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
Oh, and if any of these tips help you make more money you will love the free Amazon eBook I'm releasing in July. It is only available for newsletter subscribers (just another reason why I recommend you sign up for free).
UPDATE: This is one of my most popular posts every day and for those of you that learned a lot, I suggest you sign up for my newsletter where I share more tips not found on this blog. Sign up below.
Tagged: Amazon Associates
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[...] [...]
Hey Chris, thanks so much for this article. I’m looking forward to part 2. How many websites do you run these Amazon Associate promotions on, and which ones seem to work best for you, if you don’t mind sharing
Really inspiring – thanks Chris!
Pat´s last blog ..How Would You Like 5 Million Dollars?
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Hey Pat,
I run about 7 websites with Amazon Associates but most income stems from just a few of them. These websites are focused on specific product niches, but I’m confident that regardless of the niche you’re in you should earn more money if you test the tips I described above with various tracking ID codes of your own.
I actually can think of several other tips that are worth trying, but I don’t have enough data from the tracking ID’s to prove they are working so I decided against sharing those.
Chris
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Hey Chris,
Thanks for those tips. I started promoting amazon products late November and made $243.35 from one site only and it was a new one. (http://www.castleplayset.net/).
I analyzed my site too and discovered, that I get nearly half of the traffic from outside of the U.S., manly UK, that’s why I started to add an amazon UK affiliate link to my site.
It’s a shame, that such a big company like amazon isn’t able to run an affiliate program where you get credited for all the referrals you send to them, doesn’t matter where they are coming from.
How do you handle that with the international traffic?
Cheers,
Daniel
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Hey Daniel,
Congrats on the earnings from the niche website! Do you currently use an ad manager for the site?
What I would suggest is find a way to use something that displays different text based on the country of origin. Unfortunately I can’t think of anything that does that for in text because I don’t normally face the problem (90% plus of my traffic comes from the US). I do know OIO publisher works for ads though so that would solve any issues with sidebar ads.
Side note: what affiliate linking masking solution are you using? Looks like all your aff links are masked by something.
If there isn’t anything offered by WordPress that allows you to change the look based on which country someone is visiting from this could be a great potential plugin… Let me know if you find anything.
Chris Guthrie
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WOW. This. Is. Fantastic!
Because I’m on the blogging tips niche, the Amazon Affiliate System rarely works- so I’d have to do mostly with digital products from Clickbank, E-junkie etc.
But this post…it shed light to me. Really.
I feel like starting a new blog right now. Wait.Scratch that, I will start a new blog right now! I’ve always wanted to blog about my book reading adventures (yikes. how geeky). and I feel like focusing on Amazon this time would make a perfect combo
Big big thanks Chris!
Liane´s last blog ..Rebuilding Lives: Continuous Support is Needed for Haiti Disaster Relief Operations
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Thanks for sharing this!
I just got my first sales but it wasn’t the product to which I have link too.
hopefully this tutorial would help me.
Palabuzz´s last blog ..This is it (Michael Jackson)
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@Liane, writing about your book reading adventures could be a great way to earn some commissions for Amazon. One tip I would suggest though is to ensure you focus your efforts only on as many blogs as you can ensure you maintain with regularly updated content.
@Palabuzz, yes for sure. That’s the great thing about Amazon. If you get them onto the site you can make a commission off of anything they buy for the next 24 hours.
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Some goods tips for sure.
Nimit Kashyap´s last blog ..Structure Theme A Free wordpress premium Theme
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Hey Chris,
Thank you. Right now I’m working on building more of those micro niche sites and the amazon associated program is just perfect for that.
About my affiliate links. I use the pretty links plugin (http://blairwilliams.com/pretty-link/) to cloak the affiliate links and also the http://reviewazon.com/ plugin to import product information. This plugin does cloak and track the affiliate links automatically.
I couldn’t find any plugin which would display different text depending on the country someone is visiting my site from. So it may would be a great plugin to develop.
Daniel
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This is way too better than Google Adsense. I am concentrating on affiliate programs now after my Adsense was disabled. I just don’t know how to get started. Linking affiliate on post content is something new to me.
Your earnings is giving me a thought to quit my job.
Marlene´s last blog ..The Distance To The Moon
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@Marlene,
It’s all about the context in which you link. If your blog is about something unrelated to the products you promote and you try to link articles in context then you’ll end up hurting your blog.
Just do lots of testing to further improve your earnings.
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Try to create landing page as me http://www.storeassociates.com I’m using AOM, easy site management for Amazon.
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@f10key
Isn’t the link on the side that says “in association with Amazon” a violation of their TOS though?
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Hi Chris,
thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving your very valuable comment about my blog post on the Amazon Affiliate Program – that’s exactly why I put the post up, so that others can tell me and my readers about their experience with Amazon. I have read your post with great care and will try to implement some of your strategies on my site. Thank you so much for helping others with their earnings…
Petra Weiss´s last blog ..Amazon Affiliate Program – Is It Worth It?
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I really agree that November and December are the most great time to sell trough affiliate. It is because there are many crazy discount and plus people tend to spend their bonus in that time.
Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..4 Things That Slow Down My Blogging and The Solutions
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@Petra,
Thanks for stopping by. I was glad I stumbled upon your blog and surprised at how perfectly timed that post was. One of my best strengths and biggest earners is Amazon’s Affiliate program, so I was happy to share the link / some advice
@Dana
Yes this is also because people are always buying around that time and if you’re the one to remind them “Oh, I need to go buy this for my cousin Tim” they click through your link and bam you get paid out.
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Hi Chris,
I read your post with great interest. It is really helpful and I’m glad to have found it.
I have only a couple of Amazon links on my blog and have been wondering what is the right approach to working with that affiliate program.
It is very generous of you to share all the tips.
I look forward to reading your follow up post to this.
Thank you,
Vance
Vance Sova´s last blog ..MAKE MONEY BLOGGING, A New Daniel Scocco’s Ebook Review
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The topic of the blog is a big focus. Amazon doesn’t work well on blogs in this niche because readers are so aware of affiliate links and for whatever reason don’t like to click on them so I prefer to stick to blogs where advertising products is a natural fit.
Chris
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You are right I think.
Everybody in IM niche seems to say that virtually nobody clicks on their Adsense either if they have it on their blog.
I put a few Amazon links in the Extraordinary Minds League post because the people it refers to authored some great books.
Vance
Vance Sova´s last blog ..53 Extraordinary Minds League, Rich Schefren, Jay Abraham
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Literally blew me away I had considered Amazon a dead duck. No longer thanks for the strategy, now all I have to do is implement it. Most pf my posts are personal development related to books I have bought from Amazon so I have wondered why I have been struggling now I know why. Thanks for sharing.
Andrew Peel´s last blog ..Ways To Earn Extra Money No. 2
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Thanks for the input Andrew. Yes, it is very important to have the right type of traffic before even bothering to push Amazon’s affiliate program.
I have plenty more to share so stay tuned.
Chris
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[...] back up under a new domain name – Make Money on the Internet – and have been sharing my successes and failures while earning a living on the internet ever [...]
[...] The best example of this is Amazon.com’s Associates Program. In fact this was one of my biggest earners in 2009 at over $40,000 in commissions. You could also choose to create your own affiliate program if you really wanted [...]
Hi there Chris!
First time visitor to your blog here.
I just wanted to commend you on this article and some of the tips that you provided.
I specialize in building niche website, but as of last year I began to build them full-time for myself as well. Currently I make a great deal of money via CJ and other CPA advertisements, but I’m slowly inching into Amazon Associates. My earning are nothing to write home about, but I’ll certainly consider do utilize AA as a supplement to some of the niche websites that I build.
Once I finish with my ePN case study, I’ll certainly be looking to getting a little more involved with Amazon Associates.
Great tips nonetheless.
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Hello Yolanda,
I’m glad you found me
the more time you spend with Amazon the more impressed you’ll be I hope. I think CJ is ok, but their payout percentages are much lower than Amazon’s I’ve found and in general are more of a pain to implement.
Then again they do offer a longer cookie duration than Amazon, so it’s a matter of determining where visitors are at in the shopping cycle before deciding on which will work best. In either case, testing is crucial.
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Thank Chris for the helpful hints and tips.
I’m in the middle if my second month with Amazon and things are looking good. I’m one of the few lucky people to have a mentor and with his help and knowledge I’m doing pretty good with Amazon, I’m even able to work only part-time now since Amazon is starting to pay some of my bills
.
I know that each niche performs differently and obviously Dec. is a hot month for sales. I’m asking you what the rest of the year looks like though. What are the particularly slow months for sales? I feel that we may be in them right now since the weather is getting nice and people are outside more now. To make your answer simple for me would you mind telling me your opinion for sales during say Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. You could just give a rating to each one.
I’m just trying to prepare both mentally and financially for slow periods.
Thanks,
Mark
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Thx Chris. I will be using 3 and 5.
ProMovieBlogger´s last blog ..How to Set Up a Movie Website Sidebar: For Profit
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Hi Chris thanks for share..Actually I am planning to start my own movie blog. Is it possible to earn some good bucks through Amazon and other affiliates. I need your guidance to be good at Making money in Online..
Thanks for sharing
Manikandan´s last blog ..SEO Elite – Best SEO software for sale
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 2nd, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Movie blogs are tough because the niche is over saturated in my opinion.
i.e. if I search for any movie review the top 5 results are all movie review aggregation sites (for the most part) and they are all sites that have been around for YEARS like Rotten Tomatoes
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ProMovieBlogger Reply:
May 9th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
I know. That’s why my niche is a “How To” movie website. Far less saturation.
ProMovieBlogger´s last blog ..ProMovieBlogger featured on Under30CEO
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It’s amazing. I always heard that it was difficult to earn money with Amazon as an affiliate. And I didn’t even know that cookies where only for 24H.
You seem to be one of the rare who know how to make amazon work.
Best,
Franck
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I just some smartphone products on my blog,but no deal in the past months, It’s hard, any tips for me,thanks!
idigital´s last blog ..Acer Liquid Reviews, Specs, Price, Accessories…
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Thanks Chris, fantastic points about amazon marketing. I was wondering how effective having sites reviewing books would be regarding amazon. I like reviewing books, but the amazon commission on books sales is low because they are relatively low cost. Would it be worth doing anyway to get people onto the amazon site once they are there, they may buy higher value items?
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Hey Tari,
I think review type posts do pretty well and yes one of my strategies is to simply get people onto Amazon so that they buy various items they had in mind – so yes you’ve got a good idea there. It depends on what the relevance of the book reviews would be to your overall website focus though. If they’re not very relevant than you won’t probably earn much, but if your website is about book reviews or discusses books it can be good.
Chris
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This is awesome Chris and brings to mind another blog I read where the bloggers are making a huge monthly sum. Just shows despite the low commission the money can be great if you do it right. Thanks for the tips!
Work at Home Money´s last blog ..Free eBook! PAYDAY – Top Ways To Make $100 or More Online!
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BTW do you have a minimum price point you work with ie the price at Amazon has to be at least X amount?
And what do you think of using Review plug ins so long as you add a lot more to it so it is not duplicate content.
Work at Home Money´s last blog ..Free eBook! PAYDAY – Top Ways To Make $100 or More Online!
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
I like to work with anything $50 or more although I do have one website that I recently converted from strictly Adsense over to Amazon and the products on that site range from just $5 to $50 so we’ll see how that goes and perhaps my perspective will change.
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Hey Chris,
Amazing post full of really informative stuff. Just curious as to how much traffic your sites are averaging each month?
Also, any SEO or site promotion tips you have would be greatly appreciated.
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Hey Chris,
Great post. I just started Amazon Affiliates a couple weeks ago with 1 site http://MensShoesOnline.net
I went with the Endless.com program as the 15% commission was seductive – have you experimented with Endless? I’ve made 115$ in the past 2 weeks, not much at all.
I’m going to get people onto the main Amazon site now I think – the Endless upsell process is hardly there…
Nick´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 10:27 am
I haven’t tried Endless.com before actually but a 15% commission does sound nice of course
with the Mens shoe site I would recommend you target a specific keyword and try and get some traffic coming in.
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Hi Chris… First time here… Pretty impressed with your blog and the amount of HQ stuff you share. Thanks…
If you don’t mind me asking, how do you set up your sites?
You mention that you have around 10 sites and that a few of these are bringing in the big $$$.
My guess is that they are “authority” blogs, with a ton of content on them, is that right?
So, do you have a website that covers a large area of niches or how do you do it?
Thanks
Isak´s last blog ..POST#10 – Backlinks
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 6th, 2010 at 10:28 am
No, I prefer to pick one specific niche where I know based on my track record that I can come in and take over / dominate the top search results and yes there is a lot of content on them. I spend most of my day writing, I need to start outsourcing stuff though soon…
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Hey Chris,
Thanks so much for this. I found you via the Warrior Forum.
I created my first Amazon Associates blog just recently and it’s very inspiring to see the potential. I’m planning to have 7 or 8 blogs altogether.
The multiple Amazon IDs makes sense. It’s not something I’d thought of doing so I’ll be implementing that.
Thanks again for sharing.
Matt
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Absolutely fantastic and hats off to you.
I use Amazon Affiliates on one of my blogs, it fits very well with the subject because I talk about equipment. To date I’ve made roughly $350 which isn’t to shabby since I was going to just use normal links in the first place.
I’d like to optimize it more but it’s not on the top of my list at the moment as I’m working on a few side projects.
Murlu´s last blog ..My 3 Favorite Ways To Make Money Online
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I am a member of Amazon affiliates but never thought that I can earn this much. I will use these tips and lets see what happens.
Best tip I liked is putting link in image.
Pankaj´s last blog ..The Important Things to Consider When List Building
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Hi Chris… This is a very valuable post….
I’ve just made a few amazon niche sites myself and the stuff about the tracking ID’s is something I’ll put to use right away…
Is there an easier way to set up multiple tracking ID’s (like with clickbank) or do you have to create each and everyone?
I think that many people will find it “to hard” to set up so many different tracking ID, but then regret they didn’t when the first few sales starts to come in (that’s how I felt when I started doing CB sales
)
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Hey Chris,
Great post! I’ve got a few questions about your setup. Do your “money-making” Amazon blogs focus on ONE keyword or are they larger niche sites that focus more broadly on a niche (like “popcorn machines” instead of “stove top metal popcorn machines”)? Also, do you use any type of keyword research software for your blogs and articles (like Market Samurai or MicroNicheFinder)?
Have you considered an ebook or video course on how you set up your sites? Seems like it could be popular (maybe a WSO).
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 11th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Hey Larry,
It depends. I have sites that do both very specific and general and adjust my effort on them appropriately. I have Market Samurai but never really tried using it much (just got it recently). I don’t really use much software unless I’m given it freely by the creator.
lol I always just ask for stuff and people generally give it to me.
I have thought about a product potentially, but I’m not sure how many I could really sell based on the amount of traffic I get to my site right now. How much do people make from Warrior Special Offers? What would you price a product like this at? (Say I went the video course route)
[Reply]
Isak Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 4:38 am
Hi Chris…
Given the amount of interest your thread at WF is getting, I’m pretty sure you could make a decent no. of sales with a WSO.
However, I don’t think you could price it much higher than $20-$30… but you could use the WSO to get some feedback and then do a full blown (google-sniper-like) launch where you charge at least $77 for a video course…
I for one really hope you’d do it. It could be nice to see something new
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hey Isak,
Alright I’ll consider it. If I do it, I will be mentioning it first here on this blog so feel free to make sure you subscribe
Isak Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Cool…
And I’m subscribed to feed, comments, newsletter and everything, hehe
Superb tips! I’m gonna do this one now: “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.”
I normally write product reviews, put photos/images and put the Amazon ad at the bottom of the post. Guess I should put a link to my product photos as well
Michael Aulia @CravingTech.com´s last blog ..LG X300 to MacBook Air: Almost as thin as you!
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Yes you need to give the most possible opportunities to provide a visitor to buy the product through your link. If it’s hard for them to find it they may just search elsewhere for the information.
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and I was about to abandon amazon associates, nice to see people actually make money from it..will soon try these strategies…thanks!
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Hi Chris:
Thank for the tips and information. I created a few blogs & squidoo lens using Amazon products, but in the beginning it was really more about creating backlinks for my niche sites. Of course after I started making a little money from the Amazon Affiliates program, it made backlinks a lot more enjoyable.
Portable Car Seat´s last blog ..Infant Car Seats: What to Look for in Rear Facing Car Seats
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Chris,
I’m very much enjoying your advice and blog. I’m new to this and it is refreshing to find straight IM talk without all the sales mumbo jumbo.
Quick question: I had wanted to start with Amazon, however because of the state I live in, I’m not able to be an Amazon affiliate. I know you can get around that with a Squidoo lens and share the commission, but any ideas on how I might get around it with niche blogging and still use Amazon?
Thank you again for your insight!
Jeanne
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 15th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Hey Jeanne,
About the only thing I could think of is that you’d have to open a business in another state somehow and then you’d need to legally structure it so that you had an agent “in charge of it”
That said I still don’t think that would be worth the effort.
Are you in Colorado or something? Another option is to harass your law makers and try to get them to adjust or repeal the law as well.
[Reply]
Jeanne Reply:
May 15th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Hi Chris,
North Carolina. Anyone else have this problem?
Thank you,
Jeanne
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Hi,
Thank you for a great post with many good guidelines. I have a quick question. How did you make the “amazon ad image” on point 5? Can I find it under links and banners or the widgets tab? The closest thing I can find is the enhanced display under links. Did you create the image yourself? I feel really stupid, I can’t even figure at the amazon affiliate site… LOL
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Just put the link code before the image and close the link code after the img code. Search W3 Schools on linking images if you’re still having issues. It’s not something Amazon offers. You need to manually do it.
[Reply]
M.B. Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 6:56 am
Thank you for your quick answer. I have figured it out now and I must say your tips are working great. I get at least “clicks”…
I get over 50% of my visitors from the US and 25% from Canada, and I wondered what is the best way to add both the Canadian and the US affiliate links to my wordpress blog? Is it an easy and quick solution to this problem?
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 11:35 am
Sadly I don’t think there is. Is your account set up via US or Canada? Send me an email via the contact form and we’ll discuss there in more detail.
Chris
re localising amazon links to send people to their own store, i spotted this
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/amazon-affiliate-link-localizer/
if anyone gets success, could they post a comment
jules
jules´s last blog ..Flip Video Neoprene Soft Pouch
[Reply]
M.B. Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 2:54 am
This might me the solution to my problem… Anybody tried it yet?
[Reply]
Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 10:31 am
Nope, you should try it out (most of my traffic is from the US so there isn’t much of a reason for me to try). Let us know how it works out. (perhaps it could be a potential guest post?)
[Reply]
M.B. Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:30 am
Will try it out, and report back in a week or so.
M.B. Reply:
June 5th, 2010 at 5:53 am
I have now tested the Amazon affiliate link localizer and I am not impressed. 6/8 the plugin sent the visitors to a site on another amazon.xx-site that didn’t exist. For this plugin to work you need to have a niche with product(s) that are identical all over the world and have the same “product-name/number” on all amazon.xx-sites. The plugin might work better for you and your niche, I only tested it on one niche/site.
question for chris, when you say ad tracking ids, do you track every single text link etc on every post to know what links is working or is it more just to know which site is doing best?
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 10:33 am
I do it on a link by link basis in the beginning and as I noticed trends on what was working and what wasn’t I roll everything into one link code moving forward. It’s just all about testing and of course it’s not really worth doing this on sites that don’t get enough traffic.
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Hi chris,
I have read your post and have been creating amazon sites so far but without much success. But have now followed what you have outlined above the placement of links to get to amazon. lets see how things work out for me.
Also, wanted to ask, whether you do all the affiliate links to amazon manually or have you got some automated solutions. Have seen one of your big traffic sites and there are tones of links ( especially with different ids for image and text links ) i am also experimenting with the star ratings given by people by including it in the post but doing one product takes me around minutes and with dozens of products to promote and adding content, its a big pain.
Have you come across an automated solution for doing all these tasks except the plugins ( which i do not like )
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:01 am
I do the links by hand using Amazon’s site stripe bar and/or PHPzon. I just do what would look best to a reader while at the same time converting.
I’m not aware of any automated solutions other than the Amazon plugins unfortunately.
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This was very helpful. I am preparing a website for my kids and Amazon is going to be one of their affiliate programs that they are going to incorporate to monetize there website.
Do you have an Amazon Associate e-book or consulting program to help us have a “Very Merry Christman” ? I totally agree with you on the best time to make money is during the holidays. We are preparing now for a couple of miracles this X-mas.
Thanks again,
Elon Bomani
http://www.makerealmoneyonlinekids.com
http://www.bakuganbattledimensions.com
Dr. Elon Bomani´s last blog ..Facebook Is Dominating Google
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:04 am
Hello Dr. Elon, I haven’t put together an Amazon e-book or consulting program but I’m constantly asked to so who knows perhaps I will? If I do I will launch it before the holidays so you have time to implement my strategies for sure
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