I’ve seen websites using amazon etc. “affiliate” links (i.e. website earns some percentage of any sale through that link) and I was wondering today if instead of using advertizing that the android app showed a separate page of links to products either related to the app, or maybe even general products that the developer likes.
Perhaps even replacing the initial splash screen or time spent showing a full screen interstitial ad and instead show your own page with products you like which are hyperlinked to amazon product pages (with your referral code so you get commission if a sale is made).
Did some reading - here’s an interesting one comparing amazon vs. others - one guy saying while people complain of amazon low rates, they deliver better because seem to cross-sell better:
Amazon seriously resets your referral rate every month?
The numbers were actually slightly in favor of Amazon. While the large retailer was offering 15%, they could not convert as much as Amazon could once visitors got to their site. Only 35% of the purchases on Amazon were of the products I was promoting. That’s huge. Most of the time, people would buy the one item and then usually get an additional 5 to 8 items on top of that. then others would not buy anything I was promoting but still do their Christmas shopping.
Then saw some suggesting that amazon doesn’t like app-based referral links (is this true ?):
Advice on Affiliate Programs for Music for Android app - Stack Overflow
Amazon seems to have a grudge against mobile apps and its in their TOS that the affiliate program cannot be used. Not really sure why, but its stopping me from using them.
Is it possible to build an Android app that do Amazon associate?
Is it possible to build an Android app that do Amazon associate?
java - Android music affiliate / associate programs - Stack Overflow
Amazon seems to have a grudge against mobile apps and its in their TOS that the affiliate program cannot be used. Not really sure why, but its stopping me from using them.
Did you try Affiliate Program ? They seem pretty open by reading the FAQ. Note that I have no experience dealing with it.
There’s also Best Buy affiliate progam.
And, finally, how can we forget about Walmart?
Background: iTunes have an affiliate program that offers monetization opportunity for music downloads, also since iTunes is integrated into iOS devices, it is easy for users to purchase music on device. Also there is a 30 second preview available.
Even if Amazon referral links were ok - why are they not ok if they are just urls which point to browser ? Or do they disallow referral links used within non-desktop browsers ?? That would be odd …
In any case, then I rethought that with an android app you may have 5000 daily active users (DAU) - out of those maybe 10 may eventually buy something - which could get referral fees which are say $25 (if it is a large appliance say) - and maybe $1 or less if it is some book (as suggested by some webpage).
So that may get you like maybe $10-50 from this - one would have to do a trial to actually see how this would work.
So the questions which arise are:
- is Amazon actually hostile to android browsers (referrals ignored coming from mobile app browsers ?)
- how does the arithmetic work for apps use of such things vs. it’s traditional use on websites
If the numbers support such a thing it could be a way to do direct advertising (instead of having to use a full screen advertiser).
Happy Holidays.
I’ve seen websites using amazon etc. “affiliate” links (i.e. website earns some percentage of any sale through that link) and I was wondering today if instead of using advertizing that the android app showed a separate page of links to products either related to the app, or maybe even general products that the developer likes.
Perhaps even replacing the initial splash screen or time spent showing a full screen interstitial ad and instead show your own page with products you like which are hyperlinked to amazon product pages (with your referral code so you get commission if a sale is made).
Did some reading - here’s an interesting one comparing amazon vs. others - one guy saying while people complain of amazon low rates, they deliver better because seem to cross-sell better:
http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-ppc-seo-discussion-forum/480122-amazon-seriously-resets-your-referral-rate-every-month.html
The numbers were actually slightly in favor of Amazon. While the large retailer was offering 15%, they could not convert as much as Amazon could once visitors got to their site. Only 35% of the purchases on Amazon were of the products I was promoting. That’s huge. Most of the time, people would buy the one item and then usually get an additional 5 to 8 items on top of that. then others would not buy anything I was promoting but still do their Christmas shopping.
Then saw some suggesting that amazon doesn’t like app-based referral links (is this true ?):
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4709857/advice-on-affiliate-programs-for-music-for-android-app
Amazon seems to have a grudge against mobile apps and its in their TOS that the affiliate program cannot be used. Not really sure why, but its stopping me from using them.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1691496
Is it possible to build an Android app that do Amazon associate?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6241026/android-music-affiliate-associate-programs?lq=1
Amazon seems to have a grudge against mobile apps and its in their TOS that the affiliate program cannot be used. Not really sure why, but its stopping me from using them.
Did you try http://www.barnesandnoble.com/affiliate/index.asp ? They seem pretty open by reading the FAQ. Note that I have no experience dealing with it.
There’s also Best Buy affiliate progam.
And, finally, how can we forget about Walmart?
Background: iTunes have an affiliate program that offers monetization opportunity for music downloads, also since iTunes is integrated into iOS devices, it is easy for users to purchase music on device. Also there is a 30 second preview available.
Even if Amazon referral links were ok - why are they not ok if they are just urls which point to browser ? Or do they disallow referral links used within non-desktop browsers ?? That would be odd …
In any case, then I rethought that with an android app you may have 5000 daily active users (DAU) - out of those maybe 10 may eventually buy something - which could get referral fees which are say $25 (if it is a large appliance say) - and maybe $1 or less if it is some book (as suggested by some webpage).
So that may get you like maybe $10-50 from this - one would have to do a trial to actually see how this would work.
So the questions which arise are:
- is Amazon actually hostile to android browsers (referrals ignored coming from mobile app browsers ?)
- how does the arithmetic work for apps use of such things vs. it’s traditional use on websites
If the numbers support such a thing it could be a way to do direct advertising (instead of having to use a full screen advertiser).
Happy Holidays.
Adding later:
Example of use of affiliate links in iphone app: