PPP 005: How to Get Started With the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Click here to download the mp3 file…
This is actually the first of a series of posts I’m going to make on how to use Amazon.com’s Associates program to generate income from anything from a simple website, to a big and beefy authority site. When you look at the volume of sales that Amazon does, it’s staggering… Especially compared to sites like Clickbank. A lot of people make a lot of money from digital products on Clickbank, but just in terms of numbers and getting your piece of the pie, Amazon has a much, much bigger pie to try and get a piece of.
Note: the links to the different trainings will be posted below as I complete them… be patient.
I have a few Amazon affiliate sites, and together they make between $1,000 and $2,000 a month, but as the pages are starting to rank well and sales are going up, I am really liking the passive nature of these Amazon affiliate sites; so I’m planning on building a lot more and making the ones I do have into big authority sites.
Here are a few reasons why I like Amazon’s affiliate program:
- People trust Amazon, and everyone has used it before: Everyone has bought stuff from Amazon.com, and most likely they have their credit card information saved so that future purchases are even easier. This is a huge plus to you as an affiliate.
- It’s super easy to write about the products. They give you all of the information you need to write great reviews about the products, not to mention the reviews from real customers provide gold nuggets of information that you can include in your reviews to make them even better.
- The conversion rate: Amazon’s conversion rate is wayyyy higher than you’ll get promoting a Clickbank product. The nice thing about it is, Amazon is known for constantly testing their pages to increase conversions, which just makes your job easier.
- No customer service. Amazon affiliate sites are nice because they don’t require any extra time besides the time it takes to create them. You get traffic, send the traffic to Amazon, and you make commissions.
- Tons and tons of products to choose from. One of the things I really like, is that you get the same commission percentages even when someone buys a product from an external seller on Amazon.
- You get commissions for whatever people buy while they’re there. When I look at the items I’ve made commissions from, almost half of them are things I don’t promote whatsoever on my sites.
My goal with this series of posts is put together a free resource that is as-complete and as high-quality as any paid product out there. So, I’ll be starting from the ground up, and there will probably be some things covered that are very basic and that you might already know… bear with me. Here are the topics my future posts are going to cover (I’ll make them links as I put up the pages):
- How to setup a WordPress blog with or without using an “Amazon review theme”
- How to choose the right Amazon products to promote
- How to do market research and choose keywords for your Amazon affiliate sites
- Amazon niche sites vs. authority sites
- How to write Amazon product reviews
- The right mindset and “tone” of successful Amazon affiliate sites
- Building a list from your Amazon affiliate sites (how and why)
- Creating a freebie to get people on your list
- Setting up the framework of your site before you get started
- Creating effective articles for your site
- Link building for your article pages
- Improve conversions with effective link placement
- Improving conversions- other random tips
- How to use your list for even more profits
- Monitor and improve what’s working
- Do what’s working over and over
- Building more sites vs. building an authority site
- Anything else I think of along the way…
As you might have noticed, my posting schedule here on Strayblogger is irregular to say the least, so my plan for outlining some posts in advance like this will help me post more consistently.
And, I’ll graciously accept tips, questions, and criticisms you have along the way- just post them in the comments. Thanks!
|
|
17 Responses to “PPP 005: How to Get Started With the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program”
Neill
OK Nate, I’ll be here for this series.
The one thing I’d really like to know is what’s the best way to set up an Amazon authority site with wordpress. In other words, what is the first thing I see when I click on http://bluewidgetguide.com? Is it a page or a post? And then do we do a post for each product? Should there be a category list on the first page?
I could go on but I’ll wait.
- Neill
Nate
Neill, good questions, and that’s the kind of stuff that will help me make the trainings better… I wouldn’t have thought of that specific thing, but I’ll put it in there for sure and explain the site structure. Thanks.
Mary
Nate, Thanks for doing this Amazon series. I know it will be a big help for me as I am a beginner more or less and I have a lot to learn.
Nate
Mary- no problem- I’m sure I’ll learn a lot as well by putting them together.
Jon
Hi Nate, I like this blog and the solid stuff you put out. I’m really looking forward to your series as I’m in the midst of creating some Amazon sites now.
Would you be able to touch on plugins and themes that people use for their Amazon sites – e.g. review themes and plugins for Amazon Affiliate programs. I’ve been seeing a lot of them recently and wondering if you use any of them.
Nate
Thanks Jon for the great idea- that’s another thing I hadn’t thought of but that will be really helpful to go through some of that stuff.
Mary Chicoine
Hi Nate – I’m looking forward to the Amazon series.
I am an Amazon associate. After I couldn’t seem to get my google adsense codes on my site properly I gave up for the moment with them and put Amazon products on it. Most are pet books and products but I found putting them up was quite easy once I got the hang of it.
You’re right – everyone loves Amazon, including me as I could hang around there and be tempted to buy lots of stuff. You can usually get the best prices there as well.
Looking forward to your series and will go to the podcast.
. Best Regards, Mary Chicoine
One thing I’ve noticed on your YouTube videos is that you are not “hyper’ and are low key, which I like a lot – especially as most IMers, with a few exceptions, are go,go,go – which is exhausting
Nate
Sounds good Mary, thanks for reading.
Brad
Nate – Looking forward to this series as I would like to add this onto some of my sites. Can you include sites that aren’t all Amazon links (like a store)? Maybe that’s what you are doing, I’m not sure. I know you mentioned the articles to go along with the site, so maybe. Thanks for all your help.
Nate
Brad- do you mean using affiliate programs that aren’t Amazon such as CJ?
brad
Mainly just a site that isn’t a store or the main page isn’t a store. Also, a mix of Amazon, Adsense and other affiliate programs would be cool. Thanks Nate.
brian
i have been looking at amazon as a way to set up good sites that I could eventually add dropshipping to if i wanted for bigger margins. especially with google ranking commerce so well. my existing amazon sites I will admit arent that well optimized. I think review themes work best and then have some useful article like buying guide,etc….I have been learning about making site more click friendly because not everyone wants to read lots of text so i am adding comparison tables/giving customer smaller # of decisions to make. review style themes work great but alot of theme are kind of outdated looking that I found. I recently found a great one I am going to test out
Nate
Brian- comparison tables work really well- there a few tools out there to build them easier like you said and I’ll try to go over the best ones.
Mike
Hey,
That scheduling issue you have. You should give this a try “WordPress Editorial Calendar” plugin.
Nate
Thanks Mike I’ll check that out.
Alan
So glad I signed up to your mailing list. I have looked at other programs to do Amazon affilite marketing. But I really like your style and the fact your out there helping us Newbies. Thanks Nate. Will read and follow it all. Alan
Nate
Thanks Alan, I appreciate that.