20 Comments
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- 2
Well this doesn’t surprise me. This is a tough call because we’d all like to believe that every link we are sent through social media is worth following – with or without the cookies (where’s the milk?). But I’ve been hesitant to follow many of the shortened URL’s all over the web as you can’t tell where they are going. While these short URLs are fine in spots like twitter where space is very limited they have been used all over the web.
As soon as there is a good idea, someone will Spam it! That’s just the way it works.
- 3
Surely a merchant only pays commission on a sale – so why do they give a monkeys where that sale came from, qualified or not?
Is your argument that if shoppers are having cookies dropped on them left right and center, that merchants will be paying commissions on sales that would have happened naturally anyway?
- 4
In step Google athorised merchant URL shortner. Another Alstrodamus prodiction.
- 5
Yeah – “real” affiliates wouldnt worry about that would they? Redirect of a redirect should sort that shit out ;p
- 6
If I was spamming, I would redirect it through a site that looks like a legitimate affiliate site – like a price comparison site or blog
Also helps with tracking…
- 7
So we are all agreed, redirect is the way to go. So I don’t really see the point in what amazon have done at all.
- 8
“So I don’t really see the point in what amazon have done at all.”
Exactly. Top affiliates will create ways to get their money anyway, and from what I’ve understood they bring in most of the money, so it doesn’t really seem to matter all that much.
Then again, there might be more to it. Big numbers can make a big difference, so if a large enough amount of less experienced affiliates stop using shortened urls and/or social media to promote their stuff, it might make a big difference for Amazon’s finances. Time to wait and see. =)
- 9
I often prefer using tiny url to cloak my affiliate links for one reason only — so that Joe Blow cannot come along and replace my link with his for that sale. It happens, all the time. If you know how, you can often see where the link is taking you.
It is also really easy to clear your cookies if you don’t want them. I do so frequently. When I am ready to buy, I go to the affiliate from whom I want to buy and click on that person’s link. Savy shoppers know how to do this.
Amazon is just trying to get away from paying commissions to affiliates because they are now big enough that they believe that they can survive without affiliates. When they were newer online and wanted to grow to be the biggest, they encouraged lots of affiliates and little amazon sites. Now that people have discovered ways to blog reviews and use affiliate links to monetize those blogs with amazon, the merchant doesn’t want to pay. Typical! Don’t they realize that they are getting more sales this way? Must be nice to be so successful that a store can afford to turn away business.
I think they will find that some other small purveyor of the same goods will pop up who welcomes the business and soon the mighty amazon will find that their sales are slumping. It is the way of the pompous retailer who decides he doesn’t need so many salespeople, only to find that the many small sales make up more of the business than was first thought.
I wonder if they just hired a new marketing executive who is determined to cut expenses. Deciding to not pay commissions is a way to do that. Lots of people do not understand what drives sales. Amazon has a lot of merchandise and cutting out those commissions will also cut out lots of virtually free advertising for them.
Are they going to drop their prices to compensate for not paying the commissions? I think not. To me, this goes to greed on Amazon’s part and we all know what greed brings. If you don’t, just take a look at the history of the home mortgage market over the past ten years or so.
- 10
Amazon has very cleverly found an excuse to chop out paying commission for legitimate sales by doing this. “oh sorry we took the cash for that sale but cant pass on your commission as we think its dodgy”.
Stinks to high heaven.
- 11
*I wonder if they just hired a new marketing executive who is determined to cut expenses.
Its a recession after all
It does seem to be a trend at the moment with big affiliate programmes cutting corners – for example the recent shuffle on Ebay guidelines where they have gotten rid of PPC affiliates direct linking to results…
- 12
Shame how spammers spoil things for honest folk isn’t it?
Not that I’ve had much to do with amazon affiliate schemes but even so…
- 13
Affiliates are always going to find new ways to generate income, and its not surprising that merchants shut certain doors as they don’t want to get ripped off.
Personally I question the long term viability of affiliate marketing as a business model, if for example I were a business, I would use affiliate to help build up my brand, then close my program and do it all direct.
Just a thought, but when you have a brand like Amazon, surelly “most” sales come direct. The internet is increasingly becoming about brand and whatever way you look at it, affiliates are perhaps a way to kick start your business and perhaps not needed in the long run.
- 14
its highly impossible to stop affiliates spam in social networking
- 15
Anyone with a big enough business can just create a new URL shortener website a week. Hey, that’s a good idea for a new business…
- 16
“As with anything that hits mainstream media you start to see it get abused and in the last few months I have been inundated with fake followers from fake accounts just ready to drop a link on me.”
Sure there’s the convenience of blocking these users, but really, if they weren’t there at all then a few minutes wouldn’t be wasted trying to see if they’re fake or not. I hope twitter finds a way to address this, considering their service speaks more of a personalized kind.
- 17
“As with anything that hits mainstream media you start to see it get abused and in the last few months I have been inundated with fake followers from fake accounts just ready to drop a link on me.”
These accounts are relying on the so-called ‘popularity’ one feels from gaining so much followers. Not sure if twitter is feeding the right motivation because of this.
- 18
[...] URL Shorteners and Affiliate Programs: Amazon has stopped giving affiliate commissions on visits via Twitter and Facebook, but where should the line in the sand be drawn? In his post, Dave Naylor talks about the subject of affiliate commission on URL shorteners. [...]
- 19
Why would they do that? URL shortners are commonly used to cloack and hide affiliate links for many non-spam reasons! They should ban affiliates that spam their links but not webmasters that use a simple and useful service as tinyurl.
- 20
@Allan Stewart – I completely agree with your point.
I recently noted an interesting conversion spike from Affiliates for one of my client’s, which won’t happen quite often, I looked in to this reports in details and found that Twitter and Facebook was the main drivers for traffic (qualified), but it’s actually counted as Affiliates because they were shortened Affiliate CID URL and publishing (spamming) in Twitter and Facebook.
I believe a brand like Amazon which have strong presence in social media, don’t need to pay for affiliates fee, as then can save a lot of money from these channels.
Cheers,
Smarketer
not having the time, or the knowledge to follow the latest trend does have it’s upside