Amazon Associates The Truth
Ha, this one was easy. Want to know the truth about Amazon Associates ? There, title in the first line and it doesn't sound forced or false.
I was also thinking of going with "You can't handle the truth" boy, that was such a good film. I'm assuming that everyone knows that line, delivered by Jack Nicholson, yes?. OK, there might be a few that for some reason have never heard it before, or if you have, you're not sure where it came from.
"A Few Good Men" Starring the aforementioned 'uberthespian' (I am allowed to make up words in my own post, thank you) alongside Tom Cruise and Demi Moore, not to mention Kevin Bacon and Keiffer Sutherland and a few other 'A listers'.
You rarely see casts like that these days, unless you're talking about 'Notting Hill' and the like, I suppose. What was the other one ? 'Love Actually', that was it.
Enough already, let's cut to the chase before this turns into a film review post. The truth about Amazon Associates, this is Amazon's affiliate program, of which many of you are probably either members or at least aware that it exists.
Two things spring to mind whenever this subject comes up, generally speaking, of course. I am not here to persuade, dissuade, alter or confirm any of your beliefs about it, I just wanted to throw my 'two penneth worth' into the mix.
Firstly, there's loads of griping (moaning) about the commissions because they are notoriously low. It's true, on the whole, they are pretty meager. My own view on that is, I agree, they are.
The flip side of that, in my eyes, is 'convenience'. According to recent figures, they have over 12 million products in their 'catalogue' and that's not including the 'marketplace' which adds another 350 million.
So, the chances are, they have what you want to sell and it's all in one place. Think of it like this, if you wanted to monetise this post, how many links to products do you think you could add so far ? Without looking to hard I can see at least seven and this isn't even a sales page. Each link has potential.
Argue if you will, we can't have it all our own way. Moving on to the second point I had in mind. (just thought of a third). The process for signing up is complicated, convoluted and long-winded. Add to that, the fact that you have to sign up for different countries.
Well, the last part is true, I'll give me that. However, I do not agree with the first two and the third is not all that it seems to be.
I have recently set up a DFY site that requires you to add your own affiliate network ID's, so that they can be linked to every item on the site and there's about 40k of them. The three were Amazon, CJ Affiliates and ShareASale.
I used to have an Amazon account but it was binned last year (we'll come to the 'why' in a bit). Needless to say I had to re-apply, a task I was not looking forward to.
Here's where we do some 'myth busting'. Yesterday, I set up accounts for the following countries: USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Germany and Japan. That's nine in total. It took me about an hour and a half and they are now all linked together. I shall be adding more in due course so please don't feel left out, I can only do so much.
It's not hard or complex, you just follow the instructions. Once I had set up the UK one, they let me use the same information to set up those other countries that are in the EU.
It was a short hop, skip and a jump to link them together. Job done. So, if you've been put off because you didn't want the hassle of filling out endless forms, don't be, it may be longer than other set-ups but it is very straightforward and doesn't take as long as you think.
Last footnote and then I'll be off. Now, it would seem to be the case that once you have made three sales, the 'Boot Squad' come and have a look at your site, to make sure it conforms with their guidelines, I have no idea what the 'guidelines' are, so it might be worth spending some time having a look through the agreement.
I also believe that the '180 day, three sale' stipulation is still in effect. In other words, if you don't make three sales in six months, you get 'canned', like I did.
Have a word with friends and family and give them your link, I'm sure some of them will be ordering off Amazon in the next 180 days, especially now, as we're heading towards 'that time of year'.
Remember also, if your customer strays off script and decides to buy something else whilst on Amazon, you get paid for that sale as well, nice. Rather than going into all the details about the Amazon 'cookie', you can find out all you need to know in this article "The 90 Day Amazon Affiliate Cookie – Frequently Asked Questions"
There you have it, I hope this has helped some of you, believe me, no one was more surprised than me at how easy it all was, I was dreading having to go through it all but it turned out to be fairly painless.
Have a terrific Thursday.
Twack Romero
Recent Comments
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I think I gave up applying for more than one country when I was asked for an address in the USA, which I don't have, since living in UK. However, I might try again if I figure out how to link them.
Thanks for the information.
As for the friends and relatives buying through your link-I had a few such sales, but it probably only ticked off the three sales, I received no commission for those, as their "guidelines", as I found out later, do not allow you to recommend stuff by giving directly your link.
Thank you for coming by Hermina and taking the time to leave a comment, always appreciated.
There can seem to be a lot of 'guidelines' as I suppose they have to cover themselves completely.
I never had anything either and I wondered if it was because the orders came through the same IP address.
Hope you have success this time round.
From what I've seen amazon has the easest system for affiliates how to implement their links and also their selection of products is the widest. That's why I'm still with them. It's just a pity that their commissions are almost next-to-nothing.
But considering myself an affiliate marketing beginner, I'm excited that I've earned $24.5 with them this year :) The feeling that I'm not writing for a ghost town and someone finds the information valuable enough to buy is priceless.
Summed up very nicely indeed and awesome that you are earning commissions off them as well.
'Priceless' is spot on, it's a wonderful feeling and makes it feel as though all the hard work is paying off and things are working as they should.
I'm not happy about the new rules though reqquiring the affiliate statement everywhere. I spent last night adding it to my old posts. But we can't do anything, have to meet the requirements.
I wasn't active when that came out, actually, I think Diane (@DianeK59) mentioned it in her reply. That does sound like a painful process.
Good Morning Twack,
I must tell you what happened to me. That is why this family and friends does not function as Amazon knows EVERYTHING.
During 7 months of the year, I deliver oranges to friends who live on the coast. A friend ordered oranges for a Canadian couple she had met in the apartment block where she lives. These people would come for 3 months each year to the Costa del Sol. I met them and we became "friends". I had signed up with all the countries and desperately needed a sale.
I asked them if they could order something for me on their name through Amazon CA, pay in Canada and have it send to their Spanish address. On arrival, I picked it up and paid them in Euros.
I was notified this was not a legit sale.
After 3 months I lost CA, the other countries took longer to kick me out.
The only one surviving is U.S where I signed up on 29/3/2017. I still get a monthly report that I have no sale.
Greetings from the south of Spain,
Taetske
That's amazing Taetske. I must admit, the forensic reach of the digital magnifying glass never ceases to amaze me. I cannot begin to fathom how they manage to do it though.
Thanks for the story and at least you have the biggest (I would think) marketplace on board.
Hope you're having a great day.
You definitely covered the main reasons I went the Amazon route, convenience and the fact that they have an affiliate program at all where a lot of the products I deal with don't.
I didn't feel like the sign up process was very complicated. It seemed simple to me.
Thanks for the info!
My pleasure Jeff and thank you for stopping by. For many, it's the thought of the process that puts people off but I, like you, found it relatively straightforward.
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reall interesting post :)
Can I ask you something - so you applied for 9 different countries and then linked the accounts together. Does that mean, when you insert amazon link it will 'see customers location' and adjust link accordingly?
Or does linking the amazon accounts mean that Amazon will take 3 sales from any of your 9 accounts?
thank you for this additional clarification.
It links the accounts so that if you have someone looking at one if your products links it will adjust and take them to their countries Amazon. You still need 3 sales per country
aha, I didn't know that. Is there any training at WA that shows how to link these accounts together?
You are welcome. Louise has you covered there Vesna and has summed it up perfectly.
Nicely done😁
I've not seen any but to be honest, Amazon takes you through the process quite well. I did spend some time reading through all the options on each page, as I was submitting the application, just to make sure I was doing everything properly.
thank you :)
You are very welcome Vesna.
when the customer clicks on the amazon link it will take them to that country's amazon page. I also have 5 countries but only use other countie's amazon links when the product is not available on my country.
Worthy of a 'follow', good to see you here Patrica.
thank you :)
likewise. thank you for the follow
Very welcome.