Why My Startup is Better than Google's Implementation
experimentgarden.blogspot.com
experimentgarden.blogspot.com
I also find replacing every 7th ad (14%) with your own a bit hefty of a fee - but I realize your target audience (mostly smaller scale bloggers I assume?) might be okay with that.
That is a point of concern yet I don't think Amazon.com will because as it is having no regional awareness allows them to make free money and avoid paying commissions.
The current fee is being adjusted while I determine what is required to make the service able to pay for itself. I am thinking of doing away with it and simply offering a paid account for say $1-$2 a month with more features.
The thing is customers still benefit since they are able to make money from the UK, and CA rather than just the US. So the idea is that customers still come out on top despite the Affiliate Script fee. The extra ads that they gain from regional awareness should more than make up for the 14% fee in any blog that has a sufficiently diverse global audience.
But like I said we are still adjusting it as we determine what makes the service profitable.
Additionally, if enough publishers use a system like yours they Amazon won't actually be making more money, they will just be giving a third-party more money. Thus amazon's lack of regional awareness depends on you not being too successful. Not a good place to be.
If amazon wanted to maximize their own profits, they would enable regional awareness and simultaneously decrease commissions by 1/7th. The publishers you support would make the same amount as before, but would no longer need your product.
At the very least Affiliate Script is a serious project and demonstration of my programming skill that may help me get a job later on, so either way I benefit.
At 14% I might give it a go on a prototype, then rip it out and build my own the moment I saw the potential for high traffic volumes.
Edit: A sliding scale with a cap would be very attractive. I'd also be more willing to give a higher percentage for non-US/UK referrals because the long tail of smaller markets would be a pain to code up.
I figure that it is easy to lower the fee and it will just make existing customers even happier. On the other hand if it turns out not to be profitable raising the fee would cause many to leave.