Amazon UK is Stingy!

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   Susana Sposted 12 years ago

   Finally got around to reading the TOS for Amazon associates UK (spurred on by seeing a measly 1.47% referral rate on a TV sold on my account) and found out the maximum they will pay out in fees on one item is £7 (10 Euros) except books, DVD's, MP3 downloads. How stingy is that!

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      thisisoliposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Seriously?
      
      I might have to look in to that, might be worthwhile switching back to the 'classic plan' on that account if the Performance is making cuts like that.  Can you link to the source?

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         Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yep here is the advertising fee schedule.

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         EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I thought Amazon UK only did a performance type plan?

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      Shinkickerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, Amazon are very tight-fisted with the money

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         Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         They are certainly a lot stingier than amazon.com, that's for sure.

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 12 years ago

   Just shows, THE FIRST thing you should do is read the TOS. I'm appalled at the number of hubbers who just rush past this. I work with over 1,000 merchants and I have read the TOS of every one of them. That's why I don't work with 2,000 merchants - their terms were trash.
   
   I think part of it is that on HP you have such limited choices - so it's take Amazon, ebay or adsense or leave. Gets folks into the bad habit of not checking affiliate TOS on other sites or their own.

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I've been adding a uk amazon link on some product hubs and didn't read the TOS because I assumed it would be much the same as amazon.com. I do read all TOS agreements normally.

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   Karen Nposted 12 years ago

   1.47%!
   That's not even worth bothering with unless you sell a heck of a lot of stuff.

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   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   I just read on their blog that the VAT has been increased to a massive 20%!! That is a shocker!!

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, VAT has gone up to 20% all over the UK
      
      (Thanks for the sale BTW )

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   CASE1WORKERposted 12 years ago

   yep VAT has gone up! a lot of the shops are trying to absorb the increase but obviously not amazon

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   skyfireposted 12 years ago

   I'm close to payout, so this is shocker to me. Anyway, it's in GBP at the end. 

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      What do you mean sky? It's in GBP at the end?
      
      Good that you're close to payout with them

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         skyfireposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks
         
         I mean Amazon UK pays in pounds, right ? British Pound has more conversion rate than $ here. (It's my first payout with Non-US amazon site, so not sure about currency). AFAIK, except Amazon UK rest of the other european amazon affiliate programs pay in euro.

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            Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Oh yes, it will be worth quite a bit more than dollars. I use XE currency converter to work out how much the equivalent is

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   thisisoliposted 12 years ago

   Oh man that sucks, I am 99% sure that cap was not always in place, they used to have a cap on electronics similar to the US, but this is not just a shocker, but a real kick in the teeth.  I was thinking of moving in to more high end products, but if that is my limitation I will just continue to sell low valut ****.

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, it's pants. I'm in a similar boat - working on an electronics website that covers UK and US, but I might ditch the UK section now. Will have to give some serious thought as to whether it's worth the time and effort....
      
      I'll still add an amazon UK link on my hubs, just because it's easy and it's starting to bring in a few quid...

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         ryankettposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You could always look for other UK affiliate schemes?
         
         There is a UK Best Buy I believe, other big businesses for electronics include:
         
         Currys
         Comet
         eBuyer
         Play.com
         Argos
         
         Sure there are more, but they may be worth checking out before you rush out and ditch the UK side.

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            Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Good thought. I'll have a look around and see which electronics companies offer an affiliate programme and which have the best %!
            
            @Thomas - thanks for that. I'll check out Dixons, though 2% is pretty measly too.

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               ThomasEposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Affiliate programs in the UK are very stingy. Can't get away from it. But on the other hand, the first page of Google.co.uk is generally far less competitive than the first page of Google.com so there is far less work involved.
               
               For example, I've been putting a little but of effort into getting one keyword ranked in google.com ... it is 12th place... but on google.co.uk even though I am on an American website, with American English, it is on 4th place.
               
               If I had bought a .co.uk website, and put the same effort in, it would be ranked 1st, I think.

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                  Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I agree it is a lot easier to rank high on google.co.uk for the reasons you stated. With my electronics website I've initially created a UK subdomain within the .com site, but I have been thinking I might be better off just having two websites one .co.uk and the other .com. More work, more cost, but it might turn out better in terms of revenue. I don't know

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         ThomasEposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         A lot of these affiliate programs have much longer cookies as well, for example dixons is 45 days, although it has a 2% commission on the lowest tier.

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   ryankettposted 12 years ago

   There is another factor to consider though, the UK offers an opportunity for greater conversion rates.
   
   The online spend per capita in the UK is not beaten by any other country in the world, it is a Trillion pound plus market.
   
   UK citizens spend more online as individuals than people anywhere else in the world. The items are more expensive too, so whilst your percentage is lower, your conversion rates and cost per item should theoretically be higher.

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well funny you should say that Ryan. I was just in my amazon.co.uk account and saw that my conversion rate was over 20%, which is a lot more than it is for my amazon.com account.

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