Geniuslink Blog
On March 10th, 2020 we noticed that Amazon added an affiliate program to its only storefront that didn’t have one — Amazon Netherlands (amazon.nl)! “Amazon PartnerNet” as it’s officially known brings the total number of Amazon affiliate programs worldwide to 17 (16 of which are public and Turkey that is invite-only).
If you’re an Amazon Affiliate then you are likely familiar with the commission rates for referred sales. You get X% commission after you refer a buyer for a given product. But some may not be as familiar with the bounties that the Amazon Associates programs payout.
What’s a bounty, you ask? Besides helping Amazon sell products you can encourage your audience to things, such as signing up for an Amazon Prime trial, creating an Amazon Baby Registry, and recommending Audible subscriptions, which can earn you a decent-sized bounty. Amazon maintains a lengthy chart of various actions you can refer to, and the bounty paid for each. For example, successfully referring an Amazon Business account can earn you $15 per action. That could be much more profitable than referring video games with a 1% commission.
The Amazon.com affiliate program (a.k.a. the Associates Program) is the most popular affiliate marketing program in the world with one recent source citing “millions” of affiliate publishers. The Amazon.com Associates program has also evolved significantly since its inception in July of 1996 (as anything Internet-related should in the ~ 23 years of its existence). One of the most impactful changes is in how the affiliate program rewards the affiliate publishers who direct customers to Amazon and recommend various products.
Note: This blog is based on a presentation our CEO / co-founder Jesse Lakes gave at Affiliate Summit West 2020 and a recent YouTube video with the same name.
For most creators, bloggers and affiliate marketers, Amazon’s affiliate program is the only game in town.
Yes, that’s a bold statement but I think it’s been earned. For over 20 years Amazon has offered an easy to learn, easy to use, and high converting affiliate program that covers a massive product catalog.
And yet, in the last few years these same creators, bloggers and affiliate marketers have been seeing their revenues drop, accounts closed and seem to be changing their perception of Amazon’s affiliate program from love to fear.
In the summer of 2017, the Amazon Associates team launched its own link localization tool known as OneLink. Some surmise they were stirred to simulate the success of a savvy Seattle startup with stellar support staff. For some affiliate marketers, OneLink is a decent solution for redirecting your international shoppers along to a storefront that feels natural for them.
However, in our countless conversations with Creators and YouTubers, we’ve encountered some confusion around OneLink and, more specifically, the coverage it offers.