Amazon Slashes Commission Rates for Program That Gives Publishers a Cut of Sales
Commissions have dropped as of April 21, 2020,
- Furniture, Home, Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden, Pets Products, Pantry from 8% to 3.00%
- Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business & Industrial Supplies from 6% to 3.00%
- Outdoors, Tools from 5.5% to 3.00%
- Grocery from 5% to 1.00%
- Sports from 4.5% to 3.00%
- Baby Products from 4.5 to 3.00%
- Health & Personal Care from 4.5 to 1.00%
- Amazon Fresh from 3.0 to 1.00%
In addition, Amazon is taking third party affiliate networks out of the loop and has hit pause on direct affiliate programs with publishers such as BuzzFeed and Vox.
In positive news, affiliate campaigns for casual clothing such as t-shirts and yoga pants are outperforming other categories because people are staying home right now.
https://searchengineland.com/amazon-affiliate-commission-rates-cut-332966
Affordable Book/Website Illustrations
If you’re a self-publishing author, or you simply want illustrations for your website or PDF, check out this site.
Any illustrations you commission come with full rights, meaning they cannot be reused by the artists and you do not have to ask permission to reuse them yourself.
This means your illustrations can pull double duty, not only making your book more valuable but also appearing on other merchandise you sell.
Illustrations are just $45 each with $0 royalties and no hidden costs. And the examples are gorgeous.
https://getyourbookillustrations.com/
Do You Have an Idea to Combat Covid-19?
Here’s how to find partners and investors by establishing credibility and proving that you can move fast.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/348772
How to Add Original Artistic Images to Your Site for Free
Use the Google Arts and Culture app to turn your photos into works of art. A new feature called, “Art Transfer” that lets you apply various art styles to your own photos has been added to the app.
To use the Art Transfer feature:
- Open the Google Arts and Culture app
- Tap the Camera icon in the bottom-center
- Click Art Transfer.
- Either take a new photo or choose one from your current photos
- Choose an art style to apply to your photo.
For example, that landscape photo you took could become a bold, swirling Vincent van Gogh-like painting.
https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/arts-culture/transform-your-photo-style-iconic-artist/
Instant Place Holder Copy Wins Bets
Do you need some fast placeholder copy for a new site you’re building?
Or would you like to win a bet on how fast you can type?
Here’s the trick:
Open Microsoft Word and type the following: =rand(3,10)
Hit enter, and in this case you should see 3 paragraphs of 10 lines each. Change the numbers to anything you like, depending on how much copy you want.
If you’d rather have Latin than English, type: =lorem(X) You’ll get “X” paragraphs of this filler text.
Note: The Replace Text as You Type feature (File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > AutoCorrect tab) must be turned on for this feature to work.
$1 Million Every Second
I just read that the Federal Reserve is printing $1 million every second.
Now if I could just have 5 seconds of their time…
My 4 Favorite Reverse Image Search Apps
Have you ever needed to identify a picture or an item? These apps let you upload an image to search instead of entering text.
CamFind – take a picture, upload the image and CamFind identifies the object.
Google Lens – Google’s visual search engine analyzes the image and gives you a link to the Google image search page in the results.
Photo Sherlock – upload the image, optionally crop the image to focus on the main element, then let the app fetch your results.
TinEye – this is an online tool, so you’ll need to download a dedicated app. Search an image by URL or by sharing a file. You can sort the results by best match, most changed, the biggest image, newest or oldest.
WhatsApp is Limiting Forwarding
To fight misinformation on the corona virus outbreak, WhatsApp has introduced new limits on message forwarding. This means you can now only forward a message you’ve received onto one chat at a time.
https://blog.whatsapp.com/Keeping-WhatsApp-Personal-and-Private
7 Best Calming Apps to Clear Your Mind
Calm – This is a great meditation app for beginners. Choose a meditation length of 3 minutes to 25 minutes. Then choose a topic such as managing stress, gratitude, forgiveness, happiness or many others.
Dark Noise – Ambient noise can help you focus on your work or even get to sleep at night. Choose from 30 possibilities, including a cat purring, rain, brown noise or a spaceship engine.
Day One – Research shows there are many benefits to daily journalism, including releasing negative thoughts and memories, gaining key insights and feeling happier. Day one is a daily journal that makes it easy to organize your thoughts and clear your mind.
Insight Timer – Features 30,000 meditations and music tracks you can access for free, many of which deal with anxiety and stress.
MindMeister
– This is a mind mapping tool available on mobile devices as well as online interfaces. Do you have a million thoughts swirling around, distracting you and making you anxious? Use this app to organize and prioritize your thoughts so that you can stop being distracted by them.
Simple Habit – Tackle stress and manage depression through 5 minute meditations based on what’s happening in your life now.
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock – Helps you feel more refreshed in the morning by tracking your sleep to wake you up in a light sleep phase, as well as vibrating when you snore to encourage you to shift position.
Email Marketing: Doing THIS Reduces Reply Rates by 40%
According to SalesLoft, explicitly referencing Coronavirus or COVID-19 in the subject line of an email creates a 40% reduction in reply rates. Their suggestion: Be human, don’t lead with Coronavirus, acknowledge the situation and then get to the point.
Secondly, things are changing fast. What worked last month might not work this month, so continually be testing and adapt your approach as necessary.
https://salesloft.com/resources/blog/staying-agile-changing-world/
Irving
Follow my Social media Connections
