Digital product Affiliates = higher commission earnings?

[froggyboy604]

Does anyone else notice that digital products like paid website templates, software, ebooks, and other digital products company pay their affiliates better 25%-75% commission compared to Amazon, Newegg, and other online stores which pay around 3-10% commission for each sale.

Examples of Affiliate programs which pay well
Malwarebytes pay 30% commission per sale for their premium version : http://www.malwarebytes.org/affiliates.php

AVG pays 25% commission per sale http://www.avg.com/us-en/affiliate

Clickbank has up to 75% commission http://www.clickbank.com/promote_products.html

Fatcow hosting pays $100 per referral. http://www.fatcow.com/affiliate/gettingstarted.bml

Do you think by promoting digital downloads, you can earn more vs promoting actual physical products like Ipods, TVs, laptops which you only get 4-10% commission, and not a lot of sales if your site has low traffic, too much competition, or you are not good at promoting products?

But, I think it might be difficult selling digital products and services because people can just use free alternatives, or download illegally hacked versions from bittorent.

 

[Fergal]

Re: Digital product Affiliates = higher commission earnings

Digital product sellers can pay higher commissions because their cost per sale is much lower, than businesses that produce physical goods. For example, once an ebook is written, it doesn't cost the publisher anything when someone else purchases one, whereas a real world book has printing and shipping costs.