Forum Moderators: skibum
How effective have you found other bookstore affiliate programs e.g. BN.com to be as compared to Amazon.com?
Do people easily trust other lesser known bookstores apart from Amazon.con, BN.com?
Has anyone noticed an increase in EPC (Earnings per click) with a shift to another bookstore affiliate program?
Are the clickthroughs and affiliate commissions any higher/ lower particularly for direct links?
Thanks!
Amazon is trustworthy and is best known to people. They will buy more easily from Amazon than from BN or any other bookstore, IMMHO. Personally, I stick to Amazon, even if their policy is a bit affliate-unfriendly as far as payment scheme is concerned. If you sell enough, it compensates though.
Anyway, those are my thoughts...
This doesn't seem to happen and it's dishonest.
If they don't buy what you offer, they find themselves looking at other things and buying. They aren't called "Earth's Biggest Selection" for nothing. (I push DVDs and CDs through my current sites, and end up with commissions for toys, small appliances, and a couple high-dollar books.)
Awesome implementation of Webservices. You get 15% for books that people add to cart on your site.
Cons of amazon:
If a person clicks through a book discounted 10-30%, and that person's first action is to put the book in their cart, you get 15%. This is a negative, since Amazon's landing pages are loaded with other things to click on. (Super saver shipping, click here, you may also be interested in... click here.) It's a pleasant surprise when you get it.
Commission caps on electronics ($10) and appliances ($50).
Only 2.5% commissions for items sold by a third party or amazon partner, and some amazon partners don't pay any commission (bad because the products I want to push are only available new from an amazon partner, and my CJ affiliate offering the same product has been dropped by CJ). Amazon likes to insert a "buy this used from $xx.xx" link right under the price for the new item, cutting your commission by at least 50% (5% to 2.5%, then the used price is lower than the new price. What should be $1.00 commission for a $20 new item is now 40 cents because the used item is $18, for example.)
I guess getting 2.5% is better than nothing, which is what we got before.
They also have used books and may still be the Amazon supplier of used books.
I get lots of 15% commissions on one site that sells niche books.
I think any of the three could yield a good conversion rate if you "play" the material on your site well enough.
I have all the other bookstores named in this thread already. But I was considering trying something different on a new site. Has anyone tried Books a Million? Any luck with them?
I'm not sure Powell's counts as a "little guy"
Well, they're not a huge chain yet, are they? Last I heard, their bricks and mortar operation was still limited to Portland, OR...
And they apparently pay 10% on any sale coming from your site. Not good as 15%, but if you're not getting 15% from Amamzon anyway, 10% is better than 5%. ;)
I just signed up with them, but haven't put any books on my sites yet.
Amazon.com doesn't seem to pay 15 % even when we take time out to select books and link to them directly.
To be sure you get the 15% commision from Amazon you'll want to implement the ref=nosim tip outlined here. [webmasterworld.com]
Alibris works great for second-hand books. My policy is to give users a choice, which is another reason not to go with B&N: they insist on exclusivity, or at least they did last time I checked.
"According to a new survey by Forrester, 10 percent of U.S. households shop at or browse at Amazon's web site once a month...."
Last week, besides the usual books, DVDs, and CDs, I got a commission for a crock pot and a Cuisinart food processor from Amazon, on a site that only has book links. People will buy all sorts of stuff once they get on the Amazon site, even if they only started out going there to look at books.
