Does Amazon Shave Affiliate Commissions?

[assphuck]

A lot of people believe Amazon shaves commissions. So let's do a short but sweet case study. I'll buy a $999.99 portable generator through your Amazon affiliate link and you report back with the results.

This case study involves one purchase and the person must do the following:

1. Post acceptance of the terms in this thread.
2. Immediately PM me any Amazon affiliate URL that will cookie me with their code.
3. Post back within 48 hours after I update this thread that the purchase has been made and let us all know if you received credit for the purchase or not.
4. No member restrictions. If you can send PM's, you qualify.

Is anyone interested???

 

[maecenas23]

Okay, let's try.

 

[SavyCon]

Let's have maecenas do it. He's had good success in Amazon. Maecenas, if you could - create a unique affiliate link for this purpose, so you know it's coming from him and only him.

I'm interested in the results.

 

[ficfroc]

Great ! I'm following this

 

[maecenas23]

yes, I gave him a website which made exactly 0$ in the last 6 months and anyway I don't have many portable generators sold everyday so the possibility of having 1 portable generators from someone else it's tiny. Anyway, we will see

All the best!

 

[assphuck]

maecenas23's partnership in this test is accepted. I'll log out now, clear every cookie, including Google's NSA shit, and report back that the purchase has been made.

 

[assphuck]

Order placed. Please report back if you see the commission or not.

 

[maecenas23]

I'll be back in 48h on this thread to let you know how it went.

Thanks!

 

[maecenas23]

If this is the product: [h=1]DuroMax XP10000E 10,000 Watt 16 HP OHV 4-Cycle Gas Powered Portable Generator With Wheel Kit And Electric Start[/h]
The order went fine.

 

[assphuck]

Yup, that's it. Gotta keep the wet bar flowing and lights on during those power outages. There should have been a cover with it too.

I guess in this case it proves Amazon did not shave this sale.

Have a great day and thanks for participating in this case study.

 

[daStick]

Yes because if Amazon were to shave, the first thing they would shave is a brand new affiliate link that converted 1:1 on a $1,000 product...

Assuming the that the worlds largest affiliate program does shave, and assuming that they shave a massive 1%, then you only had a 1% chance of seeing that happen on this purchase.

To do a real test setup an aff link for some $2 product and have 100 BHW members buy it.

 

[SavyCon]

daStick, that might be a prudent test - however I'm not entirely sure how to orchestrate it. Maybe write some simple ebook and have everyone purchase it?

assphuck, thanks for this test. Rep+ added.

I would think that if Amazon was caught shaving it's affiliate sales, it would no longer have that many strong affiliate marketers - since they'd follow where the money is. Amazon seems to be in business for the long haul, and until the can build enough warehouses to do same-day deliver of perishable items (grocery stores fully online), I cannot see them making mistakes such as shaving affiliate commissions.

Anyways, that's my $0.02.

 

[maecenas23]

Yup, that's it. Gotta keep the wet bar flowing and lights on during those power outages. There should have been a cover with it too.

I guess in this case it proves Amazon did not shave this sale.

Have a great day and thanks for participating in this case study.

yes, the cover is there as well. Thanks a lot mate

Yes because if Amazon were to shave, the first thing they would shave is a brand new affiliate link that converted 1:1 on a $1,000 product...

Assuming the that the worlds largest affiliate program does shave, and assuming that they shave a massive 1%, then you only had a 1% chance of seeing that happen on this purchase.

To do a real test setup an aff link for some $2 product and have 100 BHW members buy it.

The logistical effort would be too big for them to stole 2$ products ( which means less than 50 cents for them ) from 10.000 people -> for 5k profits. Remember that Amazon pays billions to affiliates annualy.

daStick, that might be a prudent test - however I'm not entirely sure how to orchestrate it. Maybe write some simple ebook and have everyone purchase it?

assphuck, thanks for this test. Rep+ added.

I would think that if Amazon was caught shaving it's affiliate sales, it would no longer have that many strong affiliate marketers - since they'd follow where the money is. Amazon seems to be in business for the long haul, and until the can build enough warehouses to do same-day deliver of perishable items (grocery stores fully online), I cannot see them making mistakes such as shaving affiliate commissions.

Anyways, that's my $0.02.

Agree. Because they have delays in showing statistics many affiliates feel like something weird is happening. I had the same feeling at a certain moment when I had 2-3 days with 20-22 items and than 2 days with 50-60 items...this happend during winter holiday when the entire system was fucked up.

 

[y2kh8r]

I really want top believe that they don't shave, because my sales fell off a cliff this month. Last month, I saw %10 conversion. This month, 200 clicks, 3 sales. Under 2% conversion, no sales in the past 3 weeks. I emailed them and said that something seemed amiss, I got what looked like a copy/paste response about shoppers odd habits and traffic<> sales, blah blah. Personally, I feel like something fishy is going on.

 

[maecenas23]

200 clicks are too less for a conclusion
10% CTR is very high, around 6-7% is cool, but I have projects with 3-4% conversion ( because of the high price) with more than 100 clicks/day.

 

[sm754]

The logistical effort would be too big for them to stole 2$ products ( which means less than 50 cents for them ) from 10.000 people -> for 5k profits. Remember that Amazon pays billions to affiliates annualy.

I wouldn't necessarily think so; once a shaving system is implemented, shaving large amounts of smaller-valued products wouldn't be far more computationally intensive.
However, many sites use the Amazon affiliate system as a means to donation (this is acceptable by Amazon's terms); these sites regularly report their income, and discrepancies would be noticed quickly. So, I don't believe Amazon shaves commissions.

 

[1+1=2]

I really want top believe that they don't shave, because my sales fell off a cliff this month. Last month, I saw %10 conversion. This month, 200 clicks, 3 sales. Under 2% conversion, no sales in the past 3 weeks. I emailed them and said that something seemed amiss, I got what looked like a copy/paste response about shoppers odd habits and traffic<> sales, blah blah. Personally, I feel like something fishy is going on.

I dont promote amazon but i also have same situation. Traffic is the same but conversion rate gone bad in September. I think the fear of US goverment shutdown is the reason, people doesnt spend much.

 

[y2kh8r]

Weird... as if by magic- since the first of the month, orders started trickling in again. %9 conversion rate.

One could theorize that some people get paid on the first of the month. One could also theorize that an account was penalized for a month.

Still seems fishy, but I'm glad to be earning again.

 

[Danny1111]

Amazon has the worst reporting system ever - it can take days for numbers to match up at times. Then you also have issues with friends and family buying from your links - which works once or twice but then they won't give you credit after they catch on.

So yeah I can see how you could think they are inefficient or shaving at times.

But when you take a step back - they payout billions a year to affiliates in total - so your $xxxx really means nothing to them in the big picture .. they really focus on Affiliates reflecting negatively on their brand via BH methods -- and ban those people out.

Shaving not really ..... but you do see some ups and downs in reporting as they organize the data.