Amazon Cutting Commissions on April 21st

I dont understand,target,home depot,walmart,best buy and some others does not exist?
 
Advertise on BHW
We call ourselves Internet Marketeers, and we do have some dam good marketeers on here - just as affiliates help to build traffic and trust in Amazon starting years ago, why can’t we start doing the same for others like Walmart? Reach out to them explain there is a world of IMers out there who will promote their products if they raised their commissions - using the recent news as leverage.

As someone said in this thread already - it’s not all that hard to sway someone away from Amazon and to say Walmart again, if you give them enough doubt about buying x product from Amazon. I get amazon are a massive brand, but I know a lot of people from their 20’s to 60’s who don’t touch amazon as they think they will get fakes or it’s second hand goods etc like what eBay use to be like.

At the end of the day, marketing is about influencing the buyer - and as I said we have some shit hot marketeers on this forum, if affiliates helped to promote amazon I am sure as shit we can slowly start to hurt them with negative marketing and persuade buyers to buy from other retailers.

easier said than done, but this game was never easy in the first place.
 
If 3% is the highest commission you can get, Amazon is not worth investing time in.
 
Brighter Faster said:
You have to do some work to go apply to programs for each of your sites, things like Walmart (in my experience) are crap. You need to tell people why they should buy from the particular place you are sending them.

All of them are places people buy from. My largest site (which got hit last year in the cut on clothing from 7% to 4%) now does 90% of its business on places other than Amazon, and makes more (per click) than it did when I was using Amazon alone. I have replaced Amazon with huge brands in the niche (comparable in size/recognition to Coca-Cola, say).

These huge brands were ALL willing to negotiate their rates. They listed "default commissions" as anywhere from 1%-4%, but sending them an email with information on my site, and asking if they could improve those rates was almost universally successful. Many places went from ~4% to ~10%. I get paid 8-10% from almost all of them on a category that is 4% on Amazon, and the cookie duration is far better (generally 30 days).

It really just takes a lot of work of establishing relationships with these people. There was also a lot of work in evaluating conversions... some places had terrible conversions, while others were awesome. I have no idea about why that was the case, but I just monitored earning per click that I sent to them and cut off the ones that sucked.

I've also managed to get links directly from some of these huge brands since I was able to email the affiliate manager and say "I have a new review up of your latest Gizmo, if you guys are interested in linking to it that would be great for both of us!" That would have been much less likely if I were just another Amazon site.

Also, as I said earlier, telling your readers why they should avoid buying this type of product on Amazon is very effective.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I was saying - just need to change strategies, cut out the middle man and talk to the retailers, cause sure as shit if we start driving up their sales directly, they will also cut out the middle man, Amazon eventually - I know a few small business owners who sold products directly on amazon, once they started gaining more direct sales, they slowly started to cut out amazon as the fees were high as fuck, they now make more money from direct and repeat customers....Amazon is just one big hefty middle man!
 
TheRumBarron said:
We call ourselves Internet Marketeers, and we do have some dam good marketeers on here - just as affiliates help to build traffic and trust in Amazon starting years ago, why can’t we start doing the same for others like Walmart? Reach out to them explain there is a world of IMers out there who will promote their products if they raised their commissions - using the recent news as leverage.

As someone said in this thread already - it’s not all that hard to sway someone away from Amazon and to say Walmart again, if you give them enough doubt about buying x product from Amazon. I get amazon are a massive brand, but I know a lot of people from their 20’s to 60’s who don’t touch amazon as they think they will get fakes or it’s second hand goods etc like what eBay use to be like.

At the end of the day, marketing is about influencing the buyer - and as I said we have some shit hot marketeers on this forum, if affiliates helped to promote amazon I am sure as shit we can slowly start to hurt them with negative marketing and persuade buyers to buy from other retailers.

easier said than done, but this game was never easy in the first place.
Click to expand...

But just as some may not use Amazon, same applies to Walmart.

Basically Amazon just beat out Walmart treating their employees just as bad, so Walmart is no better.
Same shit when you look how many marketplace sellers Walmart has and then even additional shipping...

I don't see Walmart as the holy great here replacing Amazon
 
theRevolt said:
But just as some may not use Amazon, same applies to Walmart.

Basically Amazon just beat out Walmart treating their employees just as bad, so Walmart is no better.
Same shit when you look how many marketplace sellers Walmart has and then even additional shipping...

I don't see Walmart as the holy great here replacing Amazon
Click to expand...
Totally appreciate that, Walmart was just an example...my point really being, there are alternatives out there - conversion is obviously a huge thing, but the whole point of marketing is persuade and convince, just means for some other affiliate schemes you may have to put that extra effort in to help convert. Give them reasons not to buy from Amazon but to buy from x.

additionally as in a previous response, for those with already established and successful affiliate sites, maybe time to start approaching brands directly if they can and work something out with them for sending traffic, cutting the middleman out which is amazon.
 
AmazonMan said:
Can you link to amazon and Walmart on the same page?
Click to expand...

^ I believe this is against the Amazon Assoc. t&c's.

I don't believe there is anything that can really be done to change this. Amazon basically don't need affiliates at this point. They probably think they're doing us a favor by keeping the program open!

I don't know how much affiliaite referrals account for Amazon's total income, but I would bet it's a very low percentage (1%, 2% maybe?). If our referrals accounted for a bigger percentage of their sales they wouldn't risk pi$$ing us off by cutting their rates year on year in the first place.

This is why I have been building my sites to get traffic, not just funnel people to a Best Reviews page and then to Amazon. At least then you have the option to make money from advertising also.
 
please read said:
Good luck switching from Amazon which has 2 day shipping for most products.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the sentiment but from experience, I've noticed a large amount of people don't mind longer shipping time - even at 2 weeks or 3 (epackets from Aliexpress, for example) they don't really care (as long as the product isn't urgent or essential, such as food etc...).
 
Amazon doesnt give a shit. About 5y ago i got my ass banned from the associates program. Went to Walmart instantly since they were the only store selling the same items i was promoting. I thought that something is better than nothing. Amazon gave me 8-8.25% commission and walmart had it at 4.5% + a 6-days lasting cookie if i remember correctly. I was making about 3k$ per month with my site back then. So did i make 1.5k$ on walmart? Nop, i made about 160$. This is how different conversion rates are for most products.

You think you brought customers to amazon? You didnt and amazon probably doesnt need affiliates at all at this point. I bet 90% of people reading your reviews would buy something from amazon anyway.

And another thing... conversions on amazon are always growing. I bet that with 1000 uv per day you are making more on amazon today with 3% than 10 years ago with 8% commission.
 
Honestly folks I wouldn’t dwell too hard on this, it’s a massive game changer no doubt and will hit some incomes hard - we are currently living in a fucked up situation where many of us have to adapt and change what we do and how we do shit to survive, it’s not cool. Amazon commission rates we will have to get creative and think how else to monetise our online presence....and there is plenty of ways to do it, at the end of the day the internet is a big ass shopping mall with billions of people ready to spend money.

A few ideas....

well we’ve seen a lot of small businesses in our communities struggle with lockdowns, help them get online to sell their products via the internet - most of those business owners aren’t savvy with this shit, you guys are.

those with amazon affiliate sites that are successful - you still have informative sites with traffic! Use that! Your traffic is worth money, sell advertising space, sell newsletter promotions, start utilising different revenue streams from Max Bounty, CJ and other programs. Contact brands you are promoting directly, see what you can barter.

One journey may be finished or just plain shit, but start new journeys!

Let’s get to the drawing board and see how we can use the affiliate skills to monetise in other ways.
 
theduke60 said:
I appreciate the sentiment but from experience, I've noticed a large amount of people don't mind longer shipping time - even at 2 weeks or 3 (epackets from Aliexpress, for example) they don't really care (as long as the product isn't urgent or essential, such as food etc...).
Click to expand...

That is true. I used to order stuff from China all the time but I bet it's still far from the norm for most folks.
 
Amazon Associate Alternatives - 7 Tips during this shift in commissions


  1. ShareASale: great commissions, great company (owned by Affiliate Window) very fast payouts (depending on the vendor) and trustworthy.

  2. Rakuten: shit interface but some solid vendors depending on the market you are in.

  3. Impact Radius: lots of companies here, tend to do more white label solutions but definitely worth looking at.

  4. CJ (Commission Junction): always hated their UI, but they have some very big brands with competitive commissions in specific markets.

  5. Affiliate Window: mainly UK based but probably the best platform in the UK with solid brands.

  6. Direct: Anyone who is going to be hit hard, go through your last 30 day Amazon sales report, make a list of the main brands you sell and contact them directly. Tell them you generated $xx, xxx for them in the past 30 days through Amazon (use approximate figures, as Amazon doesn't actually allow you to share the data) and tell them you are looking to work with them directly. Do your research, see if they have an affiliate program, not all of them will, but those that don't might still work with you directly.

  7. Be creative: to add to the above, start being creative, start acting like a proper business, get an e-mail account, set up a branded signature, get a business address, add a job title and a telephone number and begin working with brands directly. If you can't work on an affiliate commission then work out a profitable direct advertising rate for CPM or CPC. Do E-mail blasts, run joint competitions, do some sponsored posts for them e.t.c.
 
Personally I won't switch from Amazon unless they straight up close their program. I'm just going to work on increasing my conversion rates on my sites to try to make up for the loss in commission.
 
Just started Amazon affiliate website in one of those categories last month and I was trying to write as much as I can. I also received the e-mail a few minutes ago, it`s really de-motivating.

I have some friends working at Amazon and they said that their salary is raised during this pandemic. Probably this is one of the way to compensate Bezos!
 
Well, this very disappointing. However, I do agree that the 3% commission today is still probably similar to the 6-8% of many years ago. There is more internet traffic now that trusts Amazon vs 4-5 years ago. Another thought is the impact that this could have on IM businesses like PBNs, guest posts, web creation & article writing - I still think those businesses will be okay to a degree. Obviously, the pros will still be ranking their sites and finding ways to correctly monetize them.

The bigger concern for me is where will we be at one year from now. Does the economy recover? Does Amazon outperform the entire market and achieve a $1.5b equity market cap? At that point, do they eliminate the affiliate program altogether?

Challenging times supported by upsetting stories and announcements. Just continue to think different and strive to discover the newest monetization methods.
 
TheRumBarron said:
Totally appreciate that, Walmart was just an example...my point really being, there are alternatives out there - conversion is obviously a huge thing, but the whole point of marketing is persuade and convince, just means for some other affiliate schemes you may have to put that extra effort in to help convert. Give them reasons not to buy from Amazon but to buy from x.

additionally as in a previous response, for those with already established and successful affiliate sites, maybe time to start approaching brands directly if they can and work something out with them for sending traffic, cutting the middleman out which is amazon.
Click to expand...
Certainly you are right, just want people to be aware as you said it's quite done work nothing like applying for Amazon etc and sitting back.
Also highly dependent on niche, your example for coughing makes sense as there Amazon always had some good stuff, bit was never a one stop shop. However for other verticals Amazon's convenience, pricing etc so be used to beat, so do proper research.
 
Advertise on BHW
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sign up now!

Main Menu

Home Main Forum List Black Hat SEO White Hat SEO BHW Newbie Guide Blogging Black Hat Tools Social Media Downloads

Marketplace

Account Selling Content / Copywriting EBooks / Methods Hosting Misc Proxies For Sale SEO - Link building SEO - Packages Social Media Social Media - Panels Web Design More

Making Money

Affiliate Programs Hire a Freelancer IM Journeys Making Money Pay Per Click Site Flipping Want to Buy

BlackHat World

Dispute Resolution Forum Suggestions & Feedback Introductions Lounge
Back
Top