Why Are You Not Making Money With Amazon Affiliate? I Will Reveal Why!

I make a commission from purchases made through links in my posts, at no extra cost to you. Read my disclosure for more information.

Are you starting to notice that you are not making money with Amazon Affiliate as you use to? Could this be the beginning of the end of the Amazon Affiliate Program? Just like many other bloggers, I use the Amazon Affiliate Program as one of my income streams for my blog. I just received an email from Amazon recently, that all of this is going to change in a big way! I didn’t get kicked out of the program, but it feels like I got punched in the gut and you will see why in a minute. 

Why you are not making money with Amazon Affiliate?

Amazon cut their Affiliate Program rates across the whole system cause you to lose a big chuck of your Amazon Affiliate income. They money you use to earn before this change is now gone. This has changed the way blogger make money with the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Before we go any further here are some questions to ask yourself? Are you using the Amazon Affiliate Program to make money on Pinterest? How about on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube? If your answer is, “Yes” to any of these questions, then you are going to want to know about these changes.

If you haven’t heard the news yet, they have announced drastic cuts to the affiliate commissions in many of their categories starting April 21st., 2020. That right and I can see that the realization is starting to set in. I can hear your collective groans and sighs of frustration from here! 

How to use Amazon Affiliate Program to make money?

This is how we would make money using the Amazon Affiliate Program. Many of us write enticing posts and create epic YouTube videos featuring product reviews and how to’s, and then we link to those products on Amazon.  With the reduction of the commission rates, it really hurts all of us who are Bloggers, YouTubers, and Influencers because many of us are depending on the affiliate commissions from Amazon. I’m so sorry if you’re one of those people too. I am in the same boat you are and I feel your pain! This will take a huge cut out of our commission earnings, so what are these changes to the Amazon Affiliate Program!?

What are the changes to Amazon Affiliate Program you need to know right now?

Here is a breakdown of the changes to each category in the Amazon Affiliate commission earnings structure. When I saw that most of these cuts were more than half of their original commission amount, I felt a large knot in my stomach. It will also make you start doubting the ROI in the Amazon Affiliate Program. These commission rate changes will affect every niche across the board, no one will be immune to these changes. 

Amazon Categories Changing Their Commission Rates:

Furniture, Home, Home Improvement, Lawn and Garden, Pets Products, and Pantry will drop from 8% to 3%.

Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business, and Industrial supplies will drop from 6% to 3%.

Outdoors and Tools will drop from 5.5% to 3%.

Sports and Baby Products categories will drop from 4.5% to 3%.

Health and Personal Care will drop from 5% to 1%.

Amazon Fresh will drop from 3% to just 1%.

What is the reason for these changes?

It could be for any number of reasons. Certainly, with the worldwide shutdowns, there’s an increased demand for Amazon products and delivery right now. So it might be possible that they may not have enough inventory to keep up. I have big doubts about this theory. Although the supply chain has been directly affected at this time for not only Amazon but local stores as well.  

Let’s be honest here, I am leaning more towards that this will end up saving Amazon millions of dollars in commission payouts. It is so obvious that they are looking out for their bottom line! Regardless of why they are doing this, it has a big impact on the rest of us! We don’t create awesome content to promote Amazon products out of the goodness of our hearts! We do it as a partnership through the Amazon Affiliate program to bring our readers and subscribers real value in our posts and videos. 

What do these changes mean for you?

It means all Bloggers, Influencers, and YouTubers that are a part of the Amazon Affiliate program will be taking a sizable hit on their income starting as early as next week! That’s right, it will be that soon! If you are running an online business and work as an Amazon Affiliate, this is something to always be prepared for! This can happen at any time with any affiliate network or program!

What can you do about it?

The same rules apply as if you were investing… diversify, diversify, diversify! The best thing you can do right now if you have not done it already is to diversify your affiliate portfolio. I know that is a lot of work if you are just starting out and you are having a difficult time getting accepted into other affiliate networks and programs.

Or you are heavily invested in the Amazon Affiliate program. Then you will have to do hours of digging for new affiliate links for the same products outside of the Amazon Affiliate program.

What is the lesson we are all learning here? No matter which camp you are in, never depend on one business or brand to sustain your income! But don’t worry, if you were working as an Amazon Affiliate, I’ve got you covered! Here are other affiliate programs and networks (other than Amazon!). You can join these programs right now to start diversifying your commissions if you haven’t done so already:

• Share-A-Sale Affiliate Program: https://shareasale.com
• FlexOffers Affiliate Program: https://www.flexoffers.com
• ClickFunnels Affiliate Program: www.ClickFunnels.com
• Clickbank Affiliate Program: www.clickbank.com
• Shopify Affiliate Program: https://www.shopify.com
• CJ Affiliate Program: thttps://www.cj.com
• Viglink  (now Sovrn) Program: www.Viglink.com
• Awin Affiliate Program ($5 fee): https://www.awin.com/us
• Max Bounty Affiliate Program: https://www.maxbounty.com
• IGain Affiliate Program: http://igain.hasoffers.com
• Offer Juice Affiliate Program: https://www.offerjuice.com
• Ebay Affiliate Program: https://partnernetwork.ebay.com
• Rakuten Affiliate Program: https://www.Rakuten-Influencer.com
• Impact Radius Affiliate Program: https://impact.com
• UltimateBundles Affiliate Program: https://ultimatebundles.com

I don’t know about you but this news that came out of Amazon hit me like a ton of bricks! It does make me mad and frustrated! I don’t blog as a hobby and I bet most you don’t either! I’m sorry about that, a little bit of steam was coming out of my ears just then! I just don’t like it when my time has been wasted. I work very hard at this, just like so many other serious bloggers do.

My situation is not unique. I am a busy mom that works outside the home while trying to build an online business. Whatever hour left in the day or evening I am working like a dog with a bone to make this successful. I know many of you are doing the same thing. I know there are more affiliate programs out there but these are the more popular ones. If there are others I have failed to add to this list, please share them in the comments below.

If you are looking for help in diversifying your monetization strategy, I got you covered. I have put together a detailed guide outlining high paying affiliate programs to help you soften the blow from Amazon. This guide has a detailed break down of affiliate programs by niche so you can find the right monetization list for you. You can get a copy of this guide for yourself here!

I make a commission from purchases made through links in my posts, at no extra cost to you. Read my disclosure for more information.

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