I sat down with Nicole Vincent for one of the more honest conversations I have had in a while about where the Amazon Influencer Program is heading. Nicole is the moderator of the Oink for Influencers Facebook group, and out of everybody I have met in this program, very few people have a better read on how the community is actually feeling. With everything that has shifted in the last month, both good and bad, I wanted to step back from the daily noise and talk through what is next.
Here is what came out of that conversation, and what I want every Amazon influencer reading this to take with you into the next phase of the program.
The Community Is Hurting, And That Is OK To Admit
Nicole sees the comments, the DMs, and the threads I do not always get pulled into. Her read on the room right now is that a lot of people are feeling defeated, angry, and just plain ticked off at Amazon because they are losing money. But that is not the whole picture. There is also a real chunk of the community that is saying, hey, I am ready to pivot, I am ready to do something new, I am not giving up. And then there is a third group quietly stepping away.
What I want people to hear is this. It is OK to feel angry. It is OK to grieve the version of this program you used to have. The results are not as terrible as some people think for everyone, but that does not mean your feelings are wrong. The newer folks who came in during the boom and have not seen a down cycle are taking it the hardest, and I have a lot of empathy for that.
Take Advantage Of What Is Available, Without Marrying It
One of the things Nicole said that I want everyone to internalize is that you should take full advantage of what the program is giving you right now, but you should never marry it. Creator Connections is amazing right now. The on-site commissions on certain categories are still really strong. Use them, push hard, build a buffer, save some money, buy yourself something nice.
But do not let yourself believe any single feature of this program is permanent. Treat the current setup like a playground that has all its equipment up today and might not tomorrow. If they take the slide down, you can step back, re-evaluate, and ask yourself whether this is still the playground you want to be playing on. That mindset is the difference between coasting and panicking when something changes.
Creator Connections Is Not A Bonus, It Is The Game Now
For a long time we treated Creator Connections like a side hustle on top of our on-site commissions. That framing is dead. Right now, Creator Connections is where the lift is. If you are not spending real research time deciding which campaigns to commit to, you are leaving money on the table while everyone else is bidding on the same upper carousel slots.
This is why the Creator Connections side of Oink has gotten so much of my attention. The Storefront Cross Check, the Comparison Video Schedule, the Quick Creator Connections X Storefront Check, all of that exists because the campaigns themselves are where the math actually lives now.
The Era Of Low-Effort, Quick Videos Is Closing
We talked about something I think is overdue. There has always been an AI slot problem in this program, and there has always been a regular human low-effort problem too. Five-second videos, no value, no demonstration, just a clip on a carousel. The system rewarded that for a long time. Not anymore.
The new rules and the removal of the related products category mean that low-effort videos do not stick on the carousels the way they used to. They do not earn. And the people who built their entire strategy on volume of low-effort content are the ones feeling this hardest. That is not me being smug, it is just where the program is heading. Better videos, on better products, in better campaigns, is the strategy that wins from here.
Pivoting Is Not Quitting
Nicole has been pivoting her own strategy hard over the last month, and I asked her about it. The interesting takeaway is that pivoting is not the same as quitting. Pivoting means looking at the new shape of the program and adjusting which products you go after, which platforms you cross-post to, and how much weight you give to Creator Connections versus pure storefront videos.
If you are quietly thinking about quitting, I want you to consider pivoting first. Step back. Ask yourself what part of this is actually broken for you, and what part is just a habit you have not updated yet.
Lean Into The Platforms You Actually Enjoy
One of the best pieces of advice from this conversation was about platform fit. If you are forcing yourself to grind on Instagram or TikTok and you hate it, that is not a viable long-term strategy. Pick the platform that puts a smile on your face, even if it is not the trendiest right now. YouTube has been mine for a long reason. The energy you bring to the platform you actually enjoy will out-earn the energy you fake on the one you do not.
What I Want You To Do This Week
I will keep this practical. Three things, and they are not glamorous:
- Audit your last 30 videos. Sort by which ones earned and which ones did not. Look for the pattern that the wins share.
- Open Creator Connections and pick three campaigns that fit the better-product, less-saturated, longer-runway profile. Commit to those, not the shiny ones.
- Pick the one platform you would still want to make videos for if Amazon turned the dial down further. Pour more into that. Trim time from the others.
Where Oink Fits In All Of This
I did not build Oink to make you feel good about the chaos. I built it to take the chaos and turn it into a checklist. The 5 Pillars system inside Oink for Influencers walks you through daily tasks so you are not staring at a blank screen every morning trying to decide what to do. The Storefront Cross Check, the Unavailable Video Matching, the Comparison Video Schedule, all of it is there to make sure you are spending your time on the right products, not just any products.
If you have been feeling stuck since the changes hit, go install Oink and use it for a week. Not because I want a subscription, but because the people who are climbing out of this cycle are the ones who are organized. Be one of those people.
