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Is Being An Amazon Affiliate Worth It Anymore?

by Jon Tees
16 replies
1. Many people going directly to Amazon seemingly just to spite you and bilk you out of a well-deserved commission. Often you put the idea in their head to buy the product but rather than going through your affiliate link they go to the site directly and buy it.
2. Small chunk change commission when you do make them.
3. Best selling products frequently out of stock when you are running a killer campaign for them.
4. Ever changing TOS that often work against you.
5. Everyone and their brother thinking that what you do is so easy and therefore attempting to do it themselves by signing up as affiliates as opposed to just buying from you.
6. 60 days till you get paid nuff said. Some people may be fine with this but lets say you have a family that needs to eat this week/month it may not be the best choice for a primary program in that case.

So really is it worth it anymore?
#affiliate #amazon #anymore #worth
  • Profile picture of the author betterwtveter
    Well if you want lazy money, than I recommend using it. I played with amazon links compared to google links and amazon made me more money. Reason is that amazon will track the IP address that comes to your ad and that person may buy a completely different product than the one you were promoting and you still get credit for it.
    If you have a ton of visitors on your site such as about 500 a day, you can make some money on it for doing nothing. I made about $200 a month with 500 visitors visiting my construction website
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  • Profile picture of the author Anton543
    Its not bad for sites with huge traffic, but avoid if you can as their commission rate is tiny. Look for affiliate products instead. More time consuming but much better rewards likely.
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    • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
      Originally Posted by Anton543 View Post

      Its not bad for sites with huge traffic, but avoid if you can as their commission rate is tiny. Look for affiliate products instead. More time consuming but much better rewards likely.
      A site with as few as 100 visitors per day can do extremely well via the Amazon program. Too many people focus on the commission rate and totally ignore the awesome conversion rates that Amazon can produce.

      Yes, being an Amazon affiliate, when done right, is totally worth it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Anton543
        Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

        A site with as few as 100 visitors per day can do extremely well via the Amazon program. Too many people focus on the commission rate and totally ignore the awesome conversion rates that Amazon can produce.

        Yes, being an Amazon affiliate, when done right, is totally worth it.
        Many affiliate programs offer 30 to 75% compared to Amazon's 4% or thereabouts. So unless you are getting sales for large ticket items, its not hugely worth it in my opinion. However, if you can create a successful Amazon store with lots of traffic, then it can be very worthwhile.

        A $100 sale with many affiliates will result in commissions of $30 to $40, sometimes even more, but with Amazon its going to be around $4 to $5. yes I know Amazon's credability brings with it likelihood of slightly higher conversions, but its not enough to offset the very coms.
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        • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
          Originally Posted by Anton543 View Post

          Many affiliate programs offer 30 to 75% compared to Amazon's 4% or thereabouts.
          There is a reason they do this...
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  • Profile picture of the author consulting51
    The other day I pinned only few images and had some sales. Small sales amount though, however, to answer you question, I guess it depends on where you promote too.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Franklin
    It is SO worth it! Yes, the commission start out small at 4% but it's not hard to end up at 6-8% with the proper base of sites. Amazon has an online trust factor that is higher than almost all other online sites.

    I've never believed in putting all of your eggs in one basket when rolling out campaigns so you will find that targetting different niches with different sites, you won't have to worry about products being sold out or niches growing out of favor....Diversifying your portfolio is very important.

    There are THOUSANDS of keywords that you can setup Amazon sites right now and have relatively low competition....Don't look at just the obvious niches....If you think long-tail keywords, you will be rewarded handsomely!
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  • Profile picture of the author jgetsmoneyy
    My state is no longer allowed to be affiliates because our Governor tried to play hardball with Amazon and lost though we the affiliates lost out big. Now I have to use Vigilnk and to make money off amazon and viglink takes a 25% cut plus I don't believe they accurately track all my clicks and sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Franklin
      Originally Posted by jgetsmoneyy View Post

      My state is no longer allowed to be affiliates because our Governor tried to play hardball with Amazon and lost though we the affiliates lost out big. Now I have to use Vigilnk and to make money off amazon and viglink takes a 25% cut plus I don't believe they accurately track all my clicks and sales.
      Go through Squidoo....Even though it is a 50-50 split, Amazon lenses do EXTREMELY well on there!
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      • Profile picture of the author myob
        There are actually many, many effective ways for promoting Amazon products. IMNSHO, SEO and "review sites" are the least effective methods because you are forced to work with either lower competition key words or accept low ROI. My own preference is to sell high-end products in very competitive niches, which generally are the most lucrative. I stay away from so called "best sellers". These links may be helpful to you:

        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...print-you.html

        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ing-money.html

        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-cost-10k.html

        I've been selling Amazon and other affiliate products the same way for over 12 years, and made a fortune. My marketing model actually is rather simple in concept: establish an "authoritative presence" using article syndication, build niche lists, then recommend relevant products to subscribers within these niche lists.

        An excellent tutorial describing this basic marketing model which I have frequently recommended in many of my posts is this timeless classic, "Turn Your Words Into Traffic", by Jim and Dallas Edwards. Also consider reading "Brand Against the Machine: How to Build Your Brand, Cut Through the Marketing Noise, and Stand Out from the Competition" by John Morgan. Both of these books are available on Amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author jessicalynn
    Originally Posted by Jon Tees View Post

    1. Many people going directly to Amazon seemingly just to spite you and bilk you out of a well-deserved commission. Often you put the idea in their head to buy the product but rather than going through your affiliate link they go to the site directly and buy it.
    How many people are really doing this? Most people I know in the "real world" don't even know that Amazon has an affiliate program!
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  • Profile picture of the author cowloc
    I tried being an Amazon Affiliate and no results, still looking for something that works.
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    • Profile picture of the author JonPL
      I personally don't know a better way to earn a living online other than Amazon and I haven't seen anything that changes that over the last year or so. Yes there are negatives but I see so many positives that I don't worry about them. For a start there is the never-ending list of products/niches to target. Plus there is the trust factor.

      Perhaps the best thing for me is the fact that people so often buy other products instead of or in addition to the one I'm linking to. It's the equivalent of getting paid for an OTO except there is no additional selling involved.
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  • Profile picture of the author cooler1
    Originally Posted by Jon Tees View Post

    1. Many people going directly to Amazon seemingly just to spite you and bilk you out of a well-deserved commission. Often you put the idea in their head to buy the product but rather than going through your affiliate link they go to the site directly and buy it.
    2. Small chunk change commission when you do make them.
    3. Best selling products frequently out of stock when you are running a killer campaign for them.
    4. Ever changing TOS that often work against you.
    5. Everyone and their brother thinking that what you do is so easy and therefore attempting to do it themselves by signing up as affiliates as opposed to just buying from you.
    6. 60 days till you get paid nuff said. Some people may be fine with this but lets say you have a family that needs to eat this week/month it may not be the best choice for a primary program in that case.

    So really is it worth it anymore?
    1. Don't know why anyone would do that. What makes you think people do that? Plus you wouldn't even know if someone went directly to Amazon instead of through your affiliate link.

    2. Depends on what you promote.

    3. Haven't experienced that, but it stands to reason popular products will sometimes be out of stock.

    4. That is true, but nothing really big changes. Just some minor things.

    5. Don't know what you mean by that. Affiliates who purchase from their own affiliate link don't get credit for the sale.

    6. Although its 60 days until payment, payments are monthly once your regular. Plus if you have a family to feed, I wouldn't recommend doing affiliate marketing as your primary income source unless you have some savings as it isn't stable enough.
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
    1. Most people don't even know what an affiliate link is. Stop thinking like an IMer.
    2. Thousands of affiliates hit the 8% mark routinely, meaning they are generating thousands of sales/month.
    3. Why would you want to promote the same products a million other people are promoting?
    4. Ever-changing? Sure, TOS will change now and again but that happens with any program.
    5. Again, most people outside of IMers have no idea what you are talking about.
    6. It's 60-days when you start. I get a check every month like clockwork.
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  • Profile picture of the author techbul
    Definitely worth it. If you manage to build a network of websites, then you can be looking at some nice passive income.
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