Amazon has changed affiliate rules for free books:
YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN ANY ADVERTISING FEES DURING ANY MONTH IN WHICH YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
(a) 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links; and
(b) At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks
I don’t think I ever have met the first criteria, but I assume that I do the 2nd. But I didn’t think Amazon was paying me anything for the free books anyway, so I am not sure I understand the issue. I’m also wondering if the use of the conjunction ‘and’ instead of ‘or’ between the two clauses doesn’t mean this has nothing to do with me.
4 Comments
I guess it’s because when people click the affiliate links for freebies, the cookie sends a commission for anything else they happen to buy while there. I don’t like it much, but I can see why amazon does it. Would it help to link to the freebies without your affiliate link? I don’t know how these things work, because my idiot state wanted to make Amazon do their tax collecting for them so I’m not allowed to be an affiliate in this state.
Yes, when you click the affiliate link and then buy something, I do get a small commission. I just don’t understand why this is an issue for Amazon. It’s not any different to me than the Amazon search engine that is also on my site, of if you click through my link to an item that does cost money, but then choose to buy a different item- I still get an affiliate commission (which will be from 4=7%).
I justify the time it takes to hunt down the freebies I share because of the affiliate links- I do get more affiliate funds since i started this than I was before I shared the freebies. I take a lot of time looking for freebies that I think my readers will enjoy most, and wading through a lot of drek and vile erotica that Amazon won’t screen out themselves. I don’t know that I can justify that time and the wading through the mud if Amazon is going to get punitive about it. And the way they set it up, even if I do not list any free books, if you click through an affiliate link to anything, and then over the next 24 hours (the length of time the cookie lasts), and you order ten free Kindle books, that also gets counted against my link. There probably won’t be enough of those to matter than much, at least for me, but still, it’s kind of obnoxious.
I am GLAD you get affiliate money for stuff purchased that isn’t directly linked to. I try, everytime I buy from Amazon, to come and click on a link on your Donations page to make sure that happens!
(however, this does mean you probably get a disproporionate number of my free Kindle clicks too )