Affiliate programs allow companies to partner with other
companies or individuals to promote their brands. Whether it’s another brand or
simply your average blogger, affiliates can be beneficial to both merchant and
the person they are partnering with. In this post I will be comparing Amazon
and Ebay’s affiliate programs.
Both Amazon and ebay are popular sites selling thousands of
goods to consumers every day. To promote their companies and products within,
both websites have set up their own affiliate programs to allow people to
represent them all around the world. First, let’s look at Amazon.
Amazon’s affiliate program is set up a little differently
than some in that there are various ways to get a kickback from promoting the
company on your website or blog. There is a site stripe tool that allows you as
a user to see your earnings and add links to the Amazon website. You can add
product links into your page that are descriptions of specific products in
image, enhanced, or text form. Banners allow you to promote product categories
with a combination of graphics and text. And the aStore allows users to create
a specified store to put on their website or blog with a shopping cart and
everything. 
Users get an advertising fee that varies depending on the
products sold. The highest advertising kickback is usually things that are
specific to Amazon, with the lowest being related to PC components and
Television products. The amount received also goes up depending on how many
items are sold within a given time period. Another feature is various events
where Amazon will give out an extra bounty for things such as getting consumers
to sign up for Amazon Prime by promoting it on your webpage.
While the advertising fees only cover the actual cost of the
item, it can be a nice way to earn a side profit, especially if you have a
popular blog or website.
eBay also allows advertisement for their site by providing tools and widgets that can be attached to a webpage. The company then uses these tools to monitor how visitors behave on eBay after clicking on the links you provide, measuring how much you have influenced traffic to their site. Like Amazon, eBay offers a variety of tools including graphics, links, banners, RSS feeds and others for more advanced users. 
They pay based on the traffic sent to their site with the
amount paid per transaction based on a percentage of eBay revenue. It is also
based on a commission rate system, with bonuses paid for attracting new and
reactivated eBay buyers. They also allow ways for you to track how well you’re
doing and maximize your revenue. You can even promote on a mobile device.
One benefit that Amazon has over eBay is that their program
makes it easier to earn money than eBay by allowing users to customize their advertising
to fit their customers. They can pick actual products which can be good because
if you have a blog talking about how amazing your e-reader is, you can provide
a link on Amazon for the same one you have. That said, because eBay works off
traffic to their site, bloggers who are just starting out might find it easier
because they haven’t established as much credibility or as many followers. Both
programs however offer various tools to use with their program, which is good
because it allows users to customize their advertising efforts to fit their
followers and customers’ needs and wants. eBay and Amazon also allow you to
track your sales and progress which is useful when trying to make a profit from
the programs. One problem that I do see arising from this is that the main
companies loose some control over how their brand is being promoted. Although
they have policies, monitoring every user of this program could be difficult
and not all users have the same filter Amazon or eBay might use in their online
marketing efforts.
Although both of these programs differ slightly, I think
using them together could be beneficial. They sell similar products and both
programs offer unique ways to advertise and promote their brands. Affiliate
marketing is especially popular for bloggers around the country so next time
you’re browsing through webpages or catching up on your favorite blog, take a
minute to see if you notice any affiliates being promoted.
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