I currently have several projects marketing products from Amazon, indeed in the past this very blog has promoted books that I have read and recommend. with the recent success of Great Hampers, many of the sales are via Amazon, and looking back at the stats it seems that users are very interested in a specific line of products.
Those of you who have read my blog regularly will know I like to keep my fingers on what is happening to all my projects in real time. Indeed this is what I do, as a professional I am a Project manager.
Amazons Affiliate program frustrates this, their stats are not only delayed until next day, you do not know what commissions you have earned until the items have been shipped. Amazon claim that this is because buyers can cancel their item until it has been shipped, however this also applies to many other merchants, what is wrong with the unapproved/approved commissions system run by other networks and merchants.
At least then I can monitor the sales that I am generating in real time and tweak PPC and Adwords campaigns to suit. Not only this, if it turns out that there are any trends in buying patterns I and re-enforce the products in that line, by adding more of the same to my affiliate site or by adding more details and better copy to those winning products.
Don’t get me wrong, the Amazon associates program is well worth joining, it just frustrates the way i like to work.
