Amazon affiliate program

[emke]

I'm currently working on a site about digital cameras and plan to after the summer include some affiliate links as I'll have different camera reviews.

Looking for potential affiliate companies I of course came to think of amazon.com but have recently heard a lot of bad things about them stealing their affiliates traffic and sending them to stores so they get commisions and not the affiliates them selves.

I found a different company (http://www.tigerdirect.com) and they seem like a decent company and they have very competitive prices but their commisions are only 4%.

Now I wonder what's the smarter thing, to use amazon.com and have higher commisions but possibly loose some of my traffic or tigerdirect that doesn't steal my traffic but has lower commisions?

[Chris]

Amazon doesn't steal commissions.

You might also consider the Dell affiliate program.

[emke]

When I send traffic to amazon.com, they profit on my traffic without compensation - that's basically what the sponsored links and in-store pick-up do at Amazon (there are also some other partnerships that are non-commissionable).

Thanks for the suggestion on Dell but they don't have as wide selection of cameras that I would like.

[Chris]

You get 5% or more on most purchases (personally I get 6.5%) and you get atleast 2.5% on all purchases.

I do over a hundred thousand dollars worth of sales through Amazon each quarter and I have no complaints.

[emke]

So you think it would be wiser to go with amazon.com?

One thing I don't understand with Amazons tiered structure which you refer to is that I have to include amazons banners on every page of my site and I think it's pretty stupid and unnecesary.

[Chris]

You only need to include one "easy link" on your home page. Not every page.

It is annoying, and it is why I have more than one account at Amazon (I don't use the tiered system for every site), but if you're doing enough sales to benefit from the tiers (6.5% is around 3000 sales) then it is worth it.

[Mike]

Chris,

Do you sell through amazon by providing a link to them after a little review or something on a product?

Mike

[Chris]

I do it lots of different ways, that is one.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Chris
You get 5% or more on most purchases (personally I get 6.5%) and you get atleast 2.5% on all purchases.

I do over a hundred thousand dollars worth of sales through Amazon each quarter and I have no complaints.

Didn't know you could make that much! That from your coupons site?

[Chris]

Not entirely, but mostly.

[incka]

I thought amazon was a flat 10% on all purchases.

[Chris]

They used to be years ago.

Then they moved to 5%, 15% on direct book links when the book is between 10-30% off (rarely happens).

Then maybe in January they instituted a tiered system where you could earn between 5-8%. They keep changing the tiers each quarter.

I'd take me a page or so to explain the payment structure this quarter -- they've made it real complicated. You can earn up to around 6.5% if you sell 5000 items, and Kitchen or Hardware items bring in a flat 8%. Additionally there is a $10 per sale cap on commission (which sucks if you sell alot of high end items).