Amazon Affiliate Program

[PYJAMA]

Anyone having any luck with Amazon's Affiliate Program?
Was trying text links to products, but that turned out to be crap.
Do product pictures seem to draw better sales?

thanks!

-PYJAMA

[Help Desk]

I've had some luck setting up my own Amazon.com store.

Check out www.ThinkBling.com (http://www.thinkbling.com) if you want one too.

[Nintendo]

Forget about using simple text links. Use full blown stores using scripts. Like MrRats script. http://www.mrrat.com/aws/
(It was much much easior to make money from Amazon two years ago than it is now.)

[Shoemoney]

I just opened a aws site using mr rats scripts and also nintendos rewrite @ www.hobbydeals.com

i am about to pimp it out with some cool templates. Its already getting eaten by google

[kdb003]

there are soooo many of those sites out there already

[Shoemoney]

you know there were search engines out there but google still did ok.. i think =P

[PYJAMA]

Forget about using simple text links. Use full blown stores using scripts. Like MrRats script. http://www.mrrat.com/aws/
(It was much much easior to make money from Amazon two years ago than it is now.)

So are you saying devote a full page store, rather then integrated into the content of the page?

-PYJAMA

[Nintendo]

:::So are you saying devote a full page store, rather then integrated into the content of the page?

Stores that use scripts are the easiest thing to use, since Amazon does all the updating for you, AND you got more URLs that can be indexed by search engines.

:::I just opened a aws site using mr rats scripts and also nintendos rewrite @ www.hobbydeals.com and its already getting eaten by google

OK, what's your secret!!!! For me, now it takes up to a year before new sites get indexed in Google!!! Now Yahoo is much faster at indexing my new AWS sites that I made just before finding out that Google calls all the AWS only sites pure spam!

[GTech]

If you are going to pursue Amazon, treat it like a business. I've had great results doing this. Here are some suggestions that may help:

1) Give your store a decent design. Put a little effort into making it look unique so it will stand out from all those where people put a standard script and left it looking the way it came out of the .zip file.

2) Try to do some common things for SEO, such as H1, title, description, keywords.

3) Spend some time and get a good mod_rewrite working so that the product titles are in the URLs. If it comes with one stock, then change it up a bit so that the URLs are different than how it comes out of the .zip file.

4) Work on getting links to your site just like you would any other site. Links to internal category pages as well.

5) Put a contact/email form on the site and when you get emails, try your best to help the customer.

6) Create a sitmap that has a link to each of your main/subcategories. Not products, but down into all the categories.

7) Enjoy the revenue you receive your first month or two. If Google has it's way, and it most likely will, traffic will surge after the first 3-4 weeks. It will surge for a month or so, then that dreaded sandbox will come into play. This is a critical stage. Too many people get to this point, get some good number counts for indexed pages, then sell off the site for a few hundred bucks at best. Wait it out. Wait it out. Wait it out!!!

Resist the temptation that will set in, when traffic drops. Just keep working on getting links to your site (I know, it's so cliche these days, but it worked for me). Eventually, after six months or so (that's how long it was for me, at least), you should start getting some consistent traffic. Traffic equals revenue.

I've had good luck with my Amazon stores. I'm not wealthy with them, but I'm making some decent money. For me, the key was creating a good site design, while waiting for that six month delay many refer to as the sandbox, work on links. I've seen it with all four of my stores so far. Three are now receiving some very good traffic and sales, while one should be out of the sandbox just in time for the Holiday shopping season. Work on getting links to your site and increasing your PR. At some point, you'll break free and start getting traffic which will generate revenue.

[PYJAMA]

ThinkBling,Nintendo,Shoemoney and GTech (Shout Outs!)

Thanks a ton for the really helpful advise!

-PYJAMA

[Shoemoney]

OK, what's your secret!!!! For me, now it takes up to a year before new sites get indexed in Google!!! Now Yahoo is much faster at indexing my new AWS sites that I made just before finding out that Google calls all the AWS only sites pure spam!

The domain starting at a pr4 probably isnt hurting me =)

[Nintendo]

Since the last major Google update I've lost around 1,000,000 AWS URLs. :(:( (Almost all of them.) The only site that was hardly touched was a PR 6 site!! And who was is that said PR isn't important!!!!!! :D:D

[Shoemoney]

hmm perhaps doup content or url check? thats weird indeed

[Nintendo]

A LOT of duplicate content!!! Some where around 150 webmasters got the mod_rewrite hack. And of curse not evry one has it on just one site. I got around 30 domains with an Amazon store!!! :D The trick is staying above every one else, and trying to make the stores look uniqe, and PR sure helps!!! :D

[RectangleMan]

The best bet is go custom with an aws script. Sorry but anything you can download for free ain't worth your time.

http://www.gamestop.com is a site using my own script. It does pretty well.
http://www.foremangrills.com is site I just built and twisted up the script so that on each site it is unique enough not to look like a script.

All my results are dynamic and come from amazon.
I bought foremangrills.com 3 weeks ago and it was getting 20 uniques per day. Now it's got great listings at google, yahoo, and msn and 300 uniques per day and growing.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:foremangrills.com&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

You can see an example page and notice how well I keyworded the URL. :-)
http://www.foremangrills.com/store/page/1/george/foreman%20grill/


Anyways..go custom..get yourself a script. Learn some php and use SOAP.

[Help Desk]

The best bet is go custom with an aws script. Sorry but anything you can download for free ain't worth your time
I would argue against you. There is no need to constantly be reinventing the wheel. Custom is mandatory however, if you just plop down the same thing that everybody else has, then it isn't going to be much good to you.

[Kalev]

Anyone having any luck with Amazon's Affiliate Program?
Was trying text links to products, but that turned out to be crap.
Do product pictures seem to draw better sales?

thanks!

-PYJAMA

Don't wast your time.

Amazon has wide selection but competition is quite high. I have tried and I made with my taxation and offshore related site approx $5 during one year.

But maybe it was just my fault :mad:


Right now I'm selling phone cards and medicals and making quite good living.

For Phone cards business I developed my own script which is easy to install and run. This script is made for php nuke www.phpnuke.org and there are many users out there with my script.

I joined medicals business a month ago and my site is already generating sales. But there is also a down side you can not target US customers through google and overture.

I think you really should look around for other options than Amazon...

[PYJAMA]

What type of route should I go with my site at www.MalaysianFood.net ?
Is it too specific for amazon or does it warrant just a "phone card" type approach?

thanks!

-PYJAMA

[Kalev]

It's up to you to decide.

If you are looking for one time shoppers you could go with your current site. Otherwise you should look for a domain which is easy to remember and somehow related to phone cards, long distance, calling etc.

K

[RectangleMan]

I would argue against you. There is no need to constantly be reinventing the wheel. Custom is mandatory however, if you just plop down the same thing that everybody else has, then it isn't going to be much good to you.

This coming from a guy with one of the biggest free scripts around... :-)

Your script is great btw...It's just my experience that using it doesn't do much good. The SE's recognize the script and basically ignore the site.

[Help Desk]

This coming from a guy with one of the biggest free scripts around... :-)

Your script is great btw...It's just my experience that using it doesn't do much good. The SE's recognize the script and basically ignore the site.

I don't know if they ignore it. I have nearly 13,000 pages indexed on my main site (which was recently majorly changed) and nearly 40,000 on my static site. It definitely doesn't hurt.

Without getting into specifics, I made 3 times as much with AdSense on my site as I did with Amazon last quarter. Also that was my best quarter on Amazon ever.

[kdb003]

http://www.gamestop.com is a site using my own script. It does pretty well.


Is this really an AWS site?

[RectangleMan]

oops... http://www.gamerstop.com :-)

[Nintendo]

That's more like it!!! :D Tip: Add product names to the URL!

[Shoemoney]

haha hobbydeals.com has been deindexed... i need to edit the templates and perhaps redo the url scheme.

[TechEvangelist]

It's not a matter of the search engines recognizing a script, but they do recognize content and penalize for duplicate content, so the client-side code and page format for each site should be different. That's where the customization is important. Theoretically, the script being used should not matter at all.

I've set up five Amazon sites in the last two months and two of them are starting to bring in some coins. The hardest part is customizing the customer reviews with Amazon sites. That's what's triggering the penalties for duplicate content.

You could always write customized reviews for about a million products and you should then be in good shape.

[GTech]

The hardest part is customizing the customer reviews with Amazon sites. That's what's triggering the penalties for duplicate content.

:) No comment!

Glad to hear you are generating some revenue. How's your other project doing?

[mikelbeck]

I've got a job/careers-oriented vBulletin site, and I've just about finished a custom AWS script to grab books from Amazon that would benefit the users of my site. There's still a few more things I need to do with it, then I have to go back through it and make sure the SEO is decent... But have a look anyway, you can get an idea of how different a custom script and be from all the "generic" AWS sites out there:

http://www.discusscareers.com/amazon_store.php

[Help Desk]

I've got a job/careers-oriented vBulletin site, and I've just about finished a custom AWS script to grab books from Amazon that would benefit the users of my site. There's still a few more things I need to do with it, then I have to go back through it and make sure the SEO is decent... But have a look anyway, you can get an idea of how different a custom script and be from all the "generic" AWS sites out there:

http://www.discusscareers.com/amazon_store.php
Another resource would be to do a book search based on the title of the current thread and provide a link to the first book that is returned.

[mikelbeck]

Another resource would be to do a book search based on the title of the current thread and provide a link to the first book that is returned.

Oooooh, yeah, that's a good idea! Thanks!

/scurries off to write some more code

[RectangleMan]

That's more like it!!! :D Tip: Add product names to the URL!


I prefer not to. Otherwise the script can take on the look of other AWS scripts which is something I try hard to avoid.

Here is a great example of the same script but twisted apart to be even more suitable.

http://www.foremangrills.com/store/page/1/george/foreman%20grill/

The node pages are the same but I worked on the listing pages pretty well. This site gets 300 uniques a day now and just 30 days ago it was 20. I made 8 sales this week alone and the adsense does well also. I have not even advertised the site anywhere. I will look to sell foreman when I have at least 60 days of consistent stats. Someone is gonna be happy on this one.

[Nintendo]

Try to take out spaces in the URL (Like use _). Some older browsers will give out a 404 error message.

[fryman]

If someone can't even afford to get an updated browser I sure wouldn't want him visiting my sites.

I've never understood those comments of "don't do this or that because older browsers won't accept it". Who cares about old browsers?

[Nintendo]

You never know, that visitor with the 1.2 Netscape Browser might be the the one that makes a $34,346.95 order that nets you a few thousand bucks!! :D:D:D:D