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Actually there's a bit of truth in it. The dirty secret is that 90% of affiliate revenue is generated by coupon sites. For the most part retailers are giving a

Actually there's a bit of truth in it. The dirty secret is that 90% of affiliate revenue is generated by coupon sites. For the most part retailers are giving away money that they probably would've generated any way w/o the affiliate.

smackfu 14y ago
Really? I would think the big dog for affiliate payments is Amazon, and they don't really have much in the way of coupons.
- AznHisoka 14y ago
  Amazon has a 24-hour cookie. So you get paid even if someone clicks on your link and buys something else later in the day. I wouldn't be surprised if this accounted for a huge majority of their affiliate payouts. Cases where someone buys a product directly from Amazon after reading a review are a minority, imo.
  - makomk 14y ago
    Yeah. At one point I was seeing pop-up ads on some sites that were simply random searches on Amazon - I assume they were trying to take advantage of Amazon's affiliate scheme.
  - unreal37 14y ago
    I can remember talking with the Amazon Affiliate people in a conference call 10 years ago. They have been leaders in this game a long time, and I can believe they have tightened their security on fraud as tight as it can go.
  - kposehn 14y ago
    Amazon is not that big of a program actually. They have compelling data offerings, but the 24-hour cookie is a liability and there are far fewer driving traffic since Google went to town on spammy sites.
- nzealand 14y ago
  My wife represented someone busted for being an Amazon cookie stuffer. He was essentially a script kiddie who paid for the script. He wasn't as successful. I think Amazon devotes more resources to tracking this kind of fraud.
milesskorpen 14y ago
This. There are a very small number of sites which make a lot of money (and I don't think they're just coupons ... Pinterest probably does well here). I suspect the long tail for affiliate revenue is much longer than with AdSense.
AJ007 14y ago
The dirty secret is that 90% of e-commerce affiliate revenue is generated by coupon toolbars. Its like what Shawn Hogan did, except it involves every single e-commerce affiliate program instead of just one.
- a5seo 14y ago
  Not toolbars. 3 words: Retail Me Not. They are going public this year w/ a whisper valuation of $2 Billion. Search any merchant + coupons and they are there. It's like printing money.
  - ansible 14y ago
    I know someone who occasionally uses that site, but only searches it for things like a free shipping code after deciding to purchase a particular item from a particular online vendor. How effect, really, are any of these affiliate programs? Are online retailers actually able to measure how much new business the affiliates are really bringing in?
- rgovind 14y ago
  I run a website/app where I drive traffic to ecommerce companies(Mostly fashion companies). I am looking at various affiliate networks now. Are you saying that I am most likely not going to make much money unless I do a couponing website?

smackfu 14y ago

Really? I would think the big dog for affiliate payments is Amazon, and they don't really have much in the way of coupons.

AznHisoka 14y ago
Amazon has a 24-hour cookie. So you get paid even if someone clicks on your link and buys something else later in the day. I wouldn't be surprised if this accounted for a huge majority of their affiliate payouts. Cases where someone buys a product directly from Amazon after reading a review are a minority, imo.
- makomk 14y ago
  Yeah. At one point I was seeing pop-up ads on some sites that were simply random searches on Amazon - I assume they were trying to take advantage of Amazon's affiliate scheme.
- unreal37 14y ago
  I can remember talking with the Amazon Affiliate people in a conference call 10 years ago. They have been leaders in this game a long time, and I can believe they have tightened their security on fraud as tight as it can go.
- kposehn 14y ago
  Amazon is not that big of a program actually. They have compelling data offerings, but the 24-hour cookie is a liability and there are far fewer driving traffic since Google went to town on spammy sites.
nzealand 14y ago
My wife represented someone busted for being an Amazon cookie stuffer. He was essentially a script kiddie who paid for the script. He wasn't as successful. I think Amazon devotes more resources to tracking this kind of fraud.

milesskorpen 14y ago

This. There are a very small number of sites which make a lot of money (and I don't think they're just coupons ... Pinterest probably does well here). I suspect the long tail for affiliate revenue is much longer than with AdSense.

AJ007 14y ago

The dirty secret is that 90% of e-commerce affiliate revenue is generated by coupon toolbars. Its like what Shawn Hogan did, except it involves every single e-commerce affiliate program instead of just one.

a5seo 14y ago
Not toolbars. 3 words: Retail Me Not. They are going public this year w/ a whisper valuation of $2 Billion. Search any merchant + coupons and they are there. It's like printing money.
- ansible 14y ago
  I know someone who occasionally uses that site, but only searches it for things like a free shipping code after deciding to purchase a particular item from a particular online vendor. How effect, really, are any of these affiliate programs? Are online retailers actually able to measure how much new business the affiliates are really bringing in?
rgovind 14y ago
I run a website/app where I drive traffic to ecommerce companies(Mostly fashion companies). I am looking at various affiliate networks now. Are you saying that I am most likely not going to make much money unless I do a couponing website?