Amazon associate updates £7.00 cap across all products lines

[gerry180]

Just looking at the changes to the Amazon referral fee structure effective 1st July 2009.

In particular the referral tiers and standard cap of £7.00 across all product lines. Does this or any of the other changes have a negative or positive impact for you?

Amazon Agreement

[Seamaster]

I didnt really understand it.

It sounded positive the way they spun it but I guess not.

This won't affect me yet as I only promote lower priced items.

[TheBoy_78]

Sounded positive but most of what's changed will probalby be negative for most people, including me.

In my case, I hit the 1600+ target each month so now its harder for me to make the top tier, but I dont have to worry about what type of link I use. I dont think i'll be pushing 10,000 dispatches in a month even at Christmas, so for me i'll definately loose out - wont be able to get above 7.5% and no 2.5% bonus on top.

Then the £7 cap - this will definately hurt me - games consoles in particular will be far less lucrative, plus some of the newer lines, health and beauty etc will be capped.

Then theres the bit about paid search - dont worry, it only applies if you send the traffic direct to Amazon (which you shouldn't really be allowed to do as Google UK try to stop it), if you have a landing page you are not in this catagory. If you are doing it though, I think you will get hit with a 2% or lower rate.

Making money out of Amazon just got a little harder!

[mickn88]

If I still stay on the classic structure ie 4% of everything, does that have a £7 cap?

Mike

[gerry180]

It sounded positive the way they spun it

Aye. they're good at that.

"we strive to allow Associates to maximize their earnings"

Personally its not helping to maximise my earnings. Looks like more links will be using the classic fee plan (4%)

[hairycornflakes]

"Changes to Amazon Associates Programme

Changes to Associates Programme Operating Agreement, effective July 1st, 2009

Dear Amazon-Associate,

We are writing to inform you of an update to the Amazon Associates Programme's referral fee structure. Through our referral fee structure we strive to allow Associates to maximize their earnings as well as to reward Associates who are able to refer as many sales as possible to Amazon. We also try to keep the Programme's referral fee structure as simple and transparent as possible while adapting to changes in the online marketing environment. With these objectives in mind, we are updating our referral fee structure as described below. The Associates Programme Operating Agreement will be updated to reflect these referral fee structure changes, in addition to several other changes we have made to bring the Operating Agreement in line with our current processes. All changes to the Programme will take effect on July 1, 2009. The details of the changes to the referral fee structure are discussed below. If you have any feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Click here for our contact form.

Have you checked our Amazon MP3 offers recently? The Amazon MP3 store now features more than 5 million tracks, from all the major labels and many leading independent labels, all free of Digital Rights Management (DRM), so the music can be enjoyed on any MP3 player, including the iPod, and transferred within seconds to popular music libraries, such as Windows Media or iTunes. Qualifying Amazon MP3 downloads earn a referral fee rate of 10%.

Changes to Referral Fee Structure

* Referral Fee Rates Increased - Earn up to 9% (and 10% for Amazon MP3s): We have raised the top referral fee rate in our tiered model. Most Associates can now earn up to 9% on Qualified Products, an increase of 1.5% from our previous referral fee structure. See table below for details, and don't forget, Amazon MP3 downloads earn a referral fee rate of 10% and gift certificates redeemable on the Amazon site earn a referral fee rate of 6%.

Commission Table


* Elimination of "Bonus" Structure: Over the past several years, we have developed many new features for Associates such as our new Flash Widgets and the Site Stripe. In order to give you more choice as to which tools and link types you use for linking to Amazon, we believe that you should earn the same amount of referral fee regardless of link type. Therefore, we are eliminating all bonuses based on link types, preferring instead, as per above, to focus on paying higher "base" referral fee rates. It does not matter anymore whether you choose widgets, graphical banners, product feeds or deeplinks generated with our Site Stripe, you will get paid the same revenue share for every sale. We would be remiss though not to remind you that deeplinks improve conversion in many cases and easylinks remains a great tool to discover the best products for your site to promote.
* Standardization of Cap in Tiered Model: In the past we had product line-specific Revenue Share caps and have received feedback that it can be difficult to understand which product lines have revenue caps, at which levels, and which do not. Therefore, starting July 1, 2009, we will apply a standard cap of £7.00 GBP across all product lines. As a reminder, the cap applies only to individual items and not to the overall value of the shopping basket. It also applies only to Associates who are enrolled in the Programme under the Performance Fee Structure.
* New referral fee rates for “Paid Search Placements” and “Downloadable Application/Browser Extension” Associates: Associates will be required to categorise themselves based on the method by which they will send users to the Amazon site. Associates who promote Amazon via paid search placements (i.e., Associates who send users to the Amazon site through keyword bidding or other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other search engines) or by placing links to Amazon within downloadable applications (e.g,. browser extensions, desktop-applications etc.) will earn referral fee rates uniquely matched to these activities. If you are a Paid Search Placements Associate or Downloadable Application/Browser Associate, you will soon receive further information by email detailing the referral fee rate applicable to you. If you send traffic to the Amazon site through either of these types of activities but did not register as a Paid Search Placements Associate or Downloadable Application/Browser Associate, please contact our Associate Support to be re-segmented. If we determine that you send traffic through either of these types of activities and are not categorized as such, we may in our sole discretion adjust your categorisation.
* One account per Associate category:For each Associate account, an Associate will be permitted to select only one category that describes the method by which they will send users to the Amazon Site. You may not have multiple accounts for the same type of activity, i.e. if you are sending users to the Amazon Site through paid search placements, you must use the same single Associates account for all paid search placement activity. However, if you send traffic to the Amazon Site using more than one method, you will have to register another Associate account for each method and categorise yourself accordingly during signup. If your existing account is not categorized accurately (i.e., the category associated with your account does not accurately describe how you send users to the Amazon site), please contact Associate Support.

Amazon.co.uk Associate Program Operating Agreement
You can find the full version of the revised Associates Programme Operating Agreement, which will be effective starting July 1st, 2009, by clicking here. In addition to the changes to the referral fee structure described above, we have also revised the Operating Agreement to more accurately reflect the current state of the Programme. Some of these changes include updating the list of Amazon's Proprietary Terms that you may not bid on in search engines, adding a restriction on use of our content or Special Links in applications for mobile devices, adding a requirement that Associates disclose their data collection and use practices, modifying the description of a "session" to accommodate digitally downloadable items, and removing certain excluded products (e.g., "hard to find") from the Operating Agreement so that they are now eligible to earn referral fees. If you would like to review all the changes, please visit this page where we have posted the new Operating Agreement and labeled the modifications in italics to help you to identify them more conveniently. Feel free to ask questions at any time by using contact Us

As described in the Operating Agreement, your continued participation in our Programme on or after the date on which the changes become effective, which is July 1, 2009, will constitute your binding acceptance of the revised terms. However, you may decline the terms of the revised Operating Agreement by notifying us prior to July 1, 2009, that you wish to terminate your participation in the Programme. You may send such notification to us by using the contact us form.

Thank you and best regards,

Your Amazon.co.uk Associates Team"

no more 1.5% bonus for direct linking then i guess

not to sure if the seperate account for paid placement is a good or bad thing, it doesnt seem to mention a different percentage, however if you can only have ONE paid placement account how can u promote products like u currently do, with one structure for a certain level of products and another for hte rest

hc

[hairycornflakes]

oh and can I please point out I havent actually read the whole email yet lol

[majorocp]

Another discussion has already been started about this: Amazon associate updates £7.00 cap across all products lines

[davidtube]

Aye. they're good at that.

"we strive to allow Associates to maximize their earnings"

Personally its not helping to maximise my earnings. Looks like more links will be using the classic fee plan (4%)

Amazon are massively cutting back on the amount they pay affiliates and patronising us by trying to make it sound like a good thing.

Top Tire Commission Rate Rises to 9%
You need to sell 20 times as much to reach the new top tire. To earn the old top tire of 7.5%, you need to sell almost twice as much as before.

Capping System Now Easier to Understand
Instead of certain items being capped to £7, now everything is capped.

Elimination of "Bonus" Structure
No more 2.5% extra commission for direct link, and nothing to soften the blow either, unless you think the new top tire is actually trying to benefit affiliates (which it isn't).

Should we go on strike?

[milojones]

So can you still have 2 different accounts? At the moment I have 2 accounts, I use one for high end electrical items on the classic fee 4% and for everything else I use the other structure plan.

[grobinso]

What really bugs me about promoting Amazon is the lack of real time reporting. Puts me off doing PPC for them when i can't track it until the next day.

Graham

[Darren M]

Look on the bright side, if you're running a price comparison site you won't have to push Amazon as hard now.

I'm going to take a detailed look at the stats before switching anything to the 4% plan. It might make sense for the individual products you're targetting, but if people are also buying books and CD's etc alongside this purchase it could changes things. It might be the case that some people have to review their links on a monthly basis, especially at Xmas time.

I can't believe the top tier is at 30,000+ now! Who do you think this is aimed at, music sites promoting mp3 downloads?

[hairycornflakes]

argh, having not read the email fully im not totally clued up...

does that mean the most anyone can make on a product is £7! even on the 4% commission structure?

hc

[hairycornflakes]

ah its just for the performance plan, thank goodness!

[hairycornflakes]

my bad, please close.