The Demise of the Amazon Associates Program
For those not familiar with the Amazon Associates Program, it was established to pay a referral fee to website owners who were sending users to Amazon. While the revenue earned by high traffic websites may well be quite considerable, the revenue for the average pagan website is comparatively modest.
On 6 April 2009, I received an email from Amazon announcing a “change” to the Amazon Associates Program starting on 1 May 2009. They stated that “After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to … Amazon websites in the US or Canada.”
They then added “We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program.”
This means that all of us who have websites in North America and have been referring clients to Amazon are being encouraged to keep doing so, but will no longer be paid for our promotional efforts. This is most certainly not a change, but a cessation of the whole program!
I have had the privilege of meeting many of the best known pagan authors in the US. The reality is that none of them live in waterfront mansions with a Ferrari or Bentley in the driveway. Royalty payments don’t amount to very much unless you write a best seller that appeals to mainstream society. Pagan authors either have to work very hard at events and venues to make ends meet, or have a regular job. The key to survival is to have multiple income streams. Thanks to Amazon, one of those streams is just about to dry up.
In tough economic times, every income trickle makes a difference, even that from the Associates Program. Amazon are adamant that this “change” is permanent. Perhaps a sufficiently loud outcry from website owners will lead to another e-commerce company offering an equivalent associates program? We can only hope.
Update April 14, 2009:
I’ve received a response to a query email which I sent to Amazon about this matter. It seems that the change will only affect those who use paid search advertising searches that link directly to Amazon. However, if a shopper clicks the Associate link on one of our web sites to get to Amazon, regardless of how they get there, referral fees will be paid as before. So, things aren’t as bad as I first thought.
You might want to take a second look at your email and read the little details, like…… Amazon isn’t paying people who use Pay Per Click in the US & Canada. They didn’t say the program was over, or that they aren’t paying everyone, just those using ppc and sending it directly to Amazon, thosse won’t be paid.
Thanks for pointing this out to me. I flicked off a query email to Amazon requesting clarification and have added an update to my original post.