Upfront about being an affiliate

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figment

New Member
I have recently steped into the Amazon affilliate path and have 3 shops up and running. Big thanks to Michele for help in getting them straight.

I have been thinking in terms of the customer relationship and wonder what are your thoughts about being upfront about your site being an Amazon affiliate?
My thoughts on the matter are:


1. There is brand association there so it could look good for your site.
2. Customers could think you are a second rate Amazon and go direct.
3. There is the danger that users are let down at the checkout step when they realise that they site they thought they were buying from isn't.


pros/cons/experience?
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
Alan

If you look at some of the comments posted on my blog and here with regard to the James Bond site you may get an idea of what some people think.

However, the flip side to that is neither of us is trying to market to them, so maybe they don't represent the general public?

I've put some vague references to Amazon on a couple of the shops I run, but I'm considering creating an "about" page for the 007 shop with a basic overview of who is behind it and how the shopping is actually handled (ie. it goes through Amazon)

I'd be interested in hearing what others think

Michele
 

Gavin

New Member
I wouldnt think branding your site as an affiliate would really make a difference as most users wouldnt know what an affiliate is.

Althougth Figment, those three points you posted are very valid concerns. I would mention it in the about page and also probably have "powered by Amazon" on the footer, link back to Amazon using your affiliate ID.
 

dingatron

New Member
Hi blacknight. New to the forum and I've a few questions regarding your James Bond affiliate site or these sites in general. Judging by your first post here about it your now a year on and I wondered how it was working out for you?

And I was also interested in figment's question about being upfront about the site been an affiliate? I see you've decided to keep the site clear of Amazon branding and I was wondering have you stats regarding no sales from when the buyer hits the amazon checkout etc and if so what percentage of no sales?

Reason being I'm messing around with a few idea's and just trying to research the best way to go. For example I've an idea for a niche Amazon affiliate site and plan to use an ie domain to market it to an Irish audience but I have this nagging feeling that a redirect to amazon.co.uk on
checkout may put people off? :confused:

I'd appreciate your and others views on this anyway?

thanks

ding
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
Some of the sites (and that's only one of them) are more clearly Amazon branded, others are not.

The James Bond one is not particularly successful ie. I can't remember if anyone has ever bought anything from it :)
 

elchefe

New Member
If you are running an amazon astore, most users would know that you are an amazon affiliate during the checkout process. I don't see the benefit of telling that you are an Amazon affiliate.
If you are just posting Amazon affiliate links, then you don't need to bother because your visitors will redirected to Amazon.
 

LaylaStar

New Member
Well, I think it's good to be honest - been at 2 sites where the authors clearly stated if we buy books from their sites they will benefit from this... & I REALLY wanted to buy this way, just to pay back a bit for all the great info I found in the articles on the sites...
Not sure exactly how it was worded, directly or indirectly, it was clear to me that they were affiliates though :)

They just had links to amazon.com though, for international buyers the option of being able to go to any store they wish is ideal...

Maybe it depends on the sites too, this was just my personal experience..
In the end I ended up buying from Amazon.de anyway, cause it was cheaper this way (I got 1 extra book for the same price..)

If they had a link to Amazon.de, I'd totally want them to get the % from the sale.. :) /Maybe they got some % anyway?)
 
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