Should you promote Barnes & Noble Products?

Barnes & Noble is one of the largest booksellers in the world. It allows customers to buy their books in-store as well as its online store. Like many other online businesses Barnes & Noble also wants to reach a larger audience to sell more books.

To achieve this goal, it runs an affiliate program that allows people to make commissions from the book sales. You may think about why the company needs an affiliate program if it is already very recognized.

Let me answer that. There is competition everywhere as it is in the bookselling business. Amazon as the largest online retailer in the US is very popular that most people don't even need to go anywhere else to order anything.

We will talk about the commission rates of both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. However, before doing that let me give you some essential information about the Barnes & Noble affiliate program.

Barnes and Noble partners with CJ (Commission Junction) to manage its affiliate program. If you want to join this program you will need to head over to https://www.cj.com and Signup as a publisher.

Barnes & Noble on CJ

If you already have a CJ account, just search the program with “Barnes & Noble” and it will show up as the advertiser number: 4258829.

Then you click on the “Join Program” to join it. It is that simple. You will be asked to accept terms and conditions in addition to the Commission Junction publisher service agreement. Then you will need to wait for your application is approved by the affiliate manager.

Promoting Barnes & Noble's books you can place affiliate links on social media. While affiliate programs like Amazon Walmart and Best Buy, which are their close competitors, generally do not allow it.

As it is in many other affiliate programs, Barnes & Noble doesn't allow affiliates to bid on their trademark terms, nor have URLs that include those terms.

You can use incentivized traffic but no direct linking allowed promoting this program.

How much you can make promoting Barnes & Noble?

If you promote books from Barnes and Noble you can make 2% of the sales price. While its closest competitor, Amazon, pays 4.5% commission to the affiliates. I don't know why Barnes and Noble pay less than half a commission for the book sales. Maybe the company doesn't really need affiliates to promote its books and focused on in-store sales.

You will receive a 2% commission payment on book sales. However, if you promote digital-based products and Nooks you will make a 4% commission.

Their affiliate Cookie lasts 1 day only which is very low. Yes promoting Amazon the affiliate cookie also lasts one day. However, if you promote books from Amazon you can make money for the additional items people are adding to their cart. ( You can make a commission from the sale of a plasma TV or a jar of peanut butter no limits.)

💳 Affiliate Payment Methods

We have already mentioned Barnes & Noble works with CJ. What that means you are going to be able to pay in accordance with CJ terms.

Affiliates can get paid through one of the below payment methods:

  • Direct deposit,
  • Check,
  • Payoneer (For People outside of the US)

CJ Affiliate pays out within 20 days of the end of the month, provided you have more than $50 (for Direct Deposit payment) or US$100 (for Check payment).

Please note there are 60 days locking period that from the day of the sale you have made to guarantee your commission. I don't know why the company made it so hard for affiliates to get paid.

The more products you sell, the more money you can earn. The commission you get is lower than the sales partnerships with Amazon. However, one advantage is that it gives you the opportunity and permission to advertise.

Here is the pros and cons of this program:

Pros & Cons Of Promoting This Program

Here are a few pros and cons that may help you to decide if you plan to be a Barnes & Noble affiliate.

👍 Pros:

  • The biggest bookseller in the country
  • Worldwide known
  • Works with a reliable management company which specialized in affiliate programs

👎 Cons:

  • Low commission rates

With the partnership programs of such large companies, the authors have the opportunity to generate additional income and earn money. One of the most important issues for the authors is to have a sales partnership with a company they can trust. Therefore, it would be wise to turn to affiliate programs managed by large companies.

Barnes & Noble vs Amazon Books Affiliate Program Comparison

If you have a book review site and want to choose one of these programs, choosing Amazon would make much more sense.

Here is why do I think so.

Barnes & Noble pays half of the commission what Amazon pays for the book sales.

Also, people promoting Amazon books will make additional commissions from any other items the seller buys on Amazon.

Yes, Barnes & Noble also offers some other products (audio, gifts, DVDs) that allow affiliates to make an additional commission from the sales of these products but the product range is very limited. It can be by no meaning comparable with the sales amount on Amazon.

If you promote books on Amazon, you will likely make much more from the sales of items in other categories than books. You will also potentially make more money and have higher conversions promoting Amazon books.