What is the minimum price to start considering an Amazon product worth promoting?

Remember one vital point: Amazon Associates pays commission based on how many items you sell:



Yes, by all means aim to sell lots of high dollar items, but make sure you also aim to sell a significant number of low price items too. These sales will drive up your commission rates so that ALL your sales will be paid at the higher rate.

Thank you very much for your responses. It is is much clearer now.
Best and have a great new year!

From our previous conversations through PM, perhaps I can provide some insight which is applicable to a wide variety of niches including yours. Keep in mind, that as Alexa stated, this is a relationship-building business.

Amazon itself has developed an astounding algorithm for maximizing conversions, which unfortunately for most affiliates extends far beyond the 24-hour cookie window. In some reports I've seen, over 60% of Amazon sales (usually high end) are made internally through followups, courtesy of affiliates who unwittingly send one-off direct traffic.

My personal preference has always been to sell the most expensive Amazon products (in the 5-6 figure price range) which generally is the major criteria in choosing niches. It's a process, beginning with nominally priced products (usually under $50) initially for building lists of buyers and establishing buying patterns.

For example, selling books relevant to your targeted audience as well as the intended applicable capital equipment you're ultimately selling is perhaps the easiest method IMO to find and qualify prospects for the higher end products.

As your customer list grows, consider promoting office and industrial supplies through AmazonSupply.com (using your current Amazon affiliate credentials). There is a flat 6% commission, and buyers in your particular niche typically purchase in quantity and often.

Don't forget that when selling electronics from Amazon they have a cap of 4% or at least it used to be that way I haven't looked in a while though.

Alexa is exactly right: There isn't one.

For my business, we don't think about price at all before deciding whether to promote it. The questions we ask are:

1. Is it appropriate to the mission of our website? (Or you might ask: does it fit our niche?)
2. Is it high quality? (Or really: will people be satisfied if they buy it?)
3. Will people actually buy it?

Admittedly embedded in #3 is the price -- but the question we ask isn't whether it's priced high enough for us to make money, but whether it's priced low enough that our customers will actually buy it.

Actually there's almost certainly a very big difference between the two, but what that difference is depends on your customers, your business model and you. For instance, if I shop for a pair of jeans at Sears, I'll expect to pay about $30. If I go to Nordstrom, I'll expect to pay over $150.

My guess is that for Sears -- given their customers, positioning, branding, etc. -- it's a lot easier to sell 10 pairs of jeans at $30 than one pair of jeans at $150 whereas for Nordstrom -- given their customers, positioning, branding, etc. -- it's a lot easier to sell 10 pairs of jeans at $150 than one pair of jeans at $30. Again, it's all about you, your customers and their expectations.

So does that mean you should try to be the equivalent of Nordstrom instead of a Sears? Maybe. It all depends on your strategy. But just because you might make more profit per item with a strategy where you sell expensive items, doesn't mean you'll make more total profit that way. A bottle of Coca-Cola can be purchased for $2 whereas the same-sized bottle of Dom Perignon champagne would set you back $150. But the Coca-Cola company makes far, far more money than Moet et Chandon. Personally, when it comes to making beverages, I'd rather be the Coca-Cola company than Moet. But just because that's what I'd prefer, that doesn't mean that's what my skills and talents are best suited for. Pick the model that will work for you.

Selling Amazon products clearly isn't for everybody -- but nothing is. My business does pretty well with Amazon, but that's because it's a good match for our business model. We've developed a great website (if I do say so myself), we're able to drive a good amount of traffic, and we understand the the types of customers we have are well served by many of the products on Amazon.

At the same time, I know that our customers wouldn't be interested at all in any of the offerings on a site like ClickBank. This doesn't mean that all ClickBank products are bad (though many seem to be!) or that you can't make money from it -- obviously a lot of people do make quite a bite of money from Clickbank -- it just means that my business couldn't make much from ClickBank.

When I run the numbers, it's obvious that Amazon is the better choice -- for us. I'd rather make 8.5% of $1,000,000 than 75% of $1,000 (or less!) As with choosing products, it's not the commission per sale that matters, but your total profit.

That said, my answer isn't necessarily your answer. And I think your biggest problem is that you're starting your business seemingly thinking solely about the revenue side, when what you need to be thinking about is your customers. At the end of the day, it's not the affiliate program you choose or the price of the products you promote that will make or break you. It's whether you're effective at bringing value to your customers again and again.

Yes, it works exactly the same, using your current affiliate code/ID. However, always use Amazon's affiliate linkbuilder tools.

In addition, when promoting Amazon products by email, never embed your affiliate links within your messages. This is against their TOS, and you may get banned without warning. Be sure to point all links from off-site promotions to your website or product-specific landing page.