Amazon and eBay killing off affiliates?

In my not so humble opinion, Amazon has one of the best (if not the best) affiliate programs available anywhere. To put it mildly, eBay is not even close to Amazon. There is no other system of which I am aware that offers such an ingenious "suggestion" algorithm for buyers, and pays commissions on additional purchases made within the buying session.

Admittedly, more than 60% of Amazon sales do not involve affiliates, but that has more to do with the general marketing incompetence of affiliates rather than any intentional denial of sales commissions. The 24-hour cookie limitation can be bypassed through effective pre-selling, engaging copy, and timely communication including short interval email promotions.

And as regarding the apparently "low" commission rate, this is not out of line with standard commissions paid for sales reps selling physical products. With products ranging well into 4-6 figure price ranges and by selling the lower priced products in quantity, in addition to Amazon's cross-selling algorithm, one can earn a very substantial income with just the Amazon affiliate program itself.

Selling your own branded goods is much more than just a big headache. If you get it wrong and the product fizzles, you've also got inventory and other investments down the drain. But as an affiliate, you can simply change promotions to other products. Even with a "niche" site, affiliate marketing can leverage your marketing efforts while minimizing costs and reducing risk exposure.

Not really. The poster states that the review model fares poorly with the 24 hour cookie. Since when is writing a review the only way to pre-sell something?

Is what the poster says valid? Can't say, I've never done Amazon with any success. Just pointing out that there currently isn't any contradiction in the wording.

Are you saying review sites that post affiliate links inside or/and at the end of articles won't convert? Its it better to capture the email of your visitors, then pre-sell them, before finally presenting the affiliate links. I used to get 4-6% conversion off review pages, without the steps you suggest.

What I'm talking about has nothing to do with possible underhanded activities engaged in by merchants, although the strategies and tactics I've mentioned provide ironclad protection against the potential for such abuse as well. I've always used the same exact marketing methods for all of the affiliate networks which I promoted, including Shareasale.

Reliance on cookies for your commission is a diminishing false hope because the majority of sales are made only after multiple exposures to the marketing message, and quite often involve more than one device (ie, desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc). And (with the exception of Clickbank) unless your prospect makes a purchase before another affiliate gets in, you've lost the sale. That's just how the cookie crumbles.