Yes, We are Getting Credit for All Amazon Referrals.

1. 59

   Fiction Tellerposted 10 years ago

   Hi,
   
   I have other accounts here (this is my forum account).  So far in the two days of Amazon earnings reports in the new HubPages-linked Amazon products, I only see products listed that I directly linked to.  Usually I earn commission from products that were bought using my affiliate links [corrected from "referral links" - thanks, Marisa!], even if they weren't the products I linked to.  In fact, this is where most of my Amazon income comes from. 
   
   Is this a coincidence, or is it supposed to work this way with HubPages and the program is only crediting products directly linked to?
   
   Just a bit disconcerted, as that of course would be a deal breaker for using the HubPages Earning Program for Amazon!
   
   Thanks!

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for this feedback on the new program.  I, for one, am eagerly awaiting an HP response to your question.  Most of the products I sell from Amazon aren't the products I'm pushing.  When people go to Amazon, that website displays the last few items the person searched for in the past and often people will buy one of those.  If HP takes those sales instead of giving them to us, I'm not signing up for the new program.

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   2. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      When you say referral links, what do you mean?
      
      Are they links that you placed in your text?  I don't think they would be affected by the new program, because you didn't create them using HubPages' system, you got them direct from Amazon.  Have you checked your own account?

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   3. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I think what you are asking about is related to how Amazon pays via their program.  The payment method is not not related to the recent change we made for how Amazon is handled for the site.
      
      There is more detail in the blog post and FAQ related to what your options are for using your own code and not opting into the likely higher payment tier.
      http://blog.hubpages.com/2014/02/introd … n-program/
      http://hubpages.com/faq/#HubPages-Amazon-Program

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      1. 95

         Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Matt,
         
         What Fiction Teller is asking is if we get paid for items that people order when they follow our link but then order something else. In other words, is this treated the same way in the HP Program as it is with Amazon Affiliate not under HP.
         
         On my direct Amazon Affiliate reporting, my Affiliate Orders Report shows two columns:
         
         1 - "Items Ordered Through Product Links" - These relate to the specific items we list in the link to Amazon.
         
         2 - "All Other Items Ordered" - These are items people ended up ordering while browsing around Amazon after following our link.
         
         That means that under the Amazon Affiliate Program (direct with Amazon) we get paid for orders even if the visitor ordered something else.
         
         But is this true with the Amazon HP Earnings Program too?
         
         This is questionable because with the HP Earnings Program our "Amazon Program Earnings" report only shows a column for "Items Ordered" - Does this represent all orders (specified items and other items)?
         
         If so, it would be nice to show individual columns like Amazon does in their Affiliate program.
         
         If not, then we are not getting paid for "Other Items" under the HP Program. This needs to be made known. I hope I clarified the question for you.

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         1. 44

            Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Looks like we are not going to get an answer to this today.  I posted a link to this thread here:
            http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/120171? … ost2545658
            
            No answer there either.
            
            Glad I waited to sign up.  It never occurred to me that all product sales wouldn't be included in the HP program.

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            1. 95

               Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               See my prior post. I have the answer there. I was posting at the same time as you.

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                  Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Oh, good.  Since I haven't signed up yet for the HP program, when you refer to the "Amazon Sales Report", is that on the HP site or the Amazon site?

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                  1. 95

                     Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     I'm talking about the Amazon Sales Report here on HubPages. It's under your Earnings tab. But you might not see it if you didn't sign up for Amazon under the HP Earnings Program yet.

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                     1. 44

                        Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        Does it list everything just like the report on the Amazon site does?

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                        1. 95

                           Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           No it does not. I complained about that in my post above in this thread. Amazon Affiliate on their site had shown the total counts for items we specified AND for other items that were ordered via our referral. In the HP Amazon program, HP only shows the total combined. That's why this question came up.   But now that I see a sale of an item I did not specify in an Amazon Capsule, I have proof that HP is paying us just as Amazon did. Only the reporting needs to be made to match, to avoid other people wondering.

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                              Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              OK.  Thanks for the info.

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                              paradigmsearchposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              Pretty much what I figured. (the bolding was done by me.)

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               2. 89

                  Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  You are not paranoid or gullible enough to last long on this site. Glen.
                  
                  Just my personal prediction.

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                  1. 95

                     Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     I have no idea what you mean by that.

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                        Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        That is rather wonderful, lol.

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                  2. 85

                     Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Considering Glenn has been here for 4 years, I think you're a bit late (and wrong) with your prediction.   If I understood what you meant, which I don't.

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   4. 85

      aa liteposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I have finally had a sale through the HP program (after 111 clicks, great conversion rate! Not!). But now your question is really confusing me. All I can see on my HP Amazon report is number of items ordered, and 'ordered revenue' which I actually assume is the price of the item. 
      
      How do you see what the ordered item actually is?
      
      You say "I only see products listed that I directly linked to." Where do you actually see these products?

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      1. 95

         Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Click on the Amazon Sales Report. That shows the individual items ordered.
         
         The Amazon Earnings Report only shows totals.
         
         I actually just see a sale for an item I didn't include in a capsule. So I got the answer to my last post. We do get paid for alternate sales, too, that are a result of someone clicking from our Amazon capsule.
         
         To answer your other questions, the revenue is the cost of the item and the earnings shows what we get.
         
         I'm also glad to see that I'm getting paid in the 8.25% tier. Much better than 6% that I was getting on my own Affiliate account.

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         1. 85

            aa liteposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks Glenn. I had an item ordered, but not shipped yet, so I don't see anything in my Sales Report. Hopefully that will change tonight. Just my luck that as soon as I switched to HP, my conversion rate fell through the roof. But I'm trying not to get paranoid, I had fallow periods when I was on Amazon as well.

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            1. 95

               Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I see the total count of orders in my "Amazon Program Earnings" report listed for the day they order. But the specific item only shows up in the "sales report" when it ships.

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   5. 71

      Organised Kaosposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I am glad to read that we are paid for any purchases that are made, once a customer is on Amazon. There is another positive of changing to Hubpages Amazon for me, as I am from Aus. I had to have a cheque issued to be paid by Amazon at a cost of $15. So I am assuming that payment will now be via hubpages and paypal - so a saving for me!

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   6. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I did some research and confirmed that you should be paid for items purchased by readers other than those directly specified in the Hub.
      
      It may be something that could benefit from a change in our reporting, so I am touching base with our engineering team to see if there is something we can clarify.

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      1. 95

         Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Matt. I would say that if the "total orders" column were to be divided into two columns just as Amazon does in the reporting under the direct affiliate accounts, then this would be clearer. Question is: are they combing the two together when they send you the information? If that's the case, then I can understand the problem reporting it individually.

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         1. 71

            Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            The reporting system that Amazon provides to support such a large number of tracking IDs is a a little different than the standard one.  Unfortunately, it does not distinguish between "Items Ordered Through Product Links" and "All Other items Ordered", and therefore we can't provide that information in our sales report.

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            1. 95

               Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I suspected that might be the case. Thanks for checking into it though. The specific items show up in the "sales report" when it ships, so Hubbers can see how many are other items that way.
               
               By the way, I'm very happy with the HP Earnings Program version of Amazon because my first order was at the 8.25% tier and today I had two in the 8.5% tier. I was only in the  6% tier when I was on my own.

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               1. 95

                  wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Same here - two in the 8.5% tier, the first in the new program (just switched over).  I've not seen that tier before, ever.

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2. 59

   Fiction Tellerposted 10 years ago

   Marisa, I'm sorry, I don't understand your question.  These are affiliate links from regular capsules or HubPages-created text links that automatically converted with the new program.  (Wait, I think maybe my use of "referral" instead of "affiliate" links caused the confusion?  Sorry about that.)
   
   Still a bit confused, though.  What do you mean by "Have you checked your own account?"
   
   I checked my Amazon account.  It credited me with one sale from text links I had placed on my own.  All good.  There aren't too many of those.
   
   I checked my HubPages Amazon earnings account.  It credited me with just 4 sales in 2 days.  I average a good many more sales per day than that.  This discrepancy could of course be a weird coincidence, a product of Valentine's Day, or the fact that there might be a delay in HubPages' processing of some earnings - for example, they might just be processing items sent, not items ordered, and in a day or two I'll be seeing normal numbers. 
   
   But not just the number of sales was odd, but the fact that ALL of them were from actual products I'd linked to.  Something's off there. 
   
   I'll assume it was coincidence or a technical problem just on my account if many others come forth here and say "Hey, I'm getting sales from items I didn't directly link to - so it's just you."  So if anyone does have items they didn't link to directly being credited, could you post here? 
   
   HubPages probably doesn't have staff working this weekend and it would be great to get an idea of the scale of the problem (just me or lotsa folks) before Monday.

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3. 89

   IzzyMposted 10 years ago

   I'd be interested to know too.
   My sales this month have been terrible, even worse than when my traffic was half of what it is now, but I still got 3 times as many clicks through to Amazon per day, as what HP are reporting.

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4. 83

   Good Guyposted 10 years ago

   Don't know whether this is pertinent here.  I signed up for the Hp/Amazon program.  My newly published hub did not show any Amazon ad.  The standard adsense ad on top right (below hub photo) also did not appear. 
   Do i need to put in the Amazon capsule myself like before?

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   1. 89

      Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Same as before, as regards creating the page. You choose the ads.

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         Good Guyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, but strange, as for adsense we don't have to do anything.

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         1. 89

            Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            To be honest, unless you make a page from scratch with certain products in mind to place on it, you are not likely to sell much.
            
            Using amazon ads that readers never click can be harmful.

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               Good Guyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               My experience is that I got pd several times, after a few months.

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               1. 89

                  Will Apseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Sounds good. I would not over do it. Or get greedy.

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5. 44

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   Does anyone have the answer to the original question yet?

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      This one will have to come from the team, but I can honestly say that in the last two years I have made less than $4 from Amazon and lately, even before the change, have made not one cent.  With more than 100 hubs online you would think somebody would click on an ad at east once in awhile!

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6. 71

   The Zen Mistressposted 10 years ago

   I'm still new, so I'm not sure if I'm just doing something wrong or there is an actual problem. Before I switched to the new HP Amazon Program vs. the Amazon Affiliate Program, I had a sale from a click-thru on my page. The purchase included one item I had advertised on my page, plus another additional item. But as far as HP is concerned, there's been no activity whatsoever - no clicks, no purchases. This cannot be true because it says otherwise on the Amazon side.
   
   I'm even less sure about whether the new program is working properly. I'm not the most tech savvy person out there, and I find a lot of the ad-related setup (outside of putting the links in your Hubs) confusing and nebulous, like I'm hoping I'm doing it right but never really sure because ultimately, it's all ones and zeros in the ether. *Sigh*

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7. 60

   paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

   "Are We Getting Credit for All Amazon Referrals?"
   
   Hopefully, the https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/amazon format will be as the https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/ebay format. If so, one will find out soon enough...

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   1. 95

      Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes we are. See my recent post in this thread.

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8. 59

   Fiction Tellerposted 10 years ago

   Thanks all.  Yes, now I'm showing more than just directly-linked-to items.  Data and numbers are now following typical Amazon patterns for items shipped.  The early reports appear to have been a coincidence after all.   
   
   I sincerely apologize for any discomfort my thread may have wrought to potential participants to the program.  Since the great Summer of Plunge, I've become hyper-vigilant about clinging to the income our family has left.  Don't want anything more to go wrong; know it will; keep hoping it won't.  Etc., etc.
   
   HubPages:  For the record if you do add more features, I would also be interested in other data provided by Amazon, specifically the items clicked but not ordered.  Those not only give me clues as to the success of a link or lack thereof, but also alert me to outdated links.

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I, for one, am really glad you asked the question and I appreciate your feedback about how the new program is working for you.

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