Amazon Affiliate Program – Is It Worth It?
Amazon Affiliate Program
Most of us would have heard of the Amazon Affiliate Program, maybe you have even joined it and are trying to make some money with it. That’s what we Affiliate Marketers are here for, after all! 😉 And the Amazon Affiliate Program is one of the biggest and most well known affiliate programs out there, next to EBay Partnernetwork, Clickbank, LinkShare and so on.
The question when joining any affiliate program is always, will it be worth it to do so? Or will I be wasting my time? Well, I will tell you my story and let you decide!
My first Amazon check
First I want to tell you what brought on this post: I received my first check from Amazon in the mail yesterday!!! It was a great feeling, mixed with a bit of a let down, because to bank the check here in Australia it will cost me around $15 AUD, and that hurts, especially because the check is “only” $212.09 USD (The US Dollar and the Australian Dollar are very close in value at the moment).
So, after my excitement had died down a little, I had a look at the facts of how I had been going with the Amazon Affiliate Program, and then I thought I would let you know about it. So if you are thinking about Amazon, you have a little bit more to go on.
Here are some facts about the Amazon Affiliate Program:
- The regular referral fee for products from Amazon is 4%. This goes up to 6% after 7 referral sales in a month, and up to 6.5% after 31 sold products. Then to 7% when you have sold 111 products and so on….
- you can advertise via links & banners, widgets and even a so-called “a-store” which is a complete store you can develop to sell products. Have a look at the store I built for my Beach Decor website: Beach Decor Amazon Store You can either integrate the store into your website or you have a stand alone store. Their widgets are great, you can choose between many different ones to suit your site. I personally like the Carousel Widget very much (again, some samples on another site of mine: Mens Casio Watches)
- There are a few programs within Amazon where you can earn higher referral fees than 4%, like up to 15% with Endless.com (Shoes and Accessories), or 10% for Kindle, I think.
- The Amazon Affiliate Program pays its affiliates in several ways (and you can choose):
- get paid via Amazon gift card/certificate
- get paid via direct deposit (only if your bank account is in the United States)
- get paid by check
I started out with my Beach Website in February 2008. The site is built around an Amazon Store. The major goal of any website, and especially an affiliate site, is always to get traffic, because the more traffic the more sales, right? So it took quite a few months to get my site up and getting a few customers every day. Which means my earnings weren’t great at all at the beginning. I had months were I earned nothing at all, and others where I made $3, or $6. This started increasing over time, but it fluctuated greatly.
I had to elect to be paid via check – well, I didn’t have another option, as I am an Australian associate and have my bank account here. So I have to cop the steep bank fee here to deposit a foreign check. That’s why I set my minimum payment threshold at $200 USD, so it wouldn’t hurt so much.
Well – it has taken 2 years (2 YEARS!!!) for me to get paid my first check from Amazon. Quite unbelievable, isn’t it? My Beach website is on page 1 on Google for several of my keywords, so I get a fair amount of traffic, and it still took 2 years. That is an incredible amount of time.
I will keep going with my sites and the stores there, because they are now making me a little bit of money every month without having to do much any more, but when I think about the time that went into building these stores and updating them etc,… I have to question whether this is really worth it.
So here are a few things I want to point out and put up for comments:
- They are one of the biggest affiliate programs available. Shouldn’t it be possible for them to offer their affiliates to be paid via PayPal, or even offer international associates (and there are bound to be many of them!) to be paid via direct bank deposit? I am with other affiliate programs where this has never been a problem, why isn’t it available here?
- The referral fee is, in my opinion, extremely low. Sure, if you are selling bigger ticket items you might actually make some more money, but if you are selling just “normal” stuff like I do, then you are not going to make a lot of money even if you sell 30, or 100 products! And let me tell you, it takes a lot of visitors to make some sales.
- They do offer some of the best advertising tools around, and make it extremely easy to incorporate them into any website.
- Your best bet with this program seems to be to have a website that gets many, many visitors and sells products that are highly priced, like cameras for example. You could possibly be earning quite a few dollars a month. But it might be quite a lot of work to get there.
- Selling lower priced items won’t make you rich, it might not even buy you a coffee sometimes. This will turn out to be more of a hobby than a business.
So, there you have it. That’s my take on the Amazon Affiliate Program. I like the tools they offer their associates, and I like the fact that they are well established and known. I don’t like that we only get the smallest of percentages, and that they are so backwards with their payment structure.
I would love to hear of your successes or failures with Amazon, and what you think about their affiliate program. Leave a comment! – [28 March 2012 Sorry, guys, I have closed the comments now, it was just getting too much. You can always contact me via my email.]
Over and out – have to go and deposit my check! 😉
P.S. This post has been optimized for the 3 word keyword phrase xxx – I hope you can guess it! It came up with flying colors when I checked it in Micro Niche Finder so hopefully whenever somebody searches for xxx this post might eventually come up on Page 1 or thereabouts… just to let you know that I always try to optimize my posts for a keyword, and so should you! 🙂
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- Blog Commenting [Ultimate Guide] | August 4, 2010
I love Amazon because a) it’s a well known site that people trust, and b) when they buy multiple items you earn commission on their entire order. This is especially good during the pre-Christmas shopping season…
(Amazon works especially well with Squidoo)
🙂
I have to agree. While there are others, no one’s built up the level of trust and experience as Amazon, so don’t think one can go wrong with them. Also, in recent years, they’ve spread their distribution to far many more places than most of its competition. That’s another edge that they seem to have.
Till then,
Jean
It just can convert so many visitors, Amazon will always have some of the best prices and wide range of products.
Have you checked out finding holiday providers on commission junction to better monetize the traffic. Get some split testing software run and flip out the amazon ads with a holiday offer that pays more and see what happens.
Hey Petra,
What keywords are you ranking for? Are they keywords related to people that are looking to BUY? You have to remember that with Amazon’s affiliate program the cookie only lasts 24 hours so you really need to try and catch people just before a purchase decision.
I actually made over $40k with Amazon’s affiliate program in 2009 and I shared an article about my best and worst tips for making money with it. Check it out and let me know what you think:
http://www.makemoneyontheinternet.com/top-7-tips-to-make-more-money-with-amazon-associates/
Hope that helps 🙂
Chris Guthrie
.-= Chris Guthrie@Make Money on the Internet´s last blog ..phpZon Pro Plugin Review and Contest Giveaway =-.
Hey Chris, I went over to your blog and read your post, thank you so much for so many great tips! And congrats on you fantastic success – you have got it right! I will obviously have to change a few things I am doing… I will try and implement some of your suggestions.
BTW, I am ranking for keyword phrases like “Beach Decor”, “Beach Theme Home Decor”, “Gecko Decor” etc, and would have thought that people looking for these things are looking to buy. But they are probably not specific enough yet, they are just browsing….. Could you supply us with a few of your site’s URL’s at all so we can see what your blogs really look like, or is that too much to ask? 😉 I would understand if not…
Hey Petra,
I rarely disclose the URL’s I use, but one trick is to research the keyword phrases as to how often they’re searched. Funnily enough (not sure if that’s a word lol) but I just posted an article about doing this a few days ago and you should be able to see it via the link below.
Let me know how your phrases turn out via those tools I posted.
Chris
.-= Chris Guthrie@Make Money on the Internet´s last blog ..How to research and buy keyword domain names =-.
I’ve used amazon for its affiliate program and it’s proven to be more rewarding that putting adsense all over the place. Although I don’t make very much a month ($10-$20), it is still nice to get a check every few months. It’s like a present when it shows up.
I have had two Amazon stores (on two separate sites) since early 2008 and to date I have not made enough for a payout – I’m about half way there. The referral fee is so low, it drives me crazy. I get a lot of traffic and my sites have the potential for high-end items, but the items offered through Amazon in my niche are lower end and therefore lower priced. I utilize a few widgets on other websites, but again the same issue. Amazon is my least favorite affiliate program due to their low referral fees, but still worth it. After all, any earning in excess of my expenses is worth it.
Petra, does your Australian bank have a U.S. affiliate or partner? If not, have you investigated an ebank account in the US for direct deposit from Amazon and others? You could leave the funds there until really need them. Or could use the funds to support your sites in US funds, likely monthly fees, etc.
Just a thought or two.
Bill
Bill, that’s a good thought. I will have to think this over. Thanks!
Hi Petra
I had seen a post on Amazon Affiliate and was beginning to think about it.
Good to get the info from someone who has been there and done it.
As you say two years is a long time, so maybe I’ll think again.
Any posts planned on affiliates that might be more profitable?
.-= Keith Davis@public speaking´s last blog ..A helping hand… =-.
Keith, if you look up a little, there is a guy named “Chris” who is very successful with Amazon.com, I think you should maybe also head to his blog and read what he has to say as how he does it.
For me, the best program at the moment has to be Google Adsense. I make the most money per month with it. Ebay used to be very good but they have done something to their earnings, quite a lot of Affiliates seem to have been hit, and my earnings have dropped considerably (by 2/3rds) in the last three months, compared to what it was towards the end of last year. I have signed up for an Affiliate Program through Art.com just recently, promoting posters and art prints through my Beach Decor website, and I am very happy with it right now – they offer 20% commission which is fantastic, and I have made a few sales already. But obviously this program will only suit certain niches.
Petra
Thanks for sharing all that.
Much appreciated.
.-= Keith Davis@public speaking´s last blog ..A helping hand… =-.
Please tell us the secret of such huge amount. Love to see such amount with out doing any hard work.
@Petra: I am not the ‘successful’ Chris 😉 I have tried my hands with Amazon affiliate program, but at 4% (I sold 4 or 5 products before I gave up), you can’t make much unless you are selling LCD TVs or stuff like that. I am concentrating on adsense, clickbank and individual affiliate programs nowadays.
.-= Chris@Traffic Ultimatum Review´s last blog ..Traffic Ultimatum Module One =-.
That’s what I am doing – but as I said I keep running Amazon on my sites, at this point in time it makes me anything between $10 and $30/month and I don’t have much work with it any more.
I have been an Amazon Affiliate for ages and have earned – zero. I buy self development books from them. I often do Blog posts related to the book and the books and in a Gallery widget with a mini-review on my Blog.
I also feel integration into PayPal would be a massive help I am GB based and would have to pay £25 to cash a US Check – more than most commissions.
I am considering setting up a store because I buy Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books from them and having a common connection may entice them on to other parts of my Blog. That’s where Internal Linking is key.
So you have inspired me to re-examine my approach and give it another go. Great info and thanks.
Petra,
Thanks for writing this post because while the above users seem to have experience with the Amazon Affiliate Program, this guy has NONE! I didn’t know that’s what affiliate programs were, and if I HAD known in the past, I might have some extra income from it right now. Now that I’ve been learning about SEO and keywords, I might be interested in setting up something like this. I’ve always wanted to have my own “online business”, and after trying things like eBay stores, Amazon Affiliate Programs seem like the way to go for me! I will have to read the info on it, and also some of the above blogs. Thank you for opening my eyes O.O
greenlants
P.S. You live in Australia, AWESOME 😀
greenlants, – pleasure! Yes, Australia is beautiful, but I am still homesick for Germany…. 🙁
I also like amazon affiliate program. I think it is a better way to make money online.
I use to use the Amazon affiliate program and my affiliate links within my ebooks as complimentary products.
As you have noted it took forever to make any reasonable amount of money. There are other programs out there that have a much better affiliate payout structure.
My opinion is Amazon should revamp their affiliate payout commission structure and take care of the affiliates. After all affiliate are responsible for a great amount of the sales made.
Petra,
Thanks for sharing your stories as an Amazon Affiliate. I love the Amazon program and feel that it offers just rewards for just efforts.
It is highly competitive and success takes quite a bit of time–typically not overnight, but overtime it is worth it.
Richard
.-= Richard@How To Videos´s last blog ..How To Make Money On Amazon With the Amazon Affiliate Program =-.
Richard, thanks for your input. I will head over to your blog and have a good read of your post about Amazon!:)
I was doing affilliate marketing from 2004 to 2008. This was mainly for infomercial products as well as some health and sports products. I used 3 programs, Commission Junction, Linkshare and Amazon Affilliate.
1. CJ was good for the first 2 years, then they became unreliable and lost trust by forcing javascript instead of the plain links earlier.
2. Linkshare was steady right through and my most successful partner.
3. Amazon was the lowest but it was probably not the right one for the kind of products offered.
.-= Jane@Website Design Irvine´s last blog ..How you can contribute to your website SEO project =-.
Jane, thanks for sharing your experience!
In my opinion the Amazon affiliate program is great for those who are blogging in very specific niches, such as Colman Grills, or… I can’t think of another example right now but you get the picture lol.
.-= Scott@ Forex Robot´s last blog ..Compare Forex Trading Software =-.
Petra, personally I would give amazon a miss unless you have a really high traffic blog that is difficult to monetize. Personally I would go for something with much higher margins such as a click bank product.
.-= Richard@Debt problems´s last blog ..Debt help: Scottish homes ‘missing out’ on cold weather payments =-.
I am glad to see I am not the only one with weak earnings from them. I have had people read my book reviews and then order a used book. It earned me 3 cents.
.-= Ned@RE Investing´s last blog ..Today’s Quote =-.
Ned, 3 cents!!! 🙁 That’s so low it could be funny if it weren’t so sad….
I find Amazon conversion rate to be extremely low. It’s nothing comparing to Ebay Partner Network.
While EPN is better, these days it’s almost impossible to get approved by them.
.-= toni@glass NY´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Paypal thing–just what is preventing them from making this option available? All of the other stores I go to use Paypal, Amazon storeowners use Paypal, eBay uses Paypal. Why can’t they pay through Paypal?
.-= Ben@Blue Laptop´s last blog ..Blue Laptops =-.
I do make some money with the Amazon referral / affiliate program but imho their cookie lifespan of only 24h is simply to short. Generally targeted recommendations of products in blog posts and comments work best for me and a-stores / banners etc don’t work at all for me, just my 2 cents, SY
.-= hospitalera@geld online verdienen´s last blog ..Geld verdienen mit surfen =-.
I have never used amazon for its affiliate program but I have heard from many that it’s credible and more rewarding than putting advertisements all over the place. Anyone who is in the affiliate program would certainly be happy to receive those payments from time to time, provided the program really works. I might even change my mind and join the program after reading these reviews. Thanks for the information.
I used amazon affiliate program before but i removed it quickly. it is good for some but not for me.
.-= migraine causes´s last blog ..Triggers which cause Migraine Headache =-.
Hey,
It took me 5 months to reach 111$ (today actually). I guess I’m one of the luckier ones, but I worked and still do like crazy with my blog. I’m loving every second of it.
I have a question for you. When you reach 100$+, does Amazon automatically send you a check at the end of the month, or you have to press a button, or write something somewhere? Do I just look at my money stats and one day all of a sudden, I’ll get my check (in ~2 months)?
Thanks and good luck with Amazon and your site 😉
.-= Chio´s last blog ..Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM =-.
Chio, once you reach the threshold you have set in your account, Amazon will automatically send you a check in the mail.
Does Amazon still take 2 months to send a check? Most other affiliate programs send it at the end of the following month.
Hi Petra, I have to agree with the first Chris, Amazon is great when you target a niche where people want to “buy now”. Something like “last minute gifts for …” or similar. One person I know of that has a lot of success with his astore is Darren from “Digital Photography School”, his astore has even a page rank of 4 😉 Have a look at his site to see how he implements amazon products into his site content seamlessly. Another great example on to learn “how they do it” 😉 SY
PS He is the same guy that is also known as “problogger”!
.-= hospitalera@home garden pets´s last blog ..Improvements on Ceramic Sinks =-.
Hi SY, thanks so much for pointing me in Darren’s direction! I have had a quick glance at his blog (I am about to dash out to a “fairy birthday party” for 6 year olds with my daughter), and I can see how clever he has incorporated Amazon products into his store. Will study it a bit more later on! 🙂
I wanted to use amazon affiliateprogram in a few month, but when I read, that you had to wait 2 years for your first sales…this really makes me think. Even though you had #1 positions on google this is really surprising for me, that you couldn’t make more money much earlier.
But maybe it was just the wrong niche? Maybe amazon doesn’t work with all niches.
.-= Strompreisvergleich´s last blog ..Strompreisvergleich starten und Stromanbieter wechseln =-.
I think the problem with my site is that most items do not cost very much, so a 4% payout is usually very small. Also, I have to get the people to click through to my Amazon store, and then browse and buy, which might make it a little hard at times.
Well, I’ve using Amazon Affiliate Program too, and so far I did not receive any checks yet. But I’m hoping that will come since this is the affiliate program most of my friends uses after all. They trust this program, so do I? And, I am new to this thing as well. Thank you for sharing this information, now I have idea.
.-= jessie@automated forex trading robots´s last blog ..Contact Us =-.
Good review, Petra! One tip that I would add is that the Amazon Affiliate program (there’s another keyword repetition for you 😉 tends to work really well around Christmas time — even though Amazon’s commissions are small, people tend to be buying a lot of gifts at the same time, so if you can get them to click through your site you can end up getting credit for a lot of purchases!
.-= Matt@Making Money Online´s last blog ..Work Less, Earn More. Using the 80/20 Rule to Increase Productivity and Profit! =-.
Hi Petra
Is there any other way to make money from recommending books?
For many of my articles, I use various books as references. I always credit these books at the end of the article.
I had the thought that I could recommend the books in the body of the article and provide a link. Unfortunately that link would have to be to Amazon so I’m back to the Amazon Affiliate Program!
Any other ideas?
.-= Keith Davis@public speaking´s last blog ..Flying in formation =-.
Keith, there is a good affiliate program called “Clickbank” which is selling ebooks. You can earn quite a sizable amount on the sale of each book, just have a look whether you can find any that would fit with your topic: https://www.clickbank.com/promote_products.html
Thanks Petra
Appreciate your reply and will do.
Does this mean that you are back on line or are you sitting in the local cyber cafe. LOL
.-= Keith Davis@public speaking´s last blog ..Flying in formation =-.
I still use amazon for a lot of my niche sites. But recently I started moving more to affiliate programs in commission junction I find I’m having better results in general. I have personally moved almost completely away from clickbank unless it’s a IM promotion.
If not what I sometimes do Is provide a free report and have the affiliate links that are pointing to a clickbank product but that’s usually on my weight loss sites.
.-= Mario @ Halloween Super Affiliate´s last blog ..Halloween Super Affiliate – How To Make Money With Halloween Niche =-.
I am a member of quit a few affiliate programs, and I must say the I find Amazon the easiest and most convent program to navigate. They give affiliates a lot of choose in how one uses their products. To promote the commission may be low in comparison to other affiliate programs but the name Amazon does sell when you stay with them. I am happy to be an affiliate for Amazon.
the biggest thing that puts me off amazon is the low commissions they offer. I use clickbank and CJ for most of my sites.
.-= peter@cna training´s last undefined ..Response cached until Thu 13 @ 11:49 GMT (Refreshes in 23.83 Hours) =-.
Congratulations on receiving your first check. It sounds like the rules are a bit more restrictive in Australia. Though it took awhile to get your first check, they will come more often with bigger numbers now that your sites are getting more traffic!
.-= Richard Cummings´s last blog ..MONEYMAKERINFO.BLOGSPOT.COM: Blogger Account Disabled Then Re-enabled Causes Frenzy =-.
I agree with what you say and the only up-side I can think of is that it costs nothing to run Amazon store, so except for the opportunity cost of what else could be up on your site, there is no cost.
.-= David Bennett@Quillcards Ecards´s last blog ..Watching The Sadhus =-.
I’ve slowly, but steadily, been building small niche websites that focus on products from Amazon and take advantage of Amazon aStore. Melissa and Doug Puppets is one such site, along with Popular Video Games and Small Bathroom Vanities. For this year alone, I’ve already made over $200 in affiliate commissions and adsense earnings at Small Bathroom Vanities – not bad for the cost of a domain name and hosting. And the cost of hosting becomes less of a cost burden with all of the additional sites you build!
I’m actually going through setting up a few different sites that are only going to be monetized with Amazon. There are certain benefits to Amazon such as a well-known website and added items on purchases and then there are negatives as well such as low commission and short cookie span. I definitely think you have to choose higher priced items if you want to make decent money from Amazon.
I think that certain programs will always work better for some people. Some people absolutely love clickbank while others can’t stand it. I think ever marketing needs to look at their own marketing plans and style and see if it would be a good fit for them!
.-= Tiffany @ passive income opportunities´s last blog ..How I Choose Amazon Products to Promote on a Niche Website =-.
Is there any niche seriously available OTHER than teaching about internet marketing? NONE of the so called gurus ever disclose money making niches. They are all peddling how to get rich on the net!
Come on people, get real, show us where the money is.
i have just signed up with the amazon affiliate program and i am still not earning a good deal of cash from them.-`.
Honestly, I never earn anything from amazon yet.. Petra, Still no commission yet. At this particular time for CPA and adsense are the only money that I can make online succesfully. Clickbank is hard these day.
.-= zack@brother toner cartridges´s last blog ..The reason why Toner Cartridge should be change =-.
I heard about this, but until now I had second toots on doing it.
I believed that will eat my space on my blog for nothing. Maybe I will try it.
I’ve earned some money from Amazon, but I think this Affiliate programm isn’t so good, because:
1. Low commisions
2. Cookies are not lifetime
I would prefer to try earn money with Moreniche
.-= Slim Weight Patch´s last blog ..What Is A Celebrity Fad Diet? =-.
First off congradulations on that check. My first one was only 27 dollars.
I like Amazon, they have a decent click to purchase ratio. I have tried other affiliates that after about 2,000 clicks with not a single purchase and I was sending extremely targeted traffic I decided they are ripping people off.
But with Amazon you do get results and they are very easy to sign up with. Anyone can become an affiliate even with free blog sites like blogger.com.
.-= Paul@Project Payday Scam´s last blog ..Why Other Work From Home Sites Don’t Like Project Payday =-.
Hi Petra,
I one who thinks that Amazon is a waste of time.
Now I qualify that by saying only those who have already established themselves and gained a boat load of traffic would make out at the lower percentages they pay.
But as for me and others who may be at the beginning of their building period, I can think of other affiliate programs that pay more.
It takes a lot to build a business on the web, so as for me, I think I’ll take the low hanging fruit for now…maybe later.
Thanks for your experience,
Mike
.-= Mike Helton@list marketing´s last blog ..Building Relationships Through List Marketing =-.
Personally I have avoided the amazon affiliate program. To me it only makes sense to use amazon if there is no other affiliate program option for that niche. The 24 hour cookie time is brutal since others do 30-90 days. I would think for decor people need way more time than 1 day. There is almost always an affiliate program offering higher commission with better terms in any niche. It’s just a matter of finding the best ones to promote.
Fancy meeting you here ;-). I guess you’re legit so feel free to drop by with the “laptop briefcase”. You know what I mean 😉
P.S: @Petra sorry about this off topic comment 😉
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi@Make Money Online´s last blog ..Top 10 Google Products Every Blogger Needs =-.
Hi again, Udegbunam! No harm done… 😉 Haven’t been in contact for ages, sorry, been soooooo busy with everything but Internet marketing – after all, I am going to be a certified Bookkeeper in the (somewhat near) future….
Hmm! A bookkeeper you say. Which company do you have in mind?
Udegbunam Chukwudi recently posted…How To Sell A Blogger Blogspot Blog Without Hassles
Udegbunam, no company yet, ultimately I want to be self employed… I will probably even go on to accounting. 🙂
Ain’t nothing like being self-employed. Best of luck 😉
Udegbunam Chukwudi recently posted…Top 3 Dofollow WordPress Plug-ins For Dofollow Blogs
Hey Edegbunam. Yes I noticed you on some of the blogs I frequent lately. I’ll be sure to drop by soon. Do you have any experiences with the Amazon affiliate program?
I really don’t have any experience with them as I only tried them out for a month and quit despite being asked to try out their widget which supposedly converts better.
I was kinda scared it would slow down my blog.
Udegbunam Chukwudi recently posted…Top 3 Dofollow WordPress Plug-ins For Dofollow Blogs
The Amazon Affiliate Program is really great! I will start to use it on my new investment, the Cheap Carpet Cleaners site, where I want to put out really high quality information about stain cleaning and related.
I surely agree with you when you say that the advertiser feeds are extremely low, because they really are. But I think that, if I make a good work on my site, I can make a good money.
When I was browsing the affiliate tools I really got excited and will start to display the first ones as soon as possible!
Wish me luck! 😀
.-= John Bentley´s last blog ..The Best Cheap Carpet Cleaners Information =-.
This is an awesome post, and am very happy to have wandered across it – you really go into detail about your personal experience with Amazon’s program, and it is a hugely helpful story to hear. I’m thinking of monetizing through affiliate links at some point, and hearing about that generally in other blogs is kinda annoying. What I need to hear are specifics, even if the specifics won’t apply to my situation. What I need to hear is how real people actually go about doing something, and your post accomplished that. Bookmarked.
.-= ashok´s last blog ..“Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins =-.
After read this post you may have just convinced me into joining amazon’s affiliate program. I am making a substantial amount with other affiliate programs. However this one seems well structured and doable.
I signed up for their affilate program way back but have stopped promoting them as they don’t really convert on my site.
With this eye opener of such a low referral fee percentage, I ain’t so keen on joining back anytime soon.
P.S: It’s been quite a while. Hope life’s been treating you good 😉
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi@Make Money Online´s last blog ..Make Your Blog 10x Faster With W3 Total Cache Plug-in =-.
Hi Udegbunam, nice to hear from you again! Must drop by your site again soon…
Petra, I’m in Perth, WA and have been feeling quite similar disappointment about Amazon’s associate program. 7 or 8 years into it and I still haven’t reached the $100 payment threshold! I’ve been selling books but believe big earners are selling items like plasma TV sets. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve made hundreds of thousands selling digital, software products via ClickBank and via HD Publishing so I’m experienced. Everything depends on 1. Targeted Traffic; and 2. Conversion. Whatever you focus on tends to enlarge and improve, with feedback, so I’ve just neglected the Amazon neck of the woods. But it must take immense traffic to do well there. Supermarket level traffic?
.-= Geoff Dodd@Biz Software Club´s last blog ..Best Software for ClickBank Affiliates =-.
Hi Geoff, nice to meet a fellow Perth Internet Marketer! Makes me feel a little less alone…. 😉
Thanks for your input!
Yes Petra, this can be isolated work. I tend towards the niche of marketing-software because the demand is insatiable. But in 20 minutes I’ll be leaving the house (shock! phobia..) and going to joint venture with a ceramics import/export Co. doing their online marketing… help those clay brick ‘n mortar guys out! That’s where big money resides I say.. 🙂 GD. Perth
.-= Geoff Dodd@Biz Software Club´s last blog ..Best Software for ClickBank Affiliates =-.
Amazon affiliate program offers a unique home biz opportunity for entrepreneurs. Best of luck
.-= safety flooring´s last blog ..Why the Injury and Illness Prevention Program is Important =-.
To add to what safety flooring put, Amazon affiliate window provides many inexperienced / cash poor entrepreneurs with the chance to get the ball rolling on ecommerce. If you have no money to invest in stock yet you want to develop SEO / website skills, this would be a good place to start. Using Amazon affiliate will enable you to look at things like targetting searches, attaining and converting traffic – the fundamental principles of ecommerce planning, creation & implementation.
Hi Petra
I am in Adelaide and I whole heartedly share your frustration with receiving cheques in Australia. It can take upwards of 6 weeks to clear for me and thats after Amazon have processed my earnings 2 months later.
In other words it can take 3 or 4 months before you see the first cheque. However, once you start making a consistent income obviously the time between payments is more like a regular job.
It’s a pain in the you know what and I dont understand why Paypal or similar isnt an option but at the end of the day, money is money and the exchange rate works in our favour.
And yeah, there is only a 24 hour cookie so (as has been mentioned) you must get the customer LATE in the buying cycle. You can easily make a full time living if you know when to put yourself infront of the prospect. I’m not there yet but I’m close.
Also, some people mentioned that the commission rate is low. Well true, but this is partly because Amazon has to pay to have warehouses, pay for staff and pay for freight etc. Of course Clickbank has a higher rate because there is no cost involved in transporting a pdf file.
I dont wish to complain about commission rates and such, because you as an affiliate are leveraging the very Amazon brand and their product selection is massive. Furthermore they encourage repeat purchases and make it easy for affiliates to find the best selling products. Not to mention astore, widgets, banners etc.
Ive been selling lots of one particular product lately with the price point around 80-100 US. While the commission is about 6 or 7 bucks it all adds up especially if you can sell a few….
Ben, nice to meet another fellow Australian! Looks like I have to look into what kinds of items I sell through Amazon….You wouldn’t care to share one of your site’s URLs with us? – I understand if you don’t but it is always a great learning curve to have a look at successful sites and how they are structured. 🙂
Well its 1.30am but just found http://www.payoneer.com
Maybe something to look at? Not sure if I would want my money changing through so many hands though
The Amazon Affiliate Program is only worth it for white hat sites that are looking to make money on the long road
Affiliate programs, such as the Amazon affiliate program, offers a unique home biz opportunity for entrepreneurs.
I have never thought that surfing online can be so much beneficial and having found your blog, I feel really happy and grateful for providing me with such priceless information.
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I didn’t signed yet with Amazon. Most of my friends got payment from it. Lets give a try.
I am going to look into Amazon, I knew they did an adffiliate program but I assumed it would be poor quality, I’ll check it out, thank you
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thanks for the insights. congrats. Amazon affiliate program really works.
The Amazon affiliate program is very popular among affiliates, and for good reason.
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I also have a smaller niche website that I’ve built as an experiment for the Amazon Affiliate Program. Let me tell you, it’s not easy. It’s almost awful, actually. :-/ The tools are amazing but…I guess I have to work on it some more. 🙂
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Anna, would you care to let us know your niche websites URL so we can have a look at it and let you know what we think? No pressure though! 😉
I tried this, it’s hard to get people to bite. Or maybe I was doing it wrong. I’ve since scrapped this project and returned to adsense (more reliable IMHO). I might come back to it next time when I have more time.
– Glenn
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I have a doubt Petra, I put Amazon widget in one of my website for more than three years. But I didn’t get payment yet. What may be the reason?
The reason will be that you haven’t reached the payment threshold yet…
I don’t buy on amazon, because it does not support paypal at moment.
Thanks for the great informative post. Actually i didn’t know more about Amazon’s Affiliate Program. But your post make my task easy, before read it i just used Google Adsense for making money. Once again thanks a lot for it.
Yeah right, if you are planning to do some internet business, better do it with those who are “branded”. It is much safer and reliable since they will not just sacrofice their names for nonsense things.
I found the Amazon Affiliates Widgets to be very easy to integrate and quite useful on one of my blogs about Books to read on Mysteries, Plots, Secret Societies etc. Though the CTR is quite low as compared to Adsense, the effective CPC is way higher, as is the eCPM!
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Hi Petra,
Blogger have added an option on the monetize tab for amazon. But, honestly I haven’t checked that out yet…lol I just thought that since I’m more into the earning online niche, people who drops by my blog aren’t interested on buying things. But with this post, I think I really need to check that out.
By the way, I hate to learn that they don’t allow getting our payments through paypal. And I agree, they really should think about opening that option for people. Thanks again for this post.
Eve
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I think it took too much time to make 200 dollar from Amazon, I was also thinking of linking Amazon with my websites but after reading your post, I might not link it with my website.
Thanks for sharing it.
Lady Sumera, – it can’t hurt to link to Amazon. You might make the odd sale, or maybe even more, and a little extra money (even if it might not be much) is still better than nothing!
Hey Petra, I too wonder why Amazon can’t pay us through Paypal, and the referral fees are pretty bad as well. I have a few sites that affiliate with Amazon but I’m at the the point now where I’m rethinking the whole strategy.
Hi there,
I have slowly been trying to make my way along the “make money with Amazon route”.
It seems that once you really understand the rules, then you will be really successful.
There are a couple of people who have made a really good amount of cash from Amazon.
You should check out Dave’s site at
http://www.makingmoneyontheinternetfree.info/
He provides a great deal of insight into using this money making model.
With regards to the watch and decor site; I have a feeling that they are a little bit too “busy”. There seems to be so much going on that i think a potential customer is unable to focus on anything at all and will leave the site and choose the next one down on google’s list.
Just my opinion – hope you don’t mind.
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Tiptopcat, I am very grateful for your insight and constructive criticism on my niche sites, and I will gladly take them on board. I actually am not too happy with my Mens Wrist Watches site, I too think it’s somewhat all over the place. I am also thinking about revamping my Beach Decor site. But that is a major project for me, so it might take time. Thanks again though for letting me know what I can improve on.
And thank you also for mentioning Dave’s site. 🙂
a nice affiliate system is amazon and cj.
Petra, I really think that simplicity wins the day, and the conversion 🙂 with lots of white space, and not many options or places to go, to escape. Just one ‘most wanted action’ like an opt-in to an autoresponder which can drip continuously for years… instilling the benefits and the reasons ‘why.’
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Geoff, you are giving me food for thought!
Petra, thank you so much for this article. I’ve been looking around lately for stories (Success or Fail) about the Amazon Affiliate Program before I consider it. I have to say your article plus the comments gave more than I expected! 🙂
I share your thoughts on this as well because I was paid a measly $100 after one and half years promoting Amazon products. However, I have read about people who have been able to sell amazon products and earning thousands from it so I’m going to give it another try following on the steps that they have taken. Wish me luck!
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Good Luck!!
This I really do not know, first of all thank you for providing information about the Amazon affiliate program is one of the largest affiliate program on the network and most popular addition to the affiliate program other. your advice I think it is great helpful for the readers, I think you have succeeded on this blog post. you keep this good work.
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Affiliate programs are a great place for people to start making money online. It’s risk free and I have used it to learn about SEO and give me some returns for my efforts. Amazon’s is as good as anyone elses.. the commision is a little low, but I trust their system and the product range is good, as is the stock.
I used Amazon Affiliate program on my old niche website that i don’t update anymore and never a cent from it since my traffic was very low! But congratulations for this earning! By the way, two years, so long!
There is forever a oppourtunity to earn capital through affiliate programs but evaluating the best product that blends our niche is the most complex part. I went through a few of your site and found it enormously delightful. I genuinely think, your blog has helped me a lot to identify the solution behind affiliate programs. I have bookmarked your blog and am following your feeds.
Owner: Affiliate Guru
Thanks!
I like you have spent 2 years learning all about Affiliate marketing and have built a number of websites that did nothing until I built this one which I managed to get on to page 1 of Google for a while and actually started to make some sales via Amazon and I was so pleased that all my efforts were starting to pay off, but all of a sudden it disappeared from Google and I have no idea why. I am however going to keep going and the info provided here has been very encouraging. Thank you
Joey, keep going, don’t give up. Keep building backlinks to your successful site, it might be one of “Google dances” what is happening here. The rankings do fluctuate, but if you keep putting effort and content into your site, and keep building backlinks, it should definitely come back.
Your post shows the importance of niche marketing. Good post. Most of the niche marketing gurus often outsource their work to a team of artists, writers, designers and so forth…best seo company
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I’ve had a lot of trouble getting paid by amazon affiliates… maybe its because their threshold is too high.
Man, Ive been pulling my hair out over not really getting much from my Amazon Affil. based site. Im grateful you put this up about your experience with it. As far as you thinking you aren’t getting much back because you only sell low priced items goes, Im pushing big ticket items and it really isnt much better. Consider how much traffic you need to sell the lower priced stuff and then double or triple it to get a sale on a big ticket item.
Ive bookmarked this page because there are some really great comments in here with some links that I think I need to spend some time reading.
This is such an important post. I used Amazon Affiliate program and find it really works. I’ve been doing this stuff for years and I do things in a certain way to get best results. And i believe this is indeed a topic which has been ignored by many experts & professionals. You have done a great job by bringing this topic into light. I hope quality discussions follow this post. Great job.
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Hi Petra, I am writing to thank you for this article which I read a while back. So far I have been at affiliate marketing and trying to find niche markets etc. for more than three months now. It is a struggle but I am enjoying the challenge. Anyway I finally made some money. $11.85 to be precise on Amazon. I couldn’t believe it, I had pretty well given up expecting to make even $1.00. The one disappointment with them is that they charge $15.00 if I want a cheque because I live in Canada. If I want a gift certificate, no problem, no charge. By the way I seem to remember reading in one of your posts about backlinks for .14 cents a link minimum $5.00 I think. I have hunted for the post but it eludes me. Can you give me that posts URL please, if it’s not too much trouble? Thanks again
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Seb, I am not sure which post you mean, but I use a Directory Submission Service which costs .14 cents a link – I guess that’s what you mean! It is Directory Maximizer and I am really happy with them. They also give you “credits” back for submissions that have failed.
Hi Petra, Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question. I really appreciate it. I can only guess how busy you must be.
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No problem. My life has been a rollercoaster lately, I have not had time to devote to my blogs at all. It’s the 9th of October now, and I am approving your comment from 14th September!!! 🙁
Amazon is really popular and even if you just sell on their site your bound to make many sales and profit form it.
Great Blog! It’s on my Desktop. Thanks.
Amazon won’t approve unless you already have 500+ visitors a month on your blog/site? Does that sound right? And it seems they don’t much like competition on your blog/site either. But you can’t get traffic unless you monetize it with adsense or other affiliate programs. The blogger blogs are niche specific and made for getting Amazon products on board… but they aren’t approving because of low traffic, which is counterproductive.
Besides starting out with getting traffic, backlinks, from other websites in your niche market, affiliate programs, web 2.0 sites, or article writing, do you have any hints on how to get the 500+ traffic needed? Should I try paid traffic? It sounds like it’s going to take weeks+ just to get qualified :/
Diane, leave valuable comments on other blogs (preferably dofollow and commentluv blogs), become active in forums where you can leave your websites link in your signature, maybe try http://www.linkreferral.com for a while, to get your visitors up. Just keep link building and interacting, and you will get there. But you need to be patient. I wouldn’t buy traffic.
It was so great when I first got my affiliate payment. It was from gooogle ads ense.
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Congratulations for your first affiliate check from Amazon.
Got a couple or so sites with amazon links but haven’t have any success.
Guess I need to do something more to them to get the activity that I want.
Amazon’s referral fee is low compared with other programs but it more than makes up with the range of products they offer.
Hopefully I get some good news with my efforts soon.
I wish you all the best! It will take some time and effort, but with perseverance you will get there!
I was just thinking about trying Directory Maximizer for one of my sites but I wasn’t sure how effective it was. Do they give you full report of directories after submission including a page where your url is listed on?
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Walter, you can check within your account in Directory Maximizer which directories your site has been submitted to, and which submissions have been successful. It doesn’t tell you though the page where your url is listed.
Walter, you can check your submissions within the members area of DM, and there are also reports that show which sites your site has been submitted to. Unfortunately they don’t show the exact page where your site is listed on.
Dear Petra, congratulations to your check. I like your blog very much.
One of my websites is now i think 1,5 years old and my sales was 0,00 with the amazon programm, ok. I have to say i put this site on and didn t do anything for the popularity so i think i recept also only 5 visitors from google i think. So this tells us, if you try to earn a little money with your website you need to work very hard and if you also are a little bit lucky, you can earn a good amout of money with your site….
I wish you all the best for you sites and that you will earn much more money in future.
Best regards from germany
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Thank you – Danke! Yes, it takes a lot of hard work and patience to be successful. You need to put in all the ground work to get your site on page 1 of Google for your keywords to get a fair amount of visitors. Once you are there, you can earn a regular stream of income. But you also have to keep at it, don’t relax for too long, because Google might just take you off page 1 again, and then you are back to square one.
Amazon is massive and recently started to do groceries… yup. Their affilate programme is big and quite prifable as Petra has shown here. Thanks
Wow cool, I’m glad I found this article on your site. I’ve been wanting to get into some affiliate programs, especially a bigger named one like amazon or such. So it sounds like you have a bit of a mixed revue on it. Overall, how does it compare to other affiliate programs available? Personally I’ve always used eBay to buy my stuff. Does eBay have an affiliate program? If it does how would it compare against Amazon’s then? Overall I guess it would depend on what your selling and such. But thanks for the post, I live in the US so hopefully the check fee wouldn’t be a problem.
Hi Rob, ebay has an affiliate program, it’s called ebaypartnernetwork and I use it a lot on my two sites. It is making me constant sales, even though it does not amount to all that much, around $50/month. But again it depends on the items you are selling. Mine are in general not that expensive, so I earn less. I find ebaypartnernetwork works better for me than Amazon.
It’s a pity you cannot promote your Amazon affiliate site via paid search marketing.
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I utilize a few widgets on other websites, but again the same issue. Amazon is my least favorite affiliate program due to their low referral fees. And it seems they don’t much like competition on your blog/site either. But you can’t get traffic unless you monetize it with adsense or other affiliate programs. Thank you.
I think it all depends on your niche and the type of products you are trying to sell with amazon. Some people seem to have great success with amazon, but i think for most people it doesn’t really work out well for them and just ends up cluttering the site.
I’m thinking of monetizing through affiliate links at some point, and hearing about that generally in other blogs is kinda annoying. I wasn’t sure how effective it was. Do they give you full report of directories after submission including a page where your url is listed on.
Directory Maximizer will give you a list of directories they have submitted to within your account. There will be no listing of the page where your URL is on.
Do you have any tips on getting people to click on Amazon links? I have a couple of Amazon affiliate sites but I can’t quite get people to buy..
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Hi Petra,
Finally I had 8 sales on Amazon in November mostly books. All books so not much commission. It is a real struggle to get any traffic. I am going to have a look at ebay. Thanks, nice to hear from you via commnets after all this time.
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Seb, ebay is definitely worth a look. I am also with ShareASale which has lots of programs with a good commission. This has earned me around $74 last month, and already $10 for this month. An Affiliate Program that has also proven well for me (this one depends on what you are trying to sell though) is Art.com. It has been making me a steady commission since I have joined, on average close to $40 a month. They offer 20% commission on every sale! See whether you can do anything with them…
I’m glad I found this article on your site. I’ve been wanting to get into some affiliate programs, especially a bigger named one like amazon or such. So it sounds like you have a bit of a mixed revue on it. Overall, how does it
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Hi Petra, thanks for the information.
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Wow Petra you’re good at follow-up so far.
You get from Amazon aff what you put in it. I promoted them for a week and fird them last year as they affected my adsense earnings. Am currently going back to it to give it a last chance. Sor got 5 buks from an unindexed blogger blog with 0 links that i created 2 days ago.
I know I will make little from Amazon. It’s something extra. And i think it should be looked at as such.
It requires a lot of traffic,lots of optimization and a bit of luck too.
Most of the blogs mentioned above are “chaotic” and are a reflectinon of hasty money-making attitude.(the slap it and wait for the magic to happen mentality). I visited a few and got instantly distracted,too much offers,product links,adsense,linkshare..CHAOS
Hi Petra, Perth calling! I joined Howie’s Apprentice 6 affil.training course and lo & behold our task is to sell a child’s Christmas toy using Amazon affiliate program! I now think there’s a lot in there.. tons of resources and tools. I also made web pages for iPod Touch and iPad mobile devices via Amazon becoz you need: 1. high demand, 2. higher price ticket, so as to get a reasonable payout from Amazon. So I’m positive about the program. Still yet to reach their payment threshold but it’s worth persevering eh? GD. Perth
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Hi Geoff, nice to hear from you! I have to admit I have been neglecting my blog big time, seeing the date of your comment and when I am approving it (one month later!!). Good luck with your online ventures, anyway, how did you go with selling Christmas toys???
Hi Geoff, nice to hear from you! Sorry about the very late reply – I have not been keeping up with my sites and blogs. Life has become so busy there is hardly any time for what I would like to do any more… Anyway, how did you go with your Christmas toy sales? I headed over to your Squidoo lenses, very well done!! I hope they brought you in a little bit of cash for your efforts. I will try to be in contact via email, too. 🙂
Hey Petra,
Well I got you beat, it only took me 1 year to get the $100 payout. All of the income came from my Bissell Carpet Cleaner site. Even with a 6% commission rate on $100 – $250 vacuum’s it still took me a year.
If you find a better program then the Amazon Affiliate Program for selling Vacuums let me know! 🙂
FYI – I couldn’t find any meta keywords for this post? That might help your ranks if you include them.
Thanks
Steve
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Steve, for Miele Vacuums – ClixGalore – 9%
Thanks for the hint about Meta Keywords – I have gone really slack in that regard!
Steve – try googling “Vacuum Cleaner Affiliate Programs” and see if any other affiliate programs pop up…I see Oreck offers one, but I didn’t read the details to see if their % if higher than amazons or not.
Hi Petra, you are sharing good information here. I just wanna add that the amazon affiliate program is great. A lot of marketers believe is waste of time because its low commission. However, for me has worked marvelous. I have reached the 6.5% of commission so far and I am going for 7%.
Among other advantages, I see amazon great because it requires a little or nothing of pre-selling.
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Daniel, you do have a point. They offer a lot of help with for their affiliates, through great banners, widgets, links and product descriptions. Still, unless you sell high ticket items or get a serious amount of traffic, it’s a bit of a struggle.
I’ve actually found Amazon’s affiliate program to be worth it but IF AND ONLY IF you know what you’re doing. They convert extremely well if you send traffic from buying keywords. It’s definitely not for the amateur affiliate marketer who uses automated content though.
I know of a guy called Chris Guthrie and he is making around $5k per month just by using Amazon. Is it really possible?
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Amazon is really very good and it is just due to its affiliate program and it’s proven to be more rewarding that putting adsense all over the place.
This is great! I never thought of Amazon that way. This is the first time I have heard of Amazon Affiliate program.
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You right that you have to try to sell higher priced items. $15 is not bad i had to pay $45 to bank to cash a check from overseas. I also agree the comission is way to low compared to other programs.
Amazon affiliate program is one of the best and reliable money making tool online. Amazon being a well reputed online store can be relied on. You can earn a good amount of money, provided you have a website/blog with good traffic and content.
Dang..you did come out on the first page of Google. I’m also apalled by the cheque fees ($20 now) so I put my threshold to $300
After a couple of years, I can earn a few hundreds from Amazon Associates. Like you said, it rocks, except that why won’t they have a PayPal payment transferrrrrr……grr.. Australia banks ripping off my money…
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Michael, thanks for your heads up on my site! Yes, Amazon not doing Paypal is ridiculous. I hope they are going to do something about that soon.
I joined Amazon affiliate program a few years ago and put links on my blogs and webpages with NO LUCK until I read a few blog posts about how to use a software program called Market Samurari (link above) to determine which keyword phrases have the most traffic and the least competition. They explained that if you are selling something like dog supplies, the #1 listing in google for the search term “pink dog collars” will only get “20” hits per day, while the search term “dog clothes for big dogs” will get “250” hits per day. (just made up examples, not real numbers). While the general term “dog supplies” has WAY TOO MUCH competition for you to even think about getting to the #1 spot on Google (where all the traffic goes). So the software can tell you exactly what keyword phrases you should target to get the most traffic for the niche you are in.
Anyway, to make a long story short….in my first 2 years I only made like $5 from Amazon, then I bought this software, used it to find what keywords I should actually be targeting for the topic I was writing about, and I’ve made $101.17 since buying the software 6 weeks ago. And I didn’t change any of the content on my pages, I only changed the titles, descriptions, and tags to match up with keyword phrases that had the least competition and most traffic for the topic/product my page was about.
Petra- your keyword phrase “Beach Decor” can expect to get 374 hits per day for the number 1 spot on Google, but there are 189,000 websites in competition with you (hard to get to #1). But you can get to #1 easier with the keyword phrase “Sea Decorations” and if at #1 you can expect 50 hits/day and only competing with 12,600 other websites. Also “Beach Party Decorations”, #1 Google spot can expect 40 hits/day and competes with 16.200 other websites.
That’s what my Market Samauri software says….(great tool) 12-day FREE trial (link above)
Works with any affiliate program, not just Amazon..
oops, here’s the link in my name (above)
Kim, thanks so much for doing so much research for me! 😉 Guess what, after your comment I went and snatched up the domain Sea Decorations.com (would you believe it, it was still available!!!) and I am in the process of installing a new (but much less elaborate) website which I am going to try to get some Adsense earnings with. I do have Market Samurai, too, I just haven’t really used it to its potential yet. After your comment I think it is high time, though!!! Thanks again, Kim. Good luck to you in all you do!
I normally just use Google ad sense because I’ve never understood affiliate marketing, but the article helps alot, thanks for the information.
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Have you checked out finding holiday providers on commission junction to better monetize the traffic. Get some split testing software run and flip out the amazon ads with a holiday offer that pays more and see what happens.
wow Petra! You must have been over the moon when you got that first Amazon check! Good on ya girl!
I have only dabbled in Amazon to be honest, have had a few sales but need to pay more attention to the method before being able to give it a comment.
I have a friend, however, who makes big, real big bucks on Amazon so I do know that it’s a goodie! 😉
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Congratulations Petra ! All the very best for future. Wish me luck so that I also achieve something like you 🙂
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I recently jumped into Amazon affiliate marketing and hoping to get also my first check very soon. Just setup a site two weeks ago but the ranking seems like a roller coaster…..one day I’m on page 1 of google and the next day I’m on the 14th page??? But no matter what….I’m determined to get that 1st check! Thanks for the inspiration.
Hi Randy, the jumping of your site is apparently called the “Google Dance”. This seems to happen to newer sites, but it should settle down after a while.
Yes, Petra, you’re right in saying this blogpost is ranking because you’ve optimized it well. It’s fifth on Page 1, behind big Amazon, and I clicked it because it was the first I saw that was not of Amazon. And your title was interesting. I was checking to see if Amazon has a member-referral program.
Thanks for describing the reality of affiliating with Amazon.
I think one reason your post is up there is because of the number of comments you’ve got. The comments are also helpful; got ideas from them. Thanks again.
Thanks for sharing such an informative site in this blog. The information was very cordial and this was quite interesting. Thanks a lot for the information.
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Thanks for sharing, Petra.
I’ve just applied this program for our funny sharing site at: http://funfuuu.com last week. How long does it take to be approved for Amazon Affiliate program?
Hi Petra,
Thanks for the fantastic blog post. I actually really love your blog, its amazing, they layout is so neat. I think that making money through Amazon can be extremely tough if you don’t have a solid plan. I remember I was like you just making a couple of cents here and there and getting really frustrated why no one would buy from me.
Since then I’ve done a few course and research and actually learned how to do it from one of my coaches who owns an SEO company.
I also read Chris’s blog and love it. Great tips that ring true.
I’m actually taking a few students and teaching them how to do Internet Marketing the way I learned it, using SEO, proper keyword research and how to write a convincing amazons review page.
I’m making a couple hundred dollars a month which only happened after getting some proper coaching a few months ago so I decided to create a course about how to do it.
If you or you know anyone please contact me via my webpage or on my facebook under name “Kase Cheah”.
Up until the end of may 2011, I’m running a promotion to teach a few motivated students limited to a few positions, for free as a beta test for the launch of my upcoming course. Would love to hear from some of the marketers who have been struggling with this.
Wish you all the best and look forward to making more comments on your blog.
Cheers!
Kase
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Hey,
I don’t mean for this to sound bad, but I was drawn to the paragraph;
“Well – it has taken 2 years (2 YEARS!!!) for me to get paid my first check from Amazon. Quite unbelievable, isn’t it? My Beach website is on page 1 on Google for several of my keywords, so I get a fair amount of traffic, and it still took 2 years. That is an incredible amount of time.”
In Amazons defence, they offer you a near unlimited choice of products to advertise, if you have targeted traffic I think it would be well woth incesting some time in to doing some A/B testing on the products you are advertising, and how you are advertising them. The fact that you are making low sales if you have traffic will be more down to what you are doing than Amazon.
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Hi Oli, I think with Amazon you just have to pick products that have quite a high price from the start. Me with my beach decor site, most home decor items are fairly cheap to buy, so the commission is not that great. You either have to sell heaps of cheaper products (which is very hard) or some expensive products (which I am not sure will be easy, either).
That should have read investing not incesting! lol
Oli recently posted…The EU – Apparently they don’t know anything about the Internet.
It seems to me you knew what the payment structure was when you signed up. Who put a gun to your head? It you don’t like it then you should take a hike.
James, thanks for your honest opinion.
I am in the process of installing a new (but much less elaborate) website which I am going to try to get some Adsense earnings with. I do have Market Samurai, too.
My ex-husband tried affiliate marketing and it didn’t work out for him. I think it works for some and not for others, but I’m happy that it’s working for you! Congrats and keep up the great work 🙂
Thanks for sharing the article with us… I have heard about Amazon and the I think its god affiliate program. Your article really helped me a lot in making me more aware of the affiliate program.
Hi Petra,
I am new to all this. I saw that Chris Guthrie posted quite a while back on here. Did you change any of your strategies based on his blog? How are your amazon sales going these days? So far, all I have on my site is amazon. I also was curious, I understand Google looks at load time and I had 2 amazon widgets on my sidebar that took a long time to load, I recently removed those, hoping it will help my rankings, which need alot of help! :o) Looking forward to hearing how things are working for you these days.
I found this website by typing “can amazon affiliate links hurt search”.
Thanks again!
Hi Music Fan,
when Chris Guthrie posted on here, I actually didn’t know him, if I would have I would have been awed!! 🙂 I have not put any more effort into my Amazon program, so for me nothing has changed, still very low sales and commissions. But there have been so many good tutorials and plugins for WordPress out lately that I am very tempted to have another good go at it, with a different approach this time. Will let you know if I succeed! 😉
Please do you mind suggesting which affiliate network or program that works for you? Thank you
My most consistent affiliate program seems to be ebay partnernetwork. And I have also had good results with Art.com (they offer 20% commission). Most of my earnings come from Adsense, though.
Good blog Petra. Internet marketing is hard work and this opportunity is no different. I am generally not keen on joining affiliate programs that don’t pay a minimum of 15% commission. However, like all programs you have to master the different aspects of making money online and that will take more time for some and less time for others. The nice thing is everything is already put together for you. You just have to master all of the different marketing methods and you will make more money as you have done. I am joining the Amazon programme, however it won’t be my main focus of attention because of the low payout and I have other spokes in the fire as an affiliate marketer. I can say what I have learnt in the last 2 months with one of these programs has been incredible to say the least.
In my opinion if you want to earn some dollars with amazon affiliate select a product that has minimum price of 100$ else you cannot earn much. My site is about kindle covers and there prices are very low therefore I haven’t have much success with amazon so far.
The problem with most Amazon marketer, we need to find the good keywords, and pump traffic to our sites.
And I agree the commission is low.
Two years is a long time. It seems like this could be a good side project for an internet marketer looking to try out SEO techniques. I’ve thought about it but have yet to try it–thanks for the insight.
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I have similar experience like most of you do in the beginning for being an Amazon affiliate. However, things have been totally changed in Christmas of 2011. Starting from October, people starting to visit my website and I didn’t know where they came from. Before that , I only got about 6000 visitors in my website but by November and December, people just came to my website like a wave and nothing could stop them. Every day I have 20-30 sells and I have sold more than 200 items in month and some of them were high commission stuffs as well and many people also wanted to rent my website to post a link in there as well. By the end of December, I have more than 120,000 visitors to my website and I have a great year with Amazon and made $128 in November and $613 in December alone. Plus some traffic income from my website, I feel happy with that. Although traffic has been totally drop down after Christmas, but I feel happy with Amazon since it is easy to operate and no headache at all.I am still waiting for my first check to come (60days holding period) but I think it is already a small happy success for me already. I hope I will do better in 2012 Christmas. I didn’t put any effort in the last two years for being an Amazon affiliate but this year, I will do my best. However, it would be nice to have some other affiliate program that will pay much more but with good links and html for their products to paste on the website as well. But good program with all these are not easy to find. Commission Junction, I tried it before but it didn’t work for me but maybe I can try it all over again. As long as you have target traffic for your website, you can try to promote more and different things. The best of all, my website is free and they will pay you for traffic when people just clicked their ads as well. I have a new website on Valentine gift ideas just published with this free website program, you can feel free to take a look if you want to. Anyway, May God bless everyone in 2012.
Affiliate programs, such as the Amazon affiliate program, offers a unique home biz opportunity for entrepreneurs. Premature Baby Clothing
So, 2 years later…did your earnings increase? I have a bunch of Amazon affiliate sites but I haven’t earned anything from them at all.
No, no earnings increase… Mind you, I have been not doing anything at all with my sites for over 9 months, so my traffic has gone right down and thus I am making less money…
I’m making a few hundreds a month now from Amazon but it sucks because of Australian banks fees… now for every >$400 cheque, it has to be sent to the “Collection” where they are charging another $50 bank fees…sigh
Why can’t Amazon just send using PayPal
God, I am also sooooo frustrated about this! Amazon is so backwards in this regard!!!
This is a great article , thanks for this sharing.
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This is the great article its very useful and gave more and more information. Affiliate program is worth is very interesting.
Thanks for sharing this information.