I have a soft spot in my heart for affiliates. That's why Amazon's recent moves kind of break my heart. Boo Amazon.

Affiliate publishers get paid when they send traffic to another website, and someone buys there. In April, Amazon cut the affiliate payout rates by over 500% in some categories, 50% in others, and more.

What categories? Well, the ones that are doing well right now of course! Seems like a profitability and demand control move at the wrong time.

Category: From : To

• Furniture: 8% to 3%

• Headphones: 6% to 3%

• Outdoors, Tools: 5.5% to 3%

• Grocery: 5% to 1%

• Baby: 4.5% to 3%

• Health & Personal care: 4.5% to 1%

Affiliates are the backbone of so much eCommerce traffic. But guess what, Amazon doesn't need the traffic right now. They are overwhelmed.

I get it, Amazon is literally asking people to buy less. But the problem is, with affiliates these businesses rely on this revenue. And make no mistake, it's like Amazon is furloughing workers from these businesses from afar, without them even knowing. Boo Amazon.