Top 7 tips I used to make $41,438.42 in 2009 with Amazon Associates
The Amazon Associates program was my top earner last year and while I'm in the process of looking forward to achieving new goals in 2010 after getting fired from my job in 2009, I wanted to take some time to share my absolute best tips on how to make more money with Amazon.com's affiliate program as we move into the new year. This list will be different than any other list you've read because to compose this list I used over 40 different tracking codes across the wide range of blogs, websites and forums I run to conclusively test what tactics worked best. So not only will these tips help you earn more money, I can also share specific figures as to how well each tip helped contribute to my $41,438.42 earned in 2009.
This will be a 2 part post. The next post will cover the least effective ways to make money with Amazon Associates, so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or RSS email) and follow me on Twitter to avoid the common mistakes.
1. Use multiple Amazon tracking ID's
If you are using only one Amazon tracking ID for each website you're running, you're still making a huge mistake and this is a mistake I've seen perpetrated across a vast array of websites. You absolutely need to use multiple tracking ID's for every single website you run so that you know what is working and what isn't. Part of why I believe so strongly that this list will be a valuable resource for you is simply because of the fact that I used so many tracking codes during the course of 2009 that I was able to determine exactly what tactics pays out the best and what pays out the worst. In fact, I wouldn't feel comfortable writing an Amazon tips list without showing proof that my tips do in fact work. The tips I'm sharing may work better for me than they will for you which is precisely why you should not only try what I'm suggesting, but you should also test it with multiple tracking ID's too (Once inside your Amazon account you can create additional tracking ids here).
Please click the continue reading button for more tips after the break.
2. Bestseller Lists: 15% of total earnings
The bestseller list post has been one of the top posts I run on a monthly basis for almost all of my various blogs and forums. I simply write about the bestselling products within the niche of the blogs I run. I only do it once per month so it doesn't upset users looking for unique content. Bestseller lists are a form of social proof and they are incredibly strong at convincing people what to buy, which is precisely why Amazon uses them so extensively on their own website. People on the fence of a purchase decision use what others are buying to help make their decision. If you can't find a bestseller category for the niche your website is focused on, then it's time to expand your niche. See all bestseller list categories here
3. Focus on in content affiliate linking: 45% of total earnings
The biggest chunk of money I earned was by linking to products inside the actual blog posts I was writing about. Say for example I was discussing a new product that was now available to pre-order. First I would link to it because it was available for pre-order with no mention of the price. Then I'd show an image and use an affiliate link for that (more on images in the later tips). Then after the image I'd share a few of the products specs but then use an affiliate link titled something like "see full specs" and then if there were other colors I'd link to each one of those individually. Finally, I would end the post with a statement to pre-order it and at what price it was available to purchase at. This is just an example of what I would do for a hot product that finally became available to pre-order, but as you can tell I've created several opportunities that have hopefully piqued the interest of a potential buyer to click the link and find out more about the product. By leaving out less information about the product in the first place it creates a feeling that the user should just click now to see more about the product rather than finish reading the article. If you get them onto Amazon's website then you're in a very good position because now you get a commission on ANY product that they purchase on the website - not just the one they clicked through on your website.
4. Simply get visitors onto Amazon.com:
Yes the cookie length for Amazon.com is fairly short at only 24 hours, but Amazon spends incredible amounts of money on testing their website and improving their ability to converting people browsing for products into customers. It's worth mentioning that I exported my chart of affiliate earnings by product category and only 1,367 of the 3,953 items that shipped through my affiliate links during 2009 were from product categories within the main niches for each of the blogs and websites that I run. Granted, the dollar sum of these items amounted to most of the earnings to the tune of 75%, but by getting people onto Amazon.com and shipping an extra 2,000+ items over the course of the year helped to put me into higher earnings tiers which in turn gave me more money overall.
Once a higher referral fee is achieved within the calendar month, the higher referral fee rate will apply to all Qualifying Revenues earned from Qualifying Product units sold by us during sessions initiated through Special Links on your site during that calendar month, including units sold before the new tier was reached."
- Amazon Associates Operating Agreement
In other words, every time you hit a new referral tier it should be accompanied by a resounding boo yah because you just made an extra .5% (or .25% if you're up near the top tier) on all of the products you've already sold during the month. It's safe to assume 20% of the income I generated came from items people simply bought because they were about to buy them anyway and I was the guy that got them onto Amazon's website.
5. Make images clickable affiliate links: 13.8% of total earnings
This tip is what I consider to be the most obvious one, but for some reason I still see blogs that discuss a product and include an image but don't make the image an affiliate link that takes the visitor to that product. If you are already linking to products on Amazon and including images of them but not making the images an affiliate link - make the change now! To lean on my first point, use a new tracking code just to test how well the image affiliate links perform and I can assure you that you'll see some improved earnings.
6. Use Buy Now image buttons: 5% of total earnings
If you're discussing a product that is related to your blog and you're already linking to it several times within the body of the post as I suggest in tip 3 and using the image as a link in tip 4 then you may as well include a button to buy now.
i.e. Amazon style: 
I suggest you test the placement to see what works best, but where I like to use mine is in the upper left hand corner of the post just under the blog post title. You can also use a little thumbnail image of the product just above that as well.
7. Focus heavily on shopping time periods:
If there is one time of the year that everybody shops it's November and December. Thank you marketers for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Free shipping day, Boxing Day (yah what's up Canada), you name it. If you are not telling your readers about good deals for products related to your niche during these times of the year then you are missing out on a huge money making opportunity AND doing them a disservice. I spent hours finding and creating my deal posts with genuinely great prices on products I know are good. Thanks to that effort I made back to back income records with Amazon.com's affiliate program and numerous personal emails from people thanking me for finding them a good deal. I can assure you that if there is one time that you should embrace your hunger to make more money on the internet it is during the holidays. (Yes I recognize how terrible that sounds, but it's true)
I hope these tips help you out and I would encourage you to share your comments below. My next post will cover the least effective ways to make money with Amazon Associates and you won't want to miss it. Subscribe to my RSS feed (or RSS email) and follow me on Twitter
Update: I've greatly expanded upon the principals I shared in this post and put together an entire video training course that teaches you start to finish everything it takes to be successful making money with Amazon Associates. You can see more details about it here:
Check out the Niche Profit Course
Again, if you want to see how I make on average over $5k profit per month with Amazon Associates I urge you to check out the Niche Profit Course.
Tagged: Amazon Associates
Got something to say? Click here to reply
Can you use the same product link and just change the amazon aff ID? Like if my product link is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000M5GALG?ie=UTF8&tag=myaffid1-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000M5GALG
Can I just replace the myaffid1-20 part with my other ID or do I need to generate an entirely new URL? (wasn’t sure if there was some other junk in that link that’s ID specific)
You mention using different affiliate ID’s, great advice and timing… I just threw some amazon links on a lawn and garden site (a high adsense earner) using AmazonFeed and made over $70 in a week. Problem is, I have amazon links on several other sites and blogs and NO way to tell where the sales are coming from. Like from my AmazonFeed plugin, carousel widget, or in-text links. Makes it hard to know what’s working, GREAT advice!!!
OH!! and I finally figured out what that gray bar is at the top of amazon every time I go there now… “I do the links by hand using Amazon’s site stripe bar” Duh, using that for my links is so much easier than going through the associates page. Amazing what you can lean by actually looking at something. Thanks!
jared´s last blog ..Happiness is to Live and Let Live: 9 Ways of Letting Go
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Yah just change the aff ID when you create it (sounds like you got it based on the end of your comment)
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jared Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
I have a bunch of existing aff links and was wondering if I could just go through and change that ID (in the link in page source) to the new one for tracking as opposed to re-generating the entire product link. Can I just replace the “myaffid-20″ part of the link text?
jared´s last blog ..Happiness is to Live and Let Live: 9 Ways of Letting Go
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Yes replace it in both the img tag area and your link though. Just two spots per link that’s created.
Hi,
I have a couple of websites on wich i am affiliate of amazon.And at the moment i am selling kindle covers.The problem is that i would like to make some website that look like a eccomerce type of site but when the user checks out goes to the amazon site .Do u know of such solution would be better if it could be integrated with wordpress.
Tks
Kind regards
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this is cool and good case study like you said in smart passive income. However, I am struggling with Amazon may be I am not really into it much.
This might change the way I am using Amazon.
thanks Sjay
sjay´s last blog ..Free Backup Software FBackup 4.4
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I’ve only recently tried adding the Amazon images with products, but can’t get the images to show on WordPress.
Adding text links isn’t an issue – they’re fine. But once I add image links WITH an affiliate link included, it all goes pear-shape.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Cheryl
Cheryl Wright´s last blog ..Save Money on Your Clothes Dryer
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 6th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Just insert the image into your blog post and then put the link code around the image i.e. start the link code before the image and then close the tag after the image code.
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Cheryl Wright Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Thanks for the help, Chris.
Cheryl
Cheryl Wright´s last blog ..10 Quick and Easy Ideas for Tasty Family Meals
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I’ve been doing a bit with Amazon but the big hassle with it is expiring ads. Three months after adding a ‘clickable affiliate link’ the product is no longer available. Anyway around this?
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 6th, 2010 at 11:18 am
I don’t worry about that because if someone clicks that link Amazon always updates product pages to say something like “there is a newer item available” then in turn the visitor just moves onto that. I don’t ever go back and change links.
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One problem that I’ve had with Amazon is that when a user follows my link to, say Amazon.ca, and then buys on Amazon.com I lose out since the tracking is lost, even though I have accounts on both.
I need to develop a plugin of some sort that allows me to determine which link to send them to based on their IP (I have code to do that for another site) if the product in question is available on Amazon.ca.
Thanks for the tips, by the way. I’ve been using a single id for all my sites. Not that I’ve had much traffic at any at this point, but it looks like I need to set up some more ids.
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 7th, 2010 at 12:39 am
You could contact me via email so we could discuss the plugin plans in more detail.
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nice post! I use amazon on my blog too but haven’t really monetized it enough. I liked how you set percentages for each tip, now I can try and see if I get the same effect.
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Great information Chris, my sites are mostly Ebay sites, do you think I should mix them up or should I keep them seperate.Ebay has a longer cookie but is very easy to upset!
GeeGee
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 7th, 2010 at 9:54 am
It really depends on the website. If eBay is your primary method of monetization then I assume your websites center around physical goods. If that’s the case then yes you could try mixing in Amazon as well. It’s all about testing
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Hey Chris,
Amazon was my lowest earning affiliate program, although I knew there had to be some people making money with it. I will focus my efforts on Amazon more for the next half of this year. Thanks for sharing.
J
The Cartoon Coach
Carstarphen´s last blog ..The Difference Between “Looking” and “Being”
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Chris, just so you know I am on your site because I found an article by you on Darren’s ProBlogger site.
I have a simple question if you have time to respond.
I use wordpress with the atahualpa theme. When I put amazon text links in a posting after the link I get a tiny little box. Which when you touch it the cursor becomes an arrow. You can see an example in this posting http://thewondertechnique.com/the-dukan-diet-and-the-french-documentary/. Any ideas why that happens?
This also happens when I put links from other affiliate programs but not when I put a direct link to a website. I have gone to the forums on this put with no answer so far.
Thank you for any advice you have and from any other readers who have had the same experience.
David
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Sorry David, I’m not sure about problems with the specific theme you’re using as I’m not much of a designer. I outsource that along with many other aspects of my business.
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David: The Wonder Technique Reply:
June 9th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Chris,
Thank you for your response. I will keep looking for solutions.
David
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If I use different tracking ID’s, it makes me setup a new account and reenter all my info, is there a faster way? And if I do that, do I have to refer 7 items for each tracking Id in order to get the 6%? Or does it total from all tracking ID’s?
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 12th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Just use one account and all sales from different tracking ID’s within that account will apply to your overall tier increases.
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Hi Chris
Thx for the valuable info you shared. I’m just starting out with Amazon and will be popping in frequently.
Keep well
Elmien
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I tried to download the business models which consistently make you $5,000 per month and it continuously refers me to Top 10 Ways to make Money Online – is it the same product? If not, how can I get the $5,000 per month document.
I’ve been using Amazon links and have had no success whatsoever on my site or HubPages – I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong – with all the links on so many documents I would have thought at least one person would have purchased something!
Can I link both the Canadian and American IDs somehow?
Lorraine arams´s last blog ..Time management – why do people continue to fail
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Yes it’s the same ebook just download it anywhere. Yes there is a plugin that allows you to show both links based on the country of origin.
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hi thanks for the information re Amazon – was doing most of it anyway but the freshness of your insights and in particular the best seller list. Nice one.
paul barton´s last blog ..The need to belong
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Do you have a sample of one of your bestseller posts? Structure, look and feel etc?
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I don’t, but I’m planning some follow up posts related to Amazon so stay tuned.
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This is a great list, but ALL Amazon affiliates should be mindful of the fact that Amazon has nuked thousands of their affiliates in New York, Colorado, and elsewhere because of their refusal to pay taxes.
It’s an old saw I know, but DON’T PUT ALL YOUR TRUST IN AMAZON. They may very well terminate your relationship overnight.
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Any reason why you don’t just set up an agent in a neighboring state and move your business there? That’s what I’d do in case they banned Amazon in WA…
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Chris, thanks for great tips. Do you make use of Amazon’s enhanced product preview feature on any of the products your promoting? If so, has it actually helped with ctr and overall conversion.
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 21st, 2010 at 9:25 am
I do on occasion, but I believe it’s better to just get them onto Amazon and let them do the selling rather than have the web visitor decide what to do without clicking through and getting a cookie placed on their machine.
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Great article, and a subject close to my heart.
I wasn’t going to comment as you cover a lot but I read the comments and wanted to give a warning to Alvaro, if it is not too late.
Ditch the site and start again. We got a cease and desist because of a Kindle site and Amazon will take it down. Luckily we had realized what we had done and taken all affiliate links off it. They could ban the account, luckily they were good to us and simply asked for the domain, but that was work wasted so it is very important to try not to use copyright names in the domain name, unless you do not mind the risk.
Anyway, great site and I will be browsing more. After I get my work done of course.
Dave´s last blog ..Best Content Spinner
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I think your tips are also very usefull for other affiliate programs. I never tried the Amazon Associates program, but i will test it soon. Thanks for sharing your tips.
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 21st, 2010 at 9:28 am
Hey Jan – yes these lessons could be applied to other affiliate programs as well that’s for sure.
Chris
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thanks for the tips, i have just signed up with amazon, i hope it will be profitable for me.
bloggerchamps´s last blog ..Top 12 free eBooks and reports for bloggers
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Hay Chris, I used some of your tips here:
http://film-book.com/cinephile-deal-godfather-i-and-ii-blu-ray-for-11-99-terminator-2-judgment-day-skynet-edition-blu-ray-10/
Out of three clicks, two of them converted to sales. Thx.
ProMovieBlogger´s last blog ..The 5-11-4 Rule for Posting Content on a Website
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:30 am
Good work that’s how I might try and do it (although I’d probably use PHPzon to save time building it up)
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Piggybacking off of #6, I’ve had great success actually creating custom “Buy Now” buttons that incorporate my website’s logo into the actual link. It works wonders as well as creating “Read more reviews” links.
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I have been looking up all kinds of techniques to try and work on search engine optimization for my sites. I have attempted using article writing services, content rewriters, profile links, you name it. So I really appreciate the posts here on your blog.
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Hi, Chris, thanks for all the very useful info you have provided. I have a question about the various Amazon websites.
I would be using co.uk, I have found out about the WordPress plugin which directs people to the appropriate Amazon site, but do I have to register with all the Amazon sites or is my co.uk registration enough?
Thanks,
Pete
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Peter Duxbury Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hi, I got an answer to the question from Amazon, sign up to all the Amazon sites you want to be involved with. Looking forward to the book in July, your experience with Amazon is much appreciated.
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Chris – good tips. Can I ask how many sites you have making that amount of money?
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Gobby Reply:
June 28th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
What I mean is how many sites are you using amazon on that resulted in the 60k in one year? I currently have less than 10 Amazon sites.
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 28th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
About 20. But it’s not the number. It’s the niche. I’m sharing a free eBook on how to make money to my newsletter subscribers in late July – be sure to subscribe to my newsletter as that will provide more details as to how I make my money.
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Thanks Chris! I’ve subscribed. One thing I’d like to know is do you have a WP theme that seems to work better than most?
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Does the commission rate restart every month? Last month I hit 6.5%, but it’s back down to 4% now. Did I do something wrong?
Blake @ Props blog´s last blog ..Digital TV for PC 2 Product Review
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:45 am
Yah, every month it resets; however, the bump in commission is retro active so as soon as you hit it you get that 6.5% applied to everything etc.
Each time I hit like 7%, 7.5%, 8% I get several hundred extra dollars.
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ProMovieBlogger Reply:
July 14th, 2010 at 11:54 am
I have come close to getting to 7. Actually I think I did once and I was trying to crack 7.5.
ProMovieBlogger´s last blog ..Movie Website In-Text Advertising- Infolinks Review
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Hey Chris – I was just wondering about that WP theme. What seems to work best for Amazon? Is there a particular “look” I need to go after (white background, dark background, what color font, etc…) Right now I have some sites that are dark back ground with a lighter grey text.
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Another great post! After reading what not to do and now reading this, hopefully my non-income from Amazon will turn around. I have Amazon on about 10 sites with no results. I’m going to follow what you recommend step-by-step and see what happens. Thank you for your willingness to share this information.
Edie´s last blog ..What is a Heart Attack
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Chris, do you always find one niche product and create a web site around it which contains more products related to that niche? I did some detective work and find one of your sites and you really seem to have that covered!!! Having trouble finding best seller items on Amazon which have both over 1000 exact searches a month and under 1000 competitors for the keyword in the title. Aspiring to work full-time from home one day like you!
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
July 26th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Hey Jason,
Check out this article
I’ll be releasing an eBook which answers most of your questions in a few short days.
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I am having a problem setting up my first hubpage, here is the message I get: *
WARNING: This hub is at risk of being identified as Overly Promotional because it contains duplicate content and outbound links
*
NOTE: A substantial portion of the content on this hub appears on other sites
Please address the moderator set alert below, and correct the problem if possible.
*
Overly Promotional: This Hub excessively promotes another site.
…any suggestions?
Thanks -Keith
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
August 11th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Don’t use Hub’s they’re pointless.
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Keith Reply:
August 11th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Chris, thanks for your reply. So should I just stick to blogs and unique domains? thanks again, Keith
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
August 12th, 2010 at 8:42 am
Sign up for my newsletter and you’ll get a free eBook which will help out with some of it.
Hi Chris, I have several sites set up using Amazon and have been using blogger. In your opinion is Blogger a good option, or should I be paying for a WordPress site?
Joey
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
August 18th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Self hosted all the way. Check out the free eBook I’m releasing to newsletter subscribers soon.
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Joey @ Dog Kennels and Runs Reply:
August 19th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I got the ebook Thanks!!! Very useful info. Looking forward to the newsletter.
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Hi Chris
I have used your buy now button recommendation on my website and I will keep an eye out to see if it helps my conversion rate.
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Aysha Reply:
August 31st, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Quick question about the buy now buttons. Is there any freeware out there that can help with creating these buy buttons? Any recommendations?
Aysha´s last blog ..World Vision Gift Catalog– The Gift of Giving – The Gift Of Life
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 11:24 am
I offer a free wordpress theme with purchase of my Niche Profit Course (nicheprofitcourse.com) that allows you to auto add these to blog posts.
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Aysha Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 11:45 am
Thanks but I already got a blog running on blogger and dont want to go through the hassle of transfering now
Aysha´s last blog ..World Vision Gift Catalog– The Gift of Giving – The Gift Of Life
This is an amazing resource. I do hope that these tips would help me earn more than $1 a month on Amazon… hee hee..I am going to subscribe to your newsletter and ebook.. You have come with some high recommendations from my peers.
Aysha´s last blog ..I Like This Travel Accessory from Crayola
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Chris,
Is it a good idea to list the actual price of your item? Problem I have is that the price in Amazon changes often which means you have to keep changing all the links in your sites which can be a pain. Or should I use a widget?
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
August 31st, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Use a WordPress plugin like PHPzon or ReviewAzon and the price auto updates for you.
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Aysha Reply:
August 31st, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Hi Is there something like that for blogspot users? Or something that can plug into sites like Squidoo…
Aysha´s last blog ..World Vision Gift Catalog– The Gift of Giving – The Gift Of Life
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 11:25 am
Blogspot is useless and so is Squidoo – you need to own the platform to truly profit. Free blog sites are only good for sending links out to legit .com, .net or .org domain names.
Aysha Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 11:47 am
Ya I am starting to see that…well would go on to making sites soon I guess
Aysha´s last blog ..World Vision Gift Catalog– The Gift of Giving – The Gift Of Life