Wondering what is the best in conversion regarding our Amazon affiliate site, is it better to use a blog-review product type or just a regular store-like website? I have one that currently still use a regular store-like format here. If blog-review is better then I will change the design to be like that. Any suggestion? Thanks
I did not do well in Amazon, I tink the reasons are : first, the commission rate is low, second, ppl do not like to buy from your site, they may prefer go direct to Amazon... Anyone can advise?
I would suggest Wordpress for a bunch of reasons one being the plugins, both Amazon and SEO/traffic generating/bookmarking. A blog review site is good if you constantly update the blog, Wordpress makes it easy and pings the seachengines automatically when you post. I just purchased xsitepro for sites that I won't update regularly (because of the Wordpress updates). Amazon's affiliate program is both good and bad. There's tons of products and sometimes customers order things that you don't actually promote. On the downside the cookies only last for 24 hours and I think you need to manually set it to performance or your earning are capped (some countries are capped).
Most of the successful Amazon affiliates I have seen say that using a simple review of the product on your blog with an Amazon text link is the way to go. They say that the text links perform better than widgets and all that other stuff. The whole idea is to get them to Amazon and let Amazon sell them on the product as well as handle the upsell process. All you want to do as an affiliate is get them warmed up to click your link.
Thanks Bob and J1218...makes me want to keep the store just to let know how well or not this will going on...
aStore is the First choice for me. Because I can sell by aStore more than other. Other my web use for backlink to my aStore. Custumer trust aStore more than blog.
I've gotten the best results from well-written reviews (NOT rewrites of product descriptions) and plain-old links. A widget got me absolutely zero sales despite dozens of clicks. Sign up for AA in different countries so you can present multiple links (one for US, one for UK, one for CA, etc.) AA has low commissions but it has a name people know and trust, and they won't rip you off. 1/3 of my commissions have been on stuff I don't even recommend.
I think review product site is better that usual store like yours... because i'm sure you'll get difficulty to drive targeted traffic to your site
I like aStores too, even built a script to make it search engine friendly. The best part about aStore is that you can easily build your store while maintaining control over the product types, all in the user-friendly, ever-familiar Amazon Associates Central. I heard that co.uk has very good conversion rates. Perhaps I should sign up for an Associate account with them now...
I have few blogs, where I give visitors additional information about some products, so when they enter amazon, they are ready to buy. Other model I also use is writing general info about some product (lets say hair dryer) and then I mention in article which brands of that product or models are the best. Method that also work is just short post saying something like this: "I just found this great ______ (name or kind of product) that is on sale right now. I can't tell you how long this sale will last, so you better hurry up before it runs out. Click here to take advantage right now! " Of course I find product like that before on amazon and link to it. I add picture of product and make link in text and in picture. This works ok if you don't make too much of this kind of posts, except if you have site where you list just product on sale (something like blowdryersonsale.com). Amazon converts much better then any other program. But to make some good money you really have to have a lot of buying traffic or like I do - I'm just promoting more expensive items. For niches with a lot of traffic (30.000 searches a month) I usually start promoting items that cost at least 100$+. I don't sell electronic stuff, so commission for me are around 7$+ here. If my niche is low traffic one (under 30.000 searches a month), then I usually promote products from 250$+. If you sell product that are a little more expensive you can make good money on amazon. Just think, what is better - selling 20 of 30$ products or 10 of 100$ products? It's simple math. I also mainly promote just bestselling items and items on sale.
Keep in mind for UK products there is a cap of £7 on the commission you can receive. So this means the ideal priced item is about £80 to £120 (depending on how many you sell a month and therefore your commission percentage).
I think the mini-site is the most effective, with a focus on only one product we can get tons of traffic in accordance with the products we sell and the more specific, so that our visitors are people who really want to buy rather than people just looking product. and cost to create a mini site is also very cheap, we only need to buy a hosting and multiple domains, with the one we can use it for hosting multiple domains with addons facilities . we also do not need to master complicated the technical stuff. mini-site is very simple to make, I only need less than five hours to make. examples of my mini site can be viewed at samsungln55b650.com
I got the best result with my review product site, So I prefer to make a good review site rather than regular store........
Thanks guys for your input...make me think to build couple of niche specific minisites...thanks herritagecity for the example.