No more paid referrals by Amazon

Amazon Associates, one of the most popular and well-known affiliate sales programs in the online world has decided to scale back on its ad-based referral program.

From 1 May 2009, Amazon will no longer pay its members referral fees for search traffic. In simple terms, this means that members will not be rewarded for sending visitors to the website of Amazon Associates – amazon.com, endless.com. amazon.ca - through keyword bidding on popular search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo.

The official announcement by the company did not give any explanation for the move but speculation is rife that the leading online retailer has finally understood that it can do its own keyword bidding and does not need any middle-man to do it. Whatever be the reason for this change, the associate members of Amazon are not happy with it.

Many online marketing specialists who make a huge amount of money through affiliate marketing are lamenting this change. Being linked directly to Amazon through paid search was an easy way for anyone having a strong knowledge of pay-per-click to make easy money. But with this decision from Amazon would mean a pay cut for many people.

Without a doubt, this new policy of Amazon from May 1 will leave a lot of associates unhappy.