Best Lessons Learned while earning $41,438.42 in 2009 with Amazon Associates

Hello All,

I see a lot of different people posting threads asking for help with earning Amazon Associates and I earned a little over $40k from Amazon Associates in 2009 so I thought I'd write a mini guide here for those that need help. My earnings were from a variation of several different blogs and websites.

I used various tracking codes to help measure what were the most effective strategies to earn money and what worked the worst.

Here are the detailed articles I wrote:

Top 7 tips I used to make $41,438.42 in 2009 with Amazon Associates
Top 5 Worst Ways to Make Money with Amazon Associates

For those that just want something quick to consume I've outlined the key elements below:

Best Tactics to Make Money

1. Use in content linking as users are more likely to click links from within your blog posts or web pages (just simple HTML). I made 45% of my revenue via this method
2. Write bestseller list posts (i.e. Bestselling LaserJet Printers) - I made 15% of my revenue this way
3. Make any/all images clickable affiliate links to the Amazon product. I'm surprised how many people will get point #1 right but not make the image a clickable affiliate link. - I made 13.8% of earnings this way
4. Use buy now buttons on your products - I made 5% of my earnings this way
5. Focus heavily on shopping periods. HEAVILY. (I earned close to 9k in November and 13k in December 09). People want to be told about the best deals and if you take the time to write a great list pertaining to your niche people are grateful - not annoyed by your consistent deal content during these times of the year

Worst Tactics to Make Money

1. Don't bother using Amazon's banner ads. They convert poorly. People rarely click them in the niches I used and you could use that space to sell direct ad space or *gasp* simply display nothing.
2. Don't bother with Amazon stores - they convert terribly. If you can even get a visitor to click a store link congrats. If you get them to actually buy something congrats again you got lucky.
3. Don't promote products that aren't related to your niche (should be obvious, but again I still see this when I'm roaming the web).
4. Don't use Amazon Associates if it doesn't fit with the type of visitor coming to your website (i.e. are they just looking for general information? If so Adsense will probably work better. Or are they looking to buy something? Amazon will work better)

Feel free to post your questions or comments. Also, no I won't post sample URL's of the websites I run for obvious reasons (many earning sites are low competition and I prefer to keep it that way) so please don't PM asking for them.

These are tips I confirmed based on data gathered over the course of the year with the help of tons of tracking codes and I genuinely believe it should help you refocus your efforts into the areas that matter or to abandon Amazon if it doesn't fit your visitor profile.

Remember the tracking cookie lasts only 24 hours. Target potential buyers not lookers.

 

Thank you for nice information.

I love your post and I bookmarked your web ready.

 

Thanks, let me know if you have any questions and I'd be happy to help.

 

Common sense tips, thanks. Like the "USB humping dog" too - there's a niche that needs looking into! Noticed your "buy now" image isn't clickable though, I was going to click on it and incidentally buy something from Amazon, but I won't now

 

lol doh! I wasn't sure what I could make it clickable to though since I wasn't specifying a product. Did you like my references to my wish list though at least lol...

Yah some of the tips are common sense for sure though I'll admit. What I liked doing was tracking the stats so that I could share specific figures associated with each tactic.

 

Good list. I agree about not using banner ads. They are WORTHLESS. I've sold about 80 items in the past few months and not a single one came from banner ads marketing the same exact stuff I was talking about in my articles.

 

really cool stuff ,i would say ,, i haven't made even a single penny through it

 

I'll throw in a tip of my own here - emphasize the fact that people can get the items cheaper if they buy through a third party on Amazon. If a book costs $20 and they can get it for $15 from a different seller, or $5 used, point that out. Your CTR will increase and they might buy the more expensive one anyway.

Besides, every unit counts because the real money is made in the higher percentage tiers - and cheap items are the best way to get out of the 4% tier fast. Just getting into the 6% tier earns you 50% more per item (excluding electronics of course)

I sell enough expensive items ($75 and up) to get myself into the 6% tier, but it's the cheap stuff that gets me to 6.5%, and I hope to end up in the 7% tier within a few months. The 7% tier earns you 17% more money than the 6% tier, and 75% more than the 4% tier. You need volume, so push those cheapy products.

 

Hey,

Wonderful post! I've earned 160$ since Nov 09 (with 90 visitors a day and going up)! because I knew where to look for buyers.

Grea tips! I've had my own store, deleted it. I'd rather look on Amazon's page itself, those aStores look weird and people aren't used to them.
I've had a banner too, and I thought people will click on it and buy. I quickly replaced it with an Adsense block.

I have one question for you. I have a post called 'Buying a DSLR etc'. At hte bottom, there are 10 different models each has its own picture and description. The picture is not from Amazon, but mine. Like, its a picture of the camera I'm recommending; can I make it link to product page? Is it agains the rules?

I hope you understand what I'm saying. I aint' gonna post my blog but it's in my profile if you need more info. Good luck!

 

thanks for share your experience... that's great article

 

Yah it's terrible that they even offer them

 

Thank you so much Chris for taking the time to write up both of those reports. They were/are extremely helpful. Maybe now I can earn myself some real money with Amazon.

 

Thanks for the tips. I haven't sold more than 6 items in a single month, really need the practical tips

 

Chris, that was a very useful post. I want to thank you for your time and effort. This is information that many people would charge for. I'm deeply grateful.

 

When you say Amazon Stores do you mean Amazon aStores? Or Amazons webstores?

 

Chris,

About how long did it take you from when you first started promoting Amazon until you started seeing consistent sales with it?

 

Thanks for sharing this piece of information, will try it out.

 

The only banners that seem to work sometimes are the gift voucher ones, and that mostly around Christmas time. I know some affiliates make a living jsut from those, though again, that's no thanks to the banners alone, I'm sure.

 

How do you come up with content for ALL of your niche blogs?

 

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