30 ms·

Amazon guts affiliate program, cuts fees for electronics in half

326 points by Domenic_S 10y ago

elsewhen 10y ago
current commissions: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation
iopuy 10y ago
Would it be possible to post the commissions before the change?
- moonlonely 10y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images...
twodayslate 10y ago
It is very hard to get an affiliate account right now. I can't seem to get accepted.
- robotjosh 10y ago
  Even before, you had to sell over $1,000,000 in amazon stuff to make a meaningful amount of money.
- rapfaria 10y ago
  Really? What changed? I remember setting up one about 6 or 7 years ago, all I had to do was sign up.
  - wtracy 10y ago
    That still seemed to be the case when I signed up about a month ago.
  - NathanKP 10y ago
    A lot used to be different about Amazon Affiliate program. 7 years ago I used to make ~$100 a day off of it (although I did get banned a few times for sketchy experiments I was doing with it, my own fault for exploring the edges of what the TOS allowed.) I think all that bad behavior of us early pioneers resulted in the program being severely limited and audited.
    - brilliantcode 10y ago
      cookie stuffing? I know that was the rage 7 years ago.
      - NathanKP 10y ago
        I made a service that implemented Google AdSense type title and body text examination with the Amazon Product API to automate ad selection. Place a JS widget on a webpage and it would automatically examine body elements for keywords, dispatch a request to our server and find an Amazon product that was relevant, then inject affiliate ads on the page. Then me and some associates applied the plugin to a massive network of content scraped wordpress sites which basically reposted stuff from RSS feeds. There was an art to making a site that has good SEO, would perform well in Google SERP, be just attractive enough that people wouldn't immediately hit the back button, but not completely satisfying so that they would be looking for more and click a link which would take them to the Amazon store. Once they had our affiliate attribution set we didn't care what happened, if they made a purchase within the next 30 days we made money. And electronics was very profitable at the time. A few times I got banned because my affiliate link was all over the place, like literally hundreds of sites, and Amazon wanted to control where the affiliate links were placed, not have them on sketchy semi spam websites. Another time I got banned because I was using the product API in a way they didn't intend.
        marktangotango 10y ago
        I'm really amazed by stories like this. It's the type of thing I would never think of doing. Are you still working with affiliate marketing? What are you up to now?
- dawnerd 10y ago
  And when you do you have to actually sell stuff within so many days
  - derefr 10y ago
    Which is a really weird thing to have to deal with when the only reason I wanted an Amazon Affiliate account was to use that account to access their database of album art from XLD. I'm really surprised nobody offers a standalone API for automatic album art lookup; or an automatic metadata lookup (like CDDB) that includes an album art URL in the result.
    - kevingrahl 10y ago
      I've no clue what XLD or CDDB is but I think the Spotify API might be what you're looking for.. Documentation: https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/endpoint-reference/ https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/endpoint-reference/ Example Screenshot: https://d.pr/e2zG https://d.pr/e2zG
- user5994461 10y ago
  Nope, 15 minutes top.
  - adamnemecek 10y ago
    Can you show me the site that you built in 15 minutes and that Amazon approved?
    - user5994461 10y ago
      I don't even remember them asking for a site when I filled the form a few months ago.
- dewski 10y ago
  I was accepted and was selling for 3-4 weeks, up to $400 in fees then randomly they shut down the account without a concrete reason. Said I violated terms but have been silent in trying to communicate so I can resolve any issues. :(
  - adamnemecek 10y ago
    Same experience here. Dealing with Amazon about this issue has been the worst experience dealing with any company ever.
TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
The title sounds editorialised (“guts”), yet there's no article.
- eriknstr 10y ago
  Well, using just "Associates Compensation Overview" as is the title of the page would not be very informative since this is about a change in the page, so I prefer it the way OP wrote it. --- Edit: Then again, I don't see any difference between the current version of the page [1] and what it looked like in a previous version archived 2016-08-26 [2]. [1]: http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190305/https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190305/https://affiliate-... [2]: http://web.archive.org/web/20160826220446/https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation http://web.archive.org/web/20160826220446/https://affiliate-... --- Edit 2: Never mind the above two links. The apparent lack of change is due to some problem with Archive.org. Link [2] is using an image from today [3] for some reason, and it's not even the same archived version [4] on link [1]?! The one used on link [2] is from 2017-02-24 19:03:14 according to the timestamp in the URL, whereas the one for today is from 2017-02-24 18:59:28 according to the timestamp for that image. (Both of these timestamps are probably UTC I'd venture to guess.) Maybe Archive.org was missing the image for some reason and it was refetched when I loaded the old snapshot? By the way, are the rest of you seeing this as well? [3]: http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190314im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2010/volume_rates_table.gif http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190314im_/https://images-... [4]: http://web.archive.org/web/20170224185928im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2010/volume_rates_table.gif http://web.archive.org/web/20170224185928im_/https://images-...
  - ajross 10y ago
    I think the point was more: the OP clearly has an opinion here, but it's not written and those of us who know zilch about the Amazon affiliate market aren't able to intuit it. Spell it out, basically. What are we looking at and why do we care?
    - 10y ago
encoderer 10y ago
My heart breaks for the Wirecutters of the world affected by this.
- csmajorfive 10y ago
  Me too. Great, unbiased reviews are going to be even harder to come by now.
  - moron4hire 10y ago
    How ever did we get reviews before Amazon affiliate programs?
    - Veen 10y ago
      News organizations and magazine publishers paid for them with advertising and subscription revenue.
    - makmanalp 10y ago
      The implication here was that we used to have good reviews before this. I disagree. I'd gladly dump all of cnet and engadget down the drain for half of The Wirecutter. Their win was realizing that I don't give a shit about reading about the latest tech news on new product X. I just need an in-depth review for each product category that is done by an expert, exposes the best products I can get for each part of the tradeoff spectrum, and is kept up to date as time passes by. That's all I need. So many times I've done my own research for days and came up with the same 2-3 results that they have, so I don't even bother anymore. I'll be very sad if The Wirecutter dies.
      - jldugger 10y ago
        We already had a publication for that called Consumer Reports. CR goes the extra mile of not running ads in the first place. Wirecutter simply tried to eat their cake and have it too, and that cake just got a lot slimmer.
pasbesoin 10y ago
Yet another variation on: Don't be a sharecropper.
- logicallee 10y ago
  I know. Why anyone would choose to make a few thousand a month using someone ELSE'S infrastructure, rather than be a 400.64B company is completely beyond me. I coded this up so you can see it in black and white: http://codepad.org/7t5RvxUg http://codepad.org/7t5RvxUg How anyone can get such incredibly simple math wrong boggles my mind.
  - ska 10y ago
    Thank you for such a clear example of the logical fallacy known as "false dichotomy". Now I'll have a link to demonstrate the issue when needed!
    - logicallee 10y ago
      My real point is that there's nothing wrong with sharecropping; because you still have your past revenues, until the point the landowner pulls the rug. The implication of GP, that you somehow shouldn't have chosen sharecropping until that point, is totally wrong for the majority of the people who make that choice. (For another example see app developers on Apple's App Store. Nothing wrong with their choice.) The GP post made it super explicit: "Don't be a sharecropper". Well, why not? This news doesn't mean it wasn't their best choice.
      - ska 10y ago
        You would have been better off making that point, then. Creating a false dichotomy didn't help you, it's even sillier that original implication that you should never do this. The real maxim is something like "be very careful when your business model is (some better word than sharecropping) - because it can be disabled at any point"
- kevan 10y ago
diminish 10y ago
is anyone making 4 or more digits monthly revenue from Amazon associates or any other affiliate program?
- user_666 10y ago
  I used to make close to 5 digits in the fall months.
  - giarc 10y ago
    Christmas/Black Friday shopping, or was it a fall specific product? EG. were you selling rakes?
- faet 10y ago
  Last month I did. I have a number of affiliate sites, most with amazon that pull in $100-$200/mo. At the start of the year I moved over to take advantage of their bounty program. $3-$5 per free trial signup. Movies for example included Amazon Video, HBO, and stars. So if someone tried out all 3 I got $9. I sell books on amazon as well. My website for one series has an audible affiliate link. An audible signup = $5. If they first check out my audio book I get a percentage of the book cost and if they stay subbed for 61 days I get a $50 bonus. If they sign up for Kindle Unlimited to read it I get $3 + page reads from the book. The straight affiliate product sites are going to take a hit. One was for an electronics niche.
- bdcravens 10y ago
  https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/ https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/
  - johnnypalps 10y ago
    For sale because they are earning the current owners too much money, no doubt.
    - bdcravens 10y ago
dawnerd 10y ago
Just in time for LTT to get their account back...
- tekism 10y ago
  What's LTT?
  - hoschicz 10y ago
    Linus Tech Tips, a YouTube producer covering tech.
deleted 10y ago
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startupdiscuss 10y ago
Confused. Which is the previous structure? This: https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images... or this: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation If they are going from a volume based approach to a margin based approach that is rational, and good for everyone. (i.e. why payout more for 1000 rubber bands that makes them uncompetitive to sell, and you should pay out more for that high end tv).
- jonknee 10y ago
  Both, the volume was/is for "other products" (e.g. not categories mentioned in the other table).
- _delirium 10y ago
  The change from tiered rates based on volume to flat rates is fine with me. The bigger problem for many people will be that the rates are also being cut overall in many categories, at least for people doing non-trivial volume. For example, previously the affiliate payout for books was 6%+ if you sold at least 7 a month, while now it's a flat 4.5%.
- fencepost 10y ago
  Previously it was (in general) 4% for up to 6 items, then 6% (or apparently higher) as the number of items sold increased. I don't recall whether quantities within an order impact that or not, it's possible that an order for 10 of item X would be counted as a single item for that calculation. Obviously the percentages could go quite a bit higher. The "gutting" in this I'm sure is referring to the change from "electronics get 4-8.5% commission" to "electronics get 2.5% commission and never more than that." Having a huge range of other items also all capped at below 6% is also a huge blow to people who've been doing a lot of Amazon Affiliates work. I've never really made much from it - probably less than $100 in any given year with one outlier when someone bought ten copies of Dragon Medical ($1800 each) after using one of my links. Still, this does give a good indication of whether it's worth putting together a focused product comparison site I've been contemplating. 6% or more on products with prices in the $100-1000 price range could make it worthwhile to build and maintain (content curation). 2.5% capped makes it a much less appealing proposition unless the site can have affiliate links to vendors other than Amazon, and I'm not sure if that's against their TOS.
usaphp 10y ago
It will be a big loss for pc tech YouTube reviewers, I know it's a big chunk of their revenue. They already removed a lot of them from their affiliate program because youtubers used to just tell viewers to bookmark their affiliate amazon link because it supports their channel. So a lot of them had to open a new affilaite account to comply with new rules and all previous videos were demonetized because of account suspensions.
- _q1cj 10y ago
  Immense loss for PcPartPicker as well, their entire revenue stream was built on Amazon affiliate links.
  - jeron 10y ago
    don't put all your eggs in one basket I hope they have other retailers' affiliate links too, like Newegg.
    - onli 10y ago
      They do. You can see it via the codes embedded in the links.
  - _delirium 10y ago
    It doesn't look to me like there's a change in the payouts for PC part referrals. In both the old and new structure, those are a flat 2.5%.
    - exolymph 10y ago
      Volume pricing is gone.
      - _delirium 10y ago
        PC parts (along with electronics and a dozen or so other categories) were already ineligible for volume pricing under the old program. Volume pricing applied only to items that did not fall into one of the flat-rate categories.
eggie5 10y ago
my Pinterest spam bot revenues will take a dip :(
Domenic_S 10y ago
Amazon's deleting volume tiers and adjusting commission ("fee") percents. It's a massive loss (~50%) for affiliates like Wirecutter that do mostly tech/electronics, and a huge boost for the luxury beauty category. Current fees: https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- LeoPanthera 10y ago
  Wirecutter is now owned by the New York Times so they can probably absorb the hit.
  - Baeocystin 10y ago
    Considering the New York Times just vacated half their office space so they could lease it out, maybe not.
    - u_wot_m8 10y ago
      and saw a 94% loss in profit in the last year. But it doesn't really matter since they are just a propaganda rag for Carlos Slim anyway.
      - rev_bird 10y ago
        Yeah I'd request maybe a citation or two
        u_wot_m8 10y ago
        1. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-times-warrants-carlos-slim-idUSKBN0KN2M820150114 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-times-warrants-ca... 2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3897406/New-York-Times-reports-95-7-percent-fall-quarterly-profit.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3897406/New-York-Tim...
robbrown451 10y ago
I'm not sure I understand where you're getting the "half" figure. I'm trying to compare the linked chart to this https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images... and not seeing what is cut in half. (Also I notice that the new chart says musical instruments are 6%. For electronic musical instruments -- digital keyboards, for instance -- does this mean the fee has gone up from 4%?)
- graeme 10y ago
  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.
  - robbrown451 10y ago
    Ok, makes sense, thanks for the explanation.
  - _delirium 10y ago
    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).
deleted 10y ago
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TekMol 10y ago
Does anybody here know what the profit margins of electronics are? I have been running onlineshops before (not electronics though) and we happily spent all of the profit margins of an order on trackable advertising. Because a) the lifetime value of the customer b) the word of mouth value of a customer and c) the untracked sales generated by the advertising. 2.5% of revenue sounds unbelievably cheap to generate an actual trackable order.
codingdave 10y ago
I make some money with their affiliate program. Not a lot, just enough to buy ourselves dinner out a few times a month. But I always consider it to be a nice bonus. I know the program can change any time. I know my web traffic can die off. Someone else could build a new site that is better than mine. Or something completely unanticipated could shut down this income. These are all risks that I accept with open eyes. The danger comes if you are not aware of the risks inherent in your own income. Sometimes it does make sense to let your income have some instability in it, and let someone else control it -- maybe it is a case like mine where it is small enough to not matter. Or maybe it is large enough that it is worth the risk. Just don't let yourself get in a situation where it is large enough that you are living on it, but not so large that the risks are acceptable. Because that is when changes like this will bite you.
- monkmartinez 10y ago
  It will change again, you can rest assured of that. I think you have the right attitude toward it, FWIW. The FBA'ers out there are in a similar position and many of them rely way too heavily on Amazon for their income. These guys/gals started with/as affiliates... and have graduated to "branding" cheap chinese stuff. I tried doing some FBA, but it felt super scammy. Research products that people are buying then just work the pay per click, give some products away for review, and try to "out manipulate" your competition. It is going to end badly for a lot of them. China is learning how to beat them at their own game. The guys that run seminars on this stuff... uggh... nuff said.
  - Peretus 10y ago
    I completely agree with your opinion on the FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) crowd being the same boat. It's not a great feeling to have your business built on someone else's platform and I'm doing everything I can at the moment to reduce our reliance on Amazon. I'm surprised that you felt that selling things via FBA is scammy. I have a full-time job but I also own a business that (currently) grosses about $150K on Amazon. I can honestly say that I don't feel like we've out-manipulated anyone or have done anything but create a very competitive product that we're able to sell at a competitive price. I agree that it quickly turns into a very painful race to the bottom when dozens of vendors are selling variations of the thing (e.g. silicone grill gloves or meat claws), but it's completely different when you're able to take the time to create a really great product. It's been a rewarding experience; I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind answering the occasional support email and is completely committed to excellent customer service.
sharkweek 10y ago
As an Amazon affiliate who has done quite well with it, this is definitely a gutting. But... if I'm being honest with myself, it also seems kind of reasonable. I think their original plan was pretty generous. I was kind of expecting this to happen at some point.
- giarc 10y ago
  Was this this first you heard of the change? I'm not sure how old that link is, but to say on Feb 24th that your rates as of March 1 are going way down is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
  - sharkweek 10y ago
    Yep, I don't see any recent news about it either, so I'm assuming this is new. I don't think I have received an email about this update either... https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+affiliates&oq=amazon+affiliates&aqs=chrome..69i57.1857j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=amazon+affiliates&tbm=nws https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+affiliates&oq=amazon+...
    - graeme 10y ago
      I got an email about it from amazon yesterday.
  - fencepost 10y ago
    I went and looked at the affiliates forums and there was apparently a little rumbling a few (2-3) days earlier that this might be coming.
- giarc 10y ago
  Was this this first you heard of the change? I'm not sure how old that link is, but to say on Feb 24th that your rates as of March 1 are going way down is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
- johnnypalps 10y ago
  If you aren't on a private contract with custom rates already, you aren't swimmin' with the sharks. Big affiliates heard about this a couple weeks ago, and likely had their contracts updated as a result.
nnash 10y ago
I would imagine that anyone in the space has multiple channels for affiliate revenue and not just Amazon. There are literally dozens of companies in a single niche that you could pick from for most of the affected categories.
- strictnein 10y ago
  True, but Amazon's conversion rate is likely the highest, probably by quite a bit since it's such a trusted store and has a huge number of registered users with stored credit card data.
  - elsewhen 10y ago
    and not only that, amazon pays affiliates a commission on everything that a user buys within 24 hours. so if a user clicks on an affiliate's link and purchases a recommended sound card, then the affiliate gets a commission. if the user also buys some diapers within 24 hours, the affiliate gets a commission on that as well. amazon likely drives more of these these "secondary' purchases than any other store due to the breadth of products they offer.
Animats 10y ago
What's the difference between a "video game" (1% fee) and a "digital video game" (10% fee)?
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  Probably boxed product vs download.
the_watcher 10y ago
This is a huge loss for independent reviewers. Sites like The Wirecutter almost certainly would not have existed like the did without it.
grandalf 10y ago
Interestingly, Electronics are the area where I'd recently noticed Amazon was least competitive. I stopped by the local Microcenter (which is, incidentally, has a nice assortment of hobby-oriented electronics items for sale) and they beat Amazon's price on a Samsung EVO SSD by over $20. Since they price match, I got a $3 discount on one of the other pieces of hardware I bought that day. All in all, the time I spent driving there likely make the savings irrelevant, but I was surprised that they were so much more aggressive on the SSD pricing.
- MekaiGS 10y ago
  Completely the opposite for me in Canada, PC parts are now somehow 20-30 bucks cheaper when ordering from Amazon than the local retailers (NCIX/CandaComputers etc)
  - grandalf 10y ago
    Interesting. When the guy ringing up the order at Microcenter mentioned that they price match Amazon, I felt stupid even checking the price on my phone, but sure enough it was $20 more. I hadn't thought it possible that Amazon could sustain that large a price premium on a relatively hot item. I suppose this bias is why Amazon could get away with it. On the other hand, Microcenter might be selling it at cost to provoke exactly the reaction that I had (telling others about it).
  - candiodari 10y ago
    Do they tax scam ? New stuff on ebay is usually cheaper because they cheat taxes, especially in Europe.
eb0la 10y ago
Does anyone know which percentage of all electronics sales go to Amazon? Affiliate programs are a good way to get market quotas. If they're #1 in sales, then there's no need to spend marketing bucks on it.
- blowski 10y ago
  That's not entirely true. Coca Cola continues to spend a fortune on marketing.
robertcorey 10y ago
welp had a web app idea for amazon affiliate kicking around for past year, this is what I get for not implementing.
skyisblue 10y ago
This is another hit to publishers who are already struggling with low ad revenue and an evergrowing number of adblock users.
dkrich 10y ago
What I'm curious about is how this will affect sites that rely on affiliate clicks but more for the 24-hour cookie (ie, where somebody buys anything within a day of clicking the link). I could see a site like the WireCutter getting lots of clicks to Amazon and then the person not buying that product buy remembering later "hey, I forgot that I need dog food." Well dog food happens to be a 10% commission now, so maybe it isn't as bad as it would seem. Also, the WireCutter's sister site is the Sweet Home, and I think home goods are now up to a flat 8% rate, so they may not be any worse off.
oliwarner 10y ago
People get a bit bratty when Amazon drops the rates on certain categories. They need to be clear on what the Affiliate program's purpose is. The goal isn't to kick back money to people who link to Amazon, it's there to make Amazon dominant in multiple markets. They're there now. They have critical mass. They're the first place organic search for new stuff. There's no sense in throwing money after sales they'd already get. They're better off using it as discount to get sales they wouldn't.
- _mhyx 10y ago
  As someone that doesn't use the program but does own an etf that covers the market, it's weird to think that I benefit from this change - at most a penny or so.
- scottcowley 10y ago
  True, the goal isn't to kick back money, but the goal is to refer people to Amazon that wouldn't have purchased from there otherwise. They have good fraud detection systems in place to make sure that people aren't just using the affiliate program to give Amazon discounts to themselves, friends, family. Ultimately Amazon does what every company does in some form or another as it scales--cut incentives, trim margins, increase on-site advertising, etc. It's one long life cycle game that plays out again and again.
  - cstejerean 10y ago
    The problem with that goal is that affiliate links are having less and less of an impact on convincing people to buy from Amazon, because Amazon is becoming the #1 place where people buy things anyway. If I read about something on the Wirecutter and I decided to buy it, I will buy it on Amazon whether or not they have a link to Amazon. Amazon knows this, and as they begin to dominate online sales in a certain category they can afford to drop their affiliate commissions knowing full well that it won't really impact their sales.
MicroBerto 10y ago
My business (PricePlow) is obviously affected. However, due to being a niche site, Amazon is not a majority of our revenue, nor is it our top-trafficked store. My strategy is this: At these commissions in the Health niche, Amazon will no be in our "preferred" tier of stores. On March 1, their products will no longer show up on our blog (unless they are the only store with it in stock) -- and the blog gets the vast majority of our traffic. They will still show up in our main site (where I need to decide whether or not to keep their exclusive buttons), and they'll still be involved in our hot deals and price drop alerts. Stores need to earn our best visitors, and Amazon is no longer deserving. Surprisingly, they're most often not the best deal on our site anyway, so I don't think anyone will be too upset. I may try to negotiate my own rates, but I don't think we're big enough for that (not yet, at least). Everything is negotiable when you have legit traffic and other options. Meanwhile, we've been diversifying our revenue with various industry SAAS services that can be scaled globally. This has been a big focus of mine, knowing that these kinds of things can happen at the drop of a hat. But at the end of the day, this is still a paycut, and it still hurts. Amazon will ultimately lose more of our traffic for it, and I really don't think they'll even notice this on their bottom line compared to the explosive profits they get from AWS. Seems like bad PR more than anything.
- dpark 10y ago
  > Stores need to earn our best visitors, and Amazon is no longer deserving. It totally makes sense that you would be unhappy with the change, but your comment comes off as sour grapes. Amazon cut your fees and now they're "not deserving" even though you say they're not your top-trafficked store and usually not the best deal anyway? Were they deserving of your visitors traffic before when they were still not offering the best deal but they paid you more? > Seems like bad PR more than anything. Bad PR for who? Most of the people shopping on Amazon don't care about affiliate earnings at all. They don't care if Amazon pays affiliates less or stops paying them entirely. There is no PR hit to Amazon for changing the affiliate payouts.
vram22 10y ago
Has anyone made more than, say, a few (tens of) dollars a month, via affiliate schemes? I mean in the last year or two. Things might have been different earlier, that is why the condition. And related question, is there an affiliate scheme for Amazon India? I had checked a few times earlier for the US-based Amazon affiliate scheme, and IIRC, each time it said that it was only for the US, or not for India.
- bdcravens 10y ago
  Affiliate blogs are quite the cottage industry. (complete with their own dark patterns like PBNs) Look at the listings on Empire Flippers and how many of the sites are affiliate based: https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/ https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/
  - vram22 10y ago
    Good to know, thanks for that link. Didn't know of empireflippers.
- johnnypalps 10y ago
  wirecutter was pulling millions a year out of Amazon Associates, as are other big names.
  - vram22 10y ago
    Very interesting.
- shellerik 10y ago
  My site makes a couple grand per month from Amazon commissions. You have to sign up for each different Amazon program separately (.com, .co.uk, .ca, .de, .fr, etc). There is a program for India. https://affiliate-program.amazon.in/ https://affiliate-program.amazon.in/
  - vram22 10y ago
    Interesting. Thanks for the info.
FT_intern 10y ago
How is the Amazon affiliate commission compared to other online affiliate ecommerce websites?
- johnnypalps 10y ago
  amazon is still streets ahead of everyone else
jrs235 10y ago
If you think about industry/categorical margins, the new rates more closely reflect them. As others have pointed out, the more appealing prior rates were to encourage people to "push" and advertise products in categories that amazon wasn't a dominant player. They are now doing better so they have let off the gas on those products; they don't need to advertise them as much.
ceyhunkazel 10y ago
What is annoying is Amazon pays non-US affiliates only by gift card or by check. Direct deposit is only for US affiliates, which is nonsense. I earn commissions from my web application http://www.jeviz.com http://www.jeviz.com .
- alvah 10y ago
  I get my Amazon Affiliates commission (non-US) using Payoneer. Takes a couple of days instead of 4 weeks, cost is about the same as what my local bank wants for an overseas cheque anyway.
  - ceyhunkazel 10y ago
    I have tried Payoneer but Amazon did not accept Payoneer account. How did you do it?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
johnnypalps 10y ago
the real tragedy is that everyone you are likely to hear from on this subject isn't earning real money. The big earners are all on custom rates already and won't discuss terms or earnings. Reading the Associates discussion forum is the definition of depression. People running sites for many years talking about earning $200 in a month. please, enlighten us as to your thoughts on the new rate structure!
deleted 10y ago
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wordpressdev 10y ago
There is always a risk associated with grazing in the shadow of an elephant. One day you get your heart's content and other other you may get crushed by the mammoth. In the end of the day, it is better to have your own field - launch own product and use Amazon and the likes as sales channels.

326 points by Domenic_S 10y ago

current commissions: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation

iopuy 10y ago

Would it be possible to post the commissions before the change?

moonlonely 10y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images...

twodayslate 10y ago

It is very hard to get an affiliate account right now. I can't seem to get accepted.

robotjosh 10y ago
Even before, you had to sell over $1,000,000 in amazon stuff to make a meaningful amount of money.
rapfaria 10y ago
Really? What changed? I remember setting up one about 6 or 7 years ago, all I had to do was sign up.
- wtracy 10y ago
  That still seemed to be the case when I signed up about a month ago.
- NathanKP 10y ago
  A lot used to be different about Amazon Affiliate program. 7 years ago I used to make ~$100 a day off of it (although I did get banned a few times for sketchy experiments I was doing with it, my own fault for exploring the edges of what the TOS allowed.) I think all that bad behavior of us early pioneers resulted in the program being severely limited and audited.
  - brilliantcode 10y ago
    cookie stuffing? I know that was the rage 7 years ago.
    - NathanKP 10y ago
      I made a service that implemented Google AdSense type title and body text examination with the Amazon Product API to automate ad selection. Place a JS widget on a webpage and it would automatically examine body elements for keywords, dispatch a request to our server and find an Amazon product that was relevant, then inject affiliate ads on the page. Then me and some associates applied the plugin to a massive network of content scraped wordpress sites which basically reposted stuff from RSS feeds. There was an art to making a site that has good SEO, would perform well in Google SERP, be just attractive enough that people wouldn't immediately hit the back button, but not completely satisfying so that they would be looking for more and click a link which would take them to the Amazon store. Once they had our affiliate attribution set we didn't care what happened, if they made a purchase within the next 30 days we made money. And electronics was very profitable at the time. A few times I got banned because my affiliate link was all over the place, like literally hundreds of sites, and Amazon wanted to control where the affiliate links were placed, not have them on sketchy semi spam websites. Another time I got banned because I was using the product API in a way they didn't intend.
      - marktangotango 10y ago
        I'm really amazed by stories like this. It's the type of thing I would never think of doing. Are you still working with affiliate marketing? What are you up to now?
dawnerd 10y ago
And when you do you have to actually sell stuff within so many days
- derefr 10y ago
  Which is a really weird thing to have to deal with when the only reason I wanted an Amazon Affiliate account was to use that account to access their database of album art from XLD. I'm really surprised nobody offers a standalone API for automatic album art lookup; or an automatic metadata lookup (like CDDB) that includes an album art URL in the result.
  - kevingrahl 10y ago
    I've no clue what XLD or CDDB is but I think the Spotify API might be what you're looking for.. Documentation: https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/endpoint-reference/ https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/endpoint-reference/ Example Screenshot: https://d.pr/e2zG https://d.pr/e2zG
user5994461 10y ago
Nope, 15 minutes top.
- adamnemecek 10y ago
  Can you show me the site that you built in 15 minutes and that Amazon approved?
  - user5994461 10y ago
    I don't even remember them asking for a site when I filled the form a few months ago.
dewski 10y ago
I was accepted and was selling for 3-4 weeks, up to $400 in fees then randomly they shut down the account without a concrete reason. Said I violated terms but have been silent in trying to communicate so I can resolve any issues. :(
- adamnemecek 10y ago
  Same experience here. Dealing with Amazon about this issue has been the worst experience dealing with any company ever.

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago

The title sounds editorialised (“guts”), yet there's no article.

eriknstr 10y ago
Well, using just "Associates Compensation Overview" as is the title of the page would not be very informative since this is about a change in the page, so I prefer it the way OP wrote it. --- Edit: Then again, I don't see any difference between the current version of the page [1] and what it looked like in a previous version archived 2016-08-26 [2]. [1]: http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190305/https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190305/https://affiliate-... [2]: http://web.archive.org/web/20160826220446/https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation http://web.archive.org/web/20160826220446/https://affiliate-... --- Edit 2: Never mind the above two links. The apparent lack of change is due to some problem with Archive.org. Link [2] is using an image from today [3] for some reason, and it's not even the same archived version [4] on link [1]?! The one used on link [2] is from 2017-02-24 19:03:14 according to the timestamp in the URL, whereas the one for today is from 2017-02-24 18:59:28 according to the timestamp for that image. (Both of these timestamps are probably UTC I'd venture to guess.) Maybe Archive.org was missing the image for some reason and it was refetched when I loaded the old snapshot? By the way, are the rest of you seeing this as well? [3]: http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190314im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2010/volume_rates_table.gif http://web.archive.org/web/20170224190314im_/https://images-... [4]: http://web.archive.org/web/20170224185928im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2010/volume_rates_table.gif http://web.archive.org/web/20170224185928im_/https://images-...
- ajross 10y ago
  I think the point was more: the OP clearly has an opinion here, but it's not written and those of us who know zilch about the Amazon affiliate market aren't able to intuit it. Spell it out, basically. What are we looking at and why do we care?
  - 10y ago

encoderer 10y ago

My heart breaks for the Wirecutters of the world affected by this.

csmajorfive 10y ago
Me too. Great, unbiased reviews are going to be even harder to come by now.
- moron4hire 10y ago
  How ever did we get reviews before Amazon affiliate programs?
  - Veen 10y ago
    News organizations and magazine publishers paid for them with advertising and subscription revenue.
  - makmanalp 10y ago
    The implication here was that we used to have good reviews before this. I disagree. I'd gladly dump all of cnet and engadget down the drain for half of The Wirecutter. Their win was realizing that I don't give a shit about reading about the latest tech news on new product X. I just need an in-depth review for each product category that is done by an expert, exposes the best products I can get for each part of the tradeoff spectrum, and is kept up to date as time passes by. That's all I need. So many times I've done my own research for days and came up with the same 2-3 results that they have, so I don't even bother anymore. I'll be very sad if The Wirecutter dies.
    - jldugger 10y ago
      We already had a publication for that called Consumer Reports. CR goes the extra mile of not running ads in the first place. Wirecutter simply tried to eat their cake and have it too, and that cake just got a lot slimmer.

pasbesoin 10y ago

Yet another variation on: Don't be a sharecropper.

logicallee 10y ago
I know. Why anyone would choose to make a few thousand a month using someone ELSE'S infrastructure, rather than be a 400.64B company is completely beyond me. I coded this up so you can see it in black and white: http://codepad.org/7t5RvxUg http://codepad.org/7t5RvxUg How anyone can get such incredibly simple math wrong boggles my mind.
- ska 10y ago
  Thank you for such a clear example of the logical fallacy known as "false dichotomy". Now I'll have a link to demonstrate the issue when needed!
  - logicallee 10y ago
    My real point is that there's nothing wrong with sharecropping; because you still have your past revenues, until the point the landowner pulls the rug. The implication of GP, that you somehow shouldn't have chosen sharecropping until that point, is totally wrong for the majority of the people who make that choice. (For another example see app developers on Apple's App Store. Nothing wrong with their choice.) The GP post made it super explicit: "Don't be a sharecropper". Well, why not? This news doesn't mean it wasn't their best choice.
    - ska 10y ago
      You would have been better off making that point, then. Creating a false dichotomy didn't help you, it's even sillier that original implication that you should never do this. The real maxim is something like "be very careful when your business model is (some better word than sharecropping) - because it can be disabled at any point"
kevan 10y ago

diminish 10y ago

is anyone making 4 or more digits monthly revenue from Amazon associates or any other affiliate program?

user_666 10y ago
I used to make close to 5 digits in the fall months.
- giarc 10y ago
  Christmas/Black Friday shopping, or was it a fall specific product? EG. were you selling rakes?
faet 10y ago
Last month I did. I have a number of affiliate sites, most with amazon that pull in $100-$200/mo. At the start of the year I moved over to take advantage of their bounty program. $3-$5 per free trial signup. Movies for example included Amazon Video, HBO, and stars. So if someone tried out all 3 I got $9. I sell books on amazon as well. My website for one series has an audible affiliate link. An audible signup = $5. If they first check out my audio book I get a percentage of the book cost and if they stay subbed for 61 days I get a $50 bonus. If they sign up for Kindle Unlimited to read it I get $3 + page reads from the book. The straight affiliate product sites are going to take a hit. One was for an electronics niche.
bdcravens 10y ago
https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/ https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/
- johnnypalps 10y ago
  For sale because they are earning the current owners too much money, no doubt.
  - bdcravens 10y ago

dawnerd 10y ago

Just in time for LTT to get their account back...

tekism 10y ago
What's LTT?
- hoschicz 10y ago
  Linus Tech Tips, a YouTube producer covering tech.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

startupdiscuss 10y ago

Confused. Which is the previous structure? This: https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214433im_/https://images... or this: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome/compensation If they are going from a volume based approach to a margin based approach that is rational, and good for everyone. (i.e. why payout more for 1000 rubber bands that makes them uncompetitive to sell, and you should pay out more for that high end tv).

jonknee 10y ago
Both, the volume was/is for "other products" (e.g. not categories mentioned in the other table).
_delirium 10y ago
The change from tiered rates based on volume to flat rates is fine with me. The bigger problem for many people will be that the rates are also being cut overall in many categories, at least for people doing non-trivial volume. For example, previously the affiliate payout for books was 6%+ if you sold at least 7 a month, while now it's a flat 4.5%.
fencepost 10y ago
Previously it was (in general) 4% for up to 6 items, then 6% (or apparently higher) as the number of items sold increased. I don't recall whether quantities within an order impact that or not, it's possible that an order for 10 of item X would be counted as a single item for that calculation. Obviously the percentages could go quite a bit higher. The "gutting" in this I'm sure is referring to the change from "electronics get 4-8.5% commission" to "electronics get 2.5% commission and never more than that." Having a huge range of other items also all capped at below 6% is also a huge blow to people who've been doing a lot of Amazon Affiliates work. I've never really made much from it - probably less than $100 in any given year with one outlier when someone bought ten copies of Dragon Medical ($1800 each) after using one of my links. Still, this does give a good indication of whether it's worth putting together a focused product comparison site I've been contemplating. 6% or more on products with prices in the $100-1000 price range could make it worthwhile to build and maintain (content curation). 2.5% capped makes it a much less appealing proposition unless the site can have affiliate links to vendors other than Amazon, and I'm not sure if that's against their TOS.

usaphp 10y ago

It will be a big loss for pc tech YouTube reviewers, I know it's a big chunk of their revenue. They already removed a lot of them from their affiliate program because youtubers used to just tell viewers to bookmark their affiliate amazon link because it supports their channel. So a lot of them had to open a new affilaite account to comply with new rules and all previous videos were demonetized because of account suspensions.

_q1cj 10y ago
Immense loss for PcPartPicker as well, their entire revenue stream was built on Amazon affiliate links.
- jeron 10y ago
  don't put all your eggs in one basket I hope they have other retailers' affiliate links too, like Newegg.
  - onli 10y ago
    They do. You can see it via the codes embedded in the links.
- _delirium 10y ago
  It doesn't look to me like there's a change in the payouts for PC part referrals. In both the old and new structure, those are a flat 2.5%.
  - exolymph 10y ago
    Volume pricing is gone.
    - _delirium 10y ago
      PC parts (along with electronics and a dozen or so other categories) were already ineligible for volume pricing under the old program. Volume pricing applied only to items that did not fall into one of the flat-rate categories.

eggie5 10y ago

my Pinterest spam bot revenues will take a dip :(

Domenic_S 10y ago

Amazon's deleting volume tiers and adjusting commission ("fee") percents. It's a massive loss (~50%) for affiliates like Wirecutter that do mostly tech/electronics, and a huge boost for the luxury beauty category. Current fees: https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
LeoPanthera 10y ago
Wirecutter is now owned by the New York Times so they can probably absorb the hit.
- Baeocystin 10y ago
  Considering the New York Times just vacated half their office space so they could lease it out, maybe not.
  - u_wot_m8 10y ago
    and saw a 94% loss in profit in the last year. But it doesn't really matter since they are just a propaganda rag for Carlos Slim anyway.
    - rev_bird 10y ago
      Yeah I'd request maybe a citation or two
      - u_wot_m8 10y ago
        1. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-times-warrants-carlos-slim-idUSKBN0KN2M820150114 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-times-warrants-ca... 2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3897406/New-York-Times-reports-95-7-percent-fall-quarterly-profit.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3897406/New-York-Tim...

robbrown451 10y ago

I'm not sure I understand where you're getting the "half" figure. I'm trying to compare the linked chart to this https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/2012/associates_rates_table_20170101._V523087001_.png https://web.archive.org/web/20170106214444im_/https://images... and not seeing what is cut in half. (Also I notice that the new chart says musical instruments are 6%. For electronic musical instruments -- digital keyboards, for instance -- does this mean the fee has gone up from 4%?)

graeme 10y ago
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.
- robbrown451 10y ago
  Ok, makes sense, thanks for the explanation.
- _delirium 10y ago
  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).

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

TekMol 10y ago

Does anybody here know what the profit margins of electronics are? I have been running onlineshops before (not electronics though) and we happily spent all of the profit margins of an order on trackable advertising. Because a) the lifetime value of the customer b) the word of mouth value of a customer and c) the untracked sales generated by the advertising. 2.5% of revenue sounds unbelievably cheap to generate an actual trackable order.

codingdave 10y ago

I make some money with their affiliate program. Not a lot, just enough to buy ourselves dinner out a few times a month. But I always consider it to be a nice bonus. I know the program can change any time. I know my web traffic can die off. Someone else could build a new site that is better than mine. Or something completely unanticipated could shut down this income. These are all risks that I accept with open eyes. The danger comes if you are not aware of the risks inherent in your own income. Sometimes it does make sense to let your income have some instability in it, and let someone else control it -- maybe it is a case like mine where it is small enough to not matter. Or maybe it is large enough that it is worth the risk. Just don't let yourself get in a situation where it is large enough that you are living on it, but not so large that the risks are acceptable. Because that is when changes like this will bite you.

monkmartinez 10y ago
It will change again, you can rest assured of that. I think you have the right attitude toward it, FWIW. The FBA'ers out there are in a similar position and many of them rely way too heavily on Amazon for their income. These guys/gals started with/as affiliates... and have graduated to "branding" cheap chinese stuff. I tried doing some FBA, but it felt super scammy. Research products that people are buying then just work the pay per click, give some products away for review, and try to "out manipulate" your competition. It is going to end badly for a lot of them. China is learning how to beat them at their own game. The guys that run seminars on this stuff... uggh... nuff said.
- Peretus 10y ago
  I completely agree with your opinion on the FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) crowd being the same boat. It's not a great feeling to have your business built on someone else's platform and I'm doing everything I can at the moment to reduce our reliance on Amazon. I'm surprised that you felt that selling things via FBA is scammy. I have a full-time job but I also own a business that (currently) grosses about $150K on Amazon. I can honestly say that I don't feel like we've out-manipulated anyone or have done anything but create a very competitive product that we're able to sell at a competitive price. I agree that it quickly turns into a very painful race to the bottom when dozens of vendors are selling variations of the thing (e.g. silicone grill gloves or meat claws), but it's completely different when you're able to take the time to create a really great product. It's been a rewarding experience; I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind answering the occasional support email and is completely committed to excellent customer service.

sharkweek 10y ago

As an Amazon affiliate who has done quite well with it, this is definitely a gutting. But... if I'm being honest with myself, it also seems kind of reasonable. I think their original plan was pretty generous. I was kind of expecting this to happen at some point.

giarc 10y ago
Was this this first you heard of the change? I'm not sure how old that link is, but to say on Feb 24th that your rates as of March 1 are going way down is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
- sharkweek 10y ago
  Yep, I don't see any recent news about it either, so I'm assuming this is new. I don't think I have received an email about this update either... https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+affiliates&oq=amazon+affiliates&aqs=chrome..69i57.1857j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=amazon+affiliates&tbm=nws https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+affiliates&oq=amazon+...
  - graeme 10y ago
    I got an email about it from amazon yesterday.
- fencepost 10y ago
  I went and looked at the affiliates forums and there was apparently a little rumbling a few (2-3) days earlier that this might be coming.
giarc 10y ago
Was this this first you heard of the change? I'm not sure how old that link is, but to say on Feb 24th that your rates as of March 1 are going way down is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
johnnypalps 10y ago
If you aren't on a private contract with custom rates already, you aren't swimmin' with the sharks. Big affiliates heard about this a couple weeks ago, and likely had their contracts updated as a result.

nnash 10y ago

I would imagine that anyone in the space has multiple channels for affiliate revenue and not just Amazon. There are literally dozens of companies in a single niche that you could pick from for most of the affected categories.

strictnein 10y ago
True, but Amazon's conversion rate is likely the highest, probably by quite a bit since it's such a trusted store and has a huge number of registered users with stored credit card data.
- elsewhen 10y ago
  and not only that, amazon pays affiliates a commission on everything that a user buys within 24 hours. so if a user clicks on an affiliate's link and purchases a recommended sound card, then the affiliate gets a commission. if the user also buys some diapers within 24 hours, the affiliate gets a commission on that as well. amazon likely drives more of these these "secondary' purchases than any other store due to the breadth of products they offer.

Animats 10y ago

What's the difference between a "video game" (1% fee) and a "digital video game" (10% fee)?

Nullabillity 10y ago
Probably boxed product vs download.

the_watcher 10y ago

This is a huge loss for independent reviewers. Sites like The Wirecutter almost certainly would not have existed like the did without it.

grandalf 10y ago

Interestingly, Electronics are the area where I'd recently noticed Amazon was least competitive. I stopped by the local Microcenter (which is, incidentally, has a nice assortment of hobby-oriented electronics items for sale) and they beat Amazon's price on a Samsung EVO SSD by over $20. Since they price match, I got a $3 discount on one of the other pieces of hardware I bought that day. All in all, the time I spent driving there likely make the savings irrelevant, but I was surprised that they were so much more aggressive on the SSD pricing.

MekaiGS 10y ago
Completely the opposite for me in Canada, PC parts are now somehow 20-30 bucks cheaper when ordering from Amazon than the local retailers (NCIX/CandaComputers etc)
- grandalf 10y ago
  Interesting. When the guy ringing up the order at Microcenter mentioned that they price match Amazon, I felt stupid even checking the price on my phone, but sure enough it was $20 more. I hadn't thought it possible that Amazon could sustain that large a price premium on a relatively hot item. I suppose this bias is why Amazon could get away with it. On the other hand, Microcenter might be selling it at cost to provoke exactly the reaction that I had (telling others about it).
- candiodari 10y ago
  Do they tax scam ? New stuff on ebay is usually cheaper because they cheat taxes, especially in Europe.

eb0la 10y ago

Does anyone know which percentage of all electronics sales go to Amazon? Affiliate programs are a good way to get market quotas. If they're #1 in sales, then there's no need to spend marketing bucks on it.

blowski 10y ago
That's not entirely true. Coca Cola continues to spend a fortune on marketing.

robertcorey 10y ago

welp had a web app idea for amazon affiliate kicking around for past year, this is what I get for not implementing.

skyisblue 10y ago

This is another hit to publishers who are already struggling with low ad revenue and an evergrowing number of adblock users.

dkrich 10y ago

What I'm curious about is how this will affect sites that rely on affiliate clicks but more for the 24-hour cookie (ie, where somebody buys anything within a day of clicking the link). I could see a site like the WireCutter getting lots of clicks to Amazon and then the person not buying that product buy remembering later "hey, I forgot that I need dog food." Well dog food happens to be a 10% commission now, so maybe it isn't as bad as it would seem. Also, the WireCutter's sister site is the Sweet Home, and I think home goods are now up to a flat 8% rate, so they may not be any worse off.

oliwarner 10y ago

People get a bit bratty when Amazon drops the rates on certain categories. They need to be clear on what the Affiliate program's purpose is. The goal isn't to kick back money to people who link to Amazon, it's there to make Amazon dominant in multiple markets. They're there now. They have critical mass. They're the first place organic search for new stuff. There's no sense in throwing money after sales they'd already get. They're better off using it as discount to get sales they wouldn't.

_mhyx 10y ago
As someone that doesn't use the program but does own an etf that covers the market, it's weird to think that I benefit from this change - at most a penny or so.
scottcowley 10y ago
True, the goal isn't to kick back money, but the goal is to refer people to Amazon that wouldn't have purchased from there otherwise. They have good fraud detection systems in place to make sure that people aren't just using the affiliate program to give Amazon discounts to themselves, friends, family. Ultimately Amazon does what every company does in some form or another as it scales--cut incentives, trim margins, increase on-site advertising, etc. It's one long life cycle game that plays out again and again.
- cstejerean 10y ago
  The problem with that goal is that affiliate links are having less and less of an impact on convincing people to buy from Amazon, because Amazon is becoming the #1 place where people buy things anyway. If I read about something on the Wirecutter and I decided to buy it, I will buy it on Amazon whether or not they have a link to Amazon. Amazon knows this, and as they begin to dominate online sales in a certain category they can afford to drop their affiliate commissions knowing full well that it won't really impact their sales.

MicroBerto 10y ago

My business (PricePlow) is obviously affected. However, due to being a niche site, Amazon is not a majority of our revenue, nor is it our top-trafficked store. My strategy is this: At these commissions in the Health niche, Amazon will no be in our "preferred" tier of stores. On March 1, their products will no longer show up on our blog (unless they are the only store with it in stock) -- and the blog gets the vast majority of our traffic. They will still show up in our main site (where I need to decide whether or not to keep their exclusive buttons), and they'll still be involved in our hot deals and price drop alerts. Stores need to earn our best visitors, and Amazon is no longer deserving. Surprisingly, they're most often not the best deal on our site anyway, so I don't think anyone will be too upset. I may try to negotiate my own rates, but I don't think we're big enough for that (not yet, at least). Everything is negotiable when you have legit traffic and other options. Meanwhile, we've been diversifying our revenue with various industry SAAS services that can be scaled globally. This has been a big focus of mine, knowing that these kinds of things can happen at the drop of a hat. But at the end of the day, this is still a paycut, and it still hurts. Amazon will ultimately lose more of our traffic for it, and I really don't think they'll even notice this on their bottom line compared to the explosive profits they get from AWS. Seems like bad PR more than anything.

dpark 10y ago
> Stores need to earn our best visitors, and Amazon is no longer deserving. It totally makes sense that you would be unhappy with the change, but your comment comes off as sour grapes. Amazon cut your fees and now they're "not deserving" even though you say they're not your top-trafficked store and usually not the best deal anyway? Were they deserving of your visitors traffic before when they were still not offering the best deal but they paid you more? > Seems like bad PR more than anything. Bad PR for who? Most of the people shopping on Amazon don't care about affiliate earnings at all. They don't care if Amazon pays affiliates less or stops paying them entirely. There is no PR hit to Amazon for changing the affiliate payouts.

vram22 10y ago

Has anyone made more than, say, a few (tens of) dollars a month, via affiliate schemes? I mean in the last year or two. Things might have been different earlier, that is why the condition. And related question, is there an affiliate scheme for Amazon India? I had checked a few times earlier for the US-based Amazon affiliate scheme, and IIRC, each time it said that it was only for the US, or not for India.

bdcravens 10y ago
Affiliate blogs are quite the cottage industry. (complete with their own dark patterns like PBNs) Look at the listings on Empire Flippers and how many of the sites are affiliate based: https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/ https://empireflippers.com/marketplace/
- vram22 10y ago
  Good to know, thanks for that link. Didn't know of empireflippers.
johnnypalps 10y ago
wirecutter was pulling millions a year out of Amazon Associates, as are other big names.
- vram22 10y ago
  Very interesting.
shellerik 10y ago
My site makes a couple grand per month from Amazon commissions. You have to sign up for each different Amazon program separately (.com, .co.uk, .ca, .de, .fr, etc). There is a program for India. https://affiliate-program.amazon.in/ https://affiliate-program.amazon.in/
- vram22 10y ago
  Interesting. Thanks for the info.

FT_intern 10y ago

How is the Amazon affiliate commission compared to other online affiliate ecommerce websites?

johnnypalps 10y ago
amazon is still streets ahead of everyone else

jrs235 10y ago

If you think about industry/categorical margins, the new rates more closely reflect them. As others have pointed out, the more appealing prior rates were to encourage people to "push" and advertise products in categories that amazon wasn't a dominant player. They are now doing better so they have let off the gas on those products; they don't need to advertise them as much.

ceyhunkazel 10y ago

What is annoying is Amazon pays non-US affiliates only by gift card or by check. Direct deposit is only for US affiliates, which is nonsense. I earn commissions from my web application http://www.jeviz.com http://www.jeviz.com .

alvah 10y ago
I get my Amazon Affiliates commission (non-US) using Payoneer. Takes a couple of days instead of 4 weeks, cost is about the same as what my local bank wants for an overseas cheque anyway.
- ceyhunkazel 10y ago
  I have tried Payoneer but Amazon did not accept Payoneer account. How did you do it?

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johnnypalps 10y ago

the real tragedy is that everyone you are likely to hear from on this subject isn't earning real money. The big earners are all on custom rates already and won't discuss terms or earnings. Reading the Associates discussion forum is the definition of depression. People running sites for many years talking about earning $200 in a month. please, enlighten us as to your thoughts on the new rate structure!

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wordpressdev 10y ago

There is always a risk associated with grazing in the shadow of an elephant. One day you get your heart's content and other other you may get crushed by the mammoth. In the end of the day, it is better to have your own field - launch own product and use Amazon and the likes as sales channels.