Why the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program Is Highly Underrated
technicalblogging.com
technicalblogging.com
Dear Amazon Associate,
We're writing to tell you about several important changes to our Operating Agreement, including revised advertising fee rates. All of these changes will be effective July 1, 2012.
We will be changing rates for the following product categories within the Amazon Associates Program:
* Magazine Products sold on Amazon.com will increase to a 25% fixed rate from a volume-based rate of 4 - 8.5%
* Grocery Products sold on Amazon.com will move to a 4% fixed rate from a volume-based rate of 4 - 8.5%
* MYHABIT will move to a fixed rate of 8% from a fixed rate of 15%
* Industrial Products sold on Amazon.com and all Products on AmazonSupply.com (previously known as SmallParts.com) will move to a fixed rate of 8% from a fixed rate of 15%
For more information on the upcoming Operating Agreement changes including a comparison of the advertising fee rates visit https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/oper....
We appreciate your continued support and participation in the Amazon Associates Program. If you have questions, please visit the Advertising Rate Change FAQ at Associates Central.
So, if you selling Magazines then it's pretty awesome, everyone else loses out.
So, if you selling Magazines then it's pretty awesome, everyone else loses out.
This could be good, especially when Amazon start selling 747s
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/advertising/api/deta... 4. (e) You will not, without our express prior written approval, use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device, or any television set-top box (e.g., digital video recorders, cable or satellite boxes, streaming video players, blu-ray players, or dvd players) or Internet-enabled television (e.g., GoogleTV, Sony Bravia, Panasonic Viera Cast, or Vizio Internet Apps).
I have never heard of anyone getting any response for prior written approval. Myself included after many attempts.
I am mostly in the dark on how this program works, does this mean the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program allows the referrer to see exactly what the people who click through their link purchase within the next 24 hours?
I assume it would be anonymous, and I guess it makes sense to understand the demographic of your site, but it certainly seems a bit invasive if clicking on a referral link tells that blogger your Amazon purchase history for 24h...
If not, they should be starting to do so :)
Edit: Yes they did. Source: http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/07/pinterest-affiliate-links/
1. https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/oper...
Incidental ads from a third party are one thing, and it's hard to imagine that they coerce the opinions and perspectives of some mid-level blogger. Outright Amazon Affiliate links, on the other hand, are a direct and obvious conflict of interest. Suddenly the author's opinion is rendered self-serving and questionable.
I stopped reading or having any faith in the statements by Atwood after he started peppering his entries with Affiliate links. Oh look, he's decided that routers are suddenly a super important topic, and wouldn't you know it the one he likes super best is available via his affiliate link. Who doesn't think he needed to make bank, searched Amazon and then spun an entry around that monetization? It is a tax on the gullible.
I fail to see how Amazon cannot be replaced with Google and CPM ads in your phrase.
The attachment is dramatically reduced. Talk about routers and your Google ad is just as likely to pitch alternatives as it is to follow your suggestion. Add that the net benefit of a single person buying a router on your advice is dramatically higher for Affiliate links than for basic ads.
Amazon Affiliate links are like pitching Amway when you have friends over for dinner -- it sours the entire relationship, even where it's just reader to writer.
Actually, seems more like pitching my favorite book or movie to friends when they're over for dinner--which I do already. If I have a blog where I discuss fantasy novels, it almost seems like a courtesy to readers to link them to where they can buy the products I am talking about. There are a lot of times when I find myself linking people to Amazon product pages even though I'm not part of the affiliate program. (When a friend asks me what earbuds he should buy, giving him a link seems a lot more reliable than giving him a product name like "AKG K271 MK II" and trusting that the message won't get lost in translation as he retypes it into his search bar.)
And you get a kickback if they follow your advice? Do you really not see the difference? Do you not see the profound conflict of interest?
EDIT: Each time I post I almost instantly see a downvote. Someone out there is feeling a little defensive about those affiliate links I suppose, but trying to suppress what people really think about them doesn't change reality.
I first read about that in the book predictably irrational. here is a link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061353248/ref=as_li_qf_sp_...
(Nb: I stole this affiliate link from Startup Slingshot. Their affiliate link merely appears high in the google for this title. I have no association with Startup Slingshot)
To your question, I think there is a big difference between talking to dinner guests and talking to your audience, especially if your audience is already buying something from you. It's not like you insert contextual ads either into the stream of cocktail hour.
On the other hand I can see frowning upon writing a completely off-topic post just to drive affiliate traffic.
I don't write about crappy books just to make a buck, though, because for $10 a month, it's not worth coming across as dishonest.
There is an incentive to overstate the importance of something that is entirely unimportant for most users in efforts of encouraging self-serving consumerism. In Atwood's recent router piece (a subject he continually revisits, each time littered with a new set of affiliate links) he says, in pitching the importance of his router migration-
QoS is the difference between a responsive Internet and one that's brutally dog slow.
Ignoring the massive complexity of QoS (you don't simply turn it on and everything is great), as someone running a whole household on wireless (every desktop, smartphone, tablet, and game machine), I have never enabled or configured rules for QoS. My daughter is watching Netflix while a son online games and the iPad downloads the latest season of Mad Men in HD @ 20Mbps. Internet != dog slow. QoS not needed. If this were a large office and I needed to prioritize...I dunno...VOIP, then sure, but for the average user it is an entirely irrelevant consideration.
Unless you're pitching an affiliate link and really want people to think that this purchase is going to make a difference. It will make their internet super fast, their muscles stronger, and get rid of those nagging headaches. I don't mean to single Atwood out -- this sort of ridiculous narrative appears every time I see someone pitching an affiliate link. Book reviews -- hah! -- like someone is going to not like a book that they are directly monetized by liking. There is a universe of content of people pitching will-change-your-world coffee accessories, so many so suddenly interested and motivated by burr grinders the moment Amazon added it as a category.
That must be great with your super connection, but the rest of us with measly 10Mbps broadband connections do not share your great experience and so QoS can be a good thing.
Not really, since you can point to the things you ACTUALLY like --it's not like Amazon only carries one brand/model of things.
Why do you think Amazon has affiliate links? Why are they busy handing out millions (though, as so many say, it's "free") to thousands of shills pimping products and consumerism? Why don't they eliminate the product because people are just naturally talking about things they like.
Why stop there?
Do you assume people are THAT naive to not be able to tell a honest review/mention + link from a dishonest push?
>Why do you think Amazon has affiliate links?*
To get people to send traffic to them?
>Why are they busy handing out millions (though, as so many say, it's "free") to thousands of shills pimping products and consumerism?
Amazon is pro-consumerism? I'd never...
You underestimate the influence of a conflict of interest: The people peppering their entries with affiliate links will probably pass a lie detector test that they are just completely "honest", but the pervasive influence and guiding force is inevitable.
The moment you're being effectively paid to pitch something, your opinion loses all merit.
Your statement doesn't hold for everyone, YMMV.
Especially since the "effectively" is quite obscure when talking about "affiliate" links where one can chose among products he DOES respect.
By your logic people wouldn't trust magazine and site reviews, since they carry ads from the companies making the products...
eg. This week I think everyone should have a UPS, here is a link to an amazon product - I don't care if you buy it so long as you now have the Amazon affiliate cookie lodged.
Next week - why I think everyone should have a home NAS ..etc....
They are no longer even product plugs they are just a weekly - talk about anything available on Amazon - pieces
Well, an edge case. It's not like you can't easily spot a blogger that writes with that intent...