This article is really about more than just the changes at Amazon, though that’s probably a good place to start on a more serious issue. Yes, Amazon has made some changes and they WILL affect you as an affiliate marketer. If you’re not familiar with what they are, this article will give you the five cent tour and then get to the real heart of the matter…something too many marketers don’t understand. Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll get the message loud and clear.

Okay, so what has Amazon done? Well, essentially what they said is that from now on there can be no direct linking from pay per click campaigns to their website. In other words, what an affiliate will have to now do is send a prospect to a blog or some other landing page with a review of the product or some other content and then have the prospect go to the Amazon site from their site. It’s one extra step and ultimately, it will decrease conversions slightly.

But that’s just part of the story. See, what Amazon has done is something that can be done any time, any place and by any site out there if you’re dependent on that site for your income…and that’s drastically change your business model. This has been a problem since the beginning days of marketing online. Back in the days of the made for AdSense sites, marketers thought that they had the world in the palm of their hands. And then Google decided that these mass produced sites were garbage and stopped listing them. Turned a lot of wealthy people into poor people overnight.

Point is, if your business is dependent on other people and other sites for its survival, you are looking for trouble. If you want to run a successful business, whether it be as an affiliate marketer or even as a creator of your own products, you need to make sure that your business model is solid enough that if something changes, your business will still survive. If you think I’m kidding, ask all those made for AdSense owners of a few years back.

Nobody knows what changes are coming down the road. What Amazon has done may very well filter down to other sites as well.

Just make sure you’re prepared when that day comes.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.