Is Amazon Affiliation Not Working (false alarm)

1. 85

   aa liteposted 11 years ago

   So I don't want to spread any panic or alarm (or paranoia)  but.......I have been clicking on my Amazon modules on my hubs and I don't see any clicks in Amazon!
   
   First of all, as far as I can tell, you don't get punished by clicking on your Amazon ads.  If somebody knows (and I mean really knows, and can link to something that says that) please correct me.  It is not like Adsense, you don't earn from clicks so you can test the links.
   
   Secondly I realise that 40% of the time the Amazon modules belong to HP, so a couple of clicks are not conclusive, so I've clicked a lot more, over a few days, at random times.  I am sure by now I've done at least 20 clicks, so with the 60-40 revenue share I should see 12 clicks.....or at least 1???  The probability that every time I've clicked the module was displaying HP's ID is starting to look......very improbable.
   
   I know there are people who make a lot of Amazon sales through HP, so obviously this is not a universal problem.  At the same time other people, like Greekgeek, have reported that nobody clicks on their modules here, although they make sales on other sites.  There's been quite a bit of discussion about how HP Amazon modules are not optimised well.  Perhaps it's not that the Amazon modules are so bad, perhaps the connecting of affiliate ID to Amazon module is not working for some people.
   
   Incidentally I earn some money from Ebay clicks.  I don't think the Ebay module looks that different from the Amazon module, yet people obviously click it on my hubs.
   
   Of course there is a possibility that I've just put in my ID wrong.  In fact reading about somebody who did that wrong and just realised started this whole testing process for me.....I checked, double-checked, it seems ok to me.  I think made a new tracking ID for HP, since I wasn't using a different one for different sites, and again, I'm pretty sure it is right.  Of course I could be having a brain burb.
   
   I guess another way of checking that it is working would be to look at the html source of the Hub?  The fact that I only expect it to show my ID 60% of the time makes it difficult to reach any conclusions.  I would think that hubs are synchronised, so they all either show my ID or HP ID?  I wonder if the Adsense is synchronised to the Amazon, so a whole Hub is either monetised for you or for HP?  So if it was showing your Adsense ID it should also be showing your Amazon ID?
   
   Any thoughts on how I can test this conclusively? Or what to do?

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   1. 72

      Matthew Meyerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Are you referring to a click count that is listed on your Amazon affiliate account site?
      
      I am unaware of any issue that would be affecting the counting of clicks, but as previously mentioned "Amazon pays when someone navigates to Amazon from your Hub and buys a product."
      
      There may logic that is disregarding multiple clicks from your address or it could be a cookie or other browser issue.
      
      Do you see a click recorded when you use a different browser, computer, and/or clear the cache for the browser you are using?
      
      I think there may also be a more recent version of Safari available for your version of OS X as well.

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      1. 85

         aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yep I am referring to click count from HP on the Amazon affiliate account site.
         
         I know that somebody needs to buy a product from Amazon after clicking on a link on my site.  But if the "navigation" isn't registered by Amazon as coming from a link with my associate ID, then there will be no payment, when people buy stuff.
         
         As far as Amazon is concerned, nobody ever comes to them from my hubs.  Of course it is possible, especially since my hubs aren't 'sales' hubs, but I thought it was weird, I do get some ebay clicks.  I also think at least one other person has a similar experience, but she put it down to HP having badly converting module design.
         
         However you are right that it could be that my computer is set up to not accepting cookies etc. which might be why Amazon doesn't see my clicks.  I hadn't thought of that flaw in my test. 
         
         I get clicks (other people's) registered from my Squidoo links.  So I will now click on my Squidoo links, and see if Amazon sees them.  If they ignore my Squidoo clicks than one of your explanations will be right, but if they register my clicks from Squidoo but not from HubPages, then either I've messed up giving HP my Amazon ID, or there is a bug in HPs modules.
         
         The detectiving continues.  I will report back in a couple of days!

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2. 59

   LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

   Can't figure out your question.  But, a sale has to be made before you earn.

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   1. 85

      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes I know that, this isn't about earning, this is about a click on an Amazon module from my hub being registered by Amazon as coming from my content. 
      
      For me to earn somebody has to click on a link that has my Amazon associate ID.  If my Amazon modules don't have my ID entered correctly then people can click on them and buy items and I will still not earn.
      
      You can check your Amazon account for clicks as well as earnings.  You can see all the clicks that didn't result in any orders as well as the orders that were made. 
      
      My problem is that I am not seeing any clicks from HubPages even though I clicked them myself (many times, on different days).

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3. 85

   Isabella Snowposted 11 years ago

   I'm seeing the same thing, I'm sure it's a glitch.
   
   Don't panic. ;-)

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   1. 85

      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, it's nice to see that someone shares this experience.
      
      But if it is a 'glitch' it is possible that it has been going on for a while.  What worries me is that there might be a bug in the way some Amazon IDs are put into the modules.  If so, then it won't disappear by itself, it needs to be identified and sorted out.
      
      Not panicking   Just trying to find ways to conclusively figure out what's going on and get it sorted.

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4. 85

   Isabella Snowposted 11 years ago

   If we are talking about the same thing, my Amazon Associates earnings and orders summary for yesterday (and only yesterday) shows zero clicks and zero orders. Zero orders seems unlikely, but zero clicks is just impossible. I think Amazon's reporting is just glitching at the moment.
   
   The only other explanation would be something is seriously wrong with HP, but I seriously doubt that is the case.
   
   Just seems like a temporary reporting error on Amazon's side; I don't think there is cause to panic.

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   1. 85

      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Aaah ok, I see what you mean, and given that you have 1000 hubs I see why you think zero clicks is impossible.
      
      I have 60+ hubs, most of them not particularly oriented for sales, so 0 clicks is not impossible for me.  But 0 clicks ever? According to Amazon nobody has ever come to them from my hubs?  That sounds unlikely, especially since I'm getting some Ebay clicks.
      
      Yesterday I do show clicks from Squidoo, even 3 sales, so I seem to have missed this glitch.
      
      So yes I am asking here whether there could be a long term glitch on HubPages, that affects some hubbers but not all.  I do realise this is unlikely but I don't think it is impossible. 
      
      It could be that I did something wrong, but can't figure out what it is.  I am not jumping to any conclusions but would like to work this out.

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5. 85

   Isabella Snowposted 11 years ago

   Well so maybe it's something different... I dunno... but still not worried. ;-)

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6. 85

   Isabella Snowposted 11 years ago

   I just checked the reports in a a different way and I was right, its just a summary page glitch -- I'm sure it will be fixed soon.
   
   Not sure what your issue is then... but good luck with it.

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7. 72

   sunforgedposted 11 years ago

   aa-lite (whi***?)
   
   You check if your Amazon id is appearing by either opening the link in a new tab and looking at the address bar, right clicking and copying the link or looking in the page source.
   
   An id that is not HP's does appear in your pages. It could be your referrer or you could have mistyped it, but the adserving part of HP is doing as it should on your page.

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      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks! That's very helpful!  Why didn't I just think of looking at the URL bar?
      
      So....I did this and I got all excited because the Amazon ID is not me, it is not even close, so I don't think it could be a mistake.  In fact I think I might know whose it is. 
      
      But then it is possible that I used this person's (whoever it is) link to sign up to HP.  I really can't remember whether I signed up through somebody's link or not.  If so as referrer they would get 10% of the impressions.
      
      So now I will repeat the process, a few times at different times of the day, but looking at the URL of the link, should make it faster.  If I never see my ID, which should be there 60% of the time, then I guess there is a screwup.  If I do then obviously nobody clicks on my links.

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         Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         In the time that I've been with HP I've had very few clicks even when I had more hubs. Ten in total and I haven't mad a sale in all that time. There could be a variety of reasons for this; informational hubs, few hubs, inexperience, etc. However, I joined another site at the end of September, since that time I've received more than 100 clicks and 5 sales- low conversion, but conversion all the same. There must be a problem with the Amazon capsules here, I dunno.

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         1. 85

            aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I think you must be right Hollie.  I've just done what Sunforged suggested and there is my Amazon ID in the link, so I guess it is working right. 
            
            I have been writing sales lenses on Squidoo, and the best lens has had 88 click outs in 30 days.   Which is one of the reasons I started checking if clicks were even being registered!  I know that informational pages don't make sales like Amazon sales pages do, but still, the difference is pretty amazing, and as I keep saying, I do get some clicks on my ebay modules. 
            
            Weird!  But the bottom line is that I don't think there is anything wrong with my Amazon associate number in my modules, it is just that they convert really badly. 
            
            I think I will try to write a few 'sales' hubs and see how they do here.

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            1. 72

               Matthew Meyerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I am glad you figured out what is going on.
               
               A general tip for Amazon capsules:
               
               Try to feature less products, pick them specifically, and make them useful and as closely related to the Hub as possible.

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            2. 60

               Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I think you should, aa. I have definitely written more sales oriented material on the other site than I've written here, but I still receive more clicks even on the informational stuff at the other site. It maybe a case of just sussing out what works here, and adding more of it.
               
               Different sites offer different things, we just need to work out what maximizes sales and profit for us, I guess.

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8. 77

   Greekgeekposted 11 years ago

   FWIW, my Amazon Associates stats for Q4 are a little more promising on HP:
   
   HP clicks 67, orders 6. <-- out of the 9 HP-Amazon sales I've made all year, nearly all of them have happened in the past month.
   Blog clicks 64, orders 9.
   S clicks 6024, orders 336. <-- That's just my own Amazon Associates links; I've also got another 100 or so orders through S's built-in Amazon modules.

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   1. 85

      aa liteposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the info, at least you are seeing some clicks so you know "it" works, one gets rather paranoid when one doesn't see anything!
      
      On Squidoo I am mostly using their modules, even though I would make more money not sharing the revenue, but I don't want the worry of a cheque getting lost in the post to the UK and Amazon hasn't heard of Paypal.  Despite only a small fraction of the links being my own, I am still seeing clicks.
      
      So the thing that is really strange, is that people do click the ebay module in HP.  I think it's design is quite similar to Amazon's. 
      
      Mysterious are the ways of internet clickers!

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9. 67

   snleeposted 11 years ago

   Hi Greekgeek,
   Appreciate if you can share with us how to achieve such promising Amazon sales.  Most of the time I got clicks, but no sales.

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