Sticky Testing an Amazon Affiliate Setup Here at The Forum

[Jwest7788]

Hey Folks,

Years ago, I tried to set up an amazon affiliate account. They ended up sending a cheque for almost nothing (it was like $1.39 or something, lol)

It's been a few years, so I wanted to give it another go and see if it may be a non-intrusive way to further build up some revenue for the forum.
--> Recent payments made related to the meetups had me thinking about how tight things are, for what I would love for us to be able to do!

The affiliate thing works in a pretty unobtrusive way, it subtly adds an affiliate code to any links to amazon.ca. The most obtrusive part is, we need to have at least one amazon link on the homepage, or they assume we're gaming the system in some way. To get a link there in a way that isn't totally stupid, I am proposing we add a "Support the Forum Featured Product" sorta thing to the sidebar on the homepage.

I picture something like:

Support the Form, Featured Product:

Click Here


Outside of this one change, everything else is functionally invisible, impacting existing links automatically.
Part of the magic is that no purchase is needed, if anyone clicks on the amazon link, and then within a week, makes any purchase at amazon, then the affiliate account gets a credit, is my understanding.



Posting here to get anyone's concerns and to open a discussion on the same.

Thoughts? Concerns?


Edit: In the interest of time, I made the change, but let's discuss!

 

[Dusty]

Neat idea Josh, hopefully it will work out and cheques will start to roll in.

 

[gerritv]

Great idea. It would be more visible if it moved above the Profile Post section, seems hidden at the moment, at leaast on a non-phone/tablet screen.

 

[Susquatch]

How, will we choose featured products?

Does someone actually need to buy to get the payment?

When a member posts an amazon link in a regular post,
does it play the same way?

 

[Susquatch]

Great idea. It would be more visible if it moved above the Profile Post section, seems hidden at the moment, at leaast on a non-phone/tablet screen.

It's down at the bottom of my home page.

www.canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

 

[gerritv]

It's down at the bottom of my home page.

www.canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

I had to go looking, I seldom/never scroll down that far on the home page. If the goal is to drive traffic there it needs (IMO) to be more visible. forum stats and activity are interesting but also not as important as driving traffic to the affiliate link?

 

[DavidR8]

I've spent half my net worth at Amazon over the years so if I can help the forum all the better

 

[SomeGuy]

I have amazon affiliate for my youtube channel, setup for multi-region (US, Canada, UK, etc.) linking to the appropriate site. If you need help or have any questions about it, let me know. I usually get $50ish/month out of it by just leaving links in the descriptions of my videos and pretty much never mention it in the videos.

 

[DavidR8]

@Jwest7788 Could it be put in a banner above the forum posts?

 

[ChazzC]

Have to agree: if you don't know to look for it it is hidden. Maybe an internal link ("Support the Forum: Check Out Today's Featured Product") at the top of the Home Page that scrolls to the bottom? That way the only thing that would need to be periodically updated is the Amazon Link/photo.

 

[Bandit]

Not sure how long this has been on the site, not brothered to scroll down that far most any time, just normally down till I find what I am looking for and gone to that.

 

[Jwest7788]

Great questions folks!

How, will we choose featured products?

We can probably grab products from the Member Spotted Deals section and roll with that, or we could organize a monthly poll, that could be a fun way to keep it a bit more engaging.
It's not crazy difficult to change out, but it is a bit of HTML hidden away in the admin panel.

Does someone actually need to buy to get the payment?

Nope, just clicking the link counts as a referral, and then purchases made (for anything at Amazon, not just the clicked link) count as sourced from the affiliate link, I believe.

When a member posts an amazon link in a regular post,
does it play the same way?

It does. With this model, anyone who posts an amazon link is actually helping the forum, if anyone else clicks it, and then shops on amazon, it should count. @SomeGuy sounds like they can confirm some of the specific details too.

I had to go looking, I seldom/never scroll down that far on the home page. If the goal is to drive traffic there it needs (IMO) to be more visible. forum stats and activity are interesting but also not as important as driving traffic to the affiliate link?

The homepage link is really to ensure we make it past the amazon affiliate verification thing, I suspect that the member-posted amazon links are going to be the primary drivers of affiliate link usage, but who knows!

I have amazon affiliate for my youtube channel, setup for multi-region (US, Canada, UK, etc.) linking to the appropriate site. If you need help or have any questions about it, let me know. I usually get $50ish/month out of it by just leaving links in the descriptions of my videos and pretty much never mention it in the videos.

I think I have it figured out, just haven't taken the time to set up a US version of the account yet. Figured we could test .ca first and go from there.

@Jwest7788 Could it be put in a banner above the forum posts?

It could! Let's see if we can get a consensus on where to put this thing!

 

[Bandit]

Not sure about others, the Home button/tab, seems to do the same as the forums tab for me and the Home button does not change color, just lights up the forums tab. Most of the time I go to the "What's new tab" anyway, Whether I have logged in or not.
I would think you would have to go though the Amazon link on this site for this to work.
While some may think this is obvious, it's not to me.
One step at a time, good thing no one is measureing how far between them steps!
It may not be so much " where to put it" as knowing about it being there and using it.

 

[SomeGuy]

I think I have it figured out, just haven't taken the time to set up a US version of the account yet. Figured we could test .ca first and go from there.

You need to setup the "OneLink" feature under Tools. You don't want accounts in each region, you want a single account with onelink so that it figures our which jurisdiction the user is in and directs them to the right site (.com, .ca, .co.uk, etc.) automatically. The per region accounts just work if they buy in that region.

 

[Susquatch]

The homepage link is really to ensure we make it past the amazon affiliate verification thing, I suspect that the member-posted amazon links are going to be the primary drivers of affiliate link usage, but who knows!

This, was really the point of several of my questions. Your first note suggested that to me but I wasn't sure.

Basically, Amazon just needs their crawler to find it on our homepage. If what you say is true, doesn't matter where it is on the home page or if members see it or even if the linked product is a good one.

Because links posted by members will get clicked on FAR MORE OFTEN than any home page link, it's only really important that anyone clicking on a link posted by anyone else anywhere will get tracked and rewarded.

A LOT LESS WORK for the admins too!

If it works, I like it! Even at say $50 a month, it's $600 a year.

FWIW, I think you need to be Careful about where you put it. Anything that specifies its location could do more harm than good because a directive link might highlight it for members but hide it to Amazon's crawler.

 

[Jwest7788]

One step at a time, good thing no one is measureing how far between them steps!

Story of my life. All good things come in time, but I am grateful that life doesn't keep count of mistakes made along the path.

You need to setup the "OneLink" feature under Tools. You don't want accounts in each region, you want a single account with onelink so that it figures our which jurisdiction the user is in and directs them to the right site (.com, .ca, .co.uk, etc.) automatically. The per region accounts just work if they buy in that region.

Thanks, this is exponentially easier than the route I was planning... haha

A LOT LESS WORK for the admins too!

Wouldn't work well otherwise, for sure.

If it works, I like it! Even at say $50 a month, it's $600 a year.

Well, it was only a few dollars last time, but we made $1 yesterday, so I guess we will see!

FWIW, I think you need to be Careful about where you put it. Anything that specifies its location could do more harm than good because a directive link might highlight it for members but hide it to Amazon's crawler.

Agreed! I haven't read too much about what is and isn't allowed, but last time I tried the account was eventually turned off since we didn't have an amazon link on the homepage. Lesson learned.

 

[Jwest7788]

Did some more reading, one point of clarification:

How it works is, for a 24-hour period after an Amazon link on the forum is clicked, anything added to the shopping cart is credited to the forum. Later, if any of those items are purchased, then the forum gets a small benefit from the sale. (The percent is unclear to me at this point, but I think its percentage based)

So, in theory, the moment immediately before someone plans to go window shopping at amazon, or the moment before they plan to make a larger purchase at amazon, is the ideal time for these links to be clicked.

Sharing so everyone understands how this works "under the hood"

Edit: In theory, this also increases the importance of the "Member Spotted Deals" section of the forum. Maybe we can all keep it top of mind to share any amazon deals we spot. haha


Josh

 

[Susquatch]

anything added to the shopping cart is credited to the forum.

This is a bit worrisome for me. I hardly ever use the shopping cart. Too much junk accumulates there if I do.

Usually, I click buy now and avoid the cart. There are times when I use the shopping cart a bit like a wish list. I'll temporarily add a bunch of similar things that I can compare. Then when I'm ready to buy, I select the item I've decided I want and then I click buy now.

For me at least, the shopping cart is a useless complication that has little value.

So it's important to know if buying from the cart is really required for CHMW to get credits.

 

[SomeGuy]

Did some more reading, one point of clarification:

How it works is, for a 24-hour period after an Amazon link on the forum is clicked, anything added to the shopping cart is credited to the forum. Later, if any of those items are purchased, then the forum gets a small benefit from the sale. (The percent is unclear to me at this point, but I think its percentage based)

So, in theory, the moment immediately before someone plans to go window shopping at amazon, or the moment before they plan to make a larger purchase at amazon, is the ideal time for these links to be clicked.

Sharing so everyone understands how this works "under the hood"

Edit: In theory, this also increases the importance of the "Member Spotted Deals" section of the forum. Maybe we can all keep it top of mind to share any amazon deals we spot. haha


Josh

Yup, this is how it works for sure...here's my last week of affiliate purchases, you can see only a few were actually things ordered through my links, most were other random items that people bought subsequently off amazon.



Percentage wise, it depends on category but tools are usually 3%. Note the one at the bottom, returns will get pulled back, they delay payment for a couple months because of this...like this month I will get paid for products bought in March.
(oh, and whoever bought that $1998 subwoofer, thank you lol)

 

[jorogi]

So I read the forums from the "Latest Post" page and use the lightening bolt to get the freshest material. There is no link there so I went looking for one and found it at the bottom of home page, but not identified as Amazon. Anyway, clicking on it opened up my Amazon account page so I'll use that route to get there in future when I go shopping instead of using the icon on my homescreen.