Amazon Associates

[hairycornflakes]

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Would amazon associates not be sooo much better if wren you do an orders report it gave you a field showing how much commission you've made?

I know you don't get the comm till the items have been dispatched, but it's be much easier for me if it showed it on the orders report.

Anyone else find themselves checking the price of every item trying to calculate how much they've made!?

Hc
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[Seamaster]

Anyone else find themselves checking the price of every item trying to calculate how much they've made!?

Yep!

Each morning I log into Amazon Associates. Select yesterday then view my orders and click on them to work see how much I have made.

Even that isnt much use as you don't know how much it actually sold for (marketplace or direct from amazon) or what percentage commission you will get.

Yesterday my referral rates were:
8.51%
6.04%
8.50%
6.03%
5.99%

I don't understand how they can vary so much. Can anyone explain it?

I also wish you could see which of the orders have been despatched or not.

But apart from that I love AA and they are my favourite merchant so far!

[eymedia]

Agree... quite often check the stats at 1am-ish when they update too. Wish it was live so could watch the commissions building on Affmeter during the day too.

Amazon is such a good convertor though - it's hard to complain *too* much about them ;-)

Cheers.

[Seamaster]

Amazon is such a good convertor though - it's hard to complain *too* much about them ;-)

Amen. Imagine if they had a 30 day cookie though?

[hairycornflakes]

Amen. Imagine if they had a 30 day cookie though?

Yeah I'm not complaining too much!

Just curious why they can't implement something so simple. Agreed - live stats would be awesome!

Yourvariance is only really between two percentages 6% and 8.5%. The 8.5% reflects the 2.5% bonus you get on sales from direct links :-)

hc
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[Seamaster]

Yourvariance is only really between two percentages 6% and 8.5%. The 8.5% reflects the 2.5% bonus you get on sales from direct links :-)

True. Just seems to vary a little bit though.

Today is was: 8.57%, 8.48%, 8.48%, 8.51% which was nice. If I ever hit 10% in a month I was be laughing.

[hairycornflakes]

True. Just seems to vary a little bit though.

Today is was: 8.57%, 8.48%, 8.48%, 8.51% which was nice. If I ever hit 10% in a month I was be laughing.

Increase your quantity of sales and you'll see your comm rate increase ;-)

hc
Posted via my Mobile Device

[Seamaster]

Increase your quantity of sales and you'll see your comm rate increase ;-)

That is the dream. Last month I hit 100 sales. Shame it resets each month!

[John]

it's worth targeting something real low value like music downloads - you can easily shift high numbers of these, and whilst they won't earn you much on their own, it does bump up your commission on everything else too!

And of course, make sure you use the best link for Electrical items to further maximise your commissions

Gotta love Amazon!

[Seamaster]

So do you need to setup two amazon associates accounts, one on each plan?

[darrenb]

So do you need to setup two amazon associates accounts, one on each plan?

Yes, I believe so.

Amazon would be greate if they had real time stats. First thing I do each morning is check the previous days stats for Amazon, just have a quick glace down the ordered items list and pick out the items that look high value (usually electronics / kitchen) to get an idea on the previous days performance. I can live with not knowing as the advantages of using Amazon outweigh the odd downfall in the reporting.

I love Amazon for the fact that it converts very well and even though you may promote low value items you still get large commissions appear for other none related items.

What I tend to do with my account that is on the tied plan is switch it over near the end of the month to classic to see which plan would pay the best commission. If you do this make sure it is switched to the plan of your choice (most commission) by the last day of the month as you will be paid based on the plan selected at this time.

If you really wanted to know the commission based on orders i'm sure someone with the right knowledge could knock up a script to query each ordered item page and calculate a commission based on the link type used. I'm not techie enough so not sure if it is possible, or worth the effort.

[chrisuk]

Is amazon affiliation quite lucrative then, say using just ppc? Never tried it with them.

[darrenb]

Is amazon affiliation quite lucrative then, say using just ppc? Never tried it with them.

They convert well and generally have competitive prices. Not really tried them on ppc as I generally stick with seo. The only problem I can think of in using them with ppc is that you would have to run a campaign blind without knowing how well it is converting as the stats would not be available till the next day.

[Seamaster]

If you really wanted to know the commission based on orders i'm sure someone with the right knowledge could knock up a script to query each ordered item page and calculate a commission based on the link type used. I'm not techie enough so not sure if it is possible, or worth the effort.

Probably not worth the effort and I doubt you could do it as there is often more than one price on the page and you don't know which one the user chose.

[John]

If you really wanted to know the commission based on orders i'm sure someone with the right knowledge could knock up a script to query each ordered item page and calculate a commission based on the link type used. I'm not techie enough so not sure if it is possible, or worth the effort.

That's kinda what we do on ECU - if a product is in the Electrical category, and has a price in excess of £175.00, we'll use the classic link - if it's anything else (or electrical and under £175.00), we'll use the performance link.

I love Amazon for not only great conversions, but the cross selling they do - Send a visitor to a book about Dog Breeding, and watch them buy the book, a hairdryer and a garden gnome. Real time stats and a 30 day cookie would make them the only retail affiliate program you'd ever need!