Amazon big changes......

[asap1]

Damnnnn

 

[mqsss]

So it's no longer this way? There are no more variable percentages depending on the volume of sales but i.e. 4% either you sell 1 or 1000 ? Or am I missing something?

Thanks

Yes it's all about fixed rates now.

 

[xRAYPEST]

Fuck sake....

 

[LJ Junior]

hmm..they do what's best for them.

 

[Sneeks]

Yeah I was just about to jump into this with a great marketing strategy. Now it's up in the air big time for me..... I'd be better off upcharging myself for more than 1-4%....... So who has the plugin that can always grab the current amazon price and mark it up by 10%? :-D

 

[LuckyCharm007]

Oh man.. I'm fucked

 

[pj777777]

Still a good passive source of income, but I will be adding additional affiliate programs to my mix from now on.

Good wake up call for me I think as I stand to lose around 50% of my Amazon income from March as things stand. Lots of my promoted items fall into Amazon's 'other' category so that stuffs me into mainly 4%.

I will focus on adding additional elements to my reviews along with stronger cta's to try to make up lost ground.

 

[BloodyNinja]

I remember someone from BHW saying "Amazon is stable and isn't going anywhere anytime soon". It isn't but your commissions are.

Must be a wake-up call for many of affiliates.

 

[Total Noob]

Damn. Had a feeling it would happen sometime though, 7% - 8% on everything in the cart was unbelievably good, even considering Amazon's incredible seller fees. Amazon sites will still be crazy profitable.

Seems to me like they had the crazy affiliate program in place to scoop up pretty much all product affiliate traffic (when did you last see someone linking to Walmart on a review site) - now they change it to something more standard once they have established total control.

 

[LuckyCharm007]

Comparison:

Old:

New:

 

[pj777777]

Yep, basic supply and demand.

Amazon initially needed and wanted affiliates to grow it's business and customer base.

This is not the case anymore.

Like I said earlier, it's still a good source of passive income, but the dynamics of the relationship between Amazon and it's associates is and will continue to change.

Enter aliexpress. If they can sort out a way getting products into the hands of consumers quicker then game on ;-)

I remember someone from BHW saying "Amazon is stable and isn't going anywhere anytime soon". It isn't but your commissions are.

Must be a wake-up call for many of affiliates.

 

[LuckyCharm007]

Yep, basic supply and demand.

Amazon initially needed and wanted affiliates to grow it's business and customer base.

This is not the case anymore.

Like I said earlier, it's still a good source of passive income, but the dynamics of the relationship between Amazon and it's associates is and will continue to change.

Enter aliexpress. If they can sort out a way getting products into the hands of consumers quicker then game on ;-)

^This

Amazon is playing a dangerous game, and AliExpress need to take advantage of that. If they're able to, both affiliates and AE are going to be the big winners. I don't know what the % are (Direct sales vs Affiliate sales), but I'm sure it's at least 50/50. If Amazon loses only 15% of their affiliates, they will lose tens of millions in revenue on a daily basis.

 

[mqsss]

To be honest Amazon still has high commission rates. Check Walmart affiliate program for fuck sake. I used to have 8% commission, now it will go down to 4.5%. But when I was searching for alternatives, I found other affiliate programs offering about 2%, some of them even 1%. Walmart was the second best in terms of commissions (4%), but conversions dropped for about 80% with Walmart over night.

I have heard that years ago 80% Amazon buyers found them through search engines and affiliates. But now the ratio has been falling for several years when consumers search for products through Google and land on shitload of Amazon affiliate sites, they'll just search for products on Amazon directly next time. Bezos knows what he's doing, that's for sure.

I have always believed that Amazon will cancel all the little affiliates in the future. When you'll apply for the Associates program, they'll ask you about the traffic on your website and if you won't have 6-digits of monthly UVs, you won't get accepted.

 

[gentzalli]

What category would skateboards fall under? Outdoor?

 

[Sneeks]

Either that or other/sporting. I basically am sort of grateful this came out before me launching. I just changed a niche or 2 around.

 

[fadimanar]

Amazon coins 10% ??!!

 

[Total Noob]

Yep, basic supply and demand.

Amazon initially needed and wanted affiliates to grow it's business and customer base.

This is not the case anymore.

Like I said earlier, it's still a good source of passive income, but the dynamics of the relationship between Amazon and it's associates is and will continue to change.

Enter aliexpress. If they can sort out a way getting products into the hands of consumers quicker then game on ;-)

^This

Amazon is playing a dangerous game, and AliExpress need to take advantage of that. If they're able to, both affiliates and AE are going to be the big winners. I don't know what the % are (Direct sales vs Affiliate sales), but I'm sure it's at least 50/50. If Amazon loses only 15% of their affiliates, they will lose tens of millions in revenue on a daily basis.

Enter aliexpress. If they can sort out a way getting products into the hands of consumers quicker then game on ;-)

Dunno... AliExpress would have to majorly revamp the entire website to not look like a scam, and offer similar products to Amazon (especially branded ones), and get their cart totals to rival Amazon, and start a review ecosystem, AND get their shipping times WAY down somehow (not really feasible if products come from overseas) if they ever hope to compete with Amazon directly. Not to mention how many people use Amazon because of Prime (even if AliExpress could do standard times, a lot of people would choose Amazon regardless). Doesn't really seem like there is anyone remotely close to pushing out Amazon for the go-to e-commerce affiliate, even with these new lower rates. As @mgsss mentioned, Amazon still has extremely competitive rates with the change, and if you try to promote any other e-com platform your conversions will drop like a rock. I promote Wayfair on one of my sites along with Amazon and Wayfair earns me peanuts compared to Amazon. I tried Walmart and it's not barely even worth dropping the cookie by linking to there on one of your recommended products.

They have things on lock. I'm surprised rates stayed so high for so long... even with their high seller fees 8% commission on everything is still just crazy high.

 

[mixery]

I put my bet that it will be another reduction soon.
Especially with the new Google update where the Amazon is in the top five positions.

 

[Google Prince]

Even though most of my niches on Amazon either increased in commission % or stayed the same, I'm choosing to venture off more into other affiliate programs. Amazon will forever keep changing their percentages which in long term will effect a lot of affiliates and is something my gut doesn't feel too good about.

Any niche you guys & gals are currently in most likely has other niche sites that incorporate an affiliate program that you can cash out on w/ higher commission rates.

When the segways were really hot I made a pretty good amount of money monetizing w/ Amazon but later found out I could've made waaaay more If I would have joined an affiliate program from a site within that niche which was offering commission rates of 10% or more!

Amazon is always going to be a good way to make some income but I wouldn't rely too much on them.

 

[pj777777]

I put my bet that it will be another reduction soon.
Especially with the new Google update where the Amazon is in the top five positions.

Missed this update. Can you explain a little more please?