DealExtreme Affiliate

A while back I signed up to be come an affiliate with DealExtreme. I had some success with iPod stuff on Amazon and Google AdSense (receiving over $1,000 from each) and was hoping to do something with flashlights. Similar to Amazon’s program, I can use special links to products sold at DealExtreme. Then I earn a point (to the hundredth of a point) for each $10 spent by people using my links. If I collect 100 points, I get $10. So basically people have to spend $1,000 and I get $10, or a 1% commission. Amazon pays at least 4%, but the markup on DX stuff has to be less than at Amazon because everything is so cheap and they have free shipping on every item.

I didn’t earn very many points for a while, but I think a couple of the guys at Budget Light Forums started using my links because I would get bursts where I’d sell a whole lot of stuff. Unlike with Amazon, I don’t know what they are buying, just the price of the items (or orders, I’m not sure).

Anyway, I got to 100 points, but DX makes you wait 60 days after the sale to activate the points in case the person cancels the order or returns the item for a refund. Finally, I got to the 60 days and asked for payment. After a few days they sent me $10 via PayPal. Cool! Of course, it took like nine months to get $10, so it’s kind of crazy, but most of that came pretty quickly with the big buyers at the end. Then it sort of slacked off, but lately picked up again and I had earned another 100 points (still waiting on those points to activate).

Here’s the neat thing: after the second 100 points, I started earning points faster. Now I get 1.5 points for every $10 spent. That’s a really big increase. Here’s the cruel irony of that: back on Feb. 21, before I had been promoted to the new level, someone spent $9.11, so I earned 0.91 points. Every little bit counts. Either that order or the next one put me over the top, because after that I started earning 1.5%. But on March 1, I guess the person must have canceled the order, because an order for -$9.11 showed up. The kicker is that now I am in the 1.5% bracket, so they subtracted 1.37 points. My net was a loss of 0.46 points!

My plan is to raffle the next $10 bonus at BLF, though I’m not sure it will be 100% legal since I would really just be sending someone $10 by PayPal. I guess it’s okay since I’m not getting anything in return. Since most flashlights are more than $10, I might wait until I get to $20, but that could easily take another six months.