Extremely Low Amazon Conversions

10 years ago

I am not a big fan of Amazon since they offer very low commission rates. The good thing about Amazon is that it converts very well.

I'd suggest you look into the reviews of the products you have written. You should really put yourself into customer shoes while writing your reviews about the products you are promoting. Avoid the sales pitch though.

Check out Erica Stone's Extreme Review guide. It has lots of good information about writing compelling reviews for Amazon products.

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PinkStar

10 years ago

Without seeing your page and links, it's more likely that surfers are the ones who exclude the ref id than your host.
Also, if there are many who promote the same product the surfer might click through, recognize it from another site, and keep surfing.

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Liarspoker 10 years ago

I have Erica Stones Exreme Review and recommend it.

I would also recommend the Amazonian profit Plan by Paula and Wanda (who allegedly make $10,000 per month using amazon).

Just buy those two guides and you will be set without needing anything else.

Edit: Thanks for being honest with your figures. I usually don't trust people that say they have ultra high conversions.

I only started half way through December and my conversion rate is 6.25% but this is dropping with each passing day. Keep an eye on my stats here.
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wolfmmiii

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Leroux45

I would like to find a trusted third party to analyze and evaluate my sites. Does anyone have recommendations?

PM me your site. My guess (without seeing anything) is that the traffic you are capturing isn't too far along in the buying cycle. With just a 24-hour cookie, you have to attract the right people. Otherwise, you get them too early in the buying cycle and you miss the 24-hour cutoff.

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Pdomain

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by wolfmmiii

PM me your site. My guess (without seeing anything) is that the traffic you are capturing isn't too far along in the buying cycle. With just a 24-hour cookie, you have to attract the right people. Otherwise, you get them too early in the buying cycle and you miss the 24-hour cutoff.

What is "buying cycle"?

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bswooden

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Pdomain

What is "buying cycle"?

When someone is shopping for something online, there is a cycle they go through. First you are researching the product, reading reviews, shopping price. The person in that phase isn't buying yet. Second phase, you are ready to actually make a purchase and have your credit card in your hand looking for a place to buy your product.

If your site gets traffic that mainly has shoppers/researchers (not buyers), you will have a low conversion rate since they will not purchase from your site.

There might be more to that cycle but that seems to be the basics of it

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Leroux45

10 years ago

Now the Amazon plugin that I'm using - Associate Goliath - gives you the option to display the 90-day cookie button which should exceed pretty much any buying cycle. Still, I'm seeing low low low conversions *Grump*

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wolfmmiii

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Leroux45

Now the Amazon plugin that I'm using - Associate Goliath - gives you the option to display the 90-day cookie button which should exceed pretty much any buying cycle. Still, I'm seeing low low low conversions *Grump*

There is no 90-Day cookie button. The 90-day "cookie" only enters the equation if the person adds the product to his/her cart. If the person doesn't do that, there is no 90-day cookie.

Study the keywords that people are using to find your site. If they are generic terms or terms that don't indicate any sort of commercial intent, that's your problem. The PM I sent you also outlines several other possible reasons.

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JohnMcCabe

10 years ago

Originally Posted by wolfmmiii

There is no 90-Day cookie button. The 90-day "cookie" only enters the equation if the person adds the product to his/her cart. If the person doesn't do that, there is no 90-day cookie.

Study the keywords that people are using to find your site. If they are generic terms or terms that don't indicate any sort of commercial intent, that's your problem. The PM I sent you also outlines several other possible reasons.

Perhaps the plugin is using an "add to cart" button. Person clicks through to Amazon, finds they've already added something to a shopping cart unexpectedly and freaks out and bails. I wouldn't freak out, but I would definitely remove the item from the cart and make a note not to go through deceptive links again.

Speaking of deceptive, if the person offering the plugin is touting some kind of secret cookie-extending button when all they're doing is using add-to-cart, I'd call that deceptive. I wonder how many other users are ruining their reputations by using "see price" links and adding items to shopping carts?

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JohnMcCabe

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Pdomain

What is "buying cycle"?

Here's an excerpt from a report I did a few years ago explaining the idea:

The Natural Buying Process

Once you get past the "do you want fries with that" impulse purchase, most buyers go through a similar 5-step process before they buy. Here are the five steps:

Your prospects must first realize that they have a problem they want solved, or a desire they want filled.
Your prospects seek to educate themselves and look for the options available.
With an array of options now, your prospects try to narrow down the choices to the ones they believe will best solve the problem or fill the desire.
They decide on a course of action.
They actually pull the trigger and act on their decision.

Let's look at an example: Buying a car

Step 1 > You take your car in for basic routine maintenance. In addition to your oil change and lube, you get a list of periodic maintenance jobs that are coming up along with a few things that are getting close to failing. Along with an estimate of what taking care of the list will cost. You realize that you're reaching a decision point - pour more money into the old car, or put that money towards a new one.

Step 2 > You start looking into the new models and what they offer. You check out Consumer Reports and go online to see what you can learn.

Step 3 > You've narrowed the field down to 5 or 6 vehicles that you think might fill the bill for you. It's time for more research. You go back online to look at reviews of the vehicles you're considering. You head for the dealers and take some test drives. You check a few sites and read some ads to see what your old car might be worth.

Step 4 > After weighing the options, you decide you want Vehicle A, and that you don't want the hassle of selling your old car yourself; you'll be trading the old car in.

Step 5 > You pick up the phone, make an appointment with your chosen dealer, and head for the door...

In terms of Amazon sites, if you are simply trying to funnel buyers to Amazon, you'd best catch them at Step 4. Earlier, and they are not ready to pull the trigger. Later, and they go straight to Amazon.

If you have the patience, and the content, you can try to catch them at Step 2. Gain permission to contact them (get them on a list) and educate them on the options. By the time they get to Step 5, you're the one they call on (they'll follow the link from your site, with credit card in hand).

Like I said, though, this approach takes more patience than the typical niche affiliate has, especially one who believes the key to vault is the right theme, plugin or keyword. You end up creating, dare I say it, authority.

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tyson4

10 years ago

Great info here, thanks!

Thanks
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RobRizzo 10 years ago

Originally Posted by tyson4

Great info here, thanks!

I agree... thank you.
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webmonopoly

10 years ago

6079 click to amazon and 16 sales?? Something is definitely off here. Wolfmi is probably right about the buying cycle. Even if your articles were horrible, as long as your getting visitors to amazon, you should see way more sales.

What plugin are you using?

P.S

Wolfmiii, any chance you still have your blueprint kicking around, ive been trying to get my hands on that for ages. Any way you can check out my sites and give me some polish up pointers?

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Stuart Walker

10 years ago

I expect the problem is you're attracting lots of casual browsers and info seekers and not the buyers. Your keywords may be too vague and don't show 'buyer intent'.

For example "cell phone" is very vague. Do they want to buy a phone? Do they want to know what a mobile phone is? Do they want to get information about general mobiles phones to maybe make a decision about purchase later?

However "best cell phone" shows that they are a bit further along he buying cycle because they want to know which is best. They've probably already done a bit of hunting around and got some information already.

Even better would be "best Samsung cell phone" as they've shown they are considering a Samsung and are probably close to making a decision on which one to buy.

It can get even more specific like "best Samsung Galaxy cell phone" as that shows they have an inclination to buy one of the Samgsung Galaxy models.

Hope that helps you understand the buying cycle a bit better.

Below I've attached a word document containing 220 keywords with buyer intent that you might find useful....

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tekken2

10 years ago

My amazon site is having a very bad January.

Its fairly new, only 3 months old, and up to about 120 posts.

November conversions were 9%, December 5% and so far for Jan its fallen to 3%!

Traffic has built from an average of 100 views per day in December to 200+ in January, but because of the drop in conversion my earnings have not increased!

Just wonder if people have less money in January?

All my reviews are XYZ Model Review, so it should be well down the buying path!

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dtul

10 years ago

Originally Posted by tekken2

My amazon site is having a very bad January.

Its fairly new, only 3 months old, and up to about 120 posts.

November conversions were 9%, December 5% and so far for Jan its fallen to 3%!

Traffic has built from an average of 100 views per day in December to 200+ in January, but because of the drop in conversion my earnings have not increased!

Just wonder if people have less money in January?

All my reviews are XYZ Model Review, so it should be well down the buying path!

January is typically a slow month. The holiday season drives a lot of sales, so that is most likely what you were seeing a lot of sales from during November and December.

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garyv

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Leroux45

Nonetheless, on December I had 5923 unique visitors, 6079 clicks and only 16 sales which is only 0.26%. And this was my best performing month, so I believe something is seriously wrong.?

Are these clicks to your site? Or to your amazon affiliate links?

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Leroux45 10 years ago

Originally Posted by garyv

Are these clicks to your site? Or to your amazon affiliate links?

These are clicks to my Amazon affiliate links and come straight from the Daily Trends report.
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Stuart Walker

10 years ago

Like I said, though, this approach takes more patience than the typical niche affiliate has, especially one who believes the key to vault is the right theme, plugin or keyword. You end up creating, dare I say it, authority.

It's very rare to see a straight up Amazon affiliate site that captures emails which is strange IMO considering most rely solely on SEO traffic that may suddenly vanish overnight.

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myob

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Stuart Walker

It's very rare to see a straight up Amazon affiliate site that captures emails which is strange IMO considering most rely solely on SEO traffic that may suddenly vanish overnight.

IMO, the product "review site" model along with Amazon's 24-hour cookie is a bad combination that always results in extremely low conversions or even dismal failure.

With the superior conversion advantages of list-building, this marketing method seems surprisingly overlooked here. Amazon itself sends email promotions to "your" customers for maximizing customer margins and retention.

Capturing prospects' contact information at the very beginning of a sales cycle, then progressively moving them along towards closing the sale using multiple communication channels is standard practice used by many of the most successful Amazon affiliates.

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PotPieGirl

10 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

IMO, the product "review site" model along with Amazon's 24-hour cookie is a bad combination that always results in extremely low conversions or even dismal failure.

With the superior conversion advantages of list-building, this marketing method seems surprisingly overlooked here. Amazon itself sends email promotions to "your" customers for maximizing customer margins and retention.

Capturing prospects' contact information at the very beginning of a sales cycle, then progressively moving them along towards closing the sale using multiple communication channels is standard practice used by many of the most successful Amazon affiliates.

Who said you can't do both - capture emails AND be an Amazon affiliate?

He/she asked about their Amazon conversions - we answered. No reason to 'dis this person over their monetization method, ya know?

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myob

10 years ago

Originally Posted by PotPieGirl

Who said you can't do both - capture emails AND be an Amazon affiliate?

That's exactly what I meant, and exactly what I do. Read and think about the quote again -especially the last paragraph:

IMO, the product "review site" model along with Amazon's 24-hour cookie is a bad combination that always results in extremely low conversions or even dismal failure.

With the superior conversion advantages of list-building, this marketing method seems surprisingly overlooked here. Amazon itself sends email promotions to "your" customers for maximizing customer margins and retention.

Capturing prospects' contact information at the very beginning of a sales cycle, then progressively moving them along towards closing the sale using multiple communication channels is standard practice used by many of the most successful Amazon affiliates.

Originally Posted by PotPieGirl

He/she asked about their Amazon conversions - we answered. No reason to 'dis this person over their monetization method, ya know?

Well, ya know, if a 1% conversion rate is acceptable, then knock yourself out. No personal "'dis" was intended, just the conversion rate inherent with this particular monetization method. The OP (as with so many other starry-eyed affiliates using this "paste, rank and hope" method) was most likely victimized not by affiliate theft or click quirks, but by the marketing model itself. :rolleyes:

All I'm saying is that without a lead capture and funnel system, the product "review" marketing model is incompatible with Amazon's 24-hour cookie. To optimize conversion rates, you need to provide multiple exposure of your message to prospects.

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stolf

10 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

IMO, the product "review site" model along with Amazon's 24-hour cookie is a bad combination that always results in extremely low conversions or even dismal failure.

No its not.

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myob

10 years ago

Originally Posted by stolf

No its not.

If you believe a 1-5 percent conversion rate is great, perhaps it doesn't occur to you that this is a 95-99% failure rate. Maybe it's just me, but this does seem rather dismal. Product reviews do not convert effectively.

And adding in the double whammy of Amazon's 24-hour cookie window along with getting a review site to even rank in the search engines, the statistics are staggering towards epic failure.

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insyncearnings

10 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

If you believe a 1-5 percent conversion rate is great, perhaps it doesn't occur to you that this is a 95-99% failure rate. Maybe it's just me, but this does seem rather dismal. Product reviews do not convert effectively.

And adding in the double whammy of Amazon's 24-hour cookie window along with getting a review site to even rank in the search engines, the statistics are staggering towards epic failure.

I had no problem ranking for computer related keywords when I made my first ever "review" site and that was without the knowledge and experience I now have. I do think I got lucky because link building and the whole quality not quantity was with me from the start. My site shot to PR4 and was getting organic traffic from all the major search engines. Ok your not going to be hitting first pages for buy laptops but if you pick your keywords right optimize your page and build the right backlinks and social methods. I see no reason a review site would be seen as such a waste of time and a failure. It's not like it takes much work to maintain other then if you want to add more content or just continue building backlinks steady while your working on another project.

Long term yes I see some place for it but not a main income unless you hit major KW's but short term and starting out its a great venture.

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myob

10 years ago

Originally Posted by insyncearnings

I had no problem ranking for computer related keywords when I made my first ever "review" site and that was without the knowledge and experience I now have. I do think I got lucky because link building and the whole quality not quantity was with me from the start. My site shot to PR4 and was getting organic traffic from all the major search engines. Ok your not going to be hitting first pages for buy laptops but if you pick your keywords right optimize your page and build the right backlinks and social methods. I see no reason a review site would be seen as such a waste of time and a failure. It's not like it takes much work to maintain other then if you want to add more content or just continue building backlinks steady while your working on another project.

Long term yes I see some place for it but not a main income unless you hit major KW's but short term and starting out its a great venture.

For Amazon affiliates who are making full-time incomes, "luck" is not part of the marketing plan. And until you understand that "conversion" is a process, not an event, you will continue to see those pathetic results. :rolleyes:

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insyncearnings 10 years ago

Originally Posted by stolf

No its not.

I have to agree with this my first ever successful website being that it was my first site I really put effort into building and promoting. I found the 24 hour cookie to be great as my job was to of course try and get them to buy nice expensive computers etc (I game and have a skill with computers so kind of my area of expertise) but they brought all sorts of other stuff which is nice.

It is almost a kind of buffer when your starting out to learn traffic how it reacts and responds and the fact Amazon already has the trust factor in the eyes of the consumer you just need to build on this.
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seobro

10 years ago

There will help you improve your conversion.

Lots of large clear crisp images.
Videos, go to you tube and get some.
Info graphics with a product benefit show case.
Links with more information on the product people plan to get.
500 words or more of body copy. Highlight benefits of product use.

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Leroux45

10 years ago

Originally Posted by seobro

There will help you improve your conversion.

Lots of large clear crisp images.
Videos, go to you tube and get some.
Info graphics with a product benefit show case.
Links with more information on the product people plan to get.
500 words or more of body copy. Highlight benefits of product use.

With all due respect, I don't believe this.

Why? Because it's Amazon that does the converting for you. It provides all of the things you list (except, maybe, for videos) plus the all important factor of credibility which small review sites don't offer.

The job of an Amazon Associate is not to convert visitors but to get them to click through the links. Then wait for Amazon to do the rest.

Now clicking certainly happens in my case. As mentioned earlier, I get almost 300 clickthroughs daily from product specific keywords such as Maker Model Review, Maker Model Reviews, Buy Maker Model, etc.

Because people click to Amazon, because Amazon converts and because the conversions in this case are a lot lower than the norm, the logical conclusion is that some form of earnings theft is taking place.

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dreamtoreality 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Leroux45

The job of an Amazon Associate is not to convert visitors but to get them to click through the links. Then wait for Amazon to do the rest.

I'm not buying that. If your goal is to simply make visitors click through to Amazon then your site is nothing than a doorway page, which will inevitably get hit by Google. Furthermore, why not presell so well that it makes it more likely that visitors will buy the product you are reviewing or recommending? In my case, I know which way works best, and return visitors are never a bad thing either.
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- PotPieGirl 10 years ago
  
  There are quite a few reasons your conversion rates could be low - most have been explained quite well here in this thread already.
  
  There is one more thing to check tho -
  
  Go into your Associates account and generate an "orders report". At the bottom of the list of ordered products it says "Items with no orders" - click that.
  
  That report will show you all your product links that have been clicked on, but nothing was ordered via those clicks. It can be a very eye-opening experience as you scroll through all those details.
  
  For example, I had a web page that was converting super well for a specific product. Then suddenly, the sales seemed to just stop. I still had lots of clicks, but the sales dried up.
  
  So I ran one of these reports, saw that I was still getting a ton of clicks on that specific product link, but when I clicked thru the link I saw that the seller no longer was selling that product on Amazon. Instead of an "add to cart" button, it now says "visit website".
  
  Amazon also will take product listings offline - meaning, if your readers click that link, they end up on an Amazon 404 page. Running that report of items with no orders can help you find those issues.
  
  If you see in your report that specific product links are getting lots of clicks and the product is still available (as well has the other metrics - good reviews, etc), then it's time to look at the content where they are clicking from on your site. You just might be able to edit some things to put your readers in a different state of mind as they click thru.
  
  As for running that "items with no orders" report inside your Associates account, I did a guest post over at MarketingLand.com some time ago that details out exactly how to do it:
  
  Hidden Data In Your Amazon Associate Reports
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  Jennifer
  ~PotPieGirl
  
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betterwtveter

10 years ago

Not sure if amazon does not get you credit for first time visitors with IP tracking, but they could be running off to another offer and have another seller get the credit.

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Ricardo Furtado

10 years ago

Why are you selling stuff from Amazon? The money that you get from them is pathetic – irrespective of what the many sellers of Amazon products will shout and say!
All the best. Regards

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Leroux45

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Ricardo Furtado

Why are you selling stuff from Amazon? The money that you get from them is pathetic – irrespective of what the many sellers of Amazon products will shout and say!
All the best. Regards

Because I find it relatively easy to rank Amazon Review pages and because of the upsells that make up for the low commissions. I haven't had much luck with CPA and/or Clickbank.

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actionplanbiz

10 years ago

you can always prettylink your amazon affiliate links. if you can see your recie ing those clicks on amazon, i doubt anyone is stealing your commissions.

maybe look into how well your review sites prepare your visitors to buy before they clcik on your amazon link

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insyncearnings

10 years ago

To be honest I can only think it is something about the mindset of the users you are getting via organic avenues. I too run Amazon reviews well I did run 2 one for the UK and the other for the US. I am in the process (nearly finished) of building and writing one review for each category so I can begin testing reading to launch and promote.

I always used to get fairly good conversion rates. Having them click through to Amazon was if anything was the problem and I wouldn't even call it a problem.

One thing I don't which believe it or not improved sales back then was to rather then listing the price above the button to go to Amazon remove it altogether. It seemed that because I was just reviewing and the user wanted to see the price clicked through.

Try changing things up a bit...

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Kris79

10 years ago

Since Amazon has only 24h cookie might first guess would be that you are getting a lot of visitors from genera keywords. Visitors that are not very deep in ther buying process.
This would be a logical conclusion.

And of course since now Google is not providing keywords in web analytics you have to do it manually:
- get SEMrush reports for your websites (organic keywords)
- get keywords from Google Webmaster Tools
- check those keywords and find out what type of keywords you have on those lists
- if this hipothesis is correct, start optimizing you websites for those more valuable keywords that identify buyers on the last stages of their buying process.

Second method:
getting Amazon plugin that will allow you use 90-day cookie.
You can start with those Plugins By Igor | Best WordPress Plugins for Amazon Affiliates

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johnben1444

10 years ago

I don't know what niche you are but i know Yahoo & Bing traffic don't convert well.

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Extremely Low Amazon Conversions

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