My Hubpages Amazon ID Not Appearing in Amazon Modules

1. 75

   kspollposted 9 years ago

   I have an Amazon Program Affiliate code through Hubpages and it was my understanding that I would split traffic with Hubpages 60/40. However, this morning when I ran a check on my hubs, I have not seen my ID appear in any Amazon Modules over the 10 hubs I checked. Every time I mouse over the Amazon module I see the "hubpages-20" id embedded in the link.
   
   Can you please explain to me how exactly Hubpages splits traffic between Amazon IDs I've had a large decrease in sales lately and am beginning to suspect this is why. There is no clear explanation of how traffic is split anywhere on the Hubpages site, and this lack of transparency has me wondering.
   
   Thank you,
   Kristen

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   1. 93

      Susana Sposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Looks like you're using Amazon through HP's earnings program? You'll see your unique code in the url which looks something like dhubacct####.

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   2. 0

      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi kspoll,
      
      Linda is correct. Your ID will show 60% of the time and you get to keep 100% of the commission you make during that time. The other 40% of the time, HubPages ID shows, and HubPages gets to keep 100% of the commission earned during that time.

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      1. 75

         kspollposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Christy, my comment was that I did not seem to be seeing my ID 60% of the time. When I visit my hubs the percentage seems heavily skewed to the hubpages ID. Like Baby-Boomer-58 says, is there any type of audit that happens? It is very difficult to optimize ones writing for sales when we don't know what the outcome is 40% of the time. How can anyone run a business with only 60% insight into their effectiveness?

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         1. 0

            Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            As far as I know, our affiliate impressions should be working normally without any issues (the ID that shows is at random, so there's not a particular day or time that your ID should be showing vs. HubPages), but I'll check with the ad team to confirm.

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         2. 70

            Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I just wanted to clarify, that your code will be used during your share of impressions (not on a percentage of time).
            
            This explains what I'm trying to explain in a bit more detail.
            http://hubpages.com/faq/#impressions

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         3. 0

            Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Just checking back in. Things are working as they should be. Here's an old post that may be useful to you as well where Engineer Paul Deeds explains how to audit your Hubs: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/3062#post21420

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            1. 39

               Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Hey Christy:  It says that post has been removed.

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               1. 0

                  Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  My apologies. Here is the post:
                  
                  "The split is done at random with each page view, without regard for referrer or any other factor.   It's pretty easy for anyone to test this, just use wget to request 100, 1000, or 10000 copies of a hub using whatever referrer you like. For instance you could run these commands on a unix system (unfortunately, not all have the repeat command), in two separate directories:
                  
                  Google Referrer: repeat 1000 wget -referer http://www.google.com/search?q=Subvert+ … ite+review
                  http://hubpages.com/hub/Subvert-and-Pro … ite-review
                  
                  HubPages Referrer: repeat 1000 wget -referer http://hubpages.com/
                  http://hubpages.com/hub/Subvert-and-Pro … ite-review
                  
                  And then use grep and wc to count the number of times the HubPages adsense token appears:
                  
                  grep -l pub-6958755572607374 * | wc
                  
                  Because it is done entirely at random, statistically speaking impression sharing will follow a binomial distribution.  This means if you grab 100 copies of the page you should find the HubPages token appearing on between 30 and 50 of them 95% of the time.  If you grab 1000 copies you should find the HubPages token appearing on between 370 and 430 of them 95% of the time.  If you grab 10000 copies you should find the HubPages token appearing on between 3904 and 4097 of them 95% of the time."

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   3. 76

      ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I've also had a big fall-off in sales as well, although there's been some activity in the last couple of days. But, overall, since I joined the HP Amazon program, my sales have fallen off a cliff, even though traffic has increased and at times there have been surges, which should have generated sales. Since multiple people are reporting the same problem, or similar concerns, is there any chance that there's something wrong with the HP reporting system?

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2. 59

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   What happens is 40 percent of the time, HP Amazon Id shows in URL
   60 percent of the time, your HP Amazon ID shows.
   
   So if you check your products, you may see the HP ID rather than your HP Amazon Program ID.   When HP ID shows and a sale is made, the sale goes to HP.

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3. 59

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Now the not so good news:  If you opt out of HP Amazon program, HP still does the 60/40 split, even if you use your own Amazon Affiliate program. HP is getting theirs one way or the other.  The advantage of using your Amazon associate ID is that you can see what is being clicked on and being purchased.  The downside is instead of getting 8 percent in commissions like you do with the HP program, your commissions drop to 4 percent unless you have a a lot of sales in one month that will put you in higher tiers.  I did some calculations and the loss of commissions by using my own Amazon ID vs commissions with HP program, it wasn't anything to cry over.  At least i could see which products were being viewed and purchased 100 percent of the time.

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   1. 76

      ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm hoping to stay in the HP Amazon program, but I just want some assurances everything is being properly tracked, and, perhaps, some type of way to know when someone cancels an order or returns something.

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      1. 69

         galleryofgraceposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I recently deleted all my Amazon and Ebay modules because they are worthless. In almost six years of being here I could count the number of sales with half of one hand! Ebay has always been zero.
         Before the Hp Amazon program I had almost ten dollars on one of my Amazon affiliate ID's. That dollar amount has never changed. It has been in limbo for at least 5 years.

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4. 59

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   HP doesn't give that information.  I am not sure as to the sales in the Amazon report is a sale that has or has not been shipped. The 2 month wait to be paid for sales is due to items not being paid for, or being sent back.  This is just another guessing game.

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5. 76

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   the 60% is described as being random, so you could audit it yourself by loading a page 100 times or so to get a reasonable sample, I assume.

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6. 72

   Baby-Boomer-58posted 9 years ago

   Anyone getting Amazon sales can easily see if an item has or has not been shipped. On Earnings page just drop down 'Amazon Program' under 'Choose report type'. Tells how many clicks, how many items ordered, how many shipped etc. Money only shows when items are shipped.
   
   Then to see exactly what products were shipped, click on 'Amazon Sales Report' at the top of the page.
   
   I would prefer it if the total amount of income generated by each hubber was split, instead of the time being split. How do we know whether or not we are always getting the 'quiet' time? Does anybody audit the records to make sure the split time percentage doesn't suffer from the '45-year' disease?
   
   Maybe Christy will come back and tell us.

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7. 73

   Uzochukwu Mikeposted 9 years ago

   What I understand is that for 60% of the time in a day, your Amazon ID shows while the other 40% that of Hubpages shows, and it is chosen at random.

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