Jeff Bezos is cutting Amazon’s affiliate commissions across every niche. This means that many niche sites, social media accounts, and YouTube channels will see their earnings drop anywhere from 50 – 66%.

Not good!

To help you, today’s article covers several strategies for protecting your income. This includes alternative affiliate programs, different monetization options, and (my personal opinion) why an Amazon commission cut shouldn’t matter that much.

Alright, enough with the introduction. Let’s dig in.

Amazon Actually Sucks For Many Niche Products

I collect colognes. Very rarely do I buy any fragrance off Amazon. Why? Because it’s often much more expensive than ordering through a specialty site (like FragranceNet.com).

A bottle of Burberry London for Men costs $77 on Amazon and $34.99. Sames goes for a lot of other fragrances. FragranceNet has an affiliate program (I’m not a member and couldn’t find an accurate commission rate, some sources said 0.01% others said 10%), and I’d imagine something like this would be a better niche alternative to Amazon Associates.

Amazon also skips the high-end market. There are many affiliate programs in this area as well. Jomashop sells designer watches, handbags, and sunglasses. They offer 6% commission on items.

That might not sound like much, but keep in mind that many of their goods cost anywhere from $500 – $250,000.

Netting 6% on a Cartier watch or Gucci handbag puts several hundred dollars into your pocket. And that’s just one example of an affiliate program in this niche. There are tons of fashion discounters with similar programs.

Lastly, there are plenty of niches where Amazon isn’t involved or isn’t allowed. I have some casino affiliate programs which aren’t compatible with Amazon Associates. It doesn’t matter. The commission you earn referring new users far exceeds whatever you’d make plugging a $14.99 box of poker chips.

Which leads to my next point.

Higher Commissions Balance Out Lower Conversion Rates

Many products, even ones offered through Amazon, have their own private affiliate programs. And a lot of these programs pay significantly higher commissions.

Example?

Years ago, when writing a lot of eBooks, I bought a writing tool called Scrivener. The software is available on Amazon, and directly through the company itself. Both site’s sell it at the same price. Yet a sale through Scrivener paid $8, while a sale through Amazon paid $1 – $2.

Even if the Scrivener affiliate program was less popular, you would still make significantly more.

10 direct sales would be worth $80, while 10 Amazon sales would equal $20. That’s a pretty big difference and something worth considering if you have Amazon affiliate links.

Also, some products actually do convert better than their Amazon alternatives. A good sales letter or crisp layout can do wonders.

Books And Info Products Never Convert Well Anyway

I use Amazon to recommend books here for two reasons. One, because I read a lot. And two, because this site gets some high-quality readers (like you) and I don’t really need to insult them by plugging $999 courses from “teenage digital millionaires.” If I’m going to recommend a book or an info product, I’d much rather pick one from a proven expert (like Peter Lynch, David Ogilvy, etc) so you can learn from the best.

That said, there is certainly a market for how-to products. And if you are working in the information niche, you might as well make your own books, guides, and videos. They’re going to have a much higher profit margin than the $0.40 you earn with Amazon.

In fact, you’re probably better off direct marketing your products instead of relying on a platform like Kindle either (here’s some math to explain why).

Even something like a $10 – $20 Gumroad product selling a dozen copies a month is more lucrative than Amazon Affiliates. So, if you’re a hobby blogger, or just want to share information, that’s a better alternative.

Its also worth remembering that information isn’t always where the money’s at.

Here’s an example using three popular niches:

• Health – Most of the money is in supplements. Fitness books or DVDs are one-time purchases. Protein powder or a vitamin offer recurring revenue. Below is a picture from some ClickBank offer (no association). The average total re-billing is over $300. That’s well-above Any Amazon commission. And, there are plenty of other deals like this too.

• Wealth – A $10 eBook or $100 course pales in comparison to some of the brokerage and mutual fund signing bonuses. Some of those FOREX and Crypto platforms pay out a percentage of total deposits. I remember reading about a guy who netted $30,000 off one customer’s FOREX account. No amount of Amazon Affiliates sales can compete with that.
• Relationships – Big money is in dating sites or ancillary items (“Buy this cool car and you’ll pick up the ladies”). Also, expect things like OnlyFans and virtual girlfriends to also see a huge uptick, replacing much of the traditional dating niche.

Final Thoughts

For most people, I will imagine losing Amazon means losing maybe a few hundred bucks per month. And that’s if they’re really getting heavy traffic. For many niches you’re better off finding an alternative affiliate program, joining an ad network, or just treating your site as a hobby and building up a different source of online income.

This may also be a good time to look around for Amazon niche sites that are being sold off cheaply, and seeing if there are any related affiliate programs you could join. There are a lot of opportunities with many mainstream items like fashion, kitchen appliances, and even some information products (example, a lot of those book summary or “10 Best Books On ____” sites could have your own course or eBook added to them).