Alternatives to amazon associates

14 years ago

Do you get a lot of targeted traffic? I actually find that despite the 24 hour cookie, amazon converts so well that I make more money with them than other affiliate programs. They also have such a huge inventory of stuff that I can promote just about every product in my niches. While they do start at 4% for commission you can quickly get up to 7 to 8% which is about norm.

The only other place I have found good merchants is commission junction but again, I love amazon for the niches I target.

Thanks

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

4-10% on physical goods isn't out of line. It sounds like peanuts compared to digital downloads like you'd find at Clickbank, but it is reasonable.

Yes, the cookie is only for 24 hours, but the offset to that is that if you send them good traffic, they convert a lot of it. Plus you make commission on anything else they buy during that sale. I can't say for the UK, but the US version of Amazon is a master at getting people to add items to their order -- items that also count toward increasing your commissions.

Thanks

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izzymay

14 years ago

Thanks guys,

So you both seem to think amazon is still the way to go.

The reason I get frustrated is that I get small amounts of targetted traffic to go to amazon but they don't seem to convert. I keep thinking this is because the products I am promoting cost $200+ and my visitors need a little more time to think about making a purchase, and when they come back to actually make the purchase my cookie has expired and therefore lose my commission.

Do you think this is the case?

regards

Chris

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by izzymay

Thanks guys,

So you both seem to think amazon is still the way to go.

The reason I get frustrated is that I get small amounts of targetted traffic to go to amazon but they don't seem to convert. I keep thinking this is because the products I am promoting cost $200+ and my visitors need a little more time to think about making a purchase, and when they come back to actually make the purchase my cookie has expired and therefore lose my commission.

Do you think this is the case?

regards

Chris

Without seeing your setup, I'm going to guess that you are catching people at a premature spot in the buying cycle. If they are still in the research phase, you're likely right. If they are ready to buy, the price isn't a problem, as Amazon has some of the most aggressive pricing online on many items.

If the niche is one you enjoy, you could try to build a list to extend your contact time with interested prospects and gain additional chances to refer them. Otherwise, you may just need to refine your keywords to focus more on 'ready to buy' traffic.

If you read through more of the Amazon-related threads here, you'll find that a common strategy involves two forks. One tine focuses on higher priced items that pay better commissions, and the other focuses on lower-priced impulse buys to boost your item count and your commission percentage with it.

Thanks
1 reply

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Jeremy Morgan

14 years ago

I never really did well with the Amazon affiliate program. I gotta say, they give you a lot of tools and the API is great, I just couldn't turn a large profit with them.

Have you looked at the Ebay Partner Network?? I have done really well with them. Not enough to make a living at it, but I haven't dedicated a large amount of time either. This program pays pretty well, and will pay thru paypal. I would say I made about 4x more than adwords with the same amount of traffic.

It takes a while to get approved, make sure the site you submit to them is high quality and you'll get approved. It's essentially the same thing as amazon, but converted much better for me.

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Eastman

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Jeremy Morgan

Have you looked at the Ebay Partner Network?? I have done really well with them. Not enough to make a living at it, but I haven't dedicated a large amount of time either. This program pays pretty well, and will pay thru paypal. I would say I made about 4x more than adwords with the same amount of traffic.

I have stopped promoting EBay since the stopped paying commissions on sales ... Do yo think that was a mistake?

Thanks
1 reply

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Jeremy Morgan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Eastman

I have stopped promoting EBay since the stopped paying commissions on sales ... Do yo think that was a mistake?

No, you made the right move. When I posted that, I was making a pretty decent amount off a fairly small amount of traffic. At the time they were paying me a commission off each sale.

After they changed the pay structure, I make next to nothing (with MORE traffic even). Pennies on the dollar of what I made before. In fact, I haven't even made enough to get them to cut me a check since the changes. Hence, their changes worked (they're making more money) but they've driven away valuable affiliates. I have been tearing down my ebay affiliate sites and doing other things with them.

I now recommend people stay away from this program.

As with any business, greed will eventually make companies make bad decisions such as this, that make a small amount in the short term and hurt in the long term. When you put the critical decisions of your company in the hands of spoiled brat ivy league "educated" managers with no street sense, they'll hurt your bottom line eventually.

Here is a link with details of how their program works now. It basically pays you based on what they feel the quality of your click is, and what long term revenue they make off the clicks you send them. In other words, rather than give you a percentage of the sales you send them, they find ways to cheat you out of it.

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Eastman

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Jeremy Morgan

As with any business, greed will eventually make companies make bad decisions such as this, that make a small amount in the short term and hurt in the long term. When you put the critical decisions of your company in the hands of spoiled brat ivy league "educated" managers with no street sense, they'll hurt your bottom line eventually.

Agree with your sentiment! its probably the same "ivy league MBAs" at eBay that stuffed up skype - until skype bought themselves back - for 90% of what they got from eBay 4 years before - Great Business sense!!!

In the meantime, what aff are you now using instead of eBay?

tnx

Thanks

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bmoney76

14 years ago

Chris, with my newer sites I find that the sales trickle in because I just don't get a lot of traffic. Once the long tail keywords pick up (after the sites mature) and I'm getting a ton of hits for product names/brands I find that the sales really pick up. And when people buy one thing, amazon is great at coaxing them into buying something else. Like most things in this business traffic is the key and with amazon it seems that you need a fair amount before you start selling consistently. But when you do it really picks up.

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Flipfilter

14 years ago

Check out Skimlinks.com for a 'ready to go' solution.

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Latest Post on FlipFilter.com "Buying and Selling Mobile App Businesses - An Interview with Eric Owens'"

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ambercoco

14 years ago

Rosalind Gardner just published this list on blog:

Here's the link if you are interest in the article: Alternatives to the Amazon Affiliate Program | AffiliateBloggerPRO

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IM Lover

13 years ago

My father mentioned to me the other day that you could stream live bidding auctions on your website, and that if people purchase items from the auction or redirect back to the main site and purchase something you get commission, I also read a faily old e.book that some guy was doing this and that he was making about $300 a month, is this something you guys have tried before rather than solely promoting the products on e.bay. Sorry if I have got it wrong was just something said the other day and I came across this thread.

Lee

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1 reply

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Eastman

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Lee789

My father mentioned to me the other day that you could stream live bidding auctions on your website, and that if people purchase items from the auction or redirect back to the main site and purchase something you get commission, I also read a faily old e.book that some guy was doing this and that he was making about $300 a month...

@Lee, do you have more details on this?

tnx

Thanks
1 reply

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IM Lover

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Eastman

@Lee, do you have more details on this?

tnx

Hi There

The e.book is called "Seven ways to make money online" my father was reading it and mentioned the part about being an Affiliate on e.bay, it explains how you can link e.bay bidding auctions on your website to make money form it. I am not sure if this is something worth doing which is why I asked on this thread you see.

Lee

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2 replies

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Eastman 13 years ago

The problem with e-bay is that since 2009 they do not pay commissions any more ... rather PPC:

Originally Posted by Aaron Elliott

I tried ebay and amazon at the same time on the same site. Amazon did well ebay did almost nothing for me. Didnt go further with it.
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- 1 reply
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- IM Lover 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Eastman
  
  The problem with e-bay is that since 2009 they do not pay commissions any more ... rather PPC:
  
  Just shows how greedy they are like all the other companys out there, for myself I am looking into Adsense and also to promote Amazon products.
  
  Lee
  
  Thanks
  
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JohnMcCabe

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Lee789

Hi There

The e.book is called "Seven ways to make money online" my father was reading it and mentioned the part about being an Affiliate on e.bay, it explains how you can link e.bay bidding auctions on your website to make money form it. I am not sure if this is something worth doing which is why I asked on this thread you see.

Lee

Lee, how old is the ebook?

Before they changed the pay structure, one could make a commission if they referred the winning bidder to that auction. There was also a small CPA payment for new bidders opening accounts.

As I understand it, eBay no longer pays those commissions, so the earning potential is minimal. A quick read through the EPN terms would verify whether my understanding is correct.

Thanks
1 reply

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IM Lover

13 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

Lee, how old is the ebook?

Before they changed the pay structure, one could make a commission if they referred the winning bidder to that auction. There was also a small CPA payment for new bidders opening accounts.

As I understand it, eBay no longer pays those commissions, so the earning potential is minimal. A quick read through the EPN terms would verify whether my understanding is correct.

Hi John

I am not to sure about how old it is I think it's pretty old though will have a look tomorrow and let you no John, cant access it now because it is at my fathers place, I would think your right based on it is not something they introduce now, otherwise it would be talked about a bit more on WF.

Lee

Thanks

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PaulaC

13 years ago

We've been trying to make money online for a number of years with merchants from CJ, Linkshare and ShareaSale. The results were disappointing to say the list. The day that we changed our links over to Amazon was the turning point in our business. Our sales went from 1 or 2 a week to close to 10 a day. From then on things only got better and better.

The trick with making Amazon work is to write quality reviews. If you simply copy over content from Amazon it really isn't going to work. You only need a handful of good quality reviews to make a nice income from Amazon if you do it right.

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Jay Vikaz

13 years ago

Thanks Paula. That really was a light bulb moment for me.

So, what you are saying is - if we invest a little time on creating good reviews we'll see better results. Most of us focus on quantity rather than quality - we seem to want to get as many sites up as fast as we can.

Jay

Originally Posted by PaulaC

We've been trying to make money online for a number of years with merchants from CJ, Linkshare and ShareaSale. The results were disappointing to say the list. The day that we changed our links over to Amazon was the turning point in our business. Our sales went from 1 or 2 a week to close to 10 a day. From then on things only got better and better.

The trick with making Amazon work is to write quality reviews. If you simply copy over content from Amazon it really isn't going to work. You only need a handful of good quality reviews to make a nice income from Amazon if you do it right.

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karenhudson

13 years ago

Top amazon associate alternatives are

Commission Junction
LinkShare
Clickbank

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feliciayapsl

13 years ago

Amazon converts better than other programs. Alternatively, you can try commission junction which has done well for me too.

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Vrindavan

13 years ago

>> creating good reviews

it is not possible if you are not using the product for a while first or reading the book you try to sell first.

But after finished the trial, you may discover it is not good to sell.

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matt5409

13 years ago

Originally Posted by izzymay

Hello all,

Recently I've been setting up small amazon affiliate sites with a little success. However I'm getting increasingly frustrated with amazon because of their low commission 4-10% and 24 hour cookie that essentially means if your referral doesn't buy right away you don't get a commission.

Can anybody recommend some other affiliate programs along the same lines as amazon (huge range of products stocked and well trusted) but with better terms for affiliates.

In particular affiliate programs that cater for children and baby products in the US.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

As a fellow UK person I would recommend Play.com - you can affiliate with them through affiliate window. I have signed up but yet to give it a go as I'm pouring everything into amazon at the moment!

Thanks

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Giani

13 years ago

I like ebay and shopping.com

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