Introduction from Gene Kavner

Hello and welcome to AffiliateBrand.com and my blog.

I have recently left Amazon.com after having had an incredible opportunity to run the world-wide Associates Program that is the oldest and most successful affiliate program on the Internet.

Amazon Associates affiliate program operates in 6 countries and contributes significantly to the Amazon revenue stream, which was reported at $8.5 Billion in 2005. Between Associates, Sponsored Search, and a couple of other marketing initiatives, Amazon has spent $168 Million in 2005. Recognizing that the Associates program pays out between 4% and 8.5% of all revenues in fees to the hundreds of thousands of affiliates, you can easily calculate the amount of revenue Amazon’s affiliate program is generating per year.

The purpose of this blog is to share my vast expertise in this space with anyone interested in making money on the web. There is significant money made in the affiliate business. Whether you are:

• Already in business,
• Just thinking of creating your first site / blog,
• Making over $1 Million in annual eCommerce revenues,
• Just tinkering with AdSense and/or other affiliate programs,
• Interested in becoming an Affiliate and not sure where to start, or
• Have your own affiliate program --

-- you will benefit from having a subscription to AffiliateBrand.com.

AffiliateBrand.com, in conjunction with the web site I will be launching shortly, will offer comprehensive review of the affiliate trends, products, and technologies. I will go well beyond the Amazon Associates program and cover in depth areas such as:

•  Affiliate Marketing,
• Free Search Optimization,
• Advertising,
• Sponsored Links,
• Blogging,
• e-Commerce,
• Affiliate Tools,
• Web Services,
• Mashups, and
• Many more!

I will also create an easy way for any of you to participate in the discussion, to share your experience with and rate various commercial offerings. By participating on AffiliateBrand.com, you will also receive substantial page rank boost as I will link directly to your site. I welcome your participation.

I also intend to give you practical, unbiased advice on what you need to do to grow your online business. In order to give you the best advice possible, I will personally try many of the affiliate products and services available on the Internet today and evaluate them. I will even offer these products for you to try and let everyone know what you think.

It is also my goal to evaluate what it is like to interact with various vendors, how easy it is to get their help, how often they pay, and how compelling / effective their offer is. In an effort to be the best judge of their services, some of my links to these vendors will include my own affiliate id. I will also not shy away from suggesting vendors that do not already have their own affiliate program. Overall, I will help you decide whether you should or should not use their products and services to make money on the Internet.

If you have a substantial amount of experience in this space and have something valuable to say, please get in touch with me for a consideration to become a contributing author in this blog.

Lastly, I am available to discuss with you any opportunity for me to offer you direct consulting help. If you would like to reach me, please email me at:

Again, welcome to AffiliateBrand.com!

Gene Kavner

Comments

[Chris]

I did quick math - if Amazon gave out on average 6% in commission to its affiliates and 80% of its marketing expenses can be allocated to affiliates then total commission paid to the affiliates would be around $134.4 M and total revenue generated by Amazon in 2005 from affiliates around $2.24 B - that would 26% of their total sales! Is this true? Can't believe it!

[Peter Koning]

Hi Gene - great blog! Keep it coming.

Regards,
Peter

[Shameek]

Wonderful blog! This goes right into my feed reader. Thanks Gene :)

[John Morrison]

Hi Gene,

Me again. I hope you didn't take too much offense to my other comment about click flipping. I appreciate you letting it show, it demonstrates your respect for opposing opinions, a sign of good character in my book. I have been perusing more of your blog. It's Furled and I'll visit frequently. How can I pass up the insights of an X Amazon affiliate manager :-).

While we're on the topic of an affiliate manager's perspective I am hoping to pick your brain. I have recently conducted some investigative reporting on Simplx. I discovered one of their tactics is to presell Amazon.com items on eBay and then purchase the item using affiliate links and having Amazon ship it directly to the customer. I asked Amazon if this was an acceptable practice and was told it could get me banned. However when I reported the behavior and gave specific examples I got the impression it wasn't a matter of concern. As a result I have stopped reporting the infractions as I come across them. Did I misinterpret or does Amazon not really care?

Thanks for the blog. Peace and prosperity.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison
(John)

[Miriguy]

nice ;) this is a great blog. would love to learn more in here

[Gene Kavner]

Thanks Howard -- I look forward to sharing my insight with you.

[howArd Lindzon]

very cool. can't wait to learn some things here