The Official Amazon Associates Blog

Announcing Monthly Payments for 2007!

As we wrap up 2006 we have some great news for 2007!  Beginning January 1, 2007, standard Amazon Associates payments will be monthly instead of quarterly, paid approximately 60 days after the end of each month. For example, referral fees earned in January will be paid at the end of March, and payment of referral fees earned in February will be paid at the end of April. As part of this change, referral fee tiers will be adjusted to reflect monthly instead of quarterly item quantities (click the thumbnail to view the chart):

One other reminder - if you are still on the Classic Payment Plan (4% flat referral fees) and interested in potentially earning these higher fees, you can easily change your fee structure.

Also, we encourage you to update your payment method to direct deposit (EFT) or Amazon.com Gift Certificates to avoid check processing fees.

And, of course, this is a great reason to join the Amazon Associates program if you're not already participating!

Amazon.com Holiday Shipping and Gift Certificates

We'd like to remind you all that this Friday, December 15 is the last day you and your site visitors can place orders on Amazon.com and receive Free Super Saver Shipping.  Visit our  Holiday Shipping page on Amazon.com to learn more about Amazon.com's shipping deadlines for standard shipping and Amazon Prime.

However, this represents another great opportunity to make your site visitors aware of Amazon Gift Certificates, on which you can earn referral fees through December 31.  For full details and where to find banner graphics read our earlier post announcing that are Associates are eligible to earn referral fees on Amazon Gift Certificates.

We wish you continued success throughout the remainder of the holiday season!

New Omakase Feature - Discount Stickers

Today we launched a new feature that displays discount stickers on product images in Omakase ads.  These stickers show the percentage that Amazon.com's price has been discounted from the regular list price for Amazon products.  Amazon.com customers appreciate this added information, and we believe your site visitors will as well.  This feature was requested by many Associates worldwide, and we thought it was a great idea.

This feature has been applied to all active Omakase ads on the bottom right corner of the product images where the discount is greater than 10%.  We have enabled current Omakase users to turn this feature off by going to the Build Links page for Omakase and selecting the “Remove Discount Sticker” pulldown from the Amazon Discount menu option.

For our readers that are not familiar with Omakase, the links uniquely combine information on each site visitor's taste, your Web site's content, and historical trends to generate relevant ads.  We have placed an Omakase ad at the bottom of this post.

And remember that all items referred through Omakase Links between November 14, 2006 and December 31, 2006 earn an extra 4% (up to $500 per Associate). Omakase - Leave it up to us!