Clarification needed regarding commissions in T&Cs

Hello,

Thanks for trying out our plugin, and for actually reading the ToS. ??

The way our click share model works is really unique. You never give us a payment of any sort, but instead you share 15% of your total clicks (not commissions) with us so we earn money from Amazon in the same way you do – through “ad fees.” We never take clicks from your base country (whatever country your original links were created from), and you only share clicks from the additional international traffic we help you monetize from. If you have all amazon.com links, you’ll earn 100% of your clicks from anyone in the US, regardless of the number of US clicks.

Basically, we only make money when we help you earn additional revenue from your international audience that you weren’t seeing before.

I know it can be confusing, but our full “Pay with Clicks” explanation may also help. If not, please don’t hesitate to let us know and we’ll be happy to discuss further.

As for seeing which clicks you share – absolutely! If you sign up for a GeoRiot account and sync it to your Amazon Link Engine plugin, we have some really cool reporting (including click share) in our dashboard. Once you’ve created an account and logged in, you can look at the very bottom of the main dashboard to see a breakdown of your clicks (Base, Foreign, and Foreign Shared), as well as check out the Reports tab and view the Country report to view clicks broken down by each country.

Thanks again for checking us out. We’re always here to answer questions, and listen to any feedback you have as well. Our goal is to make sure we built something that is actually useful for WordPress users.

Thanks!

Thank you for your explanation, much appreciated.

Absolutely. That’s what we’re here for.

Hi, I read something else that said this is changed and you now take $10.00 per 10,000 clicks. Do those clicks include the country we originate in?

Also, since I already had Amazon links on my site, I simply installed your plugin. Now I no longer can see my affiliate ID, I see geo-etc. Is this what I should see? So now I do not have to sign up or do anything else, my links will be localized for all the countries with which I signed up for the Amazon program?

Thirdly, I was a little confused by your term “storefront”–I have text links, image links, and an Astore–are all these now going international? What about links made using the Amazon API and links made not using it–any difference?

Thanks.

Hi Vicky,

The GeoRiot service is $10 per 10,000 clicks, but the Amazon Link Engine is completely free. If you just want to use the Amazon Link Engine to automatically globalize your links you can do so for free, but you will need to connect to a GeoRiot account to use your own affiliate IDs.

The reason the GeoRiot service is now $10 per 10,000 clicks regardless of the country of origin is because we opened up the platform to allow any click type – not just Amazon and iTunes anymore. This means we had to come up with a pricing structure that worked for all clicks to any destination. The good news is you will now earn 100% of your affiliate earnings, which tends to be around 5x the cost of the GeoRiot service (I.E. You’ll make $5 for every $1 our service costs you).

Since you already have Amazon links on your site, and your plugin is enabled, your Amazon links should start with “target.georiot.com” instead of “amazon.com” – is that what you’re seeing?

Finally, the Amazon Link Engine plugin works with all Amazon links that are actually on the page. Unfortunately since AStore links are pulled dynamically from Amazon and not actually stored on your page, we cannot globalize those links. Any other link type will be automatically globalized (and you can verify by making sure they start with target.georiot.com when hovering over those links).

I hope that helps but please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks for your quick reply.

I’m a bit dense and I still don’t totally understand. If I want to earn my own affilate commissions, then I need to create a Georiot account? Or is it just if I want to track clicks and manage IDs?

What about the click tracking I already have on statcounter and Amazon itself, will those be affected? Will statcounter and Amazon stats still show the correct numbers?

Are you saying that you are going to get 20% of my commissions, so if I’m making $1,000 per month (I’m making less), then you get $200? So in other words, you are getting paid for clicks from all over, even countries not in the Amazon program and countries I’m not signed up for that are in the Amazon program? Are you getting paid only for affiliate link clicks or all clicks to the site?

If I am getting about 3,000 product clicks per month, then does that mean you get $3.00? Are the first 1,000 clicks free, as you mentioned elsewhere? So if I get 3,000 clicks (this is just to Amazon links, right?) then you get $2.00 and otherwise I keep the rest of my commissions?

Sorry about all the questions.

Since I’m probably not going to get 20% of my revenue from other countries, then it doesn’t seem to make sense to use this plugin–or am I misunderstanding?

Hi Vicky,

Sorry for the confusion.

If I want to earn my own affiliate commissions, then I need to create a Georiot account?

Yes – the way we globalize links means that we send every Amazon user to their correct international Amazon storefront. Since Amazon’s Associate programs are country-specific (one ID does not work for all storefronts – only for the one storefront you’ve signed up for), you need to create a GeoRiot account, then add your different IDs to that account so we know which ID to use per country.

What about the click tracking I already have on statcounter and Amazon itself, will those be affected? Will statcounter and Amazon stats still show the correct numbers?

These will not be affected since we will still redirect to Amazon. What MAY be affected is that you’ll see a decline in your amazon.com links because we are routing international users to other storefronts. However – your total clicks will not change, it will just be spread out over all of Amazon’s stores instead of just one. With that spread, you should also see an increase in your overall commissions since users are getting a better purchasing experience and are more likely to go through with the purchase in their own storefront.

Are you saying that you are going to get 20% of my commissions, so if I’m making $1,000 per month (I’m making less), then you get $200?

Not at all – the amount you pay for GeoRiot is static – $10 per every 10,000 clicks. The amount you make from Amazon is dynamic depending on the items you’re promoting. My example above was what we see on average for all clients across the board.

If you are only promoting TVs for example, those are high-priced items and each click will be worth more if it ends in a purchase than something like a $.99 book. So – for a $1,000 TV, you could earn $70 in commissions from a single click, but only pay us $.001 for that click. It completely depends on your traffic and what you’re promoting.

So in other words, you are getting paid for clicks from all over, even countries not in the Amazon program and countries I’m not signed up for that are in the Amazon program? Are you getting paid only for affiliate link clicks or all clicks to the site?

Any click that goes through our system counts towards the 10,000 clicks except bots. However, the price is configured to be much lower than if we only charged for international clicks. Again – this is to cater to our entire client base, which use GeoRiot for more than just Amazon. We had to come up with a price that was fair for everyone, and actually all Amazon clients get an incredibly good deal from using us because of how much more they earn through our globalized links.

If I am getting about 3,000 product clicks per month, then does that mean you get $3.00? Are the first 1,000 clicks free, as you mentioned elsewhere? So if I get 3,000 clicks (this is just to Amazon links, right?) then you get $2.00 and otherwise I keep the rest of my commissions?

If you send 3,000 clicks the first 1,000 every month are free, so your cost would be $2.

Please note – we do not touch your commissions from Amazon at all. The cost of our service does not correlate to what you make. You could be making substantially more through Amazon, but the cost for our service will always remain the same – $10 per 10,000 clicks.

Let me know if that makes sense. Thanks!

OK. More questions.

I am still unclear about whether you are charging for ALL CLICKS ANYWHERE on the site, or just Amazon clicks. Please just give a one- or two-word answer if possible, as more explanation confuses me. I get many more regular, non-monetized clicks than affiliate clicks, so this is a big question for me.

And:

I had the plugin activated for a little while, WITHOUT me having an account, and saw some clickthroughs through it.

Suppose:
1. those people bought something in my origin country. Would I still get my commission? (please just say yes or no to each of these)

2. those people were in another country where I’m a member of the Amazon affiliate program. Would I still get my commission?

3. those people were in another country where I am not a member of the Amazon program, so I would not get a commission anyway. So no one gets it, correct?

Now, suppose I DO have a GeoRiot account. What changes, in all these cases?

1. my country of origin where I am an Amazon member
2. other countries where I am a member
3. other countries where I am not a member (would I still see the traffic stats?)

Thanks!

I am still unclear about whether you are charging for ALL CLICKS ANYWHERE on the site, or just Amazon clicks.

Any click on a GeoRiot enabled link will count towards the 10k clicks. If you have other links on the site that do not route through GeoRiot, we will not charge for those. Only the ones that go through our service.

1. those people bought something in my origin country. Would I still get my commission? (please just say yes or no to each of these)

If you had the plugin enabled without a GeoRiot account, no.

2. those people were in another country where I’m a member of the Amazon affiliate program. Would I still get my commission?

No. You need to add your IDs to your GeoRiot account for this.

3. those people were in another country where I am not a member of the Amazon program, so I would not get a commission anyway. So no one gets it, correct?

For countries where you do not have your own affiliate ID, we use our “house” parameters.

Now, suppose I DO have a GeoRiot account. What changes, in all these cases?

1. my country of origin where I am an Amazon member
2. other countries where I am a member
3. other countries where I am not a member (would I still see the traffic stats?)

You earn 100% commissions from every country you’re signed up for, but not the one(s) you are not.

I think you need to state clearly that enabling your plugin without creating an account will result in a loss of all commissions. Instead, it says you “don’t need to create an account to use the plugin.” Why this wording? Why would anyone want to lose their commissions? I had no idea I was going to lose them. I think you should immediately change that, as it comes across as deceptive. Does anyone get the commission, with the plugin enabled?

How do I know which links are being routed through GeoRiot? Would that mean all affiliate links? It sounds like it’s just affiliate links.

We do clearly state this information in the Amazon Link Engine documentation:

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/amazon-link-engine/

Further, it’s important to note that the ALE plugin does not currently recognize the affiliate parameters already added to the Amazon links on your site. In order to properly affiliate Amazon links you’ll need to do so with a correctly connected GeoRiot account.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/amazon-link-engine/faq/

Do I have to pay for GeoRiot?
If you’re only interested in giving your international audience a better experience by redirecting them to their local storefront, the Amazon Link Engine is completely free.

However, if you would like access to advanced reporting features and be able to affiliate all of your links, you will need to sign up for a GeoRiot account. Try it out for free for 30 days.

Please note: By default, GeoRiot’s affiliate parameters will be used until you have added your own via the GeoRiot dashboard. Please contact GeoRiot if you have any questions.

As for which links are being routed through GeoRiot, it will be your Amazon links, as that’s what the Amazon Link Engine will globalize for you.

There is absolutely no pressure to use our plugin if you feel it does not work for you. We do our best to clearly and concisely mention the benefits, but it doesn’t work for everyone. I hope that helps.

It states that to earn affiliate commissions, to create an account. I interpreted this as being aimed at someone who does not already earn affiliate commission. The “Further” you add here is the crux of the matter. If you do not create a GeoRiot account but simply activate the plugin, it is not simply giving your viewers a better experience. It is replacing YOUR affiliate links with GeoRiot’s. You do not mention this anywhere. Your “please note” here puts that out in the open. You call affiliate links “parameters.” Most people call them links.

A great many affiliates aren’t going to parse through the fine print and even if they did, half the info is missing. Perhaps it’s just a matter of writing in clearer English. I’m not saying the product is not good or that you are purposely deceiving (though I think you are), but the fact that you leave out information and actually REPLACE people’s affiliate links without being at all clear feels like the techniques used by those banks that caused the mortgage meltdown.

Vicky,

We are not purposefully deceiving anyone. If we were no one would use our service and there’s no way we’d be able to stay in business. Please feel free to Google “GeoRiot” and “Amazon Link Engine” to see what other’s thoughts are on our services – we are only trying to help.

I apologize that you feel our wording isn’t clear enough, but we have done our best to make it as concise as possible without sacrificing important details. There isn’t “fine print,” only a description of how our service works. It is laid out in detail in an attempt to help users understand the full details of our service, including that you need to create a GeoRiot account in order to use your own affiliate tokens.

Unfortunately we cannot make everyone read every word, and I apologize again that it wasn’t clear from the beginning, but the information about replacing affiliate parameters is shared throughout the plugin details here on www.ads-software.com as well as inside the plugin itself. As you’ve mentioned, there’s already a lot of information there, so adding additional details around the different scenarios would require even more information for people to read, which is why we stuck with the simplified version bolded in my notes above.

Again, we are not trying to take your money or clicks or commissions (this makes zero long term financial sense). If you sign up for GeoRiot and add your Amazon Associate IDs for the different Amazon countries, you will earn 100% of your clicks. The ones that you don’t support are affiliated with our IDs to help keep our pricing low and our lights on – paying for the hardware and software to host the service, continually improving on the algorithms for product matching, and paying the salaries of our small team is not cheap.

However, if you do not wish to use our service, there is no pressure to do so. Our intention is to help you globalize your links to create a better user experience for your clients and help you earn money in the process. There are multiple other plugins that attempt to solve the same problems. You might have better luck with them.

Thanks for your time so far and I wish you the best of luck in whichever direction you choose.