As you probably know, Amazon’s affiliate commissions are pretty low compared to most affiliate programs (averaging around 4% per product.)
In this quarter so far, my sites have generated over $1,300 worth of sales, which earned me a whopping $50 bucks. 🙂
With most affiliate programs, that kind of revenue would generate at least $300 in commissions.
Nevertheless, Amazon.com is still worth considering as an additional revenue option, simply because they have great name recognition.
Also, Amazon suggests more products to buy during checkout, and people tend to purchase more than they originally intended. Of course, you earn commissions for those products too.
Just last week I earned $5.00 for a baby’s car seat and I am 100% sure I’ve never specifically recommended such a product from any of my sites. 🙂
Not to mention they sell almost anything. So if you happen to be endorsing a product, chances are, Amazon has it. You can refer your visitors to their site and earn a commission.
Widget-ize Your Site
In September of last year, Amazon introduced widgets to their affiliate program. Widgets are simply snippets of code that generate dynamic advertisements that you can customize.
Since the initial widget release, they’ve added several different varieties. I have to admit, they’re kinda fun to play around with.
Their most recent release (May, 2008) is the MP3 widget. If you have a music-related site or blog, you can promote specific songs right on your page, and earn a 10% commission for any sales made.
There’s even a widget that works a lot like Google AdSense. It’s called Omakase. You place the code on your page and Amazon will promote products that fit within your content.
I finally got around to seeing how the widgets would perform on my sites. My commissions are up about 20%, so they definitely seem to have an impact.
Lately I’ve been testing the widgets on the header of
You can choose which products you want to add to your widget and customize the colors. Notice how the widget blends nicely into my header’s background. This can all be controlled through Amazon’s affiliate management area where you can specify hex color values.
And if you want to make a change to the products or colors in your widget, you can update them at Amazon without having to update the code on your page. I even added the title, “Lisa’s Flat Stomach Product Recommendations” to give it a more personalized touch.
A lot of people pass on the Amazon.com program because of its low commissions. It’s not even close to being one of my top money makers, but the revenue is still a nice supplement, and if nothing else, it pays all my site’s hosting costs for the year.
Now that they provide so many types of widgets and different ways to link to their products (a specific search result, category, product cloud, etc.), it’s fun to experiment and see what cool ways you can incorporate Amazon products into your site.
So don’t discount Amazon’s affiliate program yet. If you haven’t tried their widgets, join the program or login to your account to see what they offer. You may find it’s worth it.
Hi Lisa,
I remember hearing that amazon was not going to affiliate with California. Is this still correct? did that law go through?
Thanks
Carolina
Thanks for your plug about amazon. I was thinking of nipping it in the bud and finding something better. I am like, you, I have sold over $800 worth of product and made a whole $37.00 wow. So I started shopping around for other book affiliates, but you’re right nothing matches amazon with their products. When I looked at what people bought, a lot of it wasn’t what I was advertising. People even bought music cds…
So I guess I’ll tough it out and see if more traffic, will mean more money with them.
Also, I am using sbi as well, I couldn’t be happier.
thank for good article
After reading the article, I just feel that I really need more info. Can you suggest some more resources ?
Hi Lisa,
I just read this post today. We are using the Amazon mp3 widget on our music site. The widget is neat and I think people like listening to the music samples. Our site is new, so it’s taking time to add lots of content, but it’s growing slow and steady. I was encouraged by the article on the Problogger site. I read it a while ago; as I recall, he said it was tedious to make the links at first, but as time has gone on, the profits have snowballed. Fun!
(Thanks for your articles.)
Yes, it is free.
I have to say this is news to me. I know you cannot buy from your own affiliate links (which is true for a lot of affiliate programs) but the friends and family clause is news to me.
So I suppose if you have a blog and you are promoting an Amazon product, and a family member just happens to read your blog, click a link and buy then it’s OK (because you might not even know they bought) But on the other hand they are saying you cannot actively send all your friends and family to your affiliate URL to buy. I can sort of understand why it’s like that but I bet a lot of people did not know this.
Thanks Lisa
That is what I think too. In their “terms of agreement” it states that if you sell to family or friends you will not earn any referrals and your contract can be terminated. Why do they do this when alot of people depend on family and friends for networking? Is this what you understand to be true in the “terms of agreement” and is this strictly enforced?
Thank you for your help. I’m trying to enlighted him as he has a web coach in which he has invested a large amount of money and I feel he has been robbed. It is my understanding that these programs are free to sign up..correct?
Hi Kathleen,
It was my understanding that these two programs are the same. I didn’t know there was a difference.
Hi Lisa
I just happened to stumble on your blog while I was looking for information about the Amazon Affiliate Program. Great information! My Step-Son has started a store and I am trying to get more information to help him. I have a question, What is the difference between the Associates Program and the Affiliates Program? Also, do they have the same “terms of agreement”? He has joined the Affiliates Program and said it was different than the Associates Program. I read the Associates Program “terms of agreement” and it states that you can not sell to family for friends? Is this correct?
Thank you for your help in advance.
Kathleen
Grissom,
I think it’s all about having enough targeted traffic. You also have to choose products that fit the niche of your site. Does your blog have a theme? Hopefully so and you’re not just promoting products. You should also be writing editorial/helpful articles to draw in regular visitors. Write posts that fit your niche and then recommend related products from your Amazon astore.
Hi, lisa, I also use the amazon affiliate to make money, same as you, just make around 50$ a month. But my blog are all about amazon products, so that you are better than me. Do you have any good idea about how to promote a amazon astore ?
Thanks.
No I don’t, sorry. Just a quick note. If you want to leave a comment, try to make sure they are relevant to the post you are commenting on. This is a post about Amazon’s Affiliate Program and I try to keep my comments on topic and related to the actual post they are linked to. Thanks. 🙂
Hi Lisa, do you know anyone who writes content inespensively?
Thank you Chris. Yes, the forums are a very underrated aspect of SBI!’s product. With all those friendly people who already have SBI! sites, you can’t beat that kind of fellowship. Yes, SBI! has a ton of info and it is easy to get overwhelmed but I always tell people — remember, you don’t have to learn how to do everything in the beginning. The only thing I focused on in the first 6 months was building my content and working to make it stand out from my competitors. I didn’t bother with mailing lists, social networking, etc. I just built content then once the traffic came I moved to the next level. It’s all about taking your time and keeping your priorities in check. Good luck!
PS – I used your link to sign up for hosting my blog on Website Palace:)
Chris H.
Hi Lisa, I’m actually considering moving over to SBI from Yahoo Web Hosting. A matter fact, I signed up for SBI last month, but I got a little overwhelmed with all the information that Ken Envoy so kindly shares and I asked for a refund. The grass really isn’t greener though on the other side of the fence. What I miss most about SBI is the forums, which I think are worth the $299 alone. I’ve never seen such friendly, helpful webmaster forums(apart from Website Babble of course). Anyways, if I sign up again I’ll definately use your link Lisa, since I’ve gotten so much out of your site, forums, and webmaster forum. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your wisdom in such a friendly, easy to understand way. Have a great week:)
Hi Ed
You can switch to SBI! You’ll have to save your text on your computer and then paste it into your new design. You won’t be able to use that template since you are using a custom godaddy builder. You’d have to choose one of SBI!’s templates and paste your content into there. Also, if you want to use that same domain you’ll have to transfer your domain over to them. No big deal – a common task and SBI! will instruct you how. SBI! does have a mailing list manager that you can use for your list and it’s pretty easy to use. Good luck to you!
If everyone you know has failed that way, that doesn’t sound to promising. I’m willing to do what it takes to make my site a success. I want this site to be a publisher of other peoples chocolate products. The sites name is expensivecandy.com. wouldn’t a certain amount of people just type in expensive candy, plus I can promote it. And when they got there, they would see products that they may be interested in instead of a bunch of content. But my understanding is that browsers give priority to sites with more content. Anyways, I’ll need to figure all that out, but I wanted to ask you about “sitebuildit” as well. I was considering joining and if I do, I will definitely use your link. But, right now I have my site being hosted by godaddy and im using their very rudamentery wizzy wig to create my site. Is it easy to switch that site to sitebuiltit? If I’m going to have content and a mailing list etc., this site build it looks like it makes it easier. Thank you for your help. You are obviously very good at what you do because when I type in “making money with adsense” in google, yours is the very first result. You are very impressive. If there is anything I can do for you, just let me know. When my webites are bringing in thousands of hits a day, I’m going to direct them to you . : )
Ed, the problem with STARTING your affiliate journey with a store is that stores aren’t search engine friendly. So if you have no traffic base, how do you expect to draw in enough targeted traffic to it so it can become successful? Everyone I know who has started with a store online has failed because of this very reason. Unless you have an existing traffic base or a large mailing list to promote your store to, it’s not a good idea for most people starting out. Of course there’s always the exception.
People say that if you want a good affiliate site, you should have a lot of content. I can understand that in many circumstances, but what is wrong with putting up a site that simply is a store that is populated with products from your partner site.
Ed, Two-tier means you earn a commission when someone you refer to the affiliate program makes a sale. (It’s sometimes called your downline) Recurring means the product or service you refer has multiple payments so you earn a commission for every payment the person you referred makes.
SiteSell has one of the best affiliate programs because it is 2 Tier and recurring. http://website.sitesell.com/affiliates So you earn commissions on your 2nd tier’s (team) sales and since the product costs $299/yr, you earn a 25% commission every time the person you refer renews their subscription. So if someone owns SBI! for 10 years, you get that 25% commission every year. As you can imagine, the more people you refer to the product the more those recurring commissions add up.
when choosing an affiliate program, what does it mean to have a 2 tier system and recurring commisions?
HI LISA. I’VE REALLY BEEN LOOKING OVER ALL YOUR STUFF AND I THINK YOU ARE VERY COOL. I STUMBLED ONTO YOUR SITE WHILE LOOKING INTO HOW PEOPLE HAVE SUCCEEDED IN MAKING MONEY AS AN ASSOCIATE WITH AMAZON. I REALLY LIKED WHAT YOU HAD TO SAY ABOUT HOW PEOPLE WANT THINGS TO HAPPEN TODAY. THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN IN ANY BUSINESS. I’M COMPLETLY DEDICATED TO CREATING A BUSINESS THAT I CAN OPERATE FROM ANY WHERE IN THE WORLD THAT I HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION. IF IT TAKES ME 5 YEARS TO CREATE THAT, IT WILL BE WORTH EVERY SECOND. THE WEBSITE THAT I AM PRESENTLY WORKING ON IS CALLED EXPENSIVECANDY.COM MY INITIAL IDEA WAS TO MAKE MONEY FROM ADSENSE ADS, but i wanted to create many sites that made just a few dollars each. However, ad sense doesn’t seem to want to accept my site because it has no content. For me , this was the idea. Each site would only be one page and be populated only with adsense ads. Otherwise, i might try the amazon thing. Or maybe something else that I have not yet even encountered yet. : ) They key for me is something that is scalable and can be duplicated over and over again. If I can find something that makes me $50 per month residually, I will do it over and over for years if necesary. Sorry about the caps, it took me a little while to realize i was shouting. Also, how do I put my picture on my posts?
Great tip Nina. I neglected to mention this!
Hi – I just wanted to mention that if you sign up for the performance plan over the regular plan that you make much better commissions.
If you go into Account Settings – You click on Fee Structure and choose Performance based. Commissions are between 4% and 8.5% depending on how much you sell. It’s pretty easy to get to make a jump to 6%.
Hi
It is fantastic information about affliate marketing. i will try it as soon as possible. and one question that i want to ask that is maximum how many commission we can get.
Thanks
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to track all your orders(wink).
Yeah but these are products that I could not find affiliate programs for anywhere else and since it’s not costing me anything but space on my site, I say it’s worth it. Better than nothing. 🙂 Imagine what Darren had to sell to make $2500. Geez, must’ve been 10,000 products. LOL
So you sell 70 products… and 50 dollars… wow that’s insane lol
@ Chris: Wow, I didn’t know that but I’m not surprised considering the source: Darren Rowse. If you can sell large volumes of products those pennies do add up. The key is traffic. For a long time I did not promote Amazon but now it’s starting to be worth it.
@ Nathan: It’s on the right side of the header of flat-stomach-exercises.com (It may take a sec to load… that’s one drawback).
I sold about 70 products based on my earnings report.
You can see a list of other programs that do well on my sites here
https://blog.2createawebsite.com/2008/06/15/my-top-7-money-making-programs/
But I wouldn’t recommend them for you specifically unless I knew more about your site. Keep in mind these programs work for me, due to the theme of my sites. It’s important to find what works best for you.
Hey lisa
i didnt see your Amazon Widget
where is it?
btw i signed up for amazon a while ago
how many products did you sell for the 50 dollars
what other affiliate programs do you reccomend?
I have never come accross anyone recommending amazon. You would think that they pay decent commissions. But unfortunately they don’t. It’s funny though.
That is interesting that your commissions went up 20% when you added the widgets to your sites. I am just starting out on my blog, so I am currently not promoting any affiliate products. However, when my traffic starts to increase I might just have to sign up to become an Amazon.com affiliate. I actually wrote a post the other day in my blog titled “People Are Actually Making Money As Amazon Affiliates”. In this post I wrote that Problogger apparently made $2500 as an Amazon.com affiliate in June/2007 alone! That is no small change! Anyways, thanks for another informative and interesting post.