If you have experience with making money from Amazon Affiliate links,
could you please wrap up your experiences? (How many visitors did it
take to make money? Anything you changed that suddenly improved the
program?) I'm not talking about big money.

Philipp: 
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=201591 - most
people report disappointment from affliate links.

I've been disappointed. Part of the problem is getting the full 15%
for a direct referral to a book almost never happens, because of the
convoluted structure of the site multiplied by the methods of linking
they offer. Plus, if they are already a customer, no commission - as
the biggest bookstore, many or even most that follow your link have
been there before.

The trick would be to have an informative site, that attracts folk who
probably haven't bought books online before, but will be tempted by
the ones you are promoting.

There are some pieces of software out there than can turn all links
and search boxes into 15% referrals.

Greetings J_Phillip:

I'm in agreement with Robert Skelton:
"Part of the problem is getting the full 15% for a direct referral to
a book almost never happens, because of the convoluted structure of
the site multiplied by the methods of linking they offer. Plus, if
they are already a customer, no commission - as the biggest bookstore,
many or even most that follow your link have been there before."

Then, once an associate actually makes a fee, it takes forever to get
the $10 minimum even for a gift certificate.  I keep Amazon on my
sites for the convenience of customers and to offer books, movies and
music in line with the themes of my sites.  I'd be curious to know if
anyone uses Barnes & Noble or Books A Million and what they think
about those programs.  I'd also like to learn more about the
conversion software.  Is it shareware?

Best regards,
journalist-ga 

The best affiliate program I've ever had is All Posters.  They pay
25%-30% of each sale.

Wow. I didn't know they only pay commission if you get them a new
customer. I wouldn't even expect many people to sign up just to buy a
single book.
Thanks all for the comments.

Oops!

In the light of day what I wrote felt wrong. Although most affiliate
schemes work that way, I couldn't find any mention in Amazon's
Associate FAQ about commissions only applying to new customers