Amazon Makes Huge Change to Affiliate Payout Structure

[vt2011]

sure they care, but for their own profit not for the affiliates, it's like to put the lipstick on that fat pig.

 

[Valkurm]

Have been like that for years with Amazon EU associates. Deal with it...If you're a big partner you may still be able to negoaciate some higher rates. If you're not, keep working.
You should be happy that you've all been able to enjoy these 8% rate for so long.

 

[spectrejoe]

I don't understand why anyone would put up with Amazon affiliate program? Why don't you use Amazon as a dropshipper? And you can collect your payment upfront instead of waiting for 2 months to payout and you can DETERMINE YOUR OWN PROFIT MARGIN.

Might be the best way for profit, only downside is lower conversion rate + chargebacks + a lot more work.

What plugin recommended for dropshipping?

 

[T2tkid]

This is going to affect my earning big time. But luckily, I was just researching on outdoor niche and I think am going to create a site around that soon.

 

[Jeffersontalks]

Might be the best way for profit, only downside is lower conversion rate + chargebacks + a lot more work.

What plugin recommended for dropshipping?

I would do manually and target fewer items and on specific niche. When orders scale up, just hire a VA to do the work.

 

[Cédric Lajoie]

I guess Amazon is the best.

 

[judaculla]

What do you think is Amazon's thought process and reasoning is for this exactly?

Are they just thinking oh we need more people selling furniture and luxury beauty for us because our margins are higher for those departments, or is it something else like so many affiliates are doing televisions we don't need any more help there.

I don't operate on a high enough level to even begin to understand the motivations of Amazon—but to me it seems like positioning themselves to compete more with home goods retailers, and other high-end retailers.

My day job is in the furniture industry, and at the last furniture market Amazon actually showed up and rented out an entire corner of a building to pitch their services to furniture sellers and furniture manufacturers. They are definitely trying to get into the game, and maybe they have their eyes on several other high-margin markets. The furniture industry is very vulnerable to innovation IMO right now, and using fulfillment services that are as scaled as well as Amazon's will help a lot of players get over the initial cost of entry into the market.

My main site is going to take a hit—BIG TIME—but it is what it is. Things will always change, and it's adapt or die.

I enjoy Amazon because of all the random-ass commissions I get. I think that ~40% less income from Amazon will still be more (for my site's niche) than I could get through another affiliate partner.

I really do wish they would have given us more than 7 days of official notice though, that's just f*cked IMO.

 

[Ftr]

I don't operate on a high enough level to even begin to understand the motivations of Amazon—but to me it seems like positioning themselves to compete more with home goods retailers, and other high-end retailers.

My day job is in the furniture industry, and at the last furniture market Amazon actually showed up and rented out an entire corner of a building to pitch their services to furniture sellers and furniture manufacturers. They are definitely trying to get into the game, and maybe they have their eyes on several other high-margin markets. The furniture industry is very vulnerable to innovation IMO right now, and using fulfillment services that are as scaled as well as Amazon's will help a lot of players get over the initial cost of entry into the market.

My main site is going to take a hit—BIG TIME—but it is what it is. Things will always change, and it's adapt or die.

I enjoy Amazon because of all the random-ass commissions I get. I think that ~40% less income from Amazon will still be more (for my site's niche) than I could get through another affiliate partner.

I really do wish they would have given us more than 7 days of official notice though, that's just f*cked IMO.

Yeah that makes sense, its interesting how you spotted them at a furniture market making moves into that area, wonder if they started attending more luxury beauty events too. I think one could probably keep an eye on places like amazon and take somewhat of an educated guess at their next moves, stay ahead of others in the market, how much time work and effort that would take though, it can be a lot easier to just sit back and think your set for life and forget to do your due diligence there, human nature heh.

Maybe a good idea to think about what other markets they might be trying to hit up next, and what markets they might even not bother with much more in the future. No notice is pretty brutal though, and I wonder how the math stacks up now. Amazon converts like a drunk chick on spring break, but with lower commission in certain niches, possibly other monetization methods would now become more beneficial.

It's a shame your main site will take a hit, but ya know with every grey cloud like this there is a hidden opportunity to make more money hiding under it.

Reminds me:
A) Always be ready and able to adapt to the changing market climate that's just the name of the game
B) Probably a good idea to diversify revenue streams

 

[freckletone]

Been plugging away on an authority site for the last few months. March was looking like it was going to be nice. February so far:

Based on February's returns and how I've been structuring the site, ill be feeling this change. I wouldn't be surprised if their associates program shuts down completely. Who I truly feel bad for is the individual that purchased an affiliate site for thousands and will now have their income get slashed over night.

Where do you go to your stats to access this so you can see how many sales are in which category? i dont see this option anywhere!!!!!

 

[askary]

in Reports choose "category"

Where do you go to your stats to access this so you can see how many sales are in which category? i dont see this option anywhere!!!!!

 

[freckletone]

please PM me the sample post of Tech.co and any other payment option ?

in Reports choose "category"

Oh wow! I see that now!!! I never knew that was there! I saw the other tabs but not category for some reason,,,

Its strange but all my sales from luxury beauty which is 10% appear in "other"....

 

[judaculla]

B) Probably a good idea to diversify revenue streams

100% Correct.

I've been building up a project lately, and was leaning hard on this Amazon site to help me transition financially, so it sucks—but any change is good if you don't mind working to find the new angles (because most people do mind).

On a side note, I bet there is going to be some really decent Amazon sites come up for sale on sites like Flippa that won't really be great income streams anymore, but still have great backlink profiles. Might be good for those with money looking to strengthen their PBNs

 

[askary]

Oh wow! I see that now!!! I never knew that was there! I saw the other tabs but not category for some reason,,,

Its strange but all my sales from luxury beauty which is 10% appear in "other"....

i think it was added a few weeks ago

 

[blogzandstuff]

This is why i promote Ebay more than Amazon, same products better commission. You can build stores with Ebay as with amazon

 

[bewzby]

I too love how they gave me just under a week's notice that my income was about to slashed by 45%, that was super nice of them (sarcasm).

The worst part was that I was in the process of getting one of my sites ready to be listed for sale. My $65k site is now worth around $35k. My timing is impeccable, $30k gone just like that. Kind of hard to see a silver lining.

Time to regroup.

 

[colonel tigh]

I don't understand why anyone would put up with Amazon affiliate program? Why don't you use Amazon as a dropshipper? And you can collect your payment upfront instead of waiting for 2 months to payout and you can DETERMINE YOUR OWN PROFIT MARGIN.

I'm with Skyrocket. The stuff converts. Just get the cookie. At Christmas oh what a BOOM.
All at the same time, the don't leave your eggs in one basket still applies, as it has always done.
Indeed, there are opportunities, for those of us (like here!) who see these changes and act on them.
Oh Frak

 

[freckletone]

I found this spreadsheet that will calculate your net loss

http://authoritywebsiteincome.com/amazon-affiliate-program/

I can't get it to work but maybe someone else can//

I only have Open Office and tried opening the sheet in Google Spreadsheets and the button to calculate is gone....