You know I wanted to start a thread about this because I've seen many frustrations here which mirror my own. What is it about Affiliate programs that make them so hard to make sells on? I mean I do perfectly fine in Adsense, but when it comes to getting sales at Amazon, I just can't seem to get it. The crazy thing is, I send 100s of visitors to Amazon and not a single one has turned into a sell yet. Is there anyon else out there with the same issue? Is there anyone out there is who has no problem getting sales and if so, why?
Affiliate programs are more difficult than AdSense because with AdSense basically you just need to build content. Affiliate programs typically pay more because they are ultra competitive. They are so competitive that I would guess 95% of the people attempting them fail (or make far less than they set goals for). That being said, if you can compete in the brutal affiliate marketing game, the rewards are limitless with some affiliate marketers making over $1,000,000 per month.
Also, on a side note that maybe sounds silly but are you sure your affiliate code is setup when your sending visitors to amazon so that any sales commission would be given to you.
The Amazon affiliate thing stunk for me for eight months, then I stumbled into a formula that is working. I have since seen it outlined by several people on several forums. Basically I write a review of a product, or better yet, a head-to head review of two competing products. I try to limit it to things I can sincerely give a positive review. DON'T SELL THE ITEM- presell it. Just add links at the bottom for the product(s) in question. Be sure you've SEOed the review (keyword in article title, several times in body, once bold, once italicized, once underlined). Seems to be working now. I'm sure there are lots of refinements to this that would make revenue much better, but it is a start. My first attempt was laughably bad- I got a mention on slashdot and furiously rushed to slap up an "Amazon web store", full of specific book recommendations on my site to capitalize on the traffic.. Many months later, there it still sits occasionally visited, never ordered from.
I'd agree with Mister Tut. There of plenty of affiliates out to "trick" people into buying from their affiliate link. To stand out, try to ... as Mister Tut said ... presell the item. Let the user/customer know where they stand (building trust) honestly review the product/give your opinion/your spin (unique content) Then link to the affiliate product/service page that is most appropriate (guiding them away from your site) Whom ever you market it to (same target demographic as the merchant you are an affiliate for or different) make it easier for them, not harder. There are lots of merchants that don't describe their product well enough that give out a good percentage for affiliates. So presell the customer for them. This seems to work. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of sites that don't go through that much effort and still make tons of money per month from affiliate programs. I'm just agreeing that Mister Tut makes a good point that I can confirm on as a good method.
I've heard alot about preselling your visitors on your site. Does that mean just building a rich content site with lots of articles? Also, are their any other honest money making models to use online other than just Adsense or Affiliate programs? Many people talk about those two, but are their any others?
the main difference, to my mind, is that with affiliate programs you need somebody to spend money to earn your fee. visitors are much more eagier to click an ad than spend money
Don't forget... the visitor has to be ready to buy NOW, unless the cookie lasts beyond the visit and... no returns.
Tesla, Preselling basically means giving specific praise, but no hype about a product. Write about the product, give a plausible-sounding (hopefully honest) review or testemonial. No hyperbole. Some people are afraid to restrain their over-the-top description of affiliate products. That is understandable, and for those people who fear they might be losing money, writing head-to-head reviews of competing products is a good technique. This allows you to be frank about both products, then let the reader make up their own mind. Of course your article has affiliate links to BOTH products! I'm sure there are tons of great affiliates here who can add much to what I have said, but this has succeeded in getting my foot in the door.
Amazon is probably the worse Affiliate system you could ever be apart of. They don't convert very well and they don't pay very well. The problem is that they don't really have a landing page so they don't really sale the product for you once you give them your traffic. Most CJ and Clickbank products do that. All you have to sell them on the product by making your content pre-sell or by writing an "article" that is really a sales letter. That might not work for a game site so I would suggest blending in your google ads by making the background the same color as your site, putting pictures over your Google Ads like you did with your health site and putting the word "Videogames" Or "Play Games OnLine", with H1 Tags, under a few of the Google Ads. You can make the H1 Tags Smaller using this script in the header: <STYLE type='text/css'> H1 { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: Black; FONT-Family: Verdana; TEXT-DECORATION:none } </STYLE> For a good Affiliate Sales book I suggest the Rich Jerk. I thought that Make your Content Sell was Ok but I felt like it was a little misleading. He said that your conversion rates increase but, he was referring to an Increase in Conversion once they click thru to his site and not when they come to your page. Let's say 1000 people come to your affiliate page per day. If 100 people click the link and go to the page then and ten people buy then your Conversion Rate is 10% based on his system. If 1000 people come to your page and 500 click thru and you get 20 sales then he looks at that as a 4% Conversion Rate. Well I would rather have twice as many sells and sale right away with a mini-site.