I see people dreaming about 20-50% comission. Well, no. The only place to find such commissions is shitty Clickbank products.
Hmm, well I went directly with a product creator instead of via Amazon affiliates and got 10% (and then a bump to 15%), and it makes more than Amazons measly 1-3% (even though it doesn't convert as good).

Depends on the niche/market you're in though.

Wasn't there a thread here a few years back with a guy making something like $200 a month via Amazon affiliate, then went directly to the product creator and got 40% commission instead. He made a lot more after that.
 
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A lot of you guys are undervaluing yourself.

Yes the amazon aff scheme was fantastic because of the well known name.

However, a heck of a lot of you guys managed to build fantastic stores, learn and optimise SEO, manage content and build back links as well as learn about and dominate niches.

You have the skills to take from this and move forwards to bigger and better things.
 
end of another big era, now we will use internet for watching movie and entertainment
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but other affiliate programs for physical products aren't any better. Take the home Improvement niche, for example. Home Depot is the closest competitor in that field, and they have a 2% commission and a lower conversion rate. Walmart offers 4%, and BestBuy less than 1%. Any retailer that offers high commissions does so because it sells products at insanely high prices compared to Amazon. Amazon's higher rates have always been the anomaly in the retail affiliate marketing world, not the other way around. Not to mention that nothing converts as good as Amazon.

I see people dreaming about 20-50% comission. Well, no. The only place to find such commissions is shitty Clickbank products. Also, please forget about uniting our efforts to take Amazon head on. That's some utopian shit that's never gonna happen. As someone else has mentioned, for better or worse, Amazon is the one doing you a favor by accepting you into their aff program, not the other way around.

Now, I too think this is a bitch move, especially during this time of need, and especially on such a short notice. But let's look at it from another perspective and see the opportunity here. The number of clicks waiting to be harvested is the same.

Large publishers with high content production costs aren't going to bother with low volume keywords anymore. At the same time, the ton of casual marketers with cheap blogs clogging up low to mid volume keywords aren't going to be able to sustain operations. This leaves any publisher that can control costs in a position to harvest all the low to mid volume traffic

If 100 clicks were being diverted to 10 sites then, they will now be shared by 3 sites. Higher volume, lower rates should balance out.

Take this as a lesson. Learn from it, diversify your sources of income, and move on. Whining isn't going so solve anything.

Also, jeez people, stop blaming Bezos for everything that's happening. It's not like he's sitting on an iron throne making such decisions alone. They're the results of extensive data research.

Some good points here. In your opinion how much longer will Amazon offer an affiliate program?
 
This is very bad news for all Amazon affiliate participants. Amazon should restore the previous commission rate again.
 
Some good points here. In your opinion how much longer will Amazon offer an affiliate program?
I don't think Amazon's getting rid of the aff program any time soon, as they're still getting traffic from niche sites. That said, no way in hell they're reversing the changes either.
 
People who do not have websites will be affected as well, specifically link sellers and content writers. They both work with Amazon site owners almost with 100% certainty.

People will reduce their spending.
 
Some good points here. In your opinion how much longer will Amazon offer an affiliate program?
They won't remove it completely. They are getting juicy traffic. However everyone who owns niche sites should remove amazon aff links from their pages and find better paying programs.
 
Some people here say that Amazon doesn't need affiliates because people go directly to Amazon.

But why do thousands of people then search Google for "best dresses for a hamster", "Gucci sock suspenders review" or "10 layer toilet paper vs the garden hose" instead of searching that stuff directly on Amazon and reading reviews there?

Maybe all these people just don't use Amazon by default and don't go there directly when they are shopping online?

Also, Amazon has shitty onsite search. I'm unable to find some stuff there. I can only find it on Google via "site:amazon.com+keyword" search.

So customers can't find stuff on Amazon because of their shitty search too, and that's another reason why they turn to Google. And 99.99% of them will search for "keyword" only instead of "site:amazon.com+keyword".

And many affiliate sites often outrank Amazon and Amazon's competitors in the SERPs. In fact, Amazon is nowhere to be seen for lots of high volume buyer keywords.

Looks like Amazon doesn't want to pay for SEO and content to post on their own site. :D Surely, it would be more expensive than using affiliates.

So basically Amazon uses affiliates for SEO and relies on affiliates for search traffic.

Today Amazon pretends they don't need too much search traffic and can live with the direct traffic the site gets, but let's see where they are tomorrow.

This shit reminds me of the stupid move Victoria's Secret did. After some absurd analytics they stoped selling swimwear and clothes (which had been making them half a billion a year) and people just gradually stopped buying all of their stuff. They are having huge problems now.
 
Some people here say that Amazon doesn't need affiliates because people go directly to Amazon.

But why do thousands of people then search Google for "best dresses for a hamster", "Gucci sock suspenders review" or "10 layer toilet paper vs the garden hose" instead of searching that stuff directly on Amazon and reading reviews there?

Because they trust the internet. User reviews on Amazon are from average Joes, and most consumers don't imagine that reviews on review sites are from average Joes as well.

Maybe all these people just don't use Amazon by default and don't go there directly when they are shopping online?

This "maybe" is a hunch at best. Amazon operates with data and analytics unimaginable to us.

Also, Amazon has shitty onsite search. I'm unable to find some stuff there. I can only find it on Google via "site:amazon.com+keyword" search.

So customers can't find stuff on Amazon because of their shitty search too, and that's another reason why they turn to Google. And 99.99% of them will search for "keyword" only instead of "site:amazon.com+keyword".

And many affiliate sites often outrank Amazon and Amazon's competitors in the SERPs. In fact, Amazon is nowhere to be seen for lots of high volume buyer keywords.

Google recommends, Amazon sells. 90% of US households have Prime membership. If they find something online, you can bet they will check the price of the same item on Amazon. And in most cases, both shipping and price are better on Amazon.

Why? Because Amazon is notoriously known to have razor thin margins. This is how they crushed the competition. Smaller companies can't afford operating with margins as thin as Amazon, and other corporations can't as well because their stock will tank. Most things regarding to Amazon business were brilliant from day one + Amazon was the right marketplace at the right time. Something no one will replicate any time soon.

Looks like Amazon doesn't want to pay for SEO and content to post on their own site. :D Surely, it would be more expensive than using affiliates.

So basically Amazon uses affiliates for SEO and relies on affiliates for search traffic.

Today Amazon pretends they don't need too much search traffic and can live with the direct traffic the site gets, but let's see where they are tomorrow.

This shit reminds me of the stupid move Victoria's Secret did. After some absurd analytics they stoped selling swimwear and clothes (which had been making them half a billion a year) and people just gradually stopped buying all of their stuff. They are having huge problems now.

Again, Amazon's decision is based on data and analytics we don't have access to. Sure there will be less affiliates from now on. But do check first 3 pages in SERP for 10 random keywords right now. Save the results and get back in 2 years. You'll see there is the same amount of sites promoting Amazon than there were 2 weeks ago. If there are 500 affiliates on first 50 pages of the SERP or 20 on the first two, Amazon doesn't care.

If this is a bad decision from Amazon, they'll just increase commissions up again and that's it. There will always be money-hungry SEO affiliates who will jump (again) on the Amazon train.

I wish that what you're saying was true, I really do. But affiliates have exactly zero leverage against Amazon right now and no one from the top of the Amazon has any fear about what's gonna happen if affiliates start promoting alternatives. No way.
 
Feeling depressed.

Applied for several affiliate programs, got rejected by skimlinks, avantlink, viglink.

Tried contacting suppliers, so far 1 replied and many yet to respond. One said they're facing backlog of mails due to virus.

Not sure what to do after 21.
Hope amazon revert this mess :(
 
Feeling depressed.

Applied for several affiliate programs, got rejected by skimlinks, avantlink, viglink.

Tried contacting suppliers, so far 1 replied and many yet to respond. One said they're facing backlog of mails due to virus.

Not sure what to do after 21.
Hope amazon revert this mess :(
bro try to find out why u were rejected, and work on it, somebody gave u a feedback, just imagine if u can overcome that, u will be ...Unstoppable
 
Agreed in general, but there are plenty of steps to take to increase conversions away from Amazon. I got hit by last year's cut from 7% to 4% on clothing/shoes. Here are things that help:

  • Tell people why they shouldn't buy this item/type of item at Amazon. Counterfeits, used goods passed off as new, etc. Or sellers literally selling trash on Amazon (https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-dumpster-divers-selling-trash-wsj-report-2019-12)
  • Tell people why they should buy from whatever place you are sending them. Customer service, quality, whatever.
  • Promote products that are not available on Amazon. There are plenty of brands that just don't sell on Amazon, so if that is your top pick people don't have the choice to go buy it on Amazon.
Also, watch conversions at programs you try out very carefully. A lot of places convert terribly, so you'll need to try out different places to find the ones that convert. I've seriously had one place convert at 0.1% for a product and then a different retailer convert for the exact same product at like 2-2.5%. Some places do things to steal your commission during the checkout process (like a VIP program or similar crap).

Hey Jeffy,

Nice advice, but where do you put the above on your site? In the about? or on the side bar? on every page?
 
1- Amazon has been successful because all our authority sites have been pointing at their products, so Amazon is an authority site because of affiliate marketing people.
2- Because of our backlinks, many amazon keywords rank high.
3- If we remove all our backlinks, amazon will still be an authority site, but a lot of their ranking will drop because our authority sites are pointing elsewhere.
4- Yes people will still be buying from them, but as @jeffi pointed out, if we all tell that there counterfeit, used goods passed off as new, etc., then Amazon will start losing some customers.
5- If they start losing customers, they enter into a marketing plan advertising etc.
6- There maybe that they decide to revise/reverse the affiliate angle with new uprising percentages.
7- It is up to us to move away and do what amazon does best, telling people not to worry, we will support you in the good time and when you do not like a product, we will support you too.
8- So we are in a strong position if we unify, but knowing marketers out there, the'll not unify and therefore amazon would have won with their divide and conquer strategy.
9- They may be greedy at amazon, but great strategists in dividing the internet marketing world and conquering more of the income to be made through the web.
- Unifying the internet marketing world is what is going to put pressure on these big entities, but I cannot see this happening, because we like out way of working and bidding things :)
 
Can also look at it this way - if the affiliate community as a whole no longer puts as much effort into Amazon, the sellers on Amazon will (hopefully) be making less sales, then looking for alternative ways to up their product sales such as cj and shareasale. If that happens (will likely take a good amount of time until it does), our commissions will turn out to be higher at the end of the day :)
 
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