What affiliate links do you use?

[alhawke]

I think I'm real late to this party. I'm curious to see what you guys use to garner a few more $. I have a website and get a little bit of traffic there. I also am wide and have my books in all major retailers.

I'm reticent with Zon. My fear is all those stories about writers on Amazon getting their account banned from using their affiliate in emails or in their ebooks--well, there's one method that's obviously a no-no. I worry that I could trip over other rules through Amazon inadvertently. That would make this hardly worth it.

What about Smashwords? GooglePlay, etc...

[R. C.]

Well, okay, let's see...

My Amazon Affiliate account has been cancelled TWICE because I used "Kindle ebooks" in a Google AD keywords.  So, there's that.

Other affiliates I tried have been pointless. For example Taboola, is good for ADs in non-US markets but it paid poorly on the affiliate side.

Lately, for about six weeks, I have been avoiding 'Zon and narrowly focusing on marketing a couple of items. My site traffic has improved but not enough to warrant the trouble of another try at affiliate marketing.

Finally, organic "sales" through D2D and Smashwords have ticked up. I pushed the first book of a series into permafree. A five day run of ADs using keyword "Free" definitely improved my site's indexing. Without any ADs or efforts, I am seeing consistent downloads across platforms and the hits to my site are coming from several new search engines.  Heck, Yahoo, which I never use, is driving traffic to my site.

Summary, my take, which is an educated opinion, is: If a site is not pulling 10k+ unique daily visits, affiliate marketing is hardly worth the trouble.

R.C.

[Eric Thomson]

I use the Book2Reads universal links and B2R has a built-in capability to accept affiliate codes. Easy peasy. For example, I added my Amazon affiliate code once in B2R and now whenever someone uses a universal link to buy one of my books on Amazon, I get a few pennies. It does add up when I put out a new release. B2R can also take other retailer affiliate codes, but I haven't bothered, mainly because getting affiliate accounts on Kobo or Google Play, for example, struck me as too cumbersome for what little patience I can muster on my good days.

[alhawke]

Summary, my take, which is an educated opinion, is: If a site is not pulling 10k+ unique daily visits, affiliate marketing is hardly worth the trouble.

That's what I've thought, so far. Thanks.

I use the Book2Reads universal links and B2R has a built-in capability to accept affiliate codes.

D2D is a possibility. I use their universal link all the time. So, you simply use the Amazon affiliate link? I don't sell Amazon through D2D but that might not matter with their universal link.  I'll look into this.

[Eric Thomson]

No I don't sell on Amazon through D2D. You don't even have to sell anything via D2D to use B2R. And yep, I simply enter my Amazon affiliate code and done.

[Post-Doctorate D]

I mainly use Amazon, though I haven't actively promoted the site(s) using it in a long time.  I don't use the links in eMails or eBooks or anything that I know of that you're not supposed to do.  I also don't use Amazon affiliate links on my author site though.  I think it's allowed, but I've never bothered with it.  I'm just happy if someone buys one of my books.

In any event, someone might browse your or other books on your site(s), click a link, go to Amazon and then maybe buy the book and then maybe another book and, you know, while they're shopping, they realize  they need a new dishwasher and add that to the cart.  Then they buy and, you know, cha-ching for you because they bought a big ticket item and you get a nicer chunk of money than selling a book, though it's a win-win for you if they also bought your book.  Then again, if they dumped your book and just bought the dishwasher, well, no complaints.

[alhawke]

I'm giving it a try. It was easy to set up.

I did hook it into D2D but I changed the setting on every book I have a landing page for with Bookfunnel, cause now I have to remember to not advertise the affiliate link with Zon when joining book fairs with other authors. That'd count as a violation through email.

I haven't looked into affiliates yet with other retailers. The thing is, don't know if I'll bother. It makes sense to me that I could earn on Amazon as its so huge. The others are book retailers only. Still thinking bout it.

[alhawke]

I use Bookbub ads regularly to promote my books. Does anyone know if affiliates are allowed?

I read an article mentioning a rule that you can't send a link to grow your newsletter. But that's it as far as BB link rules are concerned. Is it okay to use affiliate links advertising Amazon? Do any of you do it?

[alhawke]

Update: One week into the Amazon affiliate experiment: 11 clicks, no dough. Waste of time? I'll see. After 90 days if there isn't any revenue, Amazon cancels the service.

[TimothyEllis]

After 90 days if there isn't any revenue, Amazon cancels the service.

Rubbish. They send you out emails saying you didn't get any money from it this month.

They only cancel you when you do something wrong.

I've been an Amazon associate for donkeys years, even before I started writing. It's never been canceled on account if not making anything for multiple months.

[alhawke]

Oh. 

[R. C.]

After 90 days if there isn't any revenue, Amazon cancels the service.

Rubbish. They send you out emails saying you didn't get any money from it this month.

They only cancel you when you do something wrong.

I've been an Amazon associate for donkeys years, even before I started writing. It's never been canceled on account if not making anything for multiple months.

Not sure that is accurate... before I was cancelled, the first time, I received an email that stated my account would be closed if I didn't improve activity.

R.C.

[TimothyEllis]

Not sure that is accurate... before I was cancelled, the first time, I received an email that stated my account would be closed if I didn't improve activity.

When was that?

[Post-Doctorate D]

I've been an Amazon associate for donkeys years, even before I started writing. It's never been canceled on account if not making anything for multiple months.

Same here.

[LilyBLily]

I just got the usual notice saying I hadn't earned anything. They've never threatened to cancel, even though many months sometimes go by without anyone clicking through.

All the Amazon links on my website are affiliate links. Sometimes I put them in my newsletters, too, because my newsletters obviously are no business of Amazon's to police.

[R. C.]

...
When was that?

Several years ago and we can assume the rules have changed.

R.C.

[LilyBLily]

Why should Amazon care? The affiliate links might bring a customer to the site. It costs Amazon nothing to hand out affiliate links, so any sales deriving from them are sheer gravy.

[R. C.]

Why should Amazon care? The affiliate links might bring a customer to the site. It costs Amazon nothing to hand out affiliate links, so any sales deriving from them are sheer gravy.

They care, a lot! They watch for what their ADs are marketed with and are next to on the page.  If their bot flags anything, like what happened to me, they perform a manual review. 

Also, they look negatively on the use of "Kindle" and "Kindle eBook" as keywords in other platforms. Which is why I got banned again.

What happened was, Google recommended new keywords and I did not check closely enough.  "Kindle eBook" was in the list... they banned me.

R.C.

[Post-Doctorate D]

...
When was that?

Several years ago and we can assume the rules have changed.

R.C.

I've been an Amazon affiliate for more than several years with no problems from any lack of sales at any point.

What happened was, Google recommended new keywords and I did not check closely enough.  "Kindle eBook" was in the list... they banned me.

Well, there was the reason: disallowed keywords, not lack of sales.

[R. C.]

...
Well, there was the reason: disallowed keywords, not lack of sales.

Different incidents.  First, the Amazon Associates Program Operating Agreement changed effective October 1, 2021. 

This is part of the new Operating agreement.

To comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations, your link-level disclosure must be:
1. Clear. A clear disclosure could be as simple as “(paid link)”, “#ad” or “#CommissionsEarned”.
2. Conspicuous. It should be placed near any associate link or product review in a location that customers will notice easily. They shouldn’t have to hunt for it.
In addition, the Operating Agreement requires that the following statement clearly and conspicuously appears on your Site: “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” For social media user-generated content, this statement must be associated with your account.

Here is the text from the email, April 2019, when they threatened to close my account.

Hello ********,

We are reaching out to you because you have not reached the required Qualifying Purchases for your account. As a reminder, Associate accounts that have not referred three Qualifying Purchases to Amazon.com within 180 days of sign-up will be closed.

There are many ways to increase referrals and advertising fees you earn through the Associates Program, including:

•   Making your existing links more prominent or visible to site visitors
•   Including links to additional products or product variants
•   Adding links for trending promotions that you can find in our promotions hub
•   Increasing traffic to your website using search engine optimization and social media

R.C.

[TimothyEllis]

As a reminder, Associate accounts that have not referred three Qualifying Purchases to Amazon.com within 180 days of sign-up will be closed.

I bolded the important bit.

[alhawke]

Update: 26 clicks on Amazon in one month. No qualifying purchases.

I signed up for Kobo, Smashwords and Googlplay.

I didn't bother with B&N (very low %yield) and Apple (I'm not direct with them).

So far lots of work for a whole lot of nothing.  At least it's all on autopilot now.

[alhawke]

For any of you looking into using affiliates, I came up with a solution for linking affiliates for promos and newsletters. This is huge because I partake in a lot of them and I wanted to get credit for sales when linking readers from my newsletter. It's a lot of work, but ensures that I follow Amazon rules linking to my website. As you know, you can't just throw the link in a newsletter. You have to keep the affiliate link associated with your website.

I realized that giving the affiliate link to D2D universal links sets up the affiliate coming from a location outside of my website (unless used in my website). My solution: with promos on Bookfunnel, you can set up a "buy link". I have this "buy link" route direct to individual web pages only showing my book with available retailers from my website; I also route my newsletters now to the buy pages from my website. It appears to be an extra step vs D2D for readers, but not really because I'm wide. It's more like my own created universal link.

Update: So far, after a couple of months, I have three affiliate link purchases.   So I'm finally in, according to the 3 purchase rule. I made about $1.  Still, I think it will be worth it to have around for when I run future big promos.

(I could be wrong about D2D for Bookfunnel promos, btw. But I used my website just in case. And I know I had to do it for newsletter email links, anyway).
{edit for clarity

[KelliWolfe]

Google Play has an affiliate system - Partnerize. I make quite a bit on them since I sell about as much there as I do on Amazon. https://signup.partnerize.com/signup/en_us/google-play

[DmGuay]

The Novel Marketing Podcast has a good episode all about affiliates, and I learned about a few I hadn't heard of, including one for Barnes & Noble.
Here is the episode: https://www.authormedia.com/affiliate-marketing-for-authors/

I am an Amazon affiliate, because I am exclusive to Amazon up until recently. And yeah, a few cents here or there doesn't seem like much, but it does add up and it does grow over time as your audience grows. So now I'm reaping affiliate money for work I did once 3 years ago. And the work was just making the link. So really, set it, forget it, then free money.

I think I made $10 the first year? I made $160 last year. That's not nothing. And it's for basically doing nothing--the same things I would do to promote my book anyway. So why not? Also, sometimes you do hit the jackpot. Like, last month someone bought my $3 book then bought a $2000 TV, so now I'm getting a check for $106. Boom. Magic! (That doesn't happen often, but it's literally the lottery. You have to play to win.)

(I post links on my social media and on my author website.)

[alhawke]

The Novel Marketing Podcast has a good episode all about affiliates, and I learned about a few I hadn't heard of, including one for Barnes & Noble.
Here is the episode: https://www.authormedia.com/affiliate-marketing-for-authors/

I think I made $10 the first year? I made $160 last year. That's not nothing. And it's for basically doing nothing--the same things I would do to promote my book anyway. So why not? Also, sometimes you do hit the jackpot. Like, last month someone bought my $3 book then bought a $2000 TV, so now I'm getting a check for $106. Boom. Magic! (That doesn't happen often, but it's literally the lottery. You have to play to win.)

I'll have to check this out. Thanks! I looked into B&N and it seemed a bit complicated. Maybe this link will be easier.
So far I can report that I've made about $2 from Amazon affiliates in two months.  And that's with around a hundred clicks. But, I think the whole affiliate thing is a bit like gambling. You never know when you'll make $40 instead of $.04.