Amazon seriously resets your referral rate every month?

[InTheMaking]

I was using Amazon as a secondary monetization method in October, never really spent much time on it though because of the lower payouts.

Anyway last month I built up to about the 6.5% referral rate which is around 30 products sold.

It's not much but I figured it's a little extra money and over time I'd build up to the highest payout but seriously..

they actually reset it down to 4% every month? That's retarded.

Definitely getting rid of my Amazon links.

[NicheMagic]

It's bad I agree. But they are so big people are always going to be selling there stuff.

[jgsketch]

I actually did a test last year. I took one site and switched out links every other week for a month during the holiday season. I rotated between Amazon and a Large retailer affiliate.

The numbers were actually slightly in favor of Amazon. While the large retailer was offering 15%, they could not convert as much as Amazon could once visitors got to their site. Only 35% of the purchases on Amazon were of the products I was promoting. That's huge. Most of the time, people would buy the one item and then usually get an additional 5 to 8 items on top of that. then others would not buy anything I was promoting but still do their Christmas shopping.

The higher commission retailer could not do that. I would typically only get that one item I was promoting. Amazon is just really good at cross promoting products and up sells.

So I've kept Amazon despite their lower commission. But for my niche, I usually reach the cap before the end of the month, so I always get 8% on all products sold because they retro the commission across all items sold that month.

It's going to depend on your niche mostly and whether or not it's a seasonal site or event driven site. if you are a shoe site, then yeah, Amazon is not going to work in your favor like it does for me.

[Tom Ryan]

Yup, the commission rates reset every month. If you only think you can sell a handful of products every month, then yeah the 4% rate stinks. However if you sell a lot, it doesn't take long to hit the higher commission levels. Once you hit the higher rate it is retroactive as well.

A lot of people recommend picking higher price products to get a larger commission, which I do as well. But, I also have sites that push low ticket items. Doing this help to increase the number of items sold which pushes up my commission rate fast. Within the first week of the month I'm usually at a decent commission rate.

[dfs_dean]

It amazes me when I see folks jump on programs but don't take the time to learn what they're getting into. I don't think I could ever enter into a money-making proposition without knowing the details, taking the time to read the rules/guidelines, and understanding what I could expect to be getting out of it.

Peace

[bitriot]

If you aren't selling enough products to hit at least the 6.5% rate each month, I feel like you are arguing the difference between very low earnings and very very low earnings.

[InTheMaking]

Originally Posted by bitriot

If you aren't selling enough products to hit at least the 6.5% rate each month, I feel like you are arguing the difference between very low earnings and very very low earnings.

Too busy making bank with Adsense/CPA programs,

Amazon to me is pointless.. doesn't convert nearly as well as CPA and the payout is low = bad monetization.