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Old 02-26-2013, 12:15 PM   #61
taustin
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Why do you think that? Amazon are under absolutely no obligation to have an affiliate programme at all. If they do have one, then clearly it has to be under terms that benefit them. They aren't a charity.
They are, however, very good at doing stupid things that piss off the internet. They have been, from the beginning, when they would randomly reset your account preferences to "spam the living shit out of me every day" (they did that to me at least three times before they finally figured out it was costing them business).

And they have a pretty good history in recent years of quickly backing down when they do something pisses people off.

As this has been reported, it's a very bad idea. I still suspect it won't really affect that many affiliates, but it's way too easy to view it as unfair to a lot of them, in that (as it has been explained so far) an affiliate can lose their income for the month for things beyond their control (follow a link to a regular item, then download a bunch of free stuff hours later). I'm not sure it's being reported accurately, or perceived accurately by those reporting it. This whole thing has the earmarks of the standard "internet crying hysterically over nothing" sort of meme. But Amazon's not helping, and clearly needs to get their shit together at the very highest levels. Until they do, they're going to continue to get handed their ass, and rightly so. Not for any policy change, but for the stupid way they've handled it.
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Old 02-26-2013, 12:22 PM   #62
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They are, however, very good at doing stupid things that piss off the internet. They have been, from the beginning, when they would randomly reset your account preferences to "spam the living shit out of me every day" (they did that to me at least three times before they finally figured out it was costing them business).

And they have a pretty good history in recent years of quickly backing down when they do something pisses people off.
I honestly think that this is something that the overwhelming majority of people simply don't give a damn about. I certainly get the impression that there's a very widespread perception that most affiliates are rather shady characters who are making money off you without being up-front about the fact that they're doing so.
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Old 02-26-2013, 12:35 PM   #63
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What I'd like to see is a little notification in the corner of the Amazon page of what affiliate I am currently linked to, and ideally a little dropdown box so you could choose to switch between recently linked affiliates.
That way the whole thing would be transparent, and people who want to benefit specific affiliates can be sure that they are doing so, and haven't been hijacked by someone else.
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Old 02-26-2013, 01:38 PM   #64
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I honestly think that this is something that the overwhelming majority of people simply don't give a damn about.
I'm still inclined to think it's something that the overwhelming majority of affiliates don't give a damn about.

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I certainly get the impression that there's a very widespread perception that most affiliates are rather shady characters who are making money off you without being up-front about the fact that they're doing so.
How much more up front do they need to be than linking to Amazon?
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Old 02-26-2013, 01:52 PM   #65
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They need to say "if you click this link I'll get a percentage of all the money you spend at Amazon in the next 24h". That's being open.
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Old 02-26-2013, 02:40 PM   #66
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...What I expect, assuming it's not part of the policy arlread, just unreported, is that the stuff that Amazon expressing promotes as free, like the KDP stuff, won't count against the limit.)
No - this is what has caused the problem. It's exactly what Amazon wants to stop.

But a small site mentioning only big publisher titles, averaging one or two a day, will be swept up into the "bad affiliates" pile the way it has been defined - all they need is 100 readers that pick up an average of two free books a day (or 200 that pick up one), over the course of the month. They don't even have to have linked to the titles.
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Old 02-26-2013, 03:15 PM   #67
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What I'd like to see is a little notification in the corner of the Amazon page of what affiliate I am currently linked to, and ideally a little dropdown box so you could choose to switch between recently linked affiliates.
That way the whole thing would be transparent, and people who want to benefit specific affiliates can be sure that they are doing so, and haven't been hijacked by someone else.
Excellent idea. I wouldn't mind having the affiliates listed in my cart to see who gets the fee and the amount.
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Old 02-26-2013, 08:36 PM   #68
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And it *appears* that Ghostery will block Amazon Associates which is why I haven't been able to find the cookies in my list.
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Old 02-26-2013, 09:39 PM   #69
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They need to say "if you click this link I'll get a percentage of all the money you spend at Amazon in the next 24h". That's being open.
Why the hatred for affiliate links?

You expect everything on the internet to be provided to you free, without monetization of any kind? God forbid that those of us who work to bring quality recommended books to people get paid a little money for our time and effort.

The fact is we have to be very careful about such disclosures. We have to make them in some fashion to keep inside the legal rules the government is imposing, but then if Amazon feels that our "disclosure" goes too far and sounds at all like we are "encouraging" people to come to our site and click a link before making their purchases in order to support us, then we run afoul of Amazon's rules.

Every comment you've made has been so far anti-affiliate, I don't even know why you came into this thread in the first place, unless it was to gloat about the fact that this change is having an impact on them. And the more I look at your posts, the more convinced I am that is the only thing keeping you reading and posting in this thread.
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Old 02-27-2013, 02:11 AM   #70
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I agree with Harry. And I further hope that Amazon revises the affiliate program so that only the link clicked will result in commission.

Amazon makes no money from an affiliate link to a free book. Why should the affiliate make any money from my further purchases that day just because they copied/pasted a link? I know how to get to Amazon without the affiliate link.

On the other hand, if an affiliate links to a special deal on a computer for example and I make a purchase, they very much deserve the commission for bringing the deal to my attention.
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Old 02-27-2013, 05:02 AM   #71
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I honestly think that this is something that the overwhelming majority of people simply don't give a damn about. I certainly get the impression that there's a very widespread perception that most affiliates are rather shady characters who are making money off you without being up-front about the fact that they're doing so.
Indeed, I never knew that affiliates made money for product they didn't refer too. Since that, in the end, might increase the price of the end product I will make sure not to use affiliate links anymore.
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Old 02-27-2013, 05:38 AM   #72
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Amazon makes no money from an affiliate link to a free book. Why should the affiliate make any money from my further purchases that day just because they copied/pasted a link? I know how to get to Amazon without the affiliate link.
I think that is a key point.
Early in Amazon's life affiliates would be extremely valuable to Amazon, by driving more people to visit the site who might not otherwise have done so, and who might then see something else they are interested in.
Nowadays I would imagine that Amazon is most people's first stop when looking for something online, so the value of affiliates simply isn't what it used to be. People don't need to be driven to Amazon, they are already there.
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Old 02-27-2013, 06:02 AM   #73
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Old 02-27-2013, 06:17 AM   #74
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Under the motto: Let's use the first opportunity to kick those in the ass who helped us to become great????
Customers first or middlemen first? I guess Amazon knows the answer (starts with an S ).
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Old 02-27-2013, 12:08 PM   #75
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Why the hatred for affiliate links?

You expect everything on the internet to be provided to you free, without monetization of any kind? God forbid that those of us who work to bring quality recommended books to people get paid a little money for our time and effort.
I have absolutely nothing against affiliate links. I simply want affiliates to be open about the fact that they are making money from it. We require that openness for affiliate links here at MR; I'd like to see a similar level of honesty elsewhere.
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