Moving on From Amazon - They've Resorted to Skimming

16 replies
Well after busting my butt the last couple of years as an Amazon "Associate". I think it's time to move on.

Not only did they literally steal 1/3 of my and thousands of others income with there new fee structure on March 1, 2017, now for the last 3 months, many of us have seen a steady decline in sales, conversions and income, sales not being tracked properly to the benefit of Amazon of course. I'm down 60% after march 1.

Just tired of fighting Big Biz, you're at their mercy.

Anyway, just looking for suggestions on what type of sites to build now, I currently have 3 VPS's full of Amazon sites, I'll just let these run their course, but I am finished working for Amazon.

I've done all of the content affiliate sites, years ago had great luck with the auto-blogs + affiliate. I know that doesn't work anymore, just not sure what does that isn't a gimmick (done plenty of those over the years and not interested).

Looking for a long term biz plan without having to spend tons of money for content that may or may not payoff and I'm not a writer anymore...

Let's toss this around, maybe we can all gain some good insight and ideas...
#amazon #moving #resorted #skimming
  • Profile picture of the author Rory Singh
    That's why I never bothered to sell Amazon...not enough profit margins for the work a marketer needs to put in.

    And now they do something like this.
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    • Profile picture of the author Convergence
      Originally Posted by Rory Singh View Post

      That's why I never bothered to sell Amazon...not enough profit margins for the work a marketer needs to put in.

      And now they do something like this.
      That's exactly why it took so long for me to start with Amazon (low commissions), had an account for over a decade and thought I would give it a go.

      You just have to pick the right products, (think industrial), of course, this WAS one of the higher paying categories until March 1.

      I was doing pretty well, sales and income up every month until after March 1 and the last 3 months of broken tracking (getting worse every day).

      I think the Amazon associates program is nearly done (the Greed of Bezos). They are losing all credibility anymore, associates have no voice, Amazon doesn't even feel the need to keep their associates up to date about anything.

      Contact support and the standard script is "nope tracking looks fine".

      Well, time to move on, to what, I don't know yet...LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    I think the Amazon associates program is nearly done (the Greed of Bezos). They are losing all credibility anymore, associates have no voice, Amazon doesn't even feel the need to keep their associates up to date about anything.
    Yet thousands of people are still chasing them. And almost as many are promoting Amazon as the go-to business model.

    It makes me cringe.

    Brent
    Signature
    Get Off The Warrior Forum Now & Don't Come Back If You Want To Succeed!
    All The Real Marketers Are Gone. There's Nothing Left But Weak, Sniveling Wanna-Bees!
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  • Profile picture of the author quadagon
    Never had a problem with them and we run about 50 sites.

    Regardless of who you are an affiliate for you are playing in someone else's yard.
    Signature
    I've got 99 problems but a niche ain't one
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    • Profile picture of the author Convergence
      Originally Posted by quadagon View Post

      Never had a problem with them and we run about 50 sites.

      Regardless of who you are an affiliate for you are playing in someone else's yard.
      Well, I run about 45 sites and I am seeing serious tracking issues, stats that make absolutely no sense.

      Traffic and clicks normal and higher, conversions dropped by half or 2/3 over the last month on my historically most profitable TID's.

      There is no explanation for it other than broken tracking...Glad you're not having any problems yet, there is still time...
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    • Profile picture of the author Convergence
      Originally Posted by quadagon View Post

      Never had a problem with them and we run about 50 sites.

      Regardless of who you are an affiliate for you are playing in someone else's yard.
      Just to kind of back up my claims about broken tracking, there is a post on the
      Amazon Associates Forum titled:
      "Lost, Missing or Stalled Sales - Report them here"

      So if anybody else is seeing these tracking issues, report them on the Amazon Associates Forum...
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  • Profile picture of the author boblyle
    I've only dabbled on Amazon for about 1.5 years. Never put any real time into making it my go-to source for income realizing when I started they were already talking about a price increase. I've made a few bucks there and thought about getting into a bit of drop-shipping. Then recently Stripe announces that they will no longer support that(drop-shipping) business model, other processors are sure to follow.
    E-commerce is huge and growing daily, ever thought about branding your own products? Just a thought
    Signature
    Drop shipping is a Dying Model
    This is the New Wave of E-Commerce
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    • Profile picture of the author Convergence
      Originally Posted by boblyle View Post

      I've only dabbled on Amazon for about 1.5 years. Never put any real time into making it my go-to source for income realizing when I started they were already talking about a price increase. I've made a few bucks there and thought about getting into a bit of drop-shipping. Then recently Stripe announces that they will no longer support that(drop-shipping) business model, other processors are sure to follow.
      E-commerce is huge and growing daily, ever thought about branding your own products? Just a thought
      Didn't know that about Stripe, that was the main reason I opened an account with them "DropShip Model".

      I did do the Amazon/Ebay arbitrage for about a month, I made some money, but with the ever changing pricing on Amazon, it was all but impossible to keep up.

      I've had my own products on ClickBank in the past with marginal success, I've done the Adsense back in the day, made great money with that, at the time, I had 6 servers and 700 websites to make 3K a month, but like many I received the "suspended account" notice from Google with some "off the wall - makes no sense" excuse.

      I've been making money online (off and on) for about 25 years now, just seems that every couple of years you end up starting over with something else. Fine when you're younger, but after doing this for quite a while, it gets tiring...LOL

      I've got so many web skills it's ridiculous, just need the right idea once again...don't we all...LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author CB58
    I too had the same delima. Amazon and low pay outs. Time to think SHOPIFY. Perhaps
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    • Profile picture of the author Convergence
      Originally Posted by CB58 View Post

      I too had the same delima. Amazon and low pay outs. Time to think SHOPIFY. Perhaps
      I looked into Shopify, I think I even signed up for a free trial. Honestly though, I really didn't understand it.

      From what I could ascertain, I could sign up with a bunch of different dropshippers, put the products on my site with Shopify, pay the dropshippers retail pricing (instead of anything near wholesale) and then hope my shoppers aren't price smart and buy from me? Am I remembering this correctly? LOL

      It was a while ago, so I'm not sure I'm remembering this correctly...
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  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    I enrolled as an Amazon affiliate back in 2008.

    At the same time, I was exploring niches for digital products. Clickbank was really the only player in the digital product arena back then, and so I started off promoting their products.

    I tried a few niches and had very little luck until I started building a list in the MMO niche and promoting to my email subscribers. That's pretty much when my business started to take off.

    It was sometime near the end of 2008 that I was introduced to a marketer who was paying "instant" commissions for promoting his products through a script he had called the "7 Dollar Script." I'm sure many of you have heard of it. It was quite popular in it's day, and so I began to promote his stuff and was paid 50%-60% commission instantly upon making a sale. Then the Rapid Action Profits (RAP) script came out around this time and that was simply amazing as it paved the way for networks like RapBank, which inevitably led to the massive popularity of the instant commissions affiliate model. Enter JVZoo, Warrior Plus, PayDotCom, Payspree, etc, etc.

    It was around this time that I made up my mind that it just wasn't very practical to promote Amazon products for 4% or 5%, or whatever it was back then. I mean, I would have to sell a $1000 item on Amazon just to make the same commission I could get from selling a $97 digital product. And then I would have to wait to get paid. It didn't make sense to me then, and it still doesn't make sense to me today.

    Not to mention all of the foolish rules and restrictions with Amazon... NO links in eBooks. NO direct linking with PPC. NO tracking links other than Amazon (wonder why that is), and a whole host of other nonsensical, ball busting rules. Then you have to build websites and create content, do SEO, etc.

    And then if all of that crap isn't bad enough, you've got to worry about some stuffed shirt hitting the ban button on you because he's having a bad day!

    I often wrack my brain wondering why anyone would want to put in all of that work when there are so many EASIER ways?

    I mean, I'm perfectly happy sending traffic to one of my ugly squeeze pages and then promoting products to my list that I didn't even have to create for 50%-75% commissions.

    I don't know...

    I guess some people just like to work way harder than they need to.
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    • Profile picture of the author Convergence
      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      I enrolled as an Amazon affiliate back in 2008.

      At the same time, I was exploring niches for digital products. Clickbank was really the only player in the digital product arena back then, and so I started off promoting their products.

      I tried a few niches and had very little luck until I started building a list in the MMO niche and promoting to my email subscribers. That's pretty much when my business started to take off.

      It was sometime near the end of 2008 that I was introduced to a marketer who was paying "instant" commissions for promoting his products through a script he had called the "7 Dollar Script." I'm sure many of you have heard of it. It was quite popular in it's day, and so I began to promote his stuff and was paid 50%-60% commission instantly upon making a sale. Then the Rapid Action Profits (RAP) script came out around this time and that was simply amazing as it paved the way for networks like RapBank, which inevitably led to the massive popularity of the instant commissions affiliate model. Enter JVZoo, Warrior Plus, PayDotCom, Payspree, etc, etc.

      It was around this time that I made up my mind that it just wasn't very practical to promote Amazon products for 4% or 5%, or whatever it was back then. I mean, I would have to sell a $1000 item on Amazon just to make the same commission I could get from selling a $97 digital product. And then I would have to wait to get paid. It didn't make sense to me then, and it still doesn't make sense to me today.

      Not to mention all of the foolish rules and restrictions with Amazon... NO links in eBooks. NO direct linking with PPC. NO tracking links other than Amazon (wonder why that is), and a whole host of other nonsensical, ball busting rules. Then you have to build websites and create content, do SEO, etc.

      And then if all of that crap isn't bad enough, you've got to worry about some stuffed shirt hitting the ban button on you because he's having a bad day!

      I often wrack my brain wondering why anyone would want to put in all of that work when there are so many EASIER ways?

      I mean, I'm perfectly happy sending traffic to one of my ugly squeeze pages and then promoting products to my list that I didn't even have to create for 50%-75% commissions.

      I don't know...

      I guess some people just like to work way harder than they need to.
      A lot of wisdom in your post, I guess I've kind of lost my way over the years. I used to promote recurring affiliate products and was paid for years for one sale.

      I've collected email lists, but they never seemed to pan out, I've stopped and restarted my aWeber account so many times over the years, it's laughable. I could never seem to put together a responsive list.

      I think you should go ahead and put together a step-by-step method and put it up for sale. I'd buy it...

      This is exactly the kind of post I was looking for with this thread...Thanks, great information...
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      • Profile picture of the author celente
        Originally Posted by Convergence View Post

        A lot of wisdom in your post, I guess I've kind of lost my way over the years. I used to promote recurring affiliate products and was paid for years for one sale.

        I've collected email lists, but they never seemed to pan out, I've stopped and restarted my aWeber account so many times over the years, it's laughable. I could never seem to put together a responsive list.

        I think you should go ahead and put together a step-by-step method and put it up for sale. I'd buy it...

        This is exactly the kind of post I was looking for with this thread...Thanks, great information...
        i run a six figure a year biz. I see the same comment time and time again. +

        You have to be consistant, and in the start you will not get sales straight away.

        You gotta be collectively getting and or generating leads, and I mean fresh highly targeted leads each day, or you will fail in this biz.

        start with affiliate marketing stuff and slowly ween into the products you sell yourself with a buyers list. or people who have bought from you before.

        This is how I went from broke, to making good money within a few months. Its how I recommend everyone start. Hope this helps.
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      • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
        Originally Posted by Convergence View Post

        A lot of wisdom in your post, I guess I've kind of lost my way over the years. I used to promote recurring affiliate products and was paid for years for one sale.

        I've collected email lists, but they never seemed to pan out, I've stopped and restarted my aWeber account so many times over the years, it's laughable. I could never seem to put together a responsive list.

        I think you should go ahead and put together a step-by-step method and put it up for sale. I'd buy it...

        This is exactly the kind of post I was looking for with this thread...Thanks, great information...
        There are plenty of products out there that teach what I do, believe me.

        You don't really even need to pay for the information. Most of it is available for free on YouTube.

        I've been doing basically the same thing since I started, and believe me, I'm no rocket scientist. Meaning, if I can do it just about anybody can.

        Basically, all I do is:

        1. Set up a squeeze page that converts at 40% or better (takes a little tweaking and the right "free gift").

        2. Send targeted traffic to the squeeze page and capture leads. Mainly, because I'm in the "make money online" niche, solo ads, JV giveaway events, YouTube videos, blogging, media buys (PPV), pay per lead advertising, some PPC (not AdWords or FB Ads - they suck), download page swaps, banner ad buys, social media, and guest posting are my main forms of traffic.

        3. Promote products to my list. I send out a promo once a day. Some people think that's too much. Some think it's too little. Works great for me so I don't care what anyone else thinks.

        4. Rinse and repeat and be on the lookout for new traffic sources and always be tweaking squeeze pages to achieve the highest conversion rate.

        That's about all there is to it. Like I said, I've been doing pretty much the same thing for almost 10 years. It worked great then and it still works great now.

        I've also begun messing with CPA marketing lately and have been having some minimal success.

        Bottom line is there's nothing hard about it. If I can succeed anyone can because I'm not really that smart!
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Amazon is the same as Adsense where they both use affiliates as advertisers to grow the business then slowly make it more difficult for affiliates to profit.

    In Adsense case it was forcing mobile ads across the entire network which basically ended the decent money per ad click. At the peak I was getting around $10 ad clicks in the education niche just from bumping email list/subscribers on old content.

    Still have the account, collecting dust.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Yes. Amazon changed their pay plan. Yes, you are upset about it. I get that.

    But calling it "skimming" or "Stealing"? Let's see your proof...
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