Damn you Googhydr-20!

Well Mr/Mrs CoffeeResearch, it was certainly fun playing with you, but it looks like we’ve both been kicked off the playing field.

I had planned out and started writing a series of articles on how to make money driving traffic from search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, etc) directly to Amazon using what some people call “affiliate arbitrage” and others call “paid search affiliate marketing”.

You know those Google Cash kits I’ve been warning you about?  Basic info on this technique is what they’re trying to get you to pay $87.63 a month for.  Here, I’ll save you a big chunk of change by spilling the secret:

Take a product that pays a commission for each sale referral through what is known as an affiliate program, pay to advertise it on Google Adwords, and hopefully if you’ve done all your work and research right, make money by paying less for ads than you’ll get paid in commissions per sale.  That’s it.   Simple really.

For the past 7 or 8 months, I’d been playing this “game” with Amazon and Google Adwords.  Find top selling products at Amazon, find some slightly more obscure search terms for said products, write a better targeted ad than the Amazon search marketing team/robot could do (it’s affiliate tag is googhydr-20, and I suspect it’s at least 98% automated) and bid a slightly higher price, wait 2-3 months for Amazon to pay you, and boom, instant extra income.  I hadn’t been making a living off it, but it did provide a nice chunk of change the end of February when they paid out for sales during the Christmas holiday.

Well, all that being said, Amazon has finally decided to squash the practice.

Change to Amazon Associates program

After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you’re not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.

This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.

We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program. If you have questions or concerns, please write to us by using the Contact Us form available on Associates Central.

It certainly makes sense.  Many of the ads I saw from other affiliate marketers were TERRIBLE, poor grammar, poor spelling, poor layout, wrong prices, claims of bogus discounts, etc.  I guess it was only a matter of time.

Here’s to you googhydr-20!  May you enjoy playing on an empty field!