Amazon associates earn referral fees when visitors follow links from their sites to Amazon.com and make a purchase. These links can be to the Amazon.com home page, individual products, pages of search results, or any other page at Amazon.com. Associates can also place product search boxes on their sites. Note that referral fees are calculated on the sale price, not the list price, of each qualifying item.

Associates earn referral fees according to two fee structure options offered by Amazon.com, as listed below.

• Option 1: Classic Fee Structure
• Option 2. Performance Fee Structure

Associates are automatically enrolled in the Performance Fee Structure.

Classic Fee Structure is Amazon.com’s fixed-referral-rate plan. Associates earn a 4% referral fee on items offered by Amazon or by third parties.

The Performance Fee Structure plan allows associates to earn higher referral fees as they increase the number of shipped items generated through their links. They earn a referral rate from 4% to 10% on items shipped by Amazon or third-party sellers in various categories.

In either plan, Amazon.com imposes referral fee caps on the following two products:

• Personal computers (both desktops and laptops) have referral fees capped at $25.
• Unbox video downloads have referral fees capped at $1.50 per item.

No other product lines have their referral fees capped.