I think I mentioned in a previous post that I am on the "Amazon influencer" program. It's similar to Amazon Affiliates, but it's providing reviews, recommendations and lists of products on Amazon.com. It's pretty lucrative at present, since it's still relatively new, but the revenue is nose-diving due to some changes Amazon made. First the moved where the videos show from before the reviews, to after the reviews, way down in the page. That has cut views in half. As more and more people join the program also, there are more videos up on the platform, leaving to less commission share for each person.

The coolest part of the program is that sellers and brands want you to make reviews of their products. They recognise the power of user reviews and Influencer Marketing - a fast growing type of marketing a lot of companies are starting to budget for. As a result, influencers get sent a lot of things for free. Some times they even get paid a fee to make these reviews.

Alas! I live in England. This means the sellers and brands are not interested in me for most part. 99% of them only send products to the United States. I know this because I get contacted a lot. I get an average of one email a day asking me to review a product for them. Most of the products, I wouldn't accept anyway - feminine products for instance; makeup, hair care stuff, e.t.c. Some of the stuff, though, I would have loved to review and receive for free. Garden tools, kitchen utensils, house-hold decoration stuff and even some cool gadgets. I've missed out of all that stuff because I don't live in the United States. I think this is a bit of a loss for the sellers because there are many of us that review content here in the UK, but we're often overlooked. Oh well.

It's not all bad. I did receive the iPad case reviewed in the video above for free. I didn't get paid any extra, just the iPad. Who knows, maybe the seller will pass on the good word to their friends and they might actually start sending us stuff here too. I suspect that many of these sellers have warehouses in the US, but not in the UK, so they don't want to pay the international shipping. It's also partly because Amazon itself doesn't yet have video reviews on Amazon.co.uk. Hopefully we will get that one day too and things might change for reviewers. For now, it's still a nice bit of change. It feels nice refreshing the back office every morning and seeing the green candle representing how much has been earned in commissions. It varies vastly from zero to the high double figures per day. Some people in the US make 3 figures per day! Americans have all the fun.

The iPad case itself is actually not that bad at all! It's "military grade" rugged and robust, while being light and versatile. It was a bit of a hassle installing the iPad, but I suppose it was designed that way - not to come off easily.

Peace & Love,

Adé