon's fairly generous programs. I expect in aggregate there will be a shift in what lines of business people decide to get into, based on this.
Of course, there's not really a good, easy replacement for amazon affiliates, so people will still use it. But I expect people will deprecate affiliate marketing as an activity to some extent: this is a major change in the niche.