The end of my love affair with Amazon Associates

Asad

Asad

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Mar 17, 2016
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I have been building Amazon affiliate content so long I forgot my mission:

Make the most money in the least amount of time while always delivering a great product or service.

If I am holding true to this mission, its time for me to let Amazon Associates go.

#1. Amazon is TOO SLOW to pay out. Im at a point in my life where how fast I get my money from TODAYS effort matters. Im not waiting 2 months to get earnings anymore.

#2 Traffic costs too much in both time and monetary effort. 4 hours to write a 2,000 skyscraper article so I can fight for a buck in fees? Nah. 60 cents for rice cooker fees on amazon < 60% of same rice cooker earnings on Flexoffers.

#3 We all have limited inventory before we hit the UX/UI point of diminishing returns. Why would I waste ANY of that inventory for a $5 bounty?

So I am breaking up with Amazon Associates. My existing content will stick around and if I see signs of life I might invest a little more. But a BETTER allocation of my time, ad inventory, and a better ROI to me seems to be bigger Ad networks with better offers, or going direct to product/svc providers with superior existing affiliate programs. Hell, even Printful would be more profitable lol (I assume. Testing will prove me right or wrong later prob.)

Let me know if my logic is flawed or there is something strategic I dont see. I could just be jaded lol
 
The benefit of Amazon Associates is that they convert at an insanely high rate, what you miss out on in commissions on the direct product sale, you make up for with sales of unrelated items, and it's very easy to use.

The rates do suck but I've found that I still make more with them than any other affiliate program I've joined (even ones with higher % commission and cookie durations). People trust Amazon and spend a shit ton of money there. When you go to sell your site, it's dead ass easy for the new owner to make an account and immediately take over. You don't need to constantly be worrying if you're being skimmed or if the other affiliate program will shut down or greatly readjust their fees (see Michaels craft store destroying their commissions after they maxed out their advertising budget early one year).

Best of luck. I wouldn't break up entirely. Supplement another affiliate program with Amazon Associates, yes. Meaning have two affiliate programs for each product you list. But I think it would be stupid to lose the hedge of Amazon Associates.
 
Did the same almost 2 years ago after Amazon cut our income by 55% with 1 week's notice. Haven't looked back since.

Everytime I've seen someone make a ton of money via organic traffic in the last few years, it's either through display ads or other affiliate networks which pay out well. For us Amazon are only useful as a last option for filler links.

I would also say not to worry about payment speed, worry about how much you're making. Once you're making enough you won't care about the payment timeline - it'll just be piling into a healthy-sized fund anyway.
 
Asad said:
Which networks do you like?
Click to expand...
Don't personally rely on many but a few popular marketplaces are:
  • Rakuten
  • Commission Junction
  • Share A Sale
  • Clickbank (super low tier but people do make bank)
  • Awin
People do well with a lot of programs in there, but some of the most lucrative are more private setups (don't have much experience personally). There's also lead generation channels in the right niches.
 
I want to find more webmasters who are fed up with AA and get them to send traffic to my brand instead - with way better commissions!

Anybody know how to reverse-engineer AA sites in a niche to find as targets for a deal like this? Any tool that can shed light on this? Possibly better to just get listed on the big networks others have listed above?
 
Zach said:
I want to find more webmasters who are fed up with AA and get them to send traffic to my brand instead - with way better commissions!

Anybody know how to reverse-engineer AA sites in a niche to find as targets for a deal like this? Any tool that can shed light on this? Possibly better to just get listed on the big networks others have listed above?
Click to expand...
Why not just set up an Affiliate program with targeted campaigns focused on other creators? Wordpress and shopify both make it easy with Affiliate management programs.
 
Zach said:
I want to find more webmasters who are fed up with AA and get them to send traffic to my brand instead - with way better commissions!

Anybody know how to reverse-engineer AA sites in a niche to find as targets for a deal like this? Any tool that can shed light on this? Possibly better to just get listed on the big networks others have listed above?
Click to expand...
Put your competitor's Amazon product listing URLs into ahrefs and check backlinks
 
Zach said:
I want to find more webmasters who are fed up with AA and get them to send traffic to my brand instead - with way better commissions!

Anybody know how to reverse-engineer AA sites in a niche to find as targets for a deal like this? Any tool that can shed light on this? Possibly better to just get listed on the big networks others have listed above?
Click to expand...
Definitely get on a big network and try to ensure your EPC is strong for those who do sign up. Start out with high commissions and I imagine you'll get attention.

Not unheard of for affiliates to find the brand/offer first, then build around that. We have a whole category on our site written only due to an affiliate I found on Rakuten.
 
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