Aweber Makes Big Changes to its Affiliate Program

March 6th, 2009 posted by Chris Jacobson · No Comments

Aweber is the #1 newsletter service out there. They’re the most popular for a reason and now they’ve just got a whole lot better.

The company recently sent out an e-mail survey to its affiliates asking them what could be improved on. They took that information and went back to the drawing board to come up with some major changes.

All commissions will be raised to 30%. This includes existing 1st tier commissions of 20%.
Second tier commissions are being phased out to meet Paypal’s terms of service and enable paying of affiliates via Paypal.
Affiliate cookies will last 1 year instead of the previous 10 years.
You will soon have the option of being paid via PayPal or postal check.
All affiliates will be paid once a month, on the first of every month.
The minimum check payout will be $30.00 for US affiliates and $50.00 for affiliates not based in the US (This applies to both PayPal Payments and postal payments)

All of these changes will be effective on April 8th, 2009. The only exception will be the PayPal payment option, which will be available in the near future.

Aweber also reduced the amount of time the affiliate tracking cookie stays on a user’s computer. That is, if you refer someone to the site and they don’t sign up right away, but at a later date, you would still get credit for that sale. Up until now the length was a lifetime cookie (10 years). Most affiliates felt this was too long and opted for a one year cookie instead. I voted for this change as well. Aweber listened and has now implemented a one year length maximum.

It’s nice to see a company like this go directly to their affiliates for input instead of making changes on the fly without consulting anyone else.

Those are some exceptional changes and I’m most looking forward to receiving payments more regularly. The fact that PayPal is on their radar is also a huge plus.

If you don’t already belong to Aweber, you should. It’s the most powerful tool any affiliate marketer could have. The power has always been in the list and if you aren’t collecting leads at every opportunity possible, you’re losing out on some serious cash.