Thursday, August 06, 2009

Idea 33: Affiliate Club - Buy Everything Online 5% Cheaper


If you follow through a product link provided by an Amazon Associate, and purchase the referred product on Amazon, the associate, or affiliate, earns 4% of the purchase price, in some cases up to 15%. You may wander, if Amazon can still survive after the cut, why can't you directly get the discount yourself?

Can't you refer yourself? Well, Amazon specifically prohibits that in their operating agreement, even family members are excluded. Here's an idea.

Join the affiliate club, where your fellow affiliates are your friends, who can refer you to buy literally any product on the web that offers an affiliate program, Amazon, Zappos, country clubs, or Twitter follower builder software, you name it.

Thinking of buying something? Go to the club website, give the product name, then follow a link, which is an automatically generated referral link that will direct you to the most credited ecommence site for that product. If you make the purchase, then you will be credited 5% of the purchase price in your club account.

Of course the discount was not directly offered to you by the ecommence site, but because you made an effort to contribute to the club, you deserve and earn the credit. Once your account accumulates above certain threshold, you receive a rebate check, just like the one given by your credit card company for using their card.

How does the club make money? Ask Google. They exploits the long tail of publishing ads to the extreme.

In conclusion, if the economy can provide us with cheaper goods, why shouldn't we take advantage and make all our lives better, together?

Disclaimer: the ideas expressed are out of pure personal intellectual curiosity. There has been no market research conducted whatsoever to justify their legitimacy or viability. Ok, you've been warned.

photo credit voj