Doomed if You Promote Amazon Electronics?

by Steve Faber

Posted: 13 years ago 13 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Amazon now has a large excluded products list. They wil pay you no commissions if you refer a sale for them.

Here is a sample:
Nikon D600 24.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (Body Only); ASIN: B0099XGZXA (Effective from November 1, 2012);
◦ Canon EOS-1D X 18.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera; ASIN: B005Y3T1AI (Effective from November 1, 2012);
◦ Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras; ASIN: B00004THD0 (Effective from November 1, 2012);
◦ Apple iPod touch 16GB Black (4th Generation) CURRENT MODEL; ASIN:B0097BEF0O (Effective from October 1, 2012);
◦ Apple iPod touch 16GB White (4th Generation) CURRENT MODEL; ASIN: B0097BEFEU (Effective from October 1, 2012);
◦ Apple iPod touch 32GB Black (4th Generation) CURRENT MODEL; ASIN: B001FA1O18 (Effective from October 1, 2012);
◦ Apple iPod classic 160GB Black (7th Generation) NEWEST MODEL; ASIN: B001F7AHOG (Effective from October 1, 2012);
◦ Garmin nüvi 50LM 5-inch Portable GPS Navigator (US and Canada); ASIN: B005HSDL8S (Effective from October 1, 2012);

They also have plenty of TVs, such as Panasonic 50 and 60in plasma sets on there as well. Any thoughts?

#amazon #doomed #electronics #promote

Michael Oksa

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Steve Faber

Amazon now has a large excluded products list. They wil pay you no commissions if you refer a sale for them.

...

They also have plenty of TVs, such as Panasonic 50 and 60in plasma sets on there as well. Any thoughts?

Yes, read the list of exclusions before you promote anything.

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com...ing/exclusions

At first it seems like a long list, but there are 1,000s of other electronic products that you CAN get a commission on. Promote those.

Also, the list will probably continue to get bigger, so be sure to check it on a regular basis.

All the best,
Michael

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BrianDouglas

13 years ago

Everyone has this fascination on finding out why Amazon changes rates or blocks referral commissions on certain products, or how they rank non-stop in google so much.

The affiliate program is a backlink scam in Amazon. I use it, and I'm not saying to stop using it. But that's what it is.

When they drop support for a product to Associates, they basically reveal that they are dominating the search results and no longer need you to do that for them. It's all about links.

Watch, more and more will be taken off over time. Wait until Kindle and potential Amazon-ready readers become standard reading, books and kindle books won't be earners anymore either.

The reason Amazon dominates is because they have the associates program as an automatic back linking racket.

People are studying amazon's site to see why they rank. Amazon could start crying about mesothelioma on every page on their site now and still rank #1 for countless products, because they have so many links on those particular products, from countless unique reviews on them.

That's the big secret: Associates is nothing more to Amazon than a back-linking campaign. And it has worked and been worth the measly little share they give us to do it.

It is a no brainer with Canon cameras and iPods coming off of the list - with Cameras and iProducts being among the most saturated, most heavily promoted things out there. They basically got all the links they need for that stuff.

Google is doing the same thing on their own search engine, in a slightly different way; every time they have a doodle about an author or film star etc, it leads to a page on the results full of google-branded marketing. They are turning the search into a storefront, one topic at a time, and doing a doodle to show it, to those who are watching.

/takes off tin foil hat. ^^

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brunom

13 years ago

Originally Posted by BrianDouglas

Also had this feeling before, glad I'm not the only one. Just think about the variety of backlinks they are getting, besides the sales that they still make AND profit from.

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cooler1

13 years ago

Originally Posted by BrianDouglas

When they drop support for a product to Associates, they basically reveal that they are dominating the search results and no longer need you to do that for them. It's all about links.

Amazon are dominating the search results for thousands of products so if what your saying is true then why are only about 50 products excluded from affiliate commisions?

Originally Posted by BrianDouglas

The reason Amazon dominates is because they have the associates program as an automatic back linking racket.

Really? I thought they dominated because they are a huge authority site and a highly trusted online retailer. Even Amazon pages with no backlinks are ranking high.

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Steven Wagenheim 13 years ago

First of all, it's not a long list given how many electronics products you CAN still
sell.

Second of all, how are you doomed if you promote Amazon Electronics? There
are plenty you CAN sell with no problem at all.

This is totally a non issue. Just make sure you read which ones you can't sell
and don't sell them.

How hard is that?
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fluffythewondercat 13 years ago

Any thoughts?

My first thought is that those are the kinds of electronics that are ripe for affiliate click fraud. You know, "you buy your Christmas gifts through my affiliate link and I'll buy mine through yours - wink, wink."

And as someone else pointed out, those are products with slender margins, so getting real referrals is probably quite important.

fLufF
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theverysmartguy

13 years ago

Originally Posted by cooler1

Really? I thought they dominated because they are a huge authority site and a highly trusted online retailer. Even Amazon pages with no backlinks are ranking high.

Basically this says it all.

And if their affiliate program was just 1 big scam then why are there tons of people making a very very good living off of the program.

Oh, and another thing, a very large chunk of their revenue is created by affiliates. If it wasn't for them having affiliates they would have been dead when the dot com bubble bursts way back when.

I used to work in a Computer retail shop. The reason that the Iproducts are being taken off is because of the very very very low margins. Anytime one of the sales reps got stuck in that department they wanted to scream. Why? Because for that entire day they MADE NO MONEY!! From what I remember it is about a 7 - 9% mark up from the price they buy it from Apple. The only one making any real money from the products is Apple themselves.

As for the TVs, the Margin on those is very very low as well. But, like it has been said, there are so many electronics out there to promote that you needn't worry about running out. Plus, new stuff comes out almost every day.

-- Jeff

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Walter Parrish

13 years ago

Originally Posted by theverysmartguy

keep in mind that some of these high earning claims are bogus. there's a lot of shady business going on all the way around.

like the record company that has airplane hangers full of people who call in and request songs and claim that their music and videos that are so good.

this info is not even an eye opener for me i've seen amazon and google run all types of games on associates. being a long time rare book and out of book seller I've seen the games.

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1byte

13 years ago

Originally Posted by BrianDouglas

The affiliate program is a backlink scam in Amazon. I use it, and I'm not saying to stop using it. But that's what it is.

When they drop support for a product to Associates, they basically reveal that they are dominating the search results and no longer need you to do that for them. It's all about links.

Watch, more and more will be taken off over time. Wait until Kindle and potential Amazon-ready readers become standard reading, books and kindle books won't be earners anymore either.

The reason Amazon dominates is because they have the associates program as an automatic back linking racket.

I think you're on to something here. I've suspected this for some time, but never really gave it much thought -- as I earnestly write product review after product review...all linking to Amazon of course.

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wolfmmiii 13 years ago

Originally Posted by BrianDouglas

The affiliate program is a backlink scam in Amazon.

If I'm not mistaken, Google indicated some time ago that affiliate links are not counted as backlinks. I'll have to try and dig up where I read that.
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Fraggler 13 years ago

Originally Posted by BrianDouglas

The affiliate program is a backlink scam in Amazon. I use it, and I'm not saying to stop using it. But that's what it is.

The big affiliate push is one of the reasons Amazon has done so well; toning them down as they become a household name and go-to place for shopping online. Links were crucuial, but not due to the SEO benefit. Links means exposure and other people marketing your product.

I think the exclusion list could be a lot simpler than that. All of those items have low mark-ups in very competitive industries. It could also be a condition put in place by the manufacturer.
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BrianDouglas 13 years ago

Yep, and the links are not the only product in that pie, it's also the massive traffic inflow to their site, that ends up staying on the site and surfing around. We send traffic there, our goal, to get the person to click as fast as we can since the cookie and the impulse buy is our objective, and then they get the benefit of "trapped in amazon" shopper syndrome, while half the time, the 500 dollar refrigerator we promoted converts to a 3 dollar iPhone case
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Steve Faber 13 years ago

Not nly are they dominatingcertain product categories, but electronics (especially video) tend to have some of the lowest overal margins forthe retailer, so naturally they look to lower selling expenses wherever possible.

I wonder how many sales they'll make from affiliates tha never see the exclude list, and continue referring traffic?
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Doomed if You Promote Amazon Electronics?

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