Starting on April 8, 2009 Aweber will roll out some changes to their affiliate program. The big news is the first on the list below…direct sale commissions will rise from 20% to 30%. Great news for sure, but this comes by eliminating the 10% second tier commission that Aweber used to offer. I have some second tier affiliates under me that I earn from, so I am not thrilled about this. I still think its a great affiliate program though, and an even better email list management service. Aweber is the industry standard, and not expensive at all, check it out if you dont have a list management service.

Here are the changes from the Aweber affiliate program newsletter, numbered in bold. My comments follow in regular text.

1. All commissions will be raised to 30%. This includes existing 1st tier commissions of 20%. Good & Bad, I like the raise on direct sales, but will miss the 2nd tier affiliate opportunity.

2. Second tier commissions are being phased out to meet Paypal’s terms of service and enable paying of affiliates via Paypal. Ahh, so Paypal doesn’t like 2 tier payout systems?! Why should they care why you are paying someone through their network, hmm…

3. Your affiliate cookie will be a 1 year, first visit cookie. Sounds fair.

4. You will soon have the option of being paid via PayPal or postal check. Paypal is great, I like it, but I like to get checks in the mail too, it kind of cancels out the feeling you get when you get those bills in the mail.

5. All affiliates will be paid once a month, on the first of every month.

6. 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 sounds good, I’ll let you know in the comments if the changes affect my check a lot or a little… I’m not sure, I have not done the math yet to add it up, but I’m thinking it will be a wash or very close to what I make now. If anyone else has any thoughts on these changes please post a comment here, and if you want to know more about Aweber, please visit their site, or read several more posts about Aweber on this site by clicking the Aweber category link at the top of the post.