In an email sent early today to its hundreds of thousands of affiliates, Amazon.com detailed the new commission structure they previewed last month. Among other changes, Amazon.com encourages its affiliates to use direct links to specific products, as opposed to less targeted query strings. They also replaced the infamous "15 percent" commission rate that was - in reality - seldom triggered. Amazon nixed the $10 cap on electronics commissions and improved the used "marketplace" items commission rate with a higher one, which will surely please specialty sites such as used book sellers.

If Amazon has one clear advantage against eBay, it's in the strength of its affiliate network, so it's only natural that they leverage it. Affiliates need to choose their compensation structure by January 26. At first glance there's little to no downsize to choosing the new, tiered structure over the "classic" flat formula, so the former is probably going to be quite successful.