AffiliateBrand.com by Gene Kavner

What does Amazon Consider as the Order?

Gene, In the past there have been questions concerning what Amazon considers an order. Would you please explain this procedure? Does payment need to be made first? I ask because some orders never ship and others are refunded.    myhart

Thanks for your question, myhart.

Amazon considers an order when someone makes a purchase of any one item from the Amazon catalog.  If the same person purchases two products at the same time, this is considered as two different orders.  It is therefore possible for someone to purchase 10 different products on the same purchase and for you to be credited for 10 orders towards your next payment tier (see my post on the Amazon Associates Payment Tiers).

If you referred a customer who purchases an item, you will receive credit for the item as long as it is sold or placed in the cart within the 24-hour period of the original click (for more details see my post on how Amazon tracks affiliate orders). If the customer places an order and then returns immediately to make another purchase directly to Amazon, you will not receive credit for the second purchase, unless the customer returns through one of your links.

On your Amazon Associates Central report, you will see a separate Orders Summary and Earnings Summary. The reason for this separation is because while you see the order placed right away (usually within 24 hours of the order), you do not receive any earnings on the order until the order actually ships.  This can be the next day or it could be a week later, depending on the shipping preference made by the customer at check-out.  Because Amazon makes it easy for the customer to cancel the order before it ships out, Amazon waits to make sure the order ships before you are credited with the sale.

If the customer cancels an order or returns an order after he/she receives it, the Amazon system is smart enough to track it and reduce your fees by the amount you originally earned on the product purchased and then returned.

Hope that answered your question!

Gene Kavner

Does Amazon store cookies on people who bought through your affiliate program?

I've been reading the varoius forums on Amazon Associates and found the following interesting question.    

Does Amazon store cookies on people who bought through your affiliate program? Here is the senario: User comes in the 1st time through your link, and doesn't buy. One week later, user types in the amazon main website url, and buys from there. My question is: Do you get credits for that?

This question is the most fundamental to any affiliate program.  Ultimately any affiliate program is not going to survive if it is not able to establish a trusting relationship between a merchant running the affiliate program and the publisher driving traffic to the merchant. The affiliate needs to feel 100% comfortable that they will get compensated based on the terms of the agreement.      

Having taken another look, I see that the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement dated August 17 2006 does not fully address this question.  Thus, let me address this critical question here.

When you build any link to Amazon.com from Associates Central, Amazon tags the link with your Amazon Associates ID.  When you click on the link you may end up on a page with a very long URL.  Typically, you will see one of the parameters on the URL called "tag".  This is the tag that specifies your Associates ID:

If you click on any link on this page, you will redirect to a different Amazon.com page but your tag will be replaced with the Session ID that looks like 102-8430161-8248922:

It does not mean that your tag is no longer associated with this transaction.  Amazon still "remembers" your tag and it is now associated with the entire session that this customer has established on Amazon.com.  Because your Associates ID gets attached with the Session ID and the Session ID gets passed from page to page in the URL, the customer does not even need to have his cookies enabled for your Associates ID to be linked with this session -- until the customer closes his browser.  If the customer comes back to Amazon within 24 hours of the initial click, even if he types "http://www.amazon.com" in his browser, Amazon will attempt to re-esatblish the original session from the customer's cookie.  If cookies are enabled, the session tagged to your Associate ID will get re-established.  If the cookies are not enabled, a new session not tagged with your Associates ID will be established.  I find that about 85% of the users run their browsers with cookies enabled.

From the moment a customer clicks on a link on your site and ends up on the Amazon site, his session will last for 24 hours.  Any purchases during this period will be credited to you as an affiliate as long as:

1.  A purchase is made in the same browser as the original click within the 24 hours of the first click, OR 2.  Customer clicks to Amazon, exists the browser and comes back to Amazon directly within 24 hours while his cookies are enabled.

Lastly, there is one more way you can get credited with the purchase even if the purchase is not made within the first 24 hours of the click.  If the customer adds an item to his cart within the first 24 hour period, those items may be purchased within the next 90 days and you will still receive affiliate credit for those items. 

So, the answer to your original question is:  If the user doesn't buy on the first visit and then comes back one week later to buy, you will not get credited if the user hadn't added the purchased item to the shopping cart within 24 hours of the original visit.  If the user had placed the item into his shopping cart, then you will receive the affiliate credit.

Gene Kavner

P.S. Go Tigers!

Details About Amazon Text Links

In my prevous posts about the Amazon Associates link types, I have provided a general overview of the types of links Amazon offers affiliates and about the Amazon Associates Product Links. In this post I will address the Amazon Associates Text Links. You may reach the Text Link section by logging into Amazon Associates Central, clicking on the "Build Links" menu item and then clicking on the icon next inside the "Text Links" section:




Text Links are Page Content Links (see Link Type Overview) that give you an opportunity to link to a specific page on the Amazon site. As you can see from the options provided to you, you can:

1. Link to Favorite Destinations.
2. Link to Search Results.
3. Link to Any Page at Amazon.com.


Link to Favorite Destinations

In this section you can build a link that will lead your visitors to any of the major product lines that Amazon distributes and a subcategory within those categories. The following is an exhaustive list of categories / subcategory pages that you can link to:

Apparel & Accessories Accessories General Bestsellers Kids & Baby Men Shoes Women	Automotive Car Care Exterior Accessories General Bestsellers Interior Accessories Oils & Fluids Paint, Body & Trim Performance Parts & Accessories Replacement Parts Tires & Wheels Tools & Equipment	Baby Apparel Bathing & Skin Care Bedding Car Seats Diapering Feeding For Moms Furniture Gear General Bestsellers Gifts Health & Baby Care Nursery Décor Potty Training Safety Strollers	Beauty Bath & Shower Fragrance General Bestsellers Gift Sets Hair Care Makeup Men's Grooming Shaving & Hair Removal Skin Care Tools & Accessories
Books Arts & Photography Biographies & Memoirs Business & Investing Children's Books Comics & Graphic Novels Computers & Internet Cooking, Food & Wine Entertainment Gay & Lesbian General Bestsellers Health, Mind & Body History Home & Garden Law Literature & Fiction Medicine Mystery & Thrillers Nonfiction Outdoors & Nature Parenting & Families Professional & Technical Reference Religion & Spirituality Romance Science Science Fiction & Fantasy Sports Teens Travel	Camera & Photo Accessories Camcorders Digital Cameras Film Cameras General Bestsellers Optics Printers & Scanners	Cell Phones & Service All Bluetooth Camera E-mail Flip General Bestsellers Kid's MP3 PDA Prepaid Unlocked Video Wi-Fi	Classical Music Ballads Canons Concertos Etudes Fantasies Fugues General Bestsellers Inventions Lullabies & Berceuse Oratorio Preludes Requiems, Elegies & Tombeau Rondos Serenades & Divertimentos Short Forms Sonatas Suites Symphonies Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music Toccatas Variations
Computers Computer Add-Ons Desktops General Bestsellers Handhelds & PDAs Notebooks	Computer & Video Games Game Boy Advance GameCube General Bestsellers Mac Games More Systems Nintendo DS Nintendo Wii PC Games PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3 Sony PSP Xbox Xbox 360	DVD Action & Adventure African American Cinema Animation Anime & Manga Art House & International Classics Comedy Cult Movies Documentary Drama Educational Fitness & Yoga Gay & Lesbian General Bestsellers Horror Kids & Family Military & War Music Video & Concerts Musicals & Performing Arts Mystery & Suspense Science Fiction & Fantasy Special Interests Sports Television Westerns	Electronics Accessories & Supplies Audio & Video Camera & Photo Car Electronics Computers & Add-Ons GPS & Navigation General Bestsellers Home Automation & Security Office Electronics
Gourmet Food Appetizers & Hors d'oeuvres Baking Supplies Beverages Bread Candy Chocolate Coffee & Tea Cookies Dairy Foods & Eggs Desserts Fruits & Vegetables General Bestsellers Gourmet Cheese Jams, Jellies & Preserves Meat, Game & Pâtés Oils, Vinegars & Salad Dressings Pasta, Beans, Grains & Rice Prepared Meals Restaurant Gift Certificates Salsas & Condiments Seafood & Caviar Seasonings, Herbs & Spices Snack Food Soups & Stocks	Grocery Baking Supplies Beverages Boxed Meals & Side Dishes Breads & Pastries Breakfast Foods Canned & Packaged Goods Condiments, Sauces & Spreads General Bestsellers Health & Family Herbs, Spices & Seasonings Household Supplies Pasta & Grains Pet Supplies Snacks, Cookies & Candy	Home & Garden Backyard Birding Bar Tools & Glasses Bed & Bath Coffee, Tea & Espresso Cook's Tools & Gadgets Cookware & Baking Cutlery Fresh Flowers & Indoor Plants Furniture & Décor Gardening Tools General Bestsellers Grills, Smokers & Outdoor Cooking Heating & Lighting Housewares Kitchen & Table Linens Kitchen Plumbing Fixtures & Sinks Large Appliances Leisure & Fitness Outdoor Décor Patio Furniture Pest Control Pet Supplies Plants, Seeds & Flowers Small Appliances Tableware Weather Instruments Wine Accessories	Health & Personal Care Baby & Child Care Food & Snacks General Bestsellers Health & Personal Care Outlet Store Health Care House Supplies Nutrition & Fitness Personal Care Sex & Sensuality
Jewelry & Watches Accessories Body Jewelry Bracelets Brooches & Pins Charms Children's Jewelry Earrings Engagement General Bestsellers Jewelry Sets Men's Jewelry Necklaces & Pendants Religious Jewelry Rings Watches Wedding & Anniversary	Kitchen & Housewares Bar Tools & Glasses Coffee, Tea & Espresso Cook's Tools & Gadgets Cookware & Baking Cutlery General Bestsellers Housewares Kitchen & Table Linens Kitchen Furniture Kitchen Plumbing Fixtures & Sinks Large Appliances Small Appliances Storage & Organization Tableware Wine Accessories	Magazine Subscriptions Arts & Crafts Automotive Bridal Business & Finance Children's Computer & Internet Electronics & Audio Entertainment Family & Parenting Fashion & Style Food & Gourmet Games & Hobbies Gay & Lesbian General Bestsellers Health & Fitness History Home & Garden International Lifestyle & Cultures Literary Men's Interest Music News & Politics Pets Religion & Spirituality Science & Nature Sports & Leisure Teens Travel & Regional Women's Interest	Music Alternative Rock Blues Broadway & Vocalists Children's Music Christian & Gospel Classic Rock Classical Country Dance & DJ Folk General Bestsellers Hard Rock & Metal International Jazz Latin Music Miscellaneous New Age Opera & Vocal Pop R&B Rap & Hip-Hop Rock Soundtracks
Musical Instruments General Bestsellers Instrument Accessories Instruments Sound & Recording Equipment	Software Business & Office Children's Software Education & Reference General Bestsellers Graphics Home & Hobbies Language & Travel Linux Macintosh Networking Operating Systems Outlet Personal Finance Programming Software Downloads Software for Handhelds Utilities Video & Music Web Development	Sports & Outdoors Accessories Airsoft Apparel Archery Badminton Ballet & Dance Baseball Basketball Boating Bowling Boxing Camping & Hiking Cheerleading Climbing Crew Cricket Curling Cycling & Wheel Sports Disc Sports Diving Dog Sports Equestrian Sports Exercise & Fitness Fan Shop Fencing Field Hockey Fishing Football Game Room General Bestsellers Golf Gymnastics Hockey Hunting Jai Alai Kayaking Lacrosse Lawn Games Martial Arts Motor Sports Paddle Court Sports Paintball Pilates Polo RV Equipment Racquetball Rodeo Rugby Running Scooters Shoes Skateboarding Skating Skydiving Sledding Snow Skiing Snowboarding Snowmobiling Snowshoeing Soccer Softball Sports Equipment Sports Medicine Squash Surfing Swimming Tennis & Racquet Sports Track & Field Triathlon Volleyball Water Polo Water Sports Windsurfing Wrestling Yoga	Tools & Hardware Agricultural Equipment Cleaning Supplies & Equipment Construction Machinery General Bestsellers Hand Tools Home Improvement Hot Deals Outlet Hydraulics Job Site Lawn & Garden Lighting Power Tools
Toys & Games Action Figures Activities & Amusements Arts & Crafts Bikes, Skates & Ride-Ons Building Sets, Blocks & Models Dolls Electronics for Kids Furniture for Kids Games General Bestsellers Hobbies Learning & Education Music Party Supplies Play Vehicles Preschool Pretend Play & Dress-up Puzzles Sports & Outdoor Play Stuffed Animals & Toys Toy Figures & Playsets Video Games	VHS Action & Adventure African American Cinema Animation Anime & Manga Art House & International Boxed Sets Classics Comedy Cult Movies Documentary Drama Educational Fitness Gay & Lesbian General Bestsellers Horror Kids & Family Military & War Music Video & Concerts Musicals & Performing Arts Mystery & Suspense Science Fiction & Fantasy Spanish Language Special Interests Sports Television Westerns Widescreen

The above categories put the size of the Amazon catalog in perspective -- it's enormous. This makes Amazon Associates one of the premier affiliate programs on the Internet. No matter what your site is about, chances are you will find something in the Amazon catalog to link to.

If you do not wish to link to a particular subcategory, each category has a special "General Bestsellers" section that you can link to.

Unfortunately, Amazon does not provide as part of its associates central web site an ability to use image links into each particular category. However, you may find excellent images on each of the subcategory pages of Amazon.com, so you may consider putting one of those images on your site. Of course, you should download the image to your server to ensure that delays on the Amazon site do not impact your performance and that the image will continue to be served if Amazon chooses to remove it at some point in the future.

Link to Search Results

The next option that Amazon provides is an ability for you to link to the the search result page of the Amazon site. When you visit Amazon.com you typically see a search box at the top of the page giving you a way to search for a particular product within a product line. Linking to search results gives you a way to link to a result page for the key words of your choice. Take a look at the following few examples:

• Books on Affiliate Marketing
• Clothing for University of Michigan Fans
• Lots of Wi-Fi products
• Items to Make Your Picnic Perfect

You can come up with almost an infinite list of product searches. I suggest that you always try to specify a product line when you enter your search keywords as Amazon search engine is not very accurate and brings up unrelated products frequently. After creating a link, make sure it leads to the page of products that you expect to see for your keywords.

Link to Any Page at Amazon.com

Lastly, the Text Links section gives you an ability to link to ANY page on Amazon.com. You can use this option as the text link to any product detail page, any product-line page, any sub-category page, or a search results page. In effect, this text link can do what any other Product or Text link can do, but without the images.

The most common use of this option is to link to Amazon.com home page. The interesting peculiarity of this link is that you cannot link to http://Amazon.com (with the capital A). You have to have the lower-case 'a' as in http://amazon.com.

In my next post I will take a look at the Amazon aStore.

Gene Kavner

Details About Amazon Product Links

In my previous post I have given you a complete overview of all link types that Amazon Associates affiliate program provides that you can use to link to Amazon.  As I have discussed, these links are broken up into two groups as follows:

Page Content links

• Product Links
• Text Links
• aStore

Advertising Slot links

• Recommended Product Links
• Omakase Links
• Easy Links
• Search Boxes

In this post I will give you some more details about the Page Content links (specifically, Product Links) and in my upcoming post I will give you more details about the remaining Page Content Links and the Advertising Slot links.

Page Content links are the most successful link types in the Amazon Associates program, offering affiliates ways to link directly to the desired products in the Amazon catalog.  Because of this ability to pick products, you are able to specifically match the content of your site to some number of products in the Amazon catalog. 

As an example of this, if your site is about new cell phone gadgets, you may want to link to some products in the Amazon catalog like the Treo 700 or the Blackberry 8700g:

If your site is about affiliate marketing (such as this one), you may want to offer your viewers a web store with books about affiliate marketing. 

The nice benefit here is that while you make suggestions about the products, they are not viewed as simple advertising by your readers.  Instead, these suggestions are viewed as your editorial perspective on what your readers should be reading or using (or buying).  This type of a suggestion carries with it a significantly higher call to action than a simple ad for a product. As a result, you will see a significantly higher level of conversion for your products.  Best yet, because these links live in the main content portion of your page, you can still have your existing advertising links, bringing you additional income.

One note of caution when you use content links.  Because your readers view such links are your editorial opinion, be sure that you have explored these suggestions yourself.  Nothing will ruin your credibility faster than suggesting products that people try and find worthless.  Amazon makes this process very easy with product reviews, so you can be sure to not suggest any products that a large number of existing customers find unacceptable.

Let's take a look at each link type individually.

Product Links

Product link allows you to like to a single product in the Amazon catalog.  You have two ways of creating the HTML code you will need to put on your site:

1.	By typing in the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN).
	You can find this number on any Amazon product detail page under "Product Details" section, ASIN line.  If you see a product you want to purchase, copy this number (or write it down).  Once you are in the "Build Links" section of Amazon Associates Central, simply copy this number in the "keyword or ASIN/ISBN" field.
2.	If you are looking to link to a book and you know the book's ISBN number, you may type it in here as well.
3.	Select a keyword to search Amazon's catalog.
	Tip: You should select a product line before you search for a keyword.  Amazon's product search is not very smart (reminds me of pre-Google web search engines) and you need to give it a lot of help before it will find you the product you are looking for.  Try typing in "Treo" before you select the product line and you will get quite a large number of carrying cases before you get the actual Treo.

Once you've selected the product, you have an option to generate a link that has:

	or		or	Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web
Text and Image		Image Only		Text Only

Tip: If you choose to use Image Only or Text Only links, I strongly suggest you include the code at the bottom of the page that enables Product Previews that was launched by Amazon Associates recently.  At this time, Amazon does not offer Product Previews for the Text and Image Link type and I hope they add Product Previews for this link type soon.  For more information on Product Previews, refer to my previous post titled Amazon.com Associates Team Launches Product Previews.

In my next post, I will review Text Links and the Amazon aStore; I will then review Advertising Slot Links.

Gene Kavner

Amazon Releases an Early Update to aStore

Early this morning, October 12, 2006, Amazon announced a number of improvements to aStore, a product that allows a quick and easy way for all of you who are Amazon affiliates to build your own store featuring just the products that match the content of your site. These changes provide additional flexibility to you in the way you build your aStore.



On September 27, 2006, the Amazon Associates team sent out an email to all of us who are beta testers of the Amazon aStore product. In this email Amazon announced a number of upcoming changes to the Amazon aStore, scheduled for a late November 2006 release, namely:



With the changes announced today, Amazon released a couple of upcoming improvements ahead of their own schedule. The new features that Amazon has released this morning are:

• For sites that link to an aStore (rather than embed it as part of site), Amazon now allows you to have a back-link to your main affiliate site from the aStore. This is a significant improvement for two reasons: 1) Your visitors clicking off to your store now have a convenient way to get back to your site, and 2) It helps your site's page rank by having a link from aStore which is stored on the aStore.Amazon.com domain.
  
  
  
  Bug? It took me quite a while to figure out why this feature wasn't working when I turned it on this morning. I discovered that for it to work, you must have at least one category page enabled and "Hide category navigation" turned off. I do not see why needing to have category browsing is a requirement for this to work and am hoping that Amazon fixes this in the next release.
  
  
• You may now remove the header of your site. This is a great ability if you are embedding your aStore using an <IFRAME> and already have a header on your pages. If you wish to have the header, it is nice that Amazon is giving you the ability to upload your own graphic or specify size of text should you want to have text-only header.
  
  
  
  
• You may now remove category navigation from your aStore. Great feature but has some weaknesses that I hope Amazon improves upon:
  
  1. Link back to your site only works if you have at least one category enabled (see above).
  2. If you add categories but forget that "Hide Category Navigation" checkbox at the bottom is checked, your categories will not show up. Would be nice for the checkbox to automatically turn off when you add categories/sub-categories.
  3. When you change page title to each of the categories (great feature!) you need to remember to hit "Save" each time before you move on to the next category or whatever you typed in for your category title/description will be lost. I believe "Save" should be automatic as it is with other portions of the aStore.
  4. You can only add a sub-category page once you have a category page. If you wish to only display Electronics GPS devices, you need to display all of Electronics and then a separate page for GPS devices. I would have loved to be able to show GPS devices without needing to show the entire Electronics category.
  5. Sub-categories are not visible until your user clicks on the category link. Thus, the user may not even know that you have a GPS sub-category unless he clicks on the Electronics category first.
  
  
• The custom product description length has been extended, allowing you to say more about the products you recommend to your customers.
  
  
• Product detail pages now display a "crossed-out" list price followed by the Amazon.com price.
  
  
• The page title in the browser now displays the name of the aStore combined with the category name or product name, making aStore more search-engine friendly.

Other than above, we are still waiting for an update to aStore that will enable:

• Multiple aStores per Associates account
• Specify products to feature on Category and Sub-Category pages
• Feature up to 54 products on the front page of your store rather than the current limit of nine

I think it is great that the Amazon team is taking steps to release excellent functionality in steps rather than us having to wait until all of them are done. aStore is still in beta but Amazon is making excellent steps towards enabling it to become the easiest means to build your own personal store on your web site. I will be adding my aStore to AffiliateBrand.com in the next day or two.

Gene Kavner

Amazon Associates Link Types - a Complete Overview

A few days ago I made a post about the brand new Amazon Associates Product Preview feature for their Product Links.  This post is going to give you a comprehensive overview of all of the Amazon Associates link types that you may use on your site to link to Amazon.  I will also give you some practical advise on how to taylor some of these links to better suit your purposes.

Before you can take advantage of the Amazon Associate links, you must be a part of the Amazon Associates program.  If you are not a member already, click here to join -- it takes seconds and will enable you to add Amazon content to your site and monetize your traffic.  Don't worry if you already have other means to make money; Amazon Associates program gives you an additional, incremental way to make even more on your site.

Typical Content Site Layout

If you are a typical content site or a blog, you will have the following layout:

While most monetization programs give you a chance to fill up your advertising slots, Amazon provides you a way to link your site to Amazon from both, the advertising slots and the main page content of your site.

To give you a comparison to the offline world of television, the advertising links are similar to watching commercials on TV (e.g. a Volvo commercial) while the content links are similar to products that are part of the main TV program (e.g. a character of a show driving a Volvo).  Certainly, there is room for both ways to monetize your site and if you are focused solely on the advertizing slots, you are missing a fantastic way to make additional revenue.

Amazon Advertising Link Types

Amazon has several link types that are designed to be placed in your advertising slots on the page.  These link types compete for placement with other advertising programs, such as Google AdSense, AdBrite, TextAds, Kanoodle, etc.  However, unlike other advertising programs which provide ads for a large number of potential advertisers, for which you have little control of, Amazon advertising links have only a single advertiser: Amazon.com.

Having Amazon as the sole advertiser has its advantages and disadvantages.  I'll start with the disadvantages first (to end on a more positive note!).

• Disadvantage 1: You only have a single advertiser competing for placement, so there is lack of built-in advertising price inflation.  While various advertisers of other programs bid prices up against each other to win the coveted placement (causing you to make more money), Amazon typically keeps their margins and percentage of payouts steady.
• Disadvantage 2: Because Amazon typically has poor margins (as do other retailers), percentage of their payouts is not as generous as some other programs that solicit advertisers having significantly higher margins, and as a result, being able to afford higher affiliate commission rates.
• Disadvantage 3: Being the only advertiser allows Amazon to pay you on a Cost-Per-Action (CPA) basis.  This means they only pay you when a user coming from your site completes (and does not cancel) a purchase from Amazon.  As a result, you absorb the risk that your site's viewer clicks on an Amazon Ad, goes to Amazon and does not complete a purchase (or completes it more than 24 hours after the click), for which you make nothing.  Other popular advertising programs pay you on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) basis, which means you get paid (albeit a small amount but it all adds up) on each click your site generates for the advertiser.
• Advantage 1:  With Amazon as the single advertiser, your visitors see a trusted brand on your site.  While most other programs accept advertisers that can be quite shady, without an easy way to tell if you can trust them with a credit card, you can be assured that Amazon will not misuse your customers' privacy or renege on its promise to deliver a product.
• Advantage 2: Because Amazon is a trusted brand, you are likely to see better conversions (higher % of people making a purchase) than with other CPA affiliate programs.  I am sure that you've clicked on many ads but not complete a purchase because the site just did not seem trustworthy.  One advantage of Amazon is that if you trust anybody online, you'll trust Amazon.
• Advantage 3: Amazon has millions of products across 35 different categories in its catalog.  No other advertiser can claim this depth of product offers.  Most advertisers can only boast a few different options for their visitors.  With Amazon, if your viewer clicks on an ad for an iPod and later decides to purchase a windshield wiper instead, you still get the credit and the corresponding commission.
• Advantage 4: Because Amazon pays on a CPA basis rather than on CPC basis, the program removes any incentive for people to simply click on ads.  This significantly reduces general fraud (and eliminates click fraud completely).  With Amazon, you don't have to worry about clicking on your own ads or getting reduced payouts due to click fraud.

The following are Amazon link types that are designed specifically for the advertising slots:

• Recommended Product Links
• Omakase Links
• Easy Links
• Search Boxes

Page Content Links

Other than Amazon, there are few programs that provide you with the wealth of opportunities         to monetize the main content of your web site or blog entry.  Amazon's page content links allow you to offer your readers a way to purchase a product that you specifically discuss in the main portion of your site.  Because these offers are so directly related to what you are discussing on your site, they are typically not associated with "advertising".  Instead, this is what typical users would consider to be part of the main site content. 

What differentiates these links from other links is that they allow you to pick the specific product or page from the Amazon catalog that you would like to feature and discuss on your site.  For example, being an entrepreneur myself, I have read an excellent book on formation of Google.  The book gave me a glimpse into the passion and drive of two college friends and how they decided to take a chance on an idea of building a new paradigm for a search engine.  The link I provided is a perfect example of a content link (I strongly suggest that all current or aspiring entrepreneurs read this book).

As you can see, product links give you an ability to send a powerful message to your readers.  As a result, these links are able to give you click-through and conversion rates much higher than anything you can get via the advertising links.  In the end, if you match products with the content of your site well, you have a chance to make as much if not more from your content links as you would with your advertising links.

The following are Amazon link types that are designed for the main content of your site:

• Product Links
• Text Links
• aStore

Continue to the next post about Product Links.

Gene Kavner

Can Amazon Associates Pre-Sell Amazon Products on eBay?

I recently received the following question from John Morrison:

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?

John, thanks for the question.  I love discovering ingenious ways to take advantage of the Amazon Associates program. The model you described is indeed clever.

To understand whether it represents legitimate use of the Amazon Associates program, it is good to understand the big-picture rationale of the program itself. The purpose of the Amazon Associates program is to allow millions of web sites to offer their readers an opportunity to purchase a particular product from Amazon as opposed to purchase this product from a competitor or as the case may be, not make any purchase at all. It is also the purpose of the program to introduce new customers to Amazon, to the breadth of its catalog and to its exemplary customer service.  In the end, Amazon certainly hopes that this program not only brings new consumers to Amazon but that they also establish a long-term direct relationship with the company.

In my opinion, the model you described certainly violates both the spirit of the program and the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement. By making Amazon catalog available on eBay, these associates allow eBay to become the destination site for consumers in their effort to purchase certain products available at Amazon.  These customers do not get introduced to Amazon, preventing Amazon from establishing a direct relationship with them. Lastly, if those customers return products to Amazon, they do not get their credit cards refunded since Amazon would be refunding the credit card of the associate and not the end consumer. This may create serious implications for Amazon if the consumer does not get a corresponding, timely refund on their own credit card (or via PayPal).

With regard to the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement, these associates violate the following paragraph:

   

You may not purchase products during sessions initiated through the links on your site for your own use, for resale or commercial use of any kind. This includes orders for customers or on behalf of customers or orders for products to be used by you or your friends, relatives, or associates in any manner. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees and/or the termination of this Agreement. Products that are eligible to earn referral fees under the rules set forth above are referred to as "Qualifying Products."

My interpretation of the agreement is based on my experience as the Director of the Amazon Associates Program.  Since I am no longer in this position, this interpretation does not necessarily represent the opinion of Amazon.com.  Since it is completely up to Amazon.com as to how they enforce any violation of this agreement, I will leave it in their able hands.  I suggest you document any violations of the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement in the response section to this post.  I know that the Amazon Associates team reads my blog and will take the necessary action if they believe they need to terminate any Associate relationship due to any violation.

Thanks again for your question.

Gene Kavner

Amazon.com Associates Team Launches Product Previews

Over the last year, Amazon.com Associates team has been running a beta test of new JavaScript-based technology called Product Previews. Over the last couple of days, Amazon has quietly launched this new feature.



Actually, I'm quite impressed with the technology and am surprised that this launch was so quiet. Let's take a look!

What makes the Amazon Associates program so interesting is that you can link to most any product Amazon sells (and they have millions!) and generate cash commission on each sale. If you do a really good job of picking the product by matching it to the content of your web site or blog, you can bring great value to your readers and monetize your site well.

The look and feel of your site is also very important -- it brings your readers back! And this is where the new Product Previews come in. I've been a great fan of this technology while it was in beta (showing 50% of the time) and am very excited now that Amazon has finally rolled it out.

Check out these two product placements. They look very similar, don't they? Now, roll your mouse over each one.

Garmin Nuvi 360 Pocket Vehicle GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant Purchase Today at Amazon!		Garmin Nuvi 360 Pocket Vehicle GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant Purchase Today at Amazon!
Amazon Ad Without Product Preview		Amazon Ad With Product Preview

When you mouse over the ad with product preview, you should see this Pop-Over next to the ad itself:



I think the ad on the right is more engaging and interactive. It makes your site come alive. It gives the sense of your site "talking" to your customers and selling them on your product. I highly recommend you try the new Product Previews from Amazon.

So how do you make this work?

Unfortunatly, Amazon made it a bit confusing as to how to make Product Previews work on your site, so let me make this process a bit more clear.

1. If you are not already a registered member of Amazon Associates, join Amazon Associates right now.

2. Log in to Amazon Associates Central and click on "Build Links" link on the navigation menu.

3. Product Preview works only on Product Links, so you will need to choose one or more specific products that you will feature on your site. You should then decide what products to feature, whether you would like to show an image of the product, text of the product, or both. You should now click on button next to the Product Links section of the Available Link Types for Amazon.com.

4. Enter the ASIN number of the product (you can find this number on any Amazon.com product detail page) or just the keywords that you think describes the product.

5. Click on for the product you want to feature.

6. You will now see that the default link type chosen is Text and Image. Unfortunately, Product Preview does not work on the Text and Image link type. For Product Preview to work, you must change selection to either Image Only or Text Only. You can combine both Image Only and Text Only on the same page but you will not be able to show the price of the product right there on your page (it will show up on the preview page). As you can see, in my example above, I have combined both the Image Only and Text Only links.

October 10, 2006 UPDATE: When you select "Image Only" link option, the HTML code you get assumes that you copy the graphic and host it on your site in the same directory as the page which contains this image. If you do not perform this step, you will not see an image on your page. This is NOT the same behavior as the "Text and Image" link option which gets the image from the Amazon server. I understand that Amazon is planning to make this process easier in the upcoming update. In the meantime, please read my comment to this post for what I suggest you should do to work around this issue.

7. You should copy the HTML produced and paste it on your site where you would like to feature the product.

8. You are not done yet! You must now copy the Product Preview JavaScript in section 4. This is what is going to enable the Product Preview on your page. Place this script anywhere inside the <BODY> tag of your site. You only need to do this once, no matter how many Product Links you have built on your page. They will all convert to Product Preview links! Now you are done!

If you already have text and/or image product links on your site, you must still follow the above steps (skip step 7) to get the JavaScript you will need to enable Product Previews.

If you have build the new Product Preview links on your site, please leave a comment and let me know your site -- I will review it and offer as an example for others to follow. Good luck!

Gene Kavner

How to make money with Amazon Associates

With millions of products available for sale via Amazon Associates, Amazon.com has built a premier affiliate program.  However, with so much flexibility, the program's complexity frequently presents a challenge to both new publishers and current publishers.  As a result, many of you either let your links get outdated or you simply fail to keep up with many of the new features added by the Amazon Associates team.  This post and my upcoming posts will try to make it all easier for you.

So, which sites make the best Amazon affiliates?

Sites that make the best Amazon affiliates are well-organized with unique content about a particular topic for which Amazon sells products.  For example, sites with news about the latest cell phones would be perfect affiliates, linking to Amazon to fulfill their readers' demand for the latest, hottest gadgets.  My site is all about making money with affiliate programs, so I will be adding my own Amazon store full of excellent reading material about making money with your sites.

How do you make money with Amazon Associates program?

Amazon will pay you a percentage of revenues it generates from visitors that click over to Amazon from your site.  The amount depends on which compensation option you select. 

Compensation Option 1:  Performance Fee Structure

This is the default compensation structure.  As you will see, this is the only compensation structure you should use.

With this compensation structure, your commission rate is based on how many Amazon products you sell during any quarter, with the base commission being 4% going all the way up to 8.5%.  Here's the chart of the Performance Fee Structure:

Compensation Option 2:  Classic Fee Structure

This is a legacy fee structure that no longer makes sense for the publishers.  It pays a flat 4% commission on all sales.  Since 4% is the minimum commission in the Performance Fee Structure (Option 1), going up based on your sales volume, I suggest you do not consider Option 2. 

Since Option 1 is the default option, there is nothing that you need to do to select it.  The rest of my post will assume you have selected Compensation Option 1:  Performance Fee Structure.

Performance Fee Structure Considerations

There are a number of very important considerations that you should keep in mind:

• Referral-Fee Rate is retroactive.  This means that if you sell 1,000 items during the calendar quarter, your commission will be 7.5% on all of the non-electronic items you sold that quarter.
• Your commission on Electronics items will be 4% regardless of how many items you have sold during the quarter.  However, Electronics items do count towards your item total, so if you sell 20 Electronic items and 1 non-Electronic item, the non-Electronic item will generate a 6% commission for you.
• It is far better to sell 100 items priced at $10 each than 10 items priced at $100 each.  In the former case, you will earn $65 in commissions ($1000 in sales * 6.5% based on 100 sales = $65 in commissions).  In the latter case, you will earn $40 in commissions ($1000 in sales * 4% based on 10 sales = $40 in commissions).  Thus, you'll do better by selling more, lower-priced items than fewer higher-priced items.
• This fee structure applies to all products you sell that quarter, regardless of the links you used to promote them.  Thus, if you sell 20 products via the Amazon aStore and 10 products via the Omakase links, this means that you sold 30 products that quarter and your commission structure will reflect this quantity.
• You cannot receive any commission on sales you make to yourself.  However, anything you can do to encourage your website visitors and your friends/family to shop via your links will enable you to make money with Amazon Associates.

In my future post I will discuss how to build links to Amazon, including tips and tricks of navigating through the maze of link options Amazon has given you.

Brand New Amazon Associates Landing Page Experiment

This week, Amazon Associates started running a brand new test of their program in preparation for the 2006 shopping season.  It is clear Amazon would like to figure out how to maximize sales which affects  their revenues and your commissions.  Good for them.  Let's take a look at what they are doing.

In the past, when you have put a link on your site to a particular product, when clicked, it took your visitors to a page that Amazon calls "Similarities Explorer Page".  Similarities Explorer Page is a page where just a small portion at the top is devoted to the product your visitor clicked on.  The remainder of the page presented images of various other products that are in some way similar to the original  product selected by the viewer.  Take a look at the following example of a typical ad and a resulting Similarities Explorer page:

Amazon Product Ad	click-through	Amazon Similarities Explorer Page

A test that Amazon ran a number of years ago has shown that this page is more likely to generate a sale than the product detail page (see below).  The reason for this was that if the potential consumer  clicks on a product and it is not exactly what he is looking for, then he may find a different product that is similar to the first one he clicked on that is more to his liking.

Amazon Product Ad	click-through	Amazon Product Detail Page

However, a number of improvements have been made over the years to the product detail page.  Today, the Amazon Product Detail page has significantly more information about the product than the Similarities  Explorer page, namely:

• More buying options, better pricing, image, special offer, and delivery information.
• Better Together section: bundles that can save you even more money.
• What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item.
• Product technical details.
• Miscellaneous product details, such as dimensions, weight, sales rank.
• Link to a product manual.
• Product Description.
• Accessories and service.
• Customers who bought this item also bought...
• Help others find this item.
• Tag this product.
• Rate this item.
• Spotlight reviews.
• Customer reviews.
• Customer discussions.
• ProductWiki: Product Information from Our Customers.
• News and Reviews About This Product.
• Listmania!
• So You'd Like to... guides.
• Look for related items by keyword.
• Look for similar items by category.

Whew!  Amazon has certainly packed a lot of information on their product detail pages.  It is certainly reasonable to assume that all this information may give a customer better incentive to purchase the  product.

So, staring September 25, Amazon Associates is starting a test in which clicks on Amazon product ads will be randomly directed to either a Similarities Explorer Page or to a Product Detail Page.  Amazon will then tabulate all results to see which page is resulting in better sales.  They will then cause all of the clicks to go to that page.  This test will run through October 24, 2006.

I have tried building links to Amazon products and took a look at what happens when I clicked on them.  It seems like the very first time you click on an ad, Amazon flips a virtual coin to see to which page  (product detail or similarities explorer) the click will take you.  After that, all clicks on Amazon ads will lead you to go to the same type of a page.  I tried this on Firefox first and all of my clicks led  me to the Similarities Explorer page.  I then tried this in Internet Explorer and all of my Amazon clicks went to the Product Detail page.  So now we wait and see what the results will show.

Having described this test, I'll be bold and make a prediction.  I think that the Associates team will learn that the Similarities Explorer page will continue to generate better results than the Product  Detail page.  I think that if you click on an ad, having an opportunity to see a number of product choices will give you a better ability to make a decision to purchase one of them.  We should all find out  the results on October 24.

Gene Kavner

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