Earn money recommending Office 2007 to students.
It’s possible to earn money by recommending Office 2007 to students.
As part of Microsoft’s effort to push Office 2007 into the hands of students they are now offering an ‘affiliate’ program with their student ‘Ultimate Steal’ offer.
Under the affiliate arrangement, approved people and organizations can put special links on their web sites, blogs and newsletters. If people use that link to buy Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.95 (the ‘Ultimate Steal’ offer for students) then the source of the link earns $1.
Details of the deal and application is at http://student.theultimatesteal.com/ and only applies to US campuses.
Microsoft is pushing the line that the scheme can be used donating money to your school or charity but it’s not clear how that’s done. According to Microsoft “students will be able to earn money to help support their student clubs and organizations” and “Microsoft will provide the student organization with one dollar from the sales” and “Make some extra money for yourself, your club or your organization!“
The affiliate application only gives options to pay the affiliate applicant either via a personal or company name. There is no option to direct your earnings to a school, club or other organization. Of course it’s possible that an enterprising group can setup an affiliate arrangement then encourage their members to use the affiliate links.
However the way the application system works in practice would seem to be aimed at individual and corporate enterprise rather than philanthropy. The terms and conditions of the affiliate scheme does not even limit the program to students or student related organizations.
The commission rate of $1 for a $60 sale is very low (1.6%) by the standard of web affiliate programs where 5% is the usual minimum.
As usual there are some traps:
- The minimum payment level is $25. That means you have to sell at least 25 copies of Office 2007 via your affiliate link to earn anything at all. That relatively high threshold (25 completed affiliate sales is a lot) means that many people will generate some sales for Microsoft but get nothing back.
- Some schools have rules about use of their computer systems for profit making activities so check what you’re allowed to do before using your campus email account or web space.
- There doesn’t seem to be any additional commission for sales of Vista, Visio or language packs that are also available to students under the ‘Ultimate Steal’ program.
- The ‘Ultimate Steal’ offer is only available for Office 2007 for Windows – not Office for Mac. That’s because Microsoft want students to become accustomed to Windows as well as Office.
We’ve applied to join the affiliate scheme to see how it works in practice – wanna bet our application is denied when the organizers see this article?
Footnote – the next day:
Well color us as old cynics – our affiliate application for the Office 2007 Ultimate Steal was approved! – Which confirms that you don’t have to be a student or student organization to make money from the scheme.
If you’d like to buy Office 2007 for $59.95 (qualifying US students only) then click the link. As well as getting a great deal you’ll help keep Office Watch as a free service for all comers – students or not.
