Amazon earnings

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   wildernessposted 4 years ago

   With the cut in commission rates I fully expected to see a big drop in earnings.  It hasn't happened, though - my Amazon earnings are nearly what they were in Nov. of last year - because the sales are way up.
   
   Are others seeing this, or am I just lucky?  Did something happen that Amazon is crediting sales that they didn't before?  What's going on here?

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      Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I think you’re just lucky. It probably has a lot to do with the type of items you write about in your reviews. I noticed sales from my reviews have been steady, but the loss of revenue due to the reduced commission hurts.

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         wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Hard to believe otherwise, yet the commission from the highest month last year is nearly matched this month.  And sales nearly doubled, they just don't pay much anymore.
         
         Nor is it from a change in hubs; I've done nothing there for over a year, and traffic is down somewhat from last year.
         
         I just wondered if anyone else was seeing anything like this.  Guess you aren't .

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         1. 67

            Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I noticed you have some Amazon capsules without any of your own content, so they only show the image and the Buy Now button. I'm curious to know how well those are working for you.
            
            I was always under the impression that it's better to move the Buy Now button down under my own text. But maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps it's better to keep the button right next to the image.
            
            I'd like to know your thoughts and how well those results are with that. I might experiment with that too.

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               wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

               Glen, I'm happy with the number of sales now.  just WHAT is selling...I sell some of what I advertise but mostly other junk.  If I have (and I do) capsules without my own verbiage it's because I've already been writing about it.  A hub on tools, perhaps, where I talk of a specific tool and then put a capsule in.
               
               I very seldom stick in a capsule without considerable discussion of the topic, and in such cases I don't see any value in adding more in the capsule itself.  I've already said anything I want to say.

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                  Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks for that explanation Dan. I also started out with my verbiage in a regular text capsule outside the Amazon capsule. But a long time ago I began moving the text into the Amazon Capsules, pushing the Buy Now button down below my discussion. That seemed to increase the sales quite a bit.
                  
                  However, since your sales are way up since last year, as you had mentioned, I'm wondering if it's better to leave the Buy Now button next to the image. I just added one today that way to see what the results might be.

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                     lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                     On my website I have run a lot of tests with heatmaps, etc. having the call to action next to the product name faired a lot better in my case. It's going to differ based on topic and niche, but I never added text to the amazon capsule on HP because it just looked ugly to me. Wizzley did a much better job on amazon capsules.
                     
                     Good luck with your tests.

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                        Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                        Interesting. Thanks for that. With my method the BuyNow button seems lost sitting there by itself. So your explanation actually makes sense.

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            foxynagposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Good

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   2. 76

      jackclee lmposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Just to clarify for all here. The way I understand it, and based on my own limited experience, it does not matter what you link to in amazon. Hubpages will credit you with a commission as long as the user launch the Amazon site from one of your article. Once in Amazon, anything that was ordered, whether related to your article or not, will be qualified to receive commission and it varies between 4%-8.5% depending on the item ordered.

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         wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         That's correct...except that I'm seeing nothing over 4.5%.  As far as I know the cookie they place is still good for 24 hours - anything ordered in that time period will pay a commission.

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            jackclee lmposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            
            
            Some items that appeared in my dash that pays 8.5%...of the amount allocated to you, not the purchase price.

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            1. 67

               Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

               How old is that screenshot? You're not showing the date column. Rates were reduced two months ago.

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               1. 76

                  jackclee lmposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                  The screen shot was taken today, the date of sales was from 5/15 going back to 1/2020. I did not realize the rates were reduced. will have to keep an eye out for future earnings...

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                     Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                     You need to look only at your sales throughout May and June. I doubt you have anything over 4.5%.

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                     1. 76

                        jackclee lmposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                        well, that sucks...
                        Why did Hubpages made this move?
                        are they in financial trouble?
                        They are already getting 50% of the revenue as it was.

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                           theraggededgeposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                           Amazon reduced the rate, not HubPages.

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                           Miebakagh57posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                           I do not possess a knowledge of the challenge, because I am yet to activated the Amazon program. I only initiate AdSense at the beginning.

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                           DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                           This was Amazon the great, not little old HP. Now we have to wonder if Amazon did this because of their financial worries.

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                              jackclee lmposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                              Amazon is doing fine and taking over the world. I am worried about HubPages. It has to hurt their financials...

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                                 DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                 Yes, but you said "why did hubpages make this move?" It was not HP that made this move. When you are dealing with those corporate giants, and they make a decision, the smaller companies that deal with them just have to live with it.

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      Sherry Hewinsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      My sales have been through the roof since the Covid thing started. For this June I made 4 times as much in Amazon sales as I did last June. I made a quarter of what I made in April, before the change in rates.

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   4. 76

      jackclee lmposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I just noticed in one of the item I promotes in my article.
      This item is a 3rd party item and I use to get 8.25% commission from HubPages. In a recent order, this item has been reduced down to 1.01%, a huge drop. An 85% reduction. This is ridiculous...

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   DrMark1961posted 4 years ago

   I thought your post was interesting so I went and checked. My numbers are about half what they were this time last year.

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   lobobrandonposted 4 years ago

   I have a huge drop, it's at 50% of what it was in April with my traffic in June being near double that of April.
   
   Do any of you know of a quick way to compare the number of products sold?

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      Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Brandon, You can download a spreadsheet by clicking the “Export 90 Day CSV” button on your Amazon Sales Report.
      
      Column F shows the quantity.
      Column J is the sales date.
      
      You can use that data and produce a report to compare the number of products sold.

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         lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Good old spreadsheet, I'll do that

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      wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Look at the information in "earnings" and "amazon", setting the date range to whatever you want.  That's what I did.

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         lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Yup, I compared earnings no issues there. I was wondering if it were possible for me to view the number of products sold, I wanted to compare that too, just to see if there was an equivalent rise in products sold to that of the increased traffic.
         
         As Glen says though, I will just download the csv file and work on it as a spreadsheet.

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            wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            ??  The number of items shipped - very close to items sold - is column 4.

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4. 67

   eugbugposted 4 years ago

   Same here. I don't earn a huge amount frorm Amazon sales in comparison to the Ad Program, but I have sales on more days than last year, so revenue is about the same. It might be just due to the more even distribution of views for home and garden over the week rather than a spike at the weekend. I guess people have had more time to browse products too if they were under lockdown.

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   Rochelle Frankposted 4 years ago

   I don't pay a lot of attention to my stats. After a cusrory review,  I see that my total average views are down by about 30%.
   CPM has increased quit a bit.. and that helps.
   My Amazon income used to be  double my HP income, but now it is a little bit less.
   I have one major Amazon  item that sells pretty well on a regular basis, but the amount earned on that one has dropped percentagewise  about 70%.
   
   All in all, earning somewhat less, but better than I expected. I'm sure that things will continue to shake out.

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6. 98

   Susana Sposted 4 years ago

   Sales are around the same but commission is cut to about 40% of what it was.

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   1. 76

      wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think I'm getting even 40% of the commission rate.  It used to be almost 100% at 8.5% but now the top is 4% with lots under that.  Quite a few sales are not making the top percentage, where once they did.

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7. 69

   PaulGoodman67posted 4 years ago

   I'm frustrated as I keep feeling like I should be getting double the money. Yes, sales are up, commissions are down - I'm earning, but not at the November levels that you mentioned.
   
   I have a number of Amazon-orientated hubs, a few years back they brought in most of my income on here, they are still bringing in some money, but I'm frustrated.

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   1. 76

      wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      LOL  I think we're all frustrated.  On the positive side, I'm seeing traffic slowly climbing somewhat from it's low last year, and that's some help.  Sure wish Amazon had not changed their commission rate though!

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      1. 67

         Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         I'm noticing traffic gradually climbing too in the last few days. Mostly Owlcation.

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         1. 76

            wildernessposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Most of mine are Dengarden, but it's climbing as well.  Not to it's high point last year yet, but climbing.

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8. 79

   Virginia Allainposted 4 years ago

   I just checked last June and for me, the number of Amazon orders was much less than this June. My speculation is that more people are shopping online due to the pandemic. I know that I am shopping that way for safety.

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