Lessons Learned from earning $60,151.68 in past 12 months with Amazon Associates

14 years ago

Wowsers, very inspirational. I am currently working with Amazon and I hope to enjoy similar success. Well, not gonna shoot for five figures a month just yet, just a high three figure or a low four figures a month.

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sellerscompanion 14 years ago

Your post is JUST what I needed to read tonight! I have been laser targeting Amazon for the last month or so and I am starting to notice increasing numbers. Glad to see what is possible and I will definitely follow your blog!

CC
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- pappyy3 14 years ago
  
  What a fantastic Post!
  
  Many thanks for sharing your experiences as a amazon affiliate.
  
  Many articles I've read on the net only seen to give very vague hints about what people need to do to succeed.
  
  You have summed up the process and findings very nicely
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  Tonster
  
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LilBlackDress

14 years ago

Thanks Chris,

This is great info. I appreciate your writing it up and am off to read your blog. I was wondering how often do you use photos? Can you get by with just the intext links or do photos add a lot?

TY!

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by LilBlackDress

Thanks Chris,

This is great info. I appreciate your writing it up and am off to read your blog. I was wondering how often do you use photos? Can you get by with just the intext links or do photos add a lot?

TY!

Every time I write a post that discusses a product I try and use a photo. I don't suggest just using in text links because it's not that hard to add the link to the photo as well (try creating your own tracking link to watch it).

People love clicking images and if you use images in Wordpress (for example) and just link to a larger version of the image you're missing out.

If anything you can get sneaky and use a small version of the image of a product that has a lot of detail and they may click it because they are hoping to see a larger version of it. Bam! You just got a tracking cookie on them and get paid on anything they buy in the next 24 hours.

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LilBlackDress 14 years ago

So when you say banner ads are you including the little widgets that have a picture and the price? or just the picture? I ask because on your blog you mention rotating sizes that are larger than the widgets...

What are your thoughts on the widgets?
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JoshuaG

14 years ago

Hey Chris, thanks for the helpful information.

I was wondering, in your posts, do you make typically make text links without giving a hint as to where they go?

Ie: Gaining the knowledge to take great photos is one thing, having the right camera is another. <link>The Canon Digital Rebel XT</link> is a fine piece of machine for aspiring shutter bugs.

- OR -

Do you typically let consumers know what will happen

Ie: Gaining the knowledge to take great photos is one thing, having the right camera is another. The Canon Digital Rebel XT is a fine piece of machine for aspiring shutter bugs. You can get a good price on the Digital Rebel at <link>Amazon</link>, I get all my camera and accessories there.

Do you see what I mean?

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by LilBlackDress

So when you say banner ads are you including the little widgets that have a picture and the price? or just the picture? I ask because on your blog you mention rotating sizes that are larger than the widgets...

What are your thoughts on the widgets?

Widgets are just ok, and with widgets I only use them to display bestseller products for the respective niche. The only reason why I would use them is if I don't want to use more than one Adsense unit on a single page (I'm sure you may have heard you can earn more if you display just one) and if there isn't anything better to use.

It's best to think of anything supplied by Amazon i.e. banners, widgets, tag clouds etc. as the worst way to monetize a website (at least in my experience).

Originally Posted by AndyJohnson

Great Post Chris!

I have never promoted any Amazon products.. maybe it is something that I will test. Have you tried promoting products from Click Bank or Commission Junction? If so, what were your revenues like compared to revenues with Amazon?

To be honest I'm a click bank noob lol. I'm not even sure where I can check my stats. I've only promoted one product there via my blog and that was the ShoeMoney System because I've been reading his blog for years and I went to Elite Retreat last year (his event) and know he's legit.

Commission Junction I only tend to make a few hundred dollars a month from. The way I look at it is that any real physical product that someone can buy is available on Amazon at a higher commission rate too. The fact that consumers trust Amazon so much is also a huge benefit.

It's also just way easier to link to products. I hate CJ's interface and the only time I'll use CJ is when a product isn't available at Amazon (not often).

Originally Posted by JoshuaG

Hey Chris, thanks for the helpful information.

I was wondering, in your posts, do you make typically make text links without giving a hint as to where they go?

Ie: Gaining the knowledge to take great photos is one thing, having the right camera is another. <link>The Canon Digital Rebel XT</link> is a fine piece of machine for aspiring shutter bugs.

- OR -

Do you typically let consumers know what will happen

Ie: Gaining the knowledge to take great photos is one thing, having the right camera is another. The Canon Digital Rebel XT is a fine piece of machine for aspiring shutter bugs. You can get a good price on the Digital Rebel at <link>Amazon</link>, I get all my camera and accessories there.

Do you see what I mean?

Hey Joshua,

Great question, but sadly I don't have a definite answer. I do a mixture of both. I've done things like intentionally only listed a few of the product features and said things like <link>see all features</link>. It's probably something I could test even further but I'm never really worried about the impact on consumers because I usually provide them enough information to make a purchase decision so that once they do click a link it's not like I'm just trying to dump them off.

That and they can just hover over the link and see it's for Amazon right

?

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TimG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

Every time I write a post that discusses a product I try and use a photo. I don't suggest just using in text links because it's not that hard to add the link to the photo as well (try creating your own tracking link to watch it).

People love clicking images and if you use images in Wordpress (for example) and just link to a larger version of the image you're missing out.

If anything you can get sneaky and use a small version of the image of a product that has a lot of detail and they may click it because they are hoping to see a larger version of it. Bam! You just got a tracking cookie on them and get paid on anything they buy in the next 24 hours.

Chris,
Glad you started this thread and thus far I have found it to be very valuable. Love the tip above about the small picture and someone clicking on it to see it bigger and capturing them for a tracking cookie on Amazone for 24 hours......awesome.

Also didn't realize that the banner widgets by Amazon didn't work that well as I've been using those on my sites but now I may adjust and go with single product pictures.

Respectfully,
Tim

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AndyJohnson

14 years ago

Great Post Chris!

I have never promoted any Amazon products.. maybe it is something that I will test. Have you tried promoting products from Click Bank or Commission Junction? If so, what were your revenues like compared to revenues with Amazon?

Thanks

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JMartin

14 years ago

Good stuff Chris.

I've been making some money with Amazon for years, but it looks like I was underachieving. Geez, and I got all excited when I'd pop a $2,500 item and get some spending coin (I always get paid in gift certs since I spend a ton at Amazon annually).

And yeah, I learned a long time ago that Amazon's little tools suck (at least for me).

Are you doing a whole site for just 1 product or keeping it into a small group (like 3-d TVs for example) or ?

Thanks
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JMartin

Good stuff Chris.

I've been making some money with Amazon for years, but it looks like I was underachieving. Geez, and I got all excited when I'd pop a $2,500 item and get some spending coin (I always get paid in gift certs since I spend a ton at Amazon annually).

And yeah, I learned a long time ago that Amazon's little tools suck (at least for me).

Are you doing a whole site for just 1 product or keeping it into a small group (like 3-d TVs for example) or ?

I do a mixture of both and it all depends on how much time you have. I don't think there are any shortcuts to success (perhaps there are and I've missed out on them) and so if it's a larger category I'd need to spend more time building up a quality site to rank etc. than if it's a smaller category but in both situations it's still a matter of making sure you put in the work and do something good.

That said I am slowly trying to move into outsourcing more of my content creation as I would love to be able to build and rank sites by only doing the initial set up and that's it... we'll see how that goes though.

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JMartin

14 years ago

One more question. Do you focus on high-ticket items?

Just wondering, because I've never been more depressed than seeing book sales commissions. I need to move a truckload to make anything "interesting."

Is this your experience too?

I have many sites, outsourced people, etc. I just haven't put much into Amazon since 2008 honestly. Maybe I should.

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JMartin

One more question. Do you focus on high-ticket items?

Just wondering, because I've never been more depressed than seeing book sales commissions. I need to move a truckload to make anything "interesting."

Is this your experience too?

I have many sites, outsourced people, etc. I just haven't put much into Amazon since 2008 honestly. Maybe I should.

I haven't focused on any big ticket items yet (in my mind big ticket is $1,000+). If I do it will be on something that I know people don't mind buying without seeing close up. But I also don't like working on stuff less than $50 (Just tried moving a site that does under $50 items today though so we'll see)

It all really depends on the need your filling with your website. Are you providing information or helping someone make a purchase decision? I believe the former tends to work better with Adsense than the later (or perhaps a combination of both). So there is a chance it's not even worth you running Amazon on your websites.

i.e. I don't run any Amazon on my blog except for when I review a book and because internet marketers are so savvy and "link click averse" they'll likely just type in Amazon and buy it that way (for whatever reason).

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JMartin

14 years ago

Thanks Chris.

I agree with Adsense being better for "hey, here's some info" sites. For Amazon I've always looked for buyers only. I'm not there to educate someone about what a TV is (for example), rather here's where to get it at the best price and why you want it now.

Whole different mindset and content requirements.

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peterphillipps

14 years ago

Hi Chris,
Great post. Thanks for all the information. How many sites are you running to generate the numbers you are acheiving.
I'm doing well with amazon but not as good as you.
Regards Pete

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Sparhawke

14 years ago

While you will not share your niches, understandably would you go as far as to mention what actual research you do to find these hidden niches?

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Christian York

14 years ago

Great post.

It's cool to see other people having success with amazon.

I didn't make as much as that from amazon last year but it was still very worthwhile.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks

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tycoon828

14 years ago

Great post. This is what I need now.

Christ, I have a question though. Do you think it's difficult to promote large sized product? I read a post before and the author recommend not promote heavy and large sized product because people tend to buy those kind of things locally instead of buying from amazon. What's your experience about this?

Much thanks.

Thanks

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volkansen

14 years ago

Great post Chris. Thanks for sharing...
Does amazon only pay by check or does it pay via direct deposit too?

Thanks
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by TimG

Chris,
Glad you started this thread and thus far I have found it to be very valuable. Love the tip above about the small picture and someone clicking on it to see it bigger and capturing them for a tracking cookie on Amazone for 24 hours......awesome.

Also didn't realize that the banner widgets by Amazon didn't work that well as I've been using those on my sites but now I may adjust and go with single product pictures.

Respectfully,
Tim

Hey Tim,

Yah I try to get creative with it. That type of stuff like intentionally using a smaller picture is just one of many random little ideas I try doing that I assume should work based on what I've learned but I never really tried doing tracking codes to prove it (perhaps I will eventually but I just don't want to go back and change a bunch of aff codes to be sure it works).

Yah widgets work alright and again what works for me may not work for you. But I've found of the widgets - bestseller style ones work best simply because it's a way to instantly provide social proof.

Originally Posted by peterphillipps

Hi Chris,
Great post. Thanks for all the information. How many sites are you running to generate the numbers you are acheiving.
I'm doing well with amazon but not as good as you.
Regards Pete

I run 10+ some earn more than others and I have a few I haven't touched in several months that still make a decent sum of money but I spent a lot of time building them up at first.

I've met other friends that earn more than I do off just one site though. Just depends on the ticket price of your niche items and how large the niche is. Then of course how big you are in the sea of competing websites.

Originally Posted by Sparhawke

While you will not share your niches, understandably would you go as far as to mention what actual research you do to find these hidden niches?

I've done things like just be sitting in my office and think to myself I wonder how people find this type of product to buy i.e. a desk, a printer, a file cabinet, computer speakers, monitors, monitor stands etc. etc. etc. and then just simply started researching via the free Google Adwords keyword tool how many people search for that stuff as well. Then I'll look at what type of websites are ranking.

I firmly believe that no niche is out of reach if you are willing to invest the time necessary to dominate. It's just like in sports. You can't be the best without working very hard. I haven't found any shortcuts in my efforts to earn money online.

Originally Posted by tycoon828

Great post. This is what I need now.

Christ, I have a question though. Do you think it's difficult to promote large sized product? I read a post before and the author recommend not promote heavy and large sized product because people tend to buy those kind of things locally instead of buying from amazon. What's your experience about this?

Much thanks.

If you mean a physically large product i.e. a playset or a swimming pool then yes I haven't really tried going after those types of niches. With that said, perhaps other people also think like me and as such there is very little competition for the people that ARE willing to buy something big online sight unseen.

I'd recommend to just try it

Originally Posted by volkansen

Great post Chris. Thanks for sharing...
Does amazon only pay by check or does it pay via direct deposit too?

They pay via check, direct deposit and Amazon giftcards. That's it. Checks they charge a $15 fee or something so I always just get direct deposit. I was thinking that if I ever broke the $100k barrier in a single month perhaps I'd ask to get a check so I could pose Shoemoney style but with Amazon instead of Adsense. lol... but I don't think it's possible for me to do that for several years (if at all).

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bfas

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

...

I firmly believe that no niche is out of reach if you are willing to invest the time necessary to dominate. It's just like in sports. You can't be the best without working very hard. I haven't found any shortcuts in my efforts to earn money online.

...

Best thing I've read in a long time, and I completely agree. Granted, "Hawaiian folk instruments" is going to be a whole lot easier to dominate than "Sony LCD-TV's", but it's been my experience that even in the most crowded niche there are opportunities - providing you're willing to invest the time & effort necessary.

Thanks for a really informative and inspiring post. Your timing couldn't be better; I've just begun moving in to Amazon is a serious way. I've been an Amazon Associate for years, but like many, didn't put much effort or expectations into it.

bfas

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GeorgR.

14 years ago

what is your main source of driving traffic?

Your tips are very good...i especially like that bar stats with "who needs a job?"

But how do you get traffic to your blogs. I mean, the average person can make 10 very nice blogs with the highest converting reviews, but what use has it if you hardly get 100 visitors to a blog per month?

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Igirl

14 years ago

This really is a great post. I've built many eBay sites over the past two years, and I've used many of your methods to make my sites profitable.

Thanks for sharing!

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NenadR

14 years ago

A very nice post. I am just busy writing my first site focusing on Amazon, so I found this at the perfect time! Thanks a lot!

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CatherineMay

14 years ago

Wow, what great info! Thanks so much! This is all exactly what I needed.

Just wondering about how you drive traffic to your sites. How much of your traffic do you attribute to SEO? Do you find marketing on twitter, etc., to be important?

Catherine

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Martin Luxton 14 years ago

Chris,

Do you have figures on what percentage of sales come from people buying other products apart from the original one they clicked through on?

Martin
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careybaird

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

2. Don't bother with Amazon stores - they convert terribly. If you can even get a visitor to click a store link congrats. If you get them to actually buy something congrats again you got lucky.

Just to clarify, do you mean the Amazon aStores?

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

what is your main source of driving traffic?

Your tips are very good...i especially like that bar stats with "who needs a job?"

But how do you get traffic to your blogs. I mean, the average person can make 10 very nice blogs with the highest converting reviews, but what use has it if you hardly get 100 visitors to a blog per month?

Traffic wise I just try to build legitimately good websites that people would tell their friends about. If the information is good enough that I believe people would share it then that's what I shoot for.

I also target for SEO and again spend a lot of time building the sites up. As for getting traffic I don't think I have any suggestions other than the basic types of stuff (i.e. keyword research articles to write about). In my experience there aren't any shortcuts to success.

Originally Posted by CatherineMay

Wow, what great info! Thanks so much! This is all exactly what I needed.

Just wondering about how you drive traffic to your sites. How much of your traffic do you attribute to SEO? Do you find marketing on twitter, etc., to be important?

Catherine

Thanks Catherine, glad you enjoyed the info. I get more than half of my traffic from SEO (probably more like 60%). Twitter etc I don't market on other than perhaps the retweet button and even that is somewhat useless. Most buyers on the web don't really care to comment on blogs / get involved. They're on the web for one thing - to find information about a product before they buy it.

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

Chris,

Do you have figures on what percentage of sales come from people buying other products apart from the original one they clicked through on?

Martin

Hey Martin,

I looked at this a while back before I had a ton of different sites going and I'd say 70% is the original product category and 30% extra is simply because I happened to be the last person to send them to Amazon.com. It's tough to determine that now though due to the various niches I'm in aren't in one Amazon product category (so if I pull the report I can't sort through the other stuff easily).

If you find buyers then it is a good chance they're going to be buying a couple items on Amazon (perhaps to take advantage of free shipping sometimes?)

Originally Posted by careybaird

Just to clarify, do you mean the Amazon aStores?

Yes Amazon aStores are pointless. Even if you try and pretty them up to make them look like something other than an aStore. Basically by using any of the tools Amazon gives you to earn money you're more likely to earn less. (That's based on my experience at least)

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Spencer Haws

14 years ago

Chris, excellent info here! Thanks for sharing...I've been so focused on adsense lately, this might just motivate me to build a nice Amazon site now.

Quick questions, you said:

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

I get more than half of my traffic from SEO (probably more like 60%).

So, where does the other 40% come from? Returning traffic, ppc, articles, etc? Would be interested to know...thanks!

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by George Tee

@ChrisGuthrie: Great post here. My amazon did a little well last year but still waiting for my uptrend this year.

Are you able to keep your earnings over 10k now since Christmas is over?

Hey George, no my earnings peaked at $13k as my record for December 09 last year. Here's my latest income report actually I just posted it on my blog this morning (I share my income monthly on my blog).

Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon

Great post Chris and nice job with Amazon!

I just started promoting Amazon products this year and have begun to see some earnings. How many sites did it take you to acheive those earnings?

I have about 10+ sites using Amazon but of course some perform better than others. The closer you between someone and a purchase decision the better shot you have at earning more money I've found. That's why I suggest if people are searching for just info then Adsense may work better than Amazon. If they are looking to buy then definitely use Amazon.

Originally Posted by LilBlackDress

So you said the widgets for the most part dont work but then you mentioned the Amazon best seller widget. Does that one work?

Yes of the widgets I think they generally don't work very well at all. I only use them on a couple of my sites and only because I don't have anything else to put there. When I do use them I use the best seller widget.

Originally Posted by Evita

Chris, great post and Thanks!

Do you run adsense along with Amazon on your sites? I went to your blog, (great info there!) but was unable to find the answer. And if you do, do you find that adding text links have lowered your Adsense CTR?

Also, curious what kind of traffic you are seeing to get those earnings, and what conversion rates you are seeing.

Bet you are happy now that you got fired...

Very inspiring post especially since I'm just getting into Amazon...

Evita

Hey Evita,

Great question! Actually I use a combination of both as you can see from my recently posted income report but as you see by my lower Adsense earnings I've built my portfolio of websites around Amazon more so than Adsense.

I do think it can hinder your Amazon earnings by using too much Adsense though. What I suggest is on a site that gets enough traffic and earns enough money try using just adsense then try switching entirely to Amazon (go so far as to simply remove all ads) then you can truly see if the Adsense is hurting or helping.

You can also track the number of clicks from your Amazon links and your conversion so if you are already using both then you can track if your clicks and conversion go up after removing Adsense or stay the same and then make a decision that way.

Originally Posted by The Redfox

Chris, excellent info here! Thanks for sharing...I've been so focused on adsense lately, this might just motivate me to build a nice Amazon site now.

Quick questions, you said:

So, where does the other 40% come from? Returning traffic, ppc, articles, etc? Would be interested to know...thanks!

Returning traffic, Social Media, Email newsletters (a big one), Referring sites.

Of course for some sites they get like 90% traffic from organic but it all depends you know?

Side note: Redfox I see you're based in WA. If you happen to be in the Seattle area I've started up the first mastermind group for the area. Details here. 7:00 PM tonight

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George Tee

14 years ago

@ChrisGuthrie: Great post here. My amazon did a little well last year but still waiting for my uptrend this year.

Are you able to keep your earnings over 10k now since Christmas is over?

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Alex Lin

14 years ago

Thank for sharing Chris!

A short question here do you do pay-per-click?

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Shannon Spoon

14 years ago

Great post Chris and nice job with Amazon!

I just started promoting Amazon products this year and have begun to see some earnings. How many sites did it take you to acheive those earnings?

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LilBlackDress

14 years ago

So you said the widgets for the most part dont work but then you mentioned the Amazon best seller widget. Does that one work?

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Evita

14 years ago

Chris, great post and Thanks!

Do you run adsense along with Amazon on your sites? I went to your blog, (great info there!) but was unable to find the answer. And if you do, do you find that adding text links have lowered your Adsense CTR?

Also, curious what kind of traffic you are seeing to get those earnings, and what conversion rates you are seeing.

Bet you are happy now that you got fired...

Very inspiring post especially since I'm just getting into Amazon...

Evita

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zronald.barker

14 years ago

Wonderful, Fantastic

We are learning and what I am thinking about now .

How can I make some thing big so I can write about and teach our community like this wonderful guy.

Cheeeeers.

Thanks

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josher

14 years ago

I love the fact that you've done testing for us. I've stayed away from Amazon (24 hr cookie) because of poor returns as compared to Ebay (30 days) but now I see how I can use it in conjunction with what I'm currently doing to improve sales.

Thanks for sharing!

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Jawshh

14 years ago

Sounds great. I never tried promoting amazon products, I guess I'll have to give it a try.

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woodymcgrath 14 years ago

Amazing tips. Thanks for sharing
- Thanks
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darthdeus

14 years ago

Great tips, especially the worst tactics part

Thanks
1 reply

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Black Hat Cat Banned 14 years ago

Ouch! Only $60 grand on nearly a million dollars in sales? Talk about suck.
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TimG

14 years ago

Chris,
Wanted to just commend you for coming back to your post and spending the time to answer everyone's questions. Right now Amazon affiliate sales appears to be headed in the direction of being a hot topic for discussion with so many people looking at Amazon as a way to make money.

Job well done!!

Respectfully,
Tim

Thanks
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Black Hat Cat

Ouch! Only $60 grand on nearly a million dollars in sales? Talk about suck.

lol, well I guess it's different if you're selling a physical product as opposed to a company's services or information where they can afford to give out a much higher commission.

Yes I would have preferred to have nearly a million in sales via info products because then that'd mean I probably had about half a million dollars right now lol.

Originally Posted by TimG

Chris,
Wanted to just commend you for coming back to your post and spending the time to answer everyone's questions. Right now Amazon affiliate sales appears to be headed in the direction of being a hot topic for discussion with so many people looking at Amazon as a way to make money.

Job well done!!

Respectfully,
Tim

Hey Tim, thanks. Yah I didn't plan on just sharing the thread and leaving the forum. I'm here to meet others and learn from their expertise and share my tips from my expertise - that's why I signed up for the war room service on the forum.

Still can't believe I never registered and started posting here until now

I was missing out.

Thanks

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Intrepreneur 14 years ago

You tempted me to login to my account and I found $80 earnings for today. Not bad I say.

Though I still think that no matter how many tips you give on this topic there's nothing like showing a working sample.
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- Brenny76065 14 years ago
  
  Hi Chris. Thanks for the detailed postand for your willingness to answer follow up questions.
  
  Could you tell us how many monthly visitors you're getting to your 10+ sites, and what kind of click thru rates you're seeing?
  
  Thanks
  
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Shannon Spoon

14 years ago

Chris,
Do you use PPC at all and on average how many visitors are you getting to your site?

Thanks

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xnice

14 years ago

Very great experience. I had try and get many clicks but it is not convert. So I realize I need a real target people want and buy it. And people sometime do not like to buy immediately, so it hard to convert it.

Thanks
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Hereandthere 14 years ago

Thanks so much!

In your email marketing, what do you do? Tell them about new products on the topic or popular ones?
- Thanks
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Intrepreneur

You tempted me to login to my account and I found $80 earnings for today. Not bad I say.

Though I still think that no matter how many tips you give on this topic there's nothing like showing a working sample.

Perhaps you're right. I'll write another post and show one of my example sites that earns some decent money each month.

Would a video walkthrough etc. be good? I could of course include a URL but then in the video I could explain why I do things the way I do.

Originally Posted by Brenny76065

Hi Chris. Thanks for the detailed postand for your willingness to answer follow up questions.

Could you tell us how many monthly visitors you're getting to your 10+ sites, and what kind of click thru rates you're seeing?

500,000+ page view probably. I'd have to check. I don't focus as much on total visitors as long as I see green when I log into Google analytics I don't care and especially if the money I make keeps going up. CTR I think is like 2% ish but that's mainly again because of in content linking.

Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon

Chris,
Do you use PPC at all and on average how many visitors are you getting to your site?

No PPC yet, but I'm just about to start experimenting with it. To be honest I'm a noob with PPC though so part of what has held me back is how I can track the difference between organic and paid clicks.

Perhaps you could share a good post on how you sort this for a blog that runs both Adsense and Amazon at the same time?

Thanks
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Hereandthere

Thanks so much!

In your email marketing, what do you do? Tell them about new products on the topic or popular ones?

I just tell people about new products that I assume they are anticipating because it's something I know I'd want. Other times I just look for items that have dropped a ton in price after being more expensive previously.

Originally Posted by abednego

Which blog software do you use? WordPress? I've been pondering this idea, but not sure the best way to present a "store" - I think they look odd in a "blog" format.

I know themes exist out there to change that, but.. I'm not sure what worked best for you.

Wordpress for sure. But I also use Amazon on forums / general static info .html websites as well. Don't present it as a store that's the worst way to earn money. Add value by discussing the product etc. and frequently find opportunities to link to the Amazon page where they can "find more info"

Originally Posted by blur

I'll call BS.

Prove that, besides a screenshot that can easily be photoshopped, you made 60 g's in the last 12 months.

****! Someone's onto me. Damn now you won't buy my product where I ask you to pay me to share more tips! Oh wait, there isn't one lol...

I'll bite though - how do I prove it to you? Video of my logging into my account and flipping through past quarterly numbers and running various reports? Or will then you just think I'm a good video editor?

Just by reading what I have to say the suggestions and advice should be fairly logical though don't you think?

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mymoney5243

14 years ago

Hi Chris:

I have been doing some things with ebay classifieds and then doing an auction to draw more traffic. Have you ever tried this approach.

It looks like I should take a look at Amazon.

Thanks

Thanks
1 reply

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Tina M. Rideout

Question..........Does Amazon allow us to add their product links in an E-commerce store...........I mean can we add the links,product descriptions,price etc etc as part of our store shopping cart?

Tina

Hey Tina,

If you own an ecommerce website where you ship physical product and are looking to expand the scope of your website by adding in products from Amazon I"m sure that's allowed for you to do, but I wouldn't suggest doing it.

The consumer will click a link thinking to go to the next stage of your checkout process and be surprised that all of the sudden they're going to Amazon.com

If that's what you were asking I suggest you don't do that.

Originally Posted by zronald.barker

Chris,

Did you hire teamwork with you on this or not ?

and if so how many articles you produce per day ?

I've started experimenting with outsourcing work for some mini sites I've been developing. What I'm trying to do more of now is scaling the business. Taking what I know to be true / what works on my other sites and applying it on a smaller scale via niche websites.

I believe I'm going to hire someone from the Phillipines to handle this and set up a completely separate hosting account etc. etc. I'm willing to waste $400 a month if after 6 months I have several websites earning at least that wage or more.

This is one area I could do more in.

Originally Posted by Evita

Yup. Agree.

It would be really great and educational to see a sample of your layouts, style etc. but to use one of your existing sites could expose your entire network. Really risky.

Evita

I don't interlink any of the sites I own (for the most part) because Google discounts those links anyway. Perhaps I'll write a sample post of what I might do on an article and then edit the first thread and include a screenshot there.

Originally Posted by jan roos

If you aren't doing PPC then you are leaving a lot of money on the table. I build my Amazon sites and immediately start a ppc campaign for them to see if the site has potential. This saves me a lot of time weeding out the good sites from the bad. It also allows me to start making money immediately while I wait for my sites to start ranking well on the search engines.

The only thing that sux about running PPC is that Amazon only pays you 60 days after month end so you'll have to front 2 months worth of PPC costs but if you are profitable then that shouldn't matter. Also, for the most part you won't be profitable right off the bat. Be prepared to lose around a 100 bucks or so before you start seeing a profit. The margins are thin but I found it well worth my while.

HTH

Hey Jan,

I know you're probably right. I guess most of my actions are dictated by fear which is a fallacy I know. i.e. I SHOULD outsource all of my writing and link building, but I worry they can't do a good enough job.

Likewise the only thing holding me back from PPC is the (seemingly) inability to segment traffic sources so I can know which ones convert.

Originally Posted by greff

I don't doubt that Chris is making as much as he said.

Here is the difficulty in achieving that income as I see it. It takes a ton of work and time but that is not it.

You need to stick with it. That's the hardest part, not to give up too soon. And keep testing your copy and everything else you do on your sales page.

Easy to say. Hard to do.

Agreed. I can't count how many people I talk to and can clearly state things out in a step by step manner and say this is how I make money and yet 99% of the people I talk to will not take action.

Oh well, more for me I guess.

Originally Posted by mymoney5243

Hi Chris:

I have been doing some things with ebay classifieds and then doing an auction to draw more traffic. Have you ever tried this approach.

It looks like I should take a look at Amazon.

Thanks

I haven't tried that before, but my worry would be the scalability of that type of solution.

Perhaps you could do an example? In either case I like to focus my efforts more on long term results.

Thanks

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Rita012

14 years ago

I did well with Amazon before they fired me ( and all Colorado affiliates ).

I've had to search for a new way to monetize, which was a pain. Just found Prosperent, and am pretty excited about it. I like the fact that the cookies last much longer than the 24 hour Amazon cookie.

Thanks
1 reply

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411Recommends

14 years ago

Chris

When you say 'you spend a lot of time and effort to build up your sites', what is involved? Lots of content?

I always thought of amazon affiliate sites as one page review type sites. no?

thanks again
robin

Thanks
1 reply

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bay37

14 years ago

Originally Posted by 411Recommends

When you say 'you spend a lot of time and effort to build up your sites', what is involved? Lots of content?

I always thought of amazon affiliate sites as one page review type sites. no?

Seriously what kind of a question is this? Have you done any kind of research into this? How many review sites selling Amazon products have you come across in your life? Were they all "1-page type sites"?

And to the guy asking if it's possible to make $1600/month with 50 mini sites. Of course it is. Think about it for a second. Or break the numbers down a bit to make it easier:

$1600 / 30 days equals ~$54/day.
$54 / 50 sites equals just over $1/site/day
Average commission for a $45 item is ~$2.7, meaning each one of your sites would have to sell 1 item every 2 days to achieve your goal (and a bit more).

Do you think it is possible to sell 1 item every 2 days (per site)? Well of course it is.

Why are you asking these questions? Need someone to reassure you that you imaginary site building strategy will work (remember you have to start working first)?

What if I told you that last month I made $3217 dollars from a total of 26 Amazon product review sites? Would that mean that you can make $6187/month from 50 sites?

Stop counting money that you haven't made yet and go back to work (or start working instead of asking d*** questions).

The sooner you start the better, because it takes 4 months (I think) to receive your first check from Amazon (after you've earned the minimum required payout, which is something like $50 or $100).

Thanks
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Success With Dany

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by bay37

Seriously what kind of a question is this? Have you done any kind of research into this? How many review sites selling Amazon products have you come across in your life? Were they all "1-page type sites"?

And to the guy asking if it's possible to make $1600/month with 50 mini sites. Of course it is. Think about it for a second. Or break the numbers down a bit to make it easier:

$1600 / 30 days equals ~$54/day.
$54 / 50 sites equals just over $1/site/day
Average commission for a $45 item is ~$2.7, meaning each one of your sites would have to sell 1 item every 2 days to achieve your goal (and a bit more).

Do you think it is possible to sell 1 item every 2 days (per site)? Well of course it is.

Why are you asking these questions? Need someone to reassure you that you imaginary site building strategy will work (remember you have to start working first)?

What if I told you that last month I made $3217 dollars from a total of 26 Amazon product review sites? Would that mean that you can make $6187/month from 50 sites?

Stop counting money that you haven't made yet and go back to work (or start working instead of asking d*** questions).

The sooner you start the better, because it takes 4 months (I think) to receive your first check from Amazon (after you've earned the minimum required payout, which is something like $50 or $100).

That's what I call some tough love reply...

Thanks

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Shannon Spoon

14 years ago

Originally Posted by bay37

Seriously what kind of a question is this? Have you done any kind of research into this? How many review sites selling Amazon products have you come across in your life? Were they all "1-page type sites"?

And to the guy asking if it's possible to make $1600/month with 50 mini sites. Of course it is. Think about it for a second. Or break the numbers down a bit to make it easier:

$1600 / 30 days equals ~$54/day.
$54 / 50 sites equals just over $1/site/day
Average commission for a $45 item is ~$2.7, meaning each one of your sites would have to sell 1 item every 2 days to achieve your goal (and a bit more).

Do you think it is possible to sell 1 item every 2 days (per site)? Well of course it is.

Why are you asking these questions? Need someone to reassure you that you imaginary site building strategy will work (remember you have to start working first)?

What if I told you that last month I made $3217 dollars from a total of 26 Amazon product review sites? Would that mean that you can make $6187/month from 50 sites?

Stop counting money that you haven't made yet and go back to work (or start working instead of asking d*** questions).

The sooner you start the better, because it takes 4 months (I think) to receive your first check from Amazon (after you've earned the minimum required payout, which is something like $50 or $100).

First of all i wasn't asking you. I was asking Chris. Nice jumping in there when no one asks what you think or cares. Actually i have already started building my Amazon sites and have made money from Amazon.

If you actually made money doing internet marketing then i might ask you something, until then keep your opinions to yourself.

My imaginary site building? Are you high? This is my plan. That i am doing right now.

You can't ask a legitimate question without some idiot jumping in there.:rolleyes:

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bay37 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon

You can't ask a legitimate question without some idiot jumping in there.

Yeah I know, man... Keep asking these well thought out questions and you'll do just fine.

Best of luck in your IM efforts.
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Doolder 14 years ago

Great post man, I loved it! Lots of great info there.

3. Don't promote products that aren't related to your niche (should be obvious, but again I still see this when I'm roaming the web).

Actually, the best thing to do in my opinion, I don't know if you agree with this, would be to start a "review" site. You could pick any product from any niche you want and review it in an article... People don't care what else is on your website, they're only interested by the page they're on, which is the one with the keywords they typed in Google and related 100% to what they're looking for (assuming you did a good SEO job).
- Thanks
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smarks70

14 years ago

Thanks Chris for the very inspirational post. Its great to see someone who is actually making money online post about it. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks agian and I'll be waiting for the WSO

Regards,

Steve

Thanks

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abednego

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

...
My earnings come from a variation of different blogs, websites, forums etc. etc. that I have hosted over a couple dedicated servers, some shared hosting accounts and a class C IP hosting account (trying out interlinking stuff for SEO these days). During my course of using Amazon Associates I've used various tracking codes to help measure what were the most effective strategies to earn money and what worked the worst.
...

Which blog software do you use? WordPress? I've been pondering this idea, but not sure the best way to present a "store" - I think they look odd in a "blog" format.

I know themes exist out there to change that, but.. I'm not sure what worked best for you.

Thanks

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NiyazK

14 years ago

Nice Thread.. I just opened a amazon affliate account for my sites today but didnt do anything else there other then registration

.. Looking at your earnings and tips i can now add them and see hw they work.. Good Post

Thanks

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Craig McPherson

14 years ago

Woohoo.. Thanks Chris,

I threw up a page loosely based on what you have told us here just last night and made 3 sales for a total of $8.

Now to R&R

Thanks heaps mate. I am one happy Aussie

Thanks

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Bicycle Cat

14 years ago

Thanks for the advice.

I'll look into Amazon.

Thanks

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blur

14 years ago

I'll call BS.

Prove that, besides a screenshot that can easily be photoshopped, you made 60 g's in the last 12 months.

Thanks
2 replies

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rainyclayday 14 years ago

Originally Posted by blur

I'll call BS.

Prove that, besides a screenshot that can easily be photoshopped, you made 60 g's in the last 12 months.

There's always one in the crowd.
- Thanks
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bfas 14 years ago

Originally Posted by blur

I'll call BS.

Prove that, besides a screenshot that can easily be photoshopped, you made 60 g's in the last 12 months.

Why on earth should he have to prove anything to you? He isn't trying to sell you anything, and $60k in 12 months isn't even particularly unreasonable.

You'll "call BS"?

This guy has taken the time & effort to post some very interesting, inspiring, and valuable stuff, not to mention taken the time to come back and answer questions.

It's this kind of moronic post that turns people off from making these posts.

I'll call "ridiculous post".

Why don't you try contributing something worthwhile.

bfas
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stevecl

14 years ago

Thanks for the info Chris,

Been in and out of amazon over the past couple of years but have started to focus on this a little bit more. Bought a nice domain name that gets 2900 searches per month for a particular type of product, so will be going all out to get this one making money using your tips and advice.

Regards
Steve

Thanks

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enwereuzo

14 years ago

Hi Chris,
Thank you for your inspirational post. Can you take your time to explain tactics one for me in details.
Thank you .
Enwereuzo

Thanks

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willies

14 years ago

Your post is quite enlightening and straight to the point.

I am, however, interested in this in content links. I have seen a particular post somewhere about creating links using HTML. I am not good in it, but I will like to know if one really has to learn how to write all that language (it seems so complicated) before you can actually create in content links such as you are referring to. I know you can do several things on the internet if you don't know HTML, but I really how those languages are crafted or written.

One again thank you for a useful post.

Thanks
2 replies

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Tina M. Rideout 14 years ago

Question..........Does Amazon allow us to add their product links in an E-commerce store...........I mean can we add the links,product descriptions,price etc etc as part of our store shopping cart?

Tina
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Lee MacRae

14 years ago

Originally Posted by willies

I am, however, interested in this in content links. I have seen a particular post somewhere about creating links using HTML. I am not good in it, but I will like to know if one really has to learn how to write all that language (it seems so complicated) before you can actually create in content links such as you are referring to. I know you can do several things on the internet if you don't know HTML, but I really how those languages are crafted or written.

@willies

Amazon makes it very easy even for a beginner, especially if you are using Wordpress.

When you log into your Amazon Account you will see a menu at the top: Home- Links & Banners - aStore etc.

Just click on Links and Banners and you will see where you can "Add Product Links now". Click on that and now you search for your products and Amazon will create text links, image links, or text and image links in HTML for you.

You just copy and paste the code into your post where you need it. When you create a post you can do it in "Visual or HTML". Use HTML and just paste the link where you need it in your post. Just experiment and you will find it very easy and you will lean how to create HTML code as you go along.

[ 1 ] Thanks
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jrussell 14 years ago

Excellent post, thanks. You say Wordpress is good for Amazon sites - I was just wondering what type (style) of theme would work best? Do you use free or premium themes?
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- Geolina 14 years ago
  
  Thank you for this great threat Chris and everybody else, I have been reading every word of it and learned a lot! Now I have a question that has to do with making the Amazon iamages clickable. I have no problem inserting the image in my post, but how do I add the html so the photo becomes clickable?
  
  Thank you in advance for any help!
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Evita 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Geolina
  
  I have no problem inserting the image in my post, but how do I add the html so the photo becomes clickable?
  
  Here's a great explanation: How to Add Amazon Links & Images to Your Pages
  
  Evita
  
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Alex Lin

14 years ago

If you can get buyer from organic traffic. I think you should forget about PPC since each keyword is getting expensive and doesn't make a ROI on a product.

Thanks
2 replies

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zronald.barker 14 years ago

Chris,

Did you hire teamwork with you on this or not ?

and if so how many articles you produce per day ?
- Thanks
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jan roos 14 years ago

If you aren't doing PPC then you are leaving a lot of money on the table. I build my Amazon sites and immediately start a ppc campaign for them to see if the site has potential. This saves me a lot of time weeding out the good sites from the bad. It also allows me to start making money immediately while I wait for my sites to start ranking well on the search engines.

The only thing that sux about running PPC is that Amazon only pays you 60 days after month end so you'll have to front 2 months worth of PPC costs but if you are profitable then that shouldn't matter. Also, for the most part you won't be profitable right off the bat. Be prepared to lose around a 100 bucks or so before you start seeing a profit. The margins are thin but I found it well worth my while.

HTH

Originally Posted by Alex Lin

If you can get buyer from organic traffic. I think you should forget about PPC since each keyword is getting expensive and doesn't make a ROI on a product.
- Thanks
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Hugh

14 years ago

Chris,

Great info. You really get into the nitty gritty of it. Not sure I would
show a live example, tho. A very few (but some) folks around here
just can't stand for others to prosper. But thanks.

Hugh

Thanks
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Evita

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Hugh

Chris,

Great info. You really get into the nitty gritty of it. Not sure I would
show a live example, tho. A very few (but some) folks around here
just can't stand for others to prosper. But thanks.

Hugh

Yup. Agree.

It would be really great and educational to see a sample of your layouts, style etc. but to use one of your existing sites could expose your entire network. Really risky.

Evita

Thanks

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greff

14 years ago

I don't doubt that Chris is making as much as he said.

Here is the difficulty in achieving that income as I see it. It takes a ton of work and time but that is not it.

You need to stick with it. That's the hardest part, not to give up too soon. And keep testing your copy and everything else you do on your sales page.

Easy to say. Hard to do.

Thanks

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affiliatesuperdeal

14 years ago

Nice post Chris, I just got started with Amazon associates and so far have had limited clicks and with zero success, but it's till early stages.

Thanks

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orlando cassara

14 years ago

Chris,

Great post I have been looking into amazon for a little while now, and this was excellent information to get me started.

Thanks

Thanks

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mrizos

14 years ago

Awesome post Chris. 2 quick questions.

1. About how long are your product reviews (words wise)?
2. Do have a backlink process or just figure you'll be getting natural links since your content is worth linking to?

Thanks Chris.

Thanks
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mrizos

Awesome post Chris. 2 quick questions.

1. About how long are your product reviews (words wise)?
2. Do have a backlink process or just figure you'll be getting natural links since your content is worth linking to?

Thanks Chris.

1. I don't have a specific number really. I know they're probably more than 800 words though I guess?

2. No backlink process on bigger sites because quality content / continuous content will always get links.

But with that said I am experimenting with different types of backlinking strategies so that I can find a way to scale the process much faster.

My attitude has always been as follows: There will always be room on the web for quality information that helps people and even in the mini sites I make I try to stick to this.

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mrizos

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

1. I don't have a specific number really. I know they're probably more than 800 words though I guess?

2. No backlink process on bigger sites because quality content / continuous content will always get links.

But with that said I am experimenting with different types of backlinking strategies so that I can find a way to scale the process much faster.

My attitude has always been as follows: There will always be room on the web for quality information that helps people and even in the mini sites I make I try to stick to this.

You're exactly right. I have an authority site that gets 8000 uniques a day, has thousands of backlinks and I NEVER created one of them. Write helpful, worthwhile content and everything falls into place quite naturally.
The only problem with my auth site is that CPC's are pretty low and the most expensive item on the site is about $60.

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mrizos

You're exactly right. I have an authority site that gets 8000 uniques a day, has thousands of backlinks and I NEVER created one of them. Write helpful, worthwhile content and everything falls into place quite naturally.
The only problem with my auth site is that CPC's are pretty low and the most expensive item on the site is about $60.

Is it for sale

jk, but if it is PM me lol. I'm always buying websites.

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411Recommends

14 years ago

Chris
Very nice post here. I was wondering what you mean when you say something like:

'That's why I suggest if people are searching for just info then Adsense may work better than Amazon. If they are looking to buy then definitely use Amazon.'

How do you know before hand what people will be coming to your site? I guess I need to know how to get the people who are BUYING to be the ones I attract and what kind of content attracts them.

Also, when you say 'you spend a lot of time and effort to build up your sites', what is involved? Lots of content? I always thought of amazon affiliate sites as one page review type sites. no?

thanks again
robin

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by 411Recommends

Chris
Very nice post here. I was wondering what you mean when you say something like:

'That's why I suggest if people are searching for just info then Adsense may work better than Amazon. If they are looking to buy then definitely use Amazon.'

How do you know before hand what people will be coming to your site? I guess I need to know how to get the people who are BUYING to be the ones I attract and what kind of content attracts them.

Also, when you say 'you spend a lot of time and effort to build up your sites', what is involved? Lots of content? I always thought of amazon affiliate sites as one page review type sites. no?

thanks again
robin

Well here is an example:

What is a george foreman grill?

vs

George Forman Grill XL1000

The first person is clearly just looking for information about a product. The second person is looking for information about a specific product (potentially because they know what they want to buy). Either way the fact that they are so specific indicates they're more likely to buy than the first person based on the search phrase they came to your hypothetical website from

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Shannon Spoon 14 years ago

Hey Chris i plan on building 50 Amazon review mini sites and i have already made some sales. I won't post them here cause i don't want to be called a liar.:rolleyes:

Anyway, How long do you think it will take to start making good money from those sites with these things in mind.

Do you think it is possible to start making decent money ($1600 a month) in 4 months time with 50 sites?

1. Proper keyword research
2. All sites are built around 7 to 10 different Amazon products in the same niche of course.
3. I am using wordpress with my own domains.
4. I am only using free methods to get traffic. Blog post, bookmarking, rss feeds, the usual stuff.
5. My sites are based around specific products (buying keywords)

Hey thanks for all the information Chris. I believe you made the money you said you did. Don't mind the haters.
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- Success With Dany Banned 14 years ago
  
  Roughly how many products do you promote? I have a feeling that one's has to play a heavy numbers game to make a decent coin with Amazon...
  
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tribros

14 years ago

Nice post keep it up and I hope you will do much much better with Amazon in the coming days.

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Adriana Copaceanu

14 years ago

Chris, do you use a plugin to add your in-text links? Or do you use the stripe to create your link?

Thanks for your kindness in sharing your success.

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MAtkins

14 years ago

Boy, Chris, I can't believe you won't give US your account login information so WE can verify that you're not 'call BS' HAHAHA (that was a joke).

Thanks very much for your detailed responses to all these questions.
I'm a newbie - software developer who got nixed by INDIA

Your information here helps me a LOT.

Also, Jan Roos - BRAVO - that one little comment was a WORLD of insight given the context you put it into (ie this thread).

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stevecane

14 years ago

Hi Chris

Thanks for that, particularily the bit about banner ads, I used to plaster Amazon banners all over my istes and never got many clicks. Dunno whether to laugh or cry looking at your screenshot, makes my constant line of zeros look really pathetic....

Steve

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Banned 14 years ago

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon

Hey Chris i plan on building 50 Amazon review mini sites and i have already made some sales. I won't post them here cause i don't want to be called a liar.:rolleyes:

Anyway, How long do you think it will take to start making good money from those sites with these things in mind.

Do you think it is possible to start making decent money ($1600 a month) in 4 months time with 50 sites?

1. Proper keyword research
2. All sites are built around 7 to 10 different Amazon products in the same niche of course.
3. I am using wordpress with my own domains.
4. I am only using free methods to get traffic. Blog post, bookmarking, rss feeds, the usual stuff.
5. My sites are based around specific products (buying keywords)

Hey thanks for all the information Chris. I believe you made the money you said you did. Don't mind the haters.

I'm not sure if you can do it in 4 months time or not. If you do I'd give you a high five though. Just go for it and keep us up to date on how your efforts go.

Originally Posted by giftsolution

Chris, do you use a plugin to add your in-text links? Or do you use the stripe to create your link?

Thanks for your kindness in sharing your success.

I just use the simply site stripe thing at the top of Amazon.com to create all my links. It's all about in content.

Side note: I read a post from your blog showing off your earnings for November 09 and you had earned like 14k I believe right? Nice work if that's you. (My record is $13k from Dec 09)

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MAtkins 14 years ago

Chris: Thanks again for all your help.
I wondered if you could tell us what criteria you use to determine whether a given set of keywords is viable to pursue.

Do you have a minimum daily search volume or require a certain range for AdWords CPC? What criteria do you use to determine whether or not competition is acceptable? Could you be so kind as to tell us some criteria numbers?
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411Recommends

14 years ago

Bay37, thanks so much for your help. your comments appear to be well thought out and quite useful.

Yes, I am very new at this. I assume people like Chris start these kinds of posts to help people learn. There is info on the net about one page sites and multi-page sites. Which I have read up on but still not sure why a site you build up for a long period is any more useful to the customer than a one page.

I have to wonder:
Why would people go to a review site and read pages on pages of info about any product?
For that matter, why go to any review site when you could just go to Amazon, search for the product and read the reviews left by previous customers.

BAy35, thanks in advance for the forth coming flame.

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thecableguy 14 years ago

Do you use that long ugly link that Amazon gives you or are you using a plugin to to hide the link? Follow or no follow?

Thanks
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jan roos

14 years ago

If you build an Amazon review site where you review lots of products in the same niche it is good for the search engines and the user to add new content regularly to the site.

Think about it this way. Peter decides he wants to buy his wife a fancy rice cooker for Mother's day. He has no clue which one to buy so he goes to google and types in something like "rice cooker reviews" "which rice cooker is best" or he types in the specific model rice cooker his sister told him about.

Now he comes to your site where you thoroughly review (not sell) all the best rice cookers on the market with real customer feedback etc. For Peter this is great, he has all the info he wants right there on your site and he doesn't have to spend an hour on the net searching for info on the different rice cookers.

You also happen to mention on your site that Amazon has the best prices on all rice cookers because of the sheer volume they sell and Peter needs to click here to check it out.

That's it. End of story

ps. look at consumersearch.com to see how it's really done

Originally Posted by 411Recommends

Bay37, thanks so much for your help. your comments appear to be well thought out and quite useful.

Yes, I am very new at this. I assume people like Chris start these kinds of posts to help people learn. There is info on the net about one page sites and multi-page sites. Which I have read up on but still not sure why a site you build up for a long period is any more useful to the customer than a one page.

I have to wonder:
Why would people go to a review site and read pages on pages of info about any product?
For that matter, why go to any review site when you could just go to Amazon, search for the product and read the reviews left by previous customers.

BAy35, thanks in advance for the forth coming flame.

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tycoon828

14 years ago

Thanks for your great post. In fact, I had the same question before, and after reading your post, I now understand that why the review type site is useful.

Originally Posted by jan roos

If you build an Amazon review site where you review lots of products in the same niche it is good for the search engines and the user to add new content regularly to the site.

Think about it this way. Peter decides he wants to buy his wife a fancy rice cooker for Mother's day. He has no clue which one to buy so he goes to google and types in something like "rice cooker reviews" "which rice cooker is best" or he types in the specific model rice cooker his sister told him about.

Now he comes to your site where you thoroughly review (not sell) all the best rice cookers on the market with real customer feedback etc. For Peter this is great, he has all the info he wants right there on your site and he doesn't have to spend an hour on the net searching for info on the different rice cookers.

You also happen to mention on your site that Amazon has the best prices on all rice cookers because of the sheer volume they sell and Peter needs to click here to check it out.

That's it. End of story

ps. look at consumersearch.com to see how it's really done

Thanks

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Shannon Spoon

14 years ago

Originally Posted by 411Recommends

Bay37, thanks so much for your help. your comments appear to be well thought out and quite useful.

Yes, I am very new at this. I assume people like Chris start these kinds of posts to help people learn. There is info on the net about one page sites and multi-page sites. Which I have read up on but still not sure why a site you build up for a long period is any more useful to the customer than a one page.

I have to wonder:
Why would people go to a review site and read pages on pages of info about any product?
For that matter, why go to any review site when you could just go to Amazon, search for the product and read the reviews left by previous customers.

BAy35, thanks in advance for the forth coming flame.

411Recommends,
What we little people need to understand is that some people are so awesome at this IM thing that me and you are like ants underneath their big goliath feet and when we ask a question that this person might not like they feel they need to step on us like the bugs we are.

But to try and add some value to this thread i build review sites and i make them 7 to 10 pages long based around different products in the same niche. like a review site on different kinds of vacuum cleaners.

P.S. i know a great training module that has helped me make my first sales if you are interested 411 pm me

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TiffanyLambert

14 years ago

Thanks for the info Chris. I wanted to add something for the person who asked about promoting large items from Amazon (physically large, not high ticket necessarily).

I prefer to buy large items from Amazon and here's why:

1.) We don't have a truck. So buying locally and getting it home is a PITA.
2.) On many items (even large ones), Amazon ships free if the order is over $25, so I can have a large item delivered to my home FREE.

I likey.
Tiff

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netrover 14 years ago

Thanks for the great post, Chris. Like several others who replied I just happen to be focusing my efforts on building Amazon based websites; so it is great timing.

The thing that worries me w/ Amazon is the 24 hour cookie. Do you make any attempt to get the visitor to revisit your site (a big Bookmark this Site graphic on your site?) in case they plan to buy later, after the 24 hour period (in which case they may go directly to Amazon)?

Also, do you know if it is permissible, as an Amazon affiliate, to offer incentives if the visitor purchases through your link, like a free gift or even a rebate of some sort?

Lastly, the biggest obstacle I see when doing market research is that, for many, many consumer item keywords (vacuums, electronics, tools, etc.) the big A occupies the top 1-3 spots, and there are even thumbnail images of the product right in the natural search area. A big bummer, no way will my site get clicked in these scenarios. So, my technique centers on finding products sold on Amazon where Amazon is not in the top ten spots for the keyword; and it is not easy. What are your thoughts on this?
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tycoon828

14 years ago

That's the question I asked Chris several days ago.

Thanks Tiff for your input. I have no experience of buying from amazon, so I've never thought that customers may take advantage of free shipping for large items. This explaination make me relaxed because I am promoting a large item right now.

Originally Posted by TiffanyDow

Thanks for the info Chris. I wanted to add something for the person who asked about promoting large items from Amazon (physically large, not high ticket necessarily).

I prefer to buy large items from Amazon and here's why:

1.) We don't have a truck. So buying locally and getting it home is a PITA.
2.) On many items (even large ones), Amazon ships free if the order is over $25, so I can have a large item delivered to my home FREE.

I likey.
Tiff

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Dilli Gaf 14 years ago

Thanks to Chris and others for some great information.

I have already started building some Amazon sites and received my first sale. Nothing to do with my niche though. Not sure how you link from home safety to a kids travel potty. Probably a reflection on my site building ability.

Thanks also to Tiffany for pointing me in the direction of this post.
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kchui1028

14 years ago

Amazon is ridiculously low rate.. like what.. 2% of sales? i use them just as a decoration on my site. lol

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Shannon Spoon 14 years ago

Originally Posted by kchui1028

Amazon is ridiculously low rate.. like what.. 2% of sales? i use them just as a decoration on my site. lol

Amazon commision starts out at 4% then keeps moving the more items that you sell.
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- kchui1028 14 years ago
  
  interesting.. i run a tv/movie site but i don't get that many sales only get around 6%. it's kind of a desert income for me lol
  
  Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon
  
  Amazon commision starts out at 4% then keeps moving the more items that you sell.
  
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- Success With Dany Banned 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon
  
  Amazon commision starts out at 4% then keeps moving the more items that you sell.
  
  Do the number stack up or does it "reset" each month?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Shannon Spoon 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Success With Dany
  
  Do the number stack up or does it "reset" each month?
  
  They reset every month.
  
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  Success With Dany Banned 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon
  
  They reset every month.
  
  GAAAAAAAAAAAH!
  
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  Tina M. Rideout 14 years ago
  
  If you own an ecommerce website where you ship physical product and are looking to expand the scope of your website by adding in products from Amazon I"m sure that's allowed for you to do, but I wouldn't suggest doing it.
  
  The consumer will click a link thinking to go to the next stage of your checkout process and be surprised that all of the sudden they're going to Amazon.com
  
  If that's what you were asking I suggest you don't do that.
  
  I do want to add another scope to my site...........the dynamics of my site is quite a bit different from the norm..........most of my customers do not go through the checkout process because of the large quantities involved.....so I was thinking that I could offer my visitors that are looking for a specific product.....in smaller amounts the options from Amazon....they would know they are being redirected to Amazon..as it would be clearly stated on the preview pages........Thoughts?
  
  Tina
  
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mfleisch

14 years ago

Awesome.. thanks so much for sharing your tips. This information is invaluable and I can't believe that you're so open to sharing. I am so grateful. Thanks!

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Lasse

14 years ago

thanks for the info, highly appreciated

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gareth

14 years ago

great tips & stats thanks.

I will try a WP plugin for in content links.

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Doubleup

14 years ago

very informative post, thanks. I'm new to web site building and SEO, and there's a lot to take in. I've setup a site which i think will do well, and it's good to see someone making the coin, and helping me to make mine.

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b2bzone

14 years ago

Excellent information based on your own successes and experiences. Thank you.

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MGunn 14 years ago

The commission rate starts over each month but your total sales for your account are added together to determine your % rate. So if you have 10 sites that sell 10 items each then you are at 6.5% (100 sales)

As I recall the % level you move up to is retroactive on your previous sales. So if you move to the 8% level (for example) then all of your previous sales for that month get paid at 8%.
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jcepeda

14 years ago

Great post Chris.
Thanks for taking the time to share with us your successes.
I appreciate it.
joe

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Aaron Elliott

14 years ago

I know alot of people make good money from amazon, but 4-6% commission, I can't bring myself to spend the time creating the sites for this.

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J23

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Aaron Elliott

I know alot of people make good money from amazon, but 4-6% commission, I can't bring myself to spend the time creating the sites for this.

The commission % shouldn't be your main focus, your net profit should be.

You say you know people making good money with Amazon, (which means if they are doing it, why can't you?) but you won't promote Amazon just because of the low commission % even though it really has nothing to do with the possible income you can earn?

Think if someone spends $200 and you earn 6% on it. That's $12 for you right there. Get 2 sales like that per day and you're already at the average commission payout for most Clickbank products.

Not to mention Amazon probably converts 10 times better than a Clickbank ebook.

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jan roos

14 years ago

The part where you say that Amazon probably converts much better is key. On one of my sites I sell a $200 item and get $14 commission per sale. I only need to send 20 to 30 people to my site to make that sale and sometimes less. This to me is huge because when I was selling clickbank products the conversion rates sucked quite literally. I'm not saying clickbank is bad or anything, I'm just saying that for me personally it was an uphill battle.

Cheers

Ps. you gotta love 4-5% conversion rates

Originally Posted by J23

The commission % shouldn't be your main focus, your net profit should be.

You say you know people making good money with Amazon, (which means if they are doing it, why can't you?) but you won't promote Amazon just because of the low commission % even though it really has nothing to do with the possible income you can earn?

Think if someone spends $200 and you earn 6% on it. That's $12 for you right there. Get 2 sales like that per day and you're already at the average commission payout for most Clickbank products.

Not to mention Amazon probably converts 10 times better than a Clickbank ebook.

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Anonymous Affiliate

14 years ago

Originally Posted by J23

The commission % shouldn't be your main focus, your net profit should be.

You say you know people making good money with Amazon, (which means if they are doing it, why can't you?) but you won't promote Amazon just because of the low commission % even though it really has nothing to do with the possible income you can earn?

Think if someone spends $200 and you earn 6% on it. That's $12 for you right there. Get 2 sales like that per day and you're already at the average commission payout for most Clickbank products.

Not to mention Amazon probably converts 10 times better than a Clickbank ebook.

Errr... no! commission does matter, and it matters A LOT. I mean, there are like thousands of CPA offer offering $5 to $10 commissions for an offer that's MUCH easier to convert than selling a $100-$150 product off Amazon.

Of course commission does matter, and there's no chance anyone will make me believe that promoting Amazon products is more efficient/profitable than promoting CPA offers.

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Tejasca

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

Errr... no! commission does matter, and it matters A LOT. I mean, there are like thousands of CPA offer offering $5 to $10 commissions for an offer that's MUCH easier to convert than selling a $100-$150 product off Amazon.

Of course commission does matter, and there's no chance anyone will make me believe that promoting Amazon products is more efficient/profitable than promoting CPA offers.

Then, if I were you, I'd stay away from promoting Amazon products. I don't think anyone is trying to coerce you. Do what works for you.

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Shannon Spoon 14 years ago

Yes stay far away from Amazon, to everyone who thinks it is not worth it so i won't have as much competition
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- Alex Rich 14 years ago
  
  Interesting and informative and definitely helpful information. It appears all the exotic stuff is great exercise but the simple formula actually delivers. Who would have thought it When the student is ready the teacher appears.
  
  Chris, thanks for being so generous with your time and your secrets of success.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Shannon Spoon 14 years ago
  
  I haven't made near as much money as Chris but i have made sales which i know i can rinse and repeat.
  
  I would like to share what i have learned so far:
  
  Domain Research
  1. When doing domain research make sure your competition of 100,000 or less in quotes in Google and pay per click amount of .50 cent or more
  2. find a keyword phrase that is 3 to 5 words
  3. search volume of 500 or more
  4. Make sure the keywords that you are going after has ads displayed in the sidebar. Competition can be a good thing because you know people are spending money for that keyword
  5. I would not use a company name in your domain name just to be on the safe side.
  6. use something generic like bestbarfurniture.com
  
  Keyword Research
  1.find a keyword that has less than 10,000 competition in quotes
  2.find keywords that get at least 1,000 searches a month
  3.Look for keywords that are longtail like 3 to 5 words
  4.Pick 7 to 10 different products in the same niche or you can do more it is up to you really
  5. make sure your products have a good number of reviews so you know that it sells well
  6. I wouldn't try to sell anything that has less than a 3 star rating
  7.check out your competition on the first page of Google to see if you can beat them for your keyword/keywords Are they authority sites? like wikipedia? Also check their pagerank and the number of backlinks they have.
  8.If their are sites like Hubpages, Squidoo or Ezine on the first page then you have a good chance to rank and beat them
  
  Writing Product Reviews
  1. Offer up as much information about the product as you can from a neutral standpoint. You don't want to look biased or like you are trying to sell them anything. You are just reviewing the product.
  2. I like to make my reviews 500 to 1000 words long. The more information you give the reader the better.
  3. The real key is in your article to get the reader to trust you and then they will be more likely to buy.
  4. Don't worry about the 24 hour cookie, by the time they come to your site they should be ready to buy, you just have to tip them a little in the right direction without them knowing it.
  5. Don't just speak good about the product, tell them what you don't like about it, they are more likely to trust you that way.
  6. Amazon is well known site a lot more than other sites like ClickBank, You ask 10 random people that don't know IM about both and more people will surely know Amazon before ClickBank. The point is that people trust Amazon and it is a lot easier to sell from Amazon than ClickBank IMO.
  
  Well that is all i can think of right now, hopefully it helped someone.
  
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J23

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

Errr... no! commission does matter, and it matters A LOT. I mean, there are like thousands of CPA offer offering $5 to $10 commissions for an offer that's MUCH easier to convert than selling a $100-$150 product off Amazon.

Of course commission does matter, and there's no chance anyone will make me believe that promoting Amazon products is more efficient/profitable than promoting CPA offers.

I think you missed the entire point of my post.

The actual percentage number doesn't mean a damn thing, but rather how much you walk away with. If I were to promote a $10,000 product and only got 1% commission on it which would be $100, I really wouldn't care about it being 1%. I still make $100 per sale.

As long as the product sells for me and I make $100 off every sale, why should I care that I'm only getting 1% commission rate?

I want to know how much I'm actually walking away with and how well the offer/product converts. Anything else isn't a big deal.

But to each their own. If you find CPA marketing works better for you, then stick with that.

Thanks

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Aaron Elliott

14 years ago

Originally Posted by J23

The commission % shouldn't be your main focus, your net profit should be.

You say you know people making good money with Amazon, (which means if they are doing it, why can't you?) but you won't promote Amazon just because of the low commission % even though it really has nothing to do with the possible income you can earn?

Think if someone spends $200 and you earn 6% on it. That's $12 for you right there. Get 2 sales like that per day and you're already at the average commission payout for most Clickbank products.

Not to mention Amazon probably converts 10 times better than a Clickbank ebook.

I guess the up side is that it may be easier to sell amazon type products because its everyday things and its usually cheaper than retail stores.

I suppose its like adsense, it sounds useless earning an average .50 cents a click, but with thousands of visits it adds up over time, multiply that with more sites and you will increase revenue.

I just can't help to feel ripped off with the low commission, dont get me wrong the OP has done very well earning 60K in one year. However he has made the company almost 1 million $$ in sales, and the reward seems small....

Anyway next time I start a site with possible amazon potential ill be back to this thread, and will def use his advice.

Thanks

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by kchui1028

Amazon is ridiculously low rate.. like what.. 2% of sales? i use them just as a decoration on my site. lol

Originally Posted by kchui1028

interesting.. i run a tv/movie site but i don't get that many sales only get around 6%. it's kind of a desert income for me lol

kchui, do you think it's possible that these two statements might be related?

With the $25 = free shipping offer coupled with the fact that Amazon tends to discount these items, DVDs should be an easy sell for you.

It's not uncommon for people to buy a $15 DVD, see the free shipping reminder, and throw in another $15 DVD to save $4 in shipping. Then Amazon uses a variety of upsells to try and get more added to the order. You get paid on the entire order.

And, as someone mentioned above, the rate you've earned for the month applies to everything eligible that month, starting from item 1.

Thanks
2 replies

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Arcana Media

14 years ago

Do you know offhand what happens to international traffic that click on your Amazon.com links..?

For instance, Canadian visitors to your site would have to buy from amazon.ca and UK visitors from amazon.co.uk... is that correct?

It would be nice if amazon.com links geotargeted the person to the appropriate amazon domain.

So do you get credited with commissions when visitors from outside the USA click and buy through links on your websites? (ie Canada is ~10% of US population, UK about ~20%, and there are other amazon country domains too, afaik)

I've sometimes wondered how eBay.com handles affiliate links from international traffic as well. Could be lots of money left on the table (their table) if your site gets a significant percentage of viewers from outside the States.

Thanks
1 reply

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jan roos

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Arcana Media

Do you know offhand what happens to international traffic that click on your Amazon.com links..?

For instance, Canadian visitors to your site would have to buy from amazon.ca and UK visitors from amazon.co.uk... is that correct?

It would be nice if amazon.com links geotargeted the person to the appropriate amazon domain.

So do you get credited with commissions when visitors from outside the USA click and buy through links on your websites? (ie Canada is ~10% of US population, UK about ~20%, and there are other amazon country domains too, afaik)

I've sometimes wondered how eBay.com handles affiliate links from international traffic as well. Could be lots of money left on the table (their table) if your site gets a significant percentage of viewers from outside the States.

Here's the solution to your issue. WordPress › Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer WordPress Plugins

This plugin will automatically send visitors from different countries to their local Amazon store with your affiliate link in place

Wish I could use it but I can't cause it messes with my PPC tracking.

Cheers

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by remodeler

I know you're trying to help John, but when other people post up in a thread like this and state that the comm % is too low, the cookies are only 24 hrs, blah blah blah...I'm happy to hear it. Just less competition. I'll just continue to cash my ever increasing Amazon checks every month.

Excellent post BTW Chris!

I get your point, and like you say, it just leaves more for the rest of us.

My point was in relating his statement that he only used Amazon products as site decoration and that he didn't make many sales.

I made the same mistake trying to promote AllPosters at one time - I used the posters as decorations for other content, then gave up when I didn't get the clicks or sales.

I just don't want people just starting to consider Amazon to read those type of comments without some rebuttal.

Thanks

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remodeler

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

kchui, do you think it's possible that these two statements might be related?

With the $25 = free shipping offer coupled with the fact that Amazon tends to discount these items, DVDs should be an easy sell for you.

It's not uncommon for people to buy a $15 DVD, see the free shipping reminder, and throw in another $15 DVD to save $4 in shipping. Then Amazon uses a variety of upsells to try and get more added to the order. You get paid on the entire order.

And, as someone mentioned above, the rate you've earned for the month applies to everything eligible that month, starting from item 1.

I know you're trying to help John, but when other people post up in a thread like this and state that the comm % is too low, the cookies are only 24 hrs, blah blah blah...I'm happy to hear it. Just less competition. I'll just continue to cash my ever increasing Amazon checks every month.

Excellent post BTW Chris!

Thanks

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Texjd

14 years ago

Chris makes some excellent points on all fronts. And yes, both Adsense and Amazon produce lot lower commissions for the most part. But both have some serious earners out there making lots of money.

But the thing that I saw that most overlooked is that Chris mentioned in one of his replies that he is getting over 500,000 page views a month. He also mentioned about 10 sites so that's an average of 50,000 page views per site.

So his sites are well tested and he gets a ton of traffic. I'd bet he's invested some serious time and effort to both sides. So focusing on one method is also a huge factor.

Too many people jump around and try too many things at once or give up too quick.

Thanks
2 replies

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Avidpoet 14 years ago

Id like some more information about your link building strategies 500,000 page views a month is really impressive with youur 10+ sites.
- Thanks
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sickbaomei

14 years ago

From the earlier post by Chris, he mentioned that Amazon stores are bad... does anyone have experience with amazon plugins like revewazon .amaniche and has has positive results ? thanx

Thanks
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indie08

14 years ago

Yes, WP Zon rocks!! SEO friendly as well. Check out the site in my signature. I added products to it using this plugin. It's simple...

Thanks
2 replies

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eaglechick

14 years ago

Yeah Lessons learned with Clickbank - 4 Months - 31 page Unique Content Site later - many, many visitors later - NO SALES! People tend to forget what is best> A few measly sales that can easily be hijacked with some commisson if you're lucky or a lot of sales with little bit of commission? And then we don't even talk about how easy it is to get a refund at clickbank - too easy! You'll think twice before returning a physical product, but will easily return a e-book, copy the contents and send it back (unfortunately that is what most people do)!

Thanks
1 reply

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Han Fan

14 years ago

Originally Posted by eaglechick

Yeah Lessons learned with Clickbank - 4 Months - 31 page Unique Content Site later - many, many visitors later - NO SALES! People tend to forget what is best> A few measly sales that can easily be hijacked with some commisson if you're lucky or a lot of sales with little bit of commission? And then we don't even talk about how easy it is to get a refund at clickbank - too easy! You'll think twice before returning a physical product, but will easily return a e-book, copy the contents and send it back (unfortunately that is what most people do)!

You can win BOTH Way, Ebook or Physical Product..

Something is not converting on your sales page...

but you do marketing Eproduct different than Physical Product..

just how you market them...

Master Selling in General, Internet just a media form...
but selling is selling...

Study Zig, Study Sells Bible...etc.

hopefully that helps

Han

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Han Fan 14 years ago

Originally Posted by indie08

Yes, WP Zon rocks!! SEO friendly as well. Check out the site in my signature. I added products to it using this plugin. It's simple...

Did you just give out your niche?

Han
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- indie08 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Han Fan
  
  Did you just give out your niche?
  
  Han
  
  Yup, Putting it up for sale. Should convert but not sure...
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  abednego 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by indie08
  
  Yup, Putting it up for sale. Should convert but not sure...
  
  Good luck with the sales of your webpage. Have you received any sales yet, or is it too early?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  Signature
  
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  indie08 14 years ago
  
  Hello there,
  
  It is a new site, however I'm selling it to whoever would like it. No sales from Amazon yet because it is not ranking yet.
  
  Thank You,
  Brian
  
  Thanks
  
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Anonymous Affiliate

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

Important: Remember the tracking cookie lasts only 24 hours. Target potential buyers not lookers.

24 hours? that's crazy! It's extremely difficult to make a sale on the first visit unless you promote highly seasonal products (Christmas, Valentine's day, etc). Why does Amazon follow such a humongous policy towards their own affiliates???

Thanks

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kachaloo

14 years ago

Hi,
Thank you for sharing your story. May I know how many blogs do you have ? and how many visits do you get in a month ?

Cheers,
Kachaloo

Thanks

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kachaloo

14 years ago

Pls ignore my prev post I found the information on earlier posts by you.

Thanks

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MCDavies

14 years ago

Hey guys,

I had the good fortune of meeting Chris in person earlier this week. He definitely wants to help other people succeed in making money on the internet.

Chris, thanks for posting this. It sure is amazing to see the activity here.

I am now taking a real interest in building blogs and earning commissions from Amazon sales. Looking forward to our next meeting, there is so much more to learn and do!

See you around,
Michael

Thanks

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Domainoutlaw

14 years ago

Wow what an amazing post. I really hope I can achieve a goal as lofty as this some day.

Thanks

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RossVegas

14 years ago

great post...very helpful info

Thanks

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ellers

14 years ago

Thanks for sharing

Two thumbs up to you

Thanks
1 reply

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ptwain

14 years ago

This is a great thread!!

Just wanted to know if you're using any Amazon plugins(ie. ReviewAzon, wprobot,) on your sites. Or are you manually add amazon links and products to your site.

Thx

Paul

Thanks
2 replies

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Shannon Spoon

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ptwain

This is a great thread!!

Just wanted to know if you're using any Amazon plugins(ie. ReviewAzon, wprobot,) on your sites. Or are you manually add amazon links and products to your site.

Thx

Paul

I don't know about Chris but i manually input everything. I did use a WordPress plugin at first to pull everything from Amazon but the site did not rank well at all. My advice is to write unique content and manually insert your Amazon links into your content. I like to put 3 to 4 links per article in there.

Thanks

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by alanfukuda

Do you use that long ugly link that Amazon gives you or are you using a plugin to to hide the link? Follow or no follow?

Thanks

I run the regular links that Amazon gives and do follow. I haven't found any negative SEO impact and people trust Amazon so much they almost prefer seeing that then a sneaky URL that looks like it's a page on your site and not the Amazon site.

If someone has been penalized for this I'd love to hear it but I don't think it matters.

Originally Posted by MAtkins

Chris: Thanks again for all your help.
I wondered if you could tell us what criteria you use to determine whether a given set of keywords is viable to pursue.

Do you have a minimum daily search volume or require a certain range for AdWords CPC? What criteria do you use to determine whether or not competition is acceptable? Could you be so kind as to tell us some criteria numbers?

I like to get at least 10,000 searches a month (exact match) for a keyword that I will target for an entire site around. For competition I just look at who ranks for where I want to compete and then determine if it's going to be something I can win at or if it's not worth the time and effort.

Originally Posted by netrover

Thanks for the great post, Chris. Like several others who replied I just happen to be focusing my efforts on building Amazon based websites; so it is great timing.

The thing that worries me w/ Amazon is the 24 hour cookie. Do you make any attempt to get the visitor to revisit your site (a big Bookmark this Site graphic on your site?) in case they plan to buy later, after the 24 hour period (in which case they may go directly to Amazon)?

Also, do you know if it is permissible, as an Amazon affiliate, to offer incentives if the visitor purchases through your link, like a free gift or even a rebate of some sort?

Lastly, the biggest obstacle I see when doing market research is that, for many, many consumer item keywords (vacuums, electronics, tools, etc.) the big A occupies the top 1-3 spots, and there are even thumbnail images of the product right in the natural search area. A big bummer, no way will my site get clicked in these scenarios. So, my technique centers on finding products sold on Amazon where Amazon is not in the top ten spots for the keyword; and it is not easy. What are your thoughts on this?

You can't incentivize the traffic as far as I can tell although I may be mistaken...

I think in those categories it's tough because it's hard to get decent CTR even if you're in those top spots. I have a niche site I'm trying to rank in an area like this though and will let you know how it goes.

Originally Posted by MGunn

The commission rate starts over each month but your total sales for your account are added together to determine your % rate. So if you have 10 sites that sell 10 items each then you are at 6.5% (100 sales)

As I recall the % level you move up to is retroactive on your previous sales. So if you move to the 8% level (for example) then all of your previous sales for that month get paid at 8%.

Yes, you get it retroactive. i.e. I always love it if I just barely hit the 8.25% mark for the month as that means I get an extra .25% on every product I already sold that month which usually equates to a couple hundred extra dollars.

Originally Posted by Aaron Elliott

I know alot of people make good money from amazon, but 4-6% commission, I can't bring myself to spend the time creating the sites for this.

Well, as you can see by my results I think it's worth it. I've found it's much easier to sell a "real" product rather than some information where I try and sell someone on their hopes and dreams of making money on the internet etc. etc.

Originally Posted by Texjd

Chris makes some excellent points on all fronts. And yes, both Adsense and Amazon produce lot lower commissions for the most part. But both have some serious earners out there making lots of money.

But the thing that I saw that most overlooked is that Chris mentioned in one of his replies that he is getting over 500,000 page views a month. He also mentioned about 10 sites so that's an average of 50,000 page views per site.

So his sites are well tested and he gets a ton of traffic. I'd bet he's invested some serious time and effort to both sides. So focusing on one method is also a huge factor.

Too many people jump around and try too many things at once or give up too quick.

Yes the thing that changed it for me was to really focus hard on one site until it was dominating and then move onto the next etc.

I'm sure there are easier / faster ways to make money online, but for what I've tried this has worked best for me.

Originally Posted by MCDavies

Hey guys,

I had the good fortune of meeting Chris in person earlier this week. He definitely wants to help other people succeed in making money on the internet.

Chris, thanks for posting this. It sure is amazing to see the activity here.

I am now taking a real interest in building blogs and earning commissions from Amazon sales. Looking forward to our next meeting, there is so much more to learn and do!

See you around,
Michael

Hey Michael,

Thanks for the kind words

hopefully we can get a larger crew together for the next meet up.

************************************************** *************************************

Note: I'm only on page 3 of the threads for questions that don't appear to have been answered. I was gone for the weekend (Mother's Day) but will get back and answer questions on page 4 tomorrow (have to step out).

Wanted to say thanks to Shannon for all the help in answering questions people have had as well

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onlineleben 14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

You can't incentivize the traffic as far as I can tell although I may be mistaken...

You cannot do it directly, but some years ago Iv'e seen someone using following 'trick'.
He posted a message like:
'When you buy this widget via my link at amazon, come back to this page after the sale and enter your amazon order number to receive your free bonus report'

This actually worked - his form only checked if the order number entered had the same length as an amazon order number.
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rft123

14 years ago

Thanks for the info. I agree that $60K on nearly a million in sales isn't very good, but everyone knows that although Amazon's affiliate program is probably the oldest and best known, it is also one of the worst paying; however, someone would be crazy to turn down an extra $60K a year stream of income.

Good work and thanks for the info.

Thanks
1 reply

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Ofthemix

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rft123

Thanks for the info. I agree that $60K on nearly a million in sales isn't very good, but everyone knows that although Amazon's affiliate program is probably the oldest and best known, it is also one of the worst paying; however, someone would be crazy to turn down an extra $60K a year stream of income.

Good work and thanks for the info.

Despite the fact that $60K on a million in sales isn't good (which I think most would agree on), it's still more than most people make at an 8 - 5 day job (which is also something most people would agree on).

Think of it this way. If you work for any company, you're only making a minute percentile of the sales for products/services of that company. You have to follow said companies rules and regulations. I'd rather be making a 1% commission for myself and doing it on my own time, than making a 10% commission having to march to the beat of someone else's drum. I think most people would agree.

Thanks

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Creative freedom

14 years ago

Hi Cris

It's great to see other people having success with amazon.
I didn't make much from amazon last year, but I'm going to have an other look at my site now!

Thanks for your advise.

I've just visited your blog, it is VERY GOOD

Thanks

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Cash37

14 years ago

You have the skills to sell a mill's worth of products and only took home 60k? That's good or bad depending on how you look at it

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WAHM2B

14 years ago

Just another word of thanks for your post. I only have a few Amazon sites running with WPRobot but they did pretty well over the holidays so I know it can be done. I'd like to add more content in the future and ramp up. It's all about the numbers and repeating what you've done over and over. Great job and very inspiring!

Thanks
1 reply

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Aaron Elliott

I guess the up side is that it may be easier to sell amazon type products because its everyday things and its usually cheaper than retail stores.

I suppose its like adsense, it sounds useless earning an average .50 cents a click, but with thousands of visits it adds up over time, multiply that with more sites and you will increase revenue.

I just can't help to feel ripped off with the low commission, dont get me wrong the OP has done very well earning 60K in one year. However he has made the company almost 1 million $$ in sales, and the reward seems small....

Anyway next time I start a site with possible amazon potential ill be back to this thread, and will def use his advice.

First off, Aaron, this is not directed at you personally. You just happened to make the post that triggered the response.

Maybe it's time for a lesson in the economics of selling physical goods versus selling digital products.

Most of the people bitc-- complaining about low commission rates seem to be equating commissions on digital products with no base cost and virtually no overhead with commissions on which there is a very real cost of goods sold and overhead (warehousing, packing, sorting for shipment, record keeping, etc.).

With digital goods, like one would promote via Clickbank, commission may well be the sole cost involved other than CB's fee. So offering commissions in the 50%+ range is eminently viable.

With most physical goods, the cost of goods sold often runs from 50% to 65% of the selling price. Let's use 50% to make the numbers easy.

So a typical $100 item would cost the retailer $50, leaving $50 to pay cost of sales (commission plus website expenses plus fulfillment cost), overhead and profit.

For a physical operation, allowing for 30% for overhead is fair - without taking the time to look through annual reports, I'm using it as a guess.

Which leaves $20 to pay commission and fulfillment (I'll allow website expenses to lump in with overhead).

According to Amazon's published shipping rates, a single item order costs from ~$4 to $8.50.

Leaving $11.50 to $16 for commission and profit.

4% of $100 is $4, which equates to an effective commission rate of 25% to 35%.

If we apply this logic to the original post, Chris made ~$60k on ~$176,000 available for commission and profit. Or about 35% of the amount available for commission and profit.

Does the commission rate still seem "pathetic", as some have called it?

[ 2 ] Thanks
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Anonymous Affiliate

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

First off, Aaron, this is not directed at you personally. You just happened to make the post that triggered the response.

Maybe it's time for a lesson in the economics of selling physical goods versus selling digital products.

Most of the people bitc-- complaining about low commission rates seem to be equating commissions on digital products with no base cost and virtually no overhead with commissions on which there is a very real cost of goods sold and overhead (warehousing, packing, sorting for shipment, record keeping, etc.).

With digital goods, like one would promote via Clickbank, commission may well be the sole cost involved other than CB's fee. So offering commissions in the 50%+ range is eminently viable.

With most physical goods, the cost of goods sold often runs from 50% to 65% of the selling price. Let's use 50% to make the numbers easy.

So a typical $100 item would cost the retailer $50, leaving $50 to pay cost of sales (commission plus website expenses plus fulfillment cost), overhead and profit.

For a physical operation, allowing for 30% for overhead is fair - without taking the time to look through annual reports, I'm using it as a guess.

Which leaves $20 to pay commission and fulfillment (I'll allow website expenses to lump in with overhead).

According to Amazon's published shipping rates, a single item order costs from ~$4 to $8.50.

Leaving $11.50 to $16 for commission and profit.

4% of $100 is $4, which equates to an effective commission rate of 25% to 35%.

If we apply this logic to the original post, Chris made ~$60k on ~$176,000 available for commission and profit. Or about 35% of the amount available for commission and profit.

Does the commission rate still seem "pathetic", as some have called it?

Who cares about any of that? the truth is that with Amazon you need to generate 1 Million on sales in order to get 60k for you. With CPA you can get to 60k without having your traffic to shell out ANYWHERE near 1 Million, not even a fraction of that.

I dunno, I just dont find Amazon any efficient at all for internet affiliates.

Thanks
3 replies

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jan roos

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

Who cares about any of that? the truth is that with Amazon you need to generate 1 Million on sales in order to get 60k for you. With CPA you can get to 60k without having your traffic to shell out ANYWHERE near 1 Million, not even a fraction of that.

I dunno, I just dont find Amazon any efficient at all for internet affiliates.

If you get let's say 1% conversion rate with clickbank and you make 60 bucks per sale and I get 20 bucks per sale with Amazon but my conversion rate is 4% then I mke more than you. Of course you can also have 3 or 4% conversion rate with clickbank but it would be much harder to achieve than with Amazon in my opinion.

Either way, I'm not saying one method is the right way. It took me 2 years of bouncing around before I found what worked for ME and I'm sticking with it.

Cheers

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

Who cares about any of that? the truth is that with Amazon you need to generate 1 Million on sales in order to get 60k for you. With CPA you can get to 60k without having your traffic to shell out ANYWHERE near 1 Million, not even a fraction of that.

I dunno, I just dont find Amazon any efficient at all for internet affiliates.

Different strokes for different folks. We all gotta decide for ourselves what fits.

I'm not trying to convince you to drop your CPA efforts. Personally, I can't conceive of caring less about it.

I'm just trying to point out that the 4-10% offered by Amazon and other physical product sellers isn't the rip-off that some make it out to be. There are legitimate economic reasons for setting those rates.

Thanks
1 reply

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indie08 14 years ago

Chris,

That is commendable man! Way to go! Here is my method of making money with Amazon:

1. Select a good niche w/buyers. (low competition/high search) - obvious
2. Register an exact matching domain
3. Build a wordpress blog all centered around the keyword phrase - 2 awesome plugins are WPzon and WPUnique.
4. Build continuous backlinks

If you check out my new site in my sig, I have a matching keyword phrase url, a 300 word unique post, followed by popular products posted by WPzon. The WPUnique plugin makes these posts look unique to the search engines.

Can't wait to get to this income level.

Best Regards,
Brian
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bocephus

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

Who cares about any of that? the truth is that with Amazon you need to generate 1 Million on sales in order to get 60k for you. With CPA you can get to 60k without having your traffic to shell out ANYWHERE near 1 Million, not even a fraction of that.

I dunno, I just dont find Amazon any efficient at all for internet affiliates.

Yeah John... Why do you insist on clouding up a great discussion with a bunch of inconvenient little facts and figures that explain perfectly why Amazon offers the commissions that they do.

FWIW, Mr. McCabe, I thought that was an excellent and quite logical explanation of how selling actual, real-live physical products works. Unfortunately it will be completely lost on those who probably don't have a grasp of fundamental economics.

I think that Chris has a pretty good grasp of this concept. I can tell you that reading the original post got me thinking about doing WAY more Amazon. Oddly enough, since reading it I sold 8 items on Amazon.

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zronald.barker

14 years ago

Originally Posted by bocephus

Yeah John... Why do you insist on clouding up a great discussion with a bunch of inconvenient little facts and figures that explain perfectly why Amazon offers the commissions that they do.

FWIW, Mr. McCabe, I thought that was an excellent and quite logical explanation of how selling actual, real-live physical products works. Unfortunately it will be completely lost on those who probably don't have a grasp of fundamental economics.

I think that Chris has a pretty good grasp of this concept. I can tell you that reading the original post got me thinking about doing WAY more Amazon. Oddly enough, since reading it I sold 8 items on Amazon.

This Exactly why the total industry of digital books and so on shrink every couple of years then they ( Gurus) try to extend it again then shrink then expand and so on

They are selling the humanity products and services not all the humans need, but physical product most of us bought before and will buy again and again ...

anyone here who is rejecting the idea of physical product does not own a washer? cleaner? a knife? plates? spoons ? creams ?and so on

I am here reading this thread for the 7th time and writing note from behind the lines for alll of us then I am going to put it into action after 2-3 hours maximum .

Let's do it guy ...

Thanks

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Encash Yourself

14 years ago

Chris:

How does the 1-day life of the Amazon Associates cookie affect you? Considering they changed this last year, did you see a significant drop in your revenues?

Thanks
1 reply

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indie08 14 years ago

Hey Chris,

I found a bunch of obscure niches that have
high search, low competition and an exact matching
domain and that contain products on Amazon. The
only problem is that there are not many reviews. I
want to build sites around these niches but I heard
I should only concentrate on products that have 3
star reviews and higher? Is this true? Do you think
these "obscure" niches I'm talking about would bring
in sales?

Thank You,
Brian Pelton
- Thanks
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jimmidwest

14 years ago

Chris,
Thanks for the great information.
Do you use any autoblog plugin for amazon?

thanks again,
Jim

Thanks
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Spot the Ball 14 years ago

Originally Posted by jimmidwest

Chris,
Thanks for the great information.
Do you use any autoblog plugin for amazon?

thanks again,
Jim

I have a site whith a amazon plugin and I use this with WP Unique,

The posts ARE unique in the eyes of the search engine but I still get better results on my own original content products. The SEs find these easier.

Hence I am now having all my content written originally.
- Thanks
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tyroneshum

14 years ago

Hi Chris,

By just reading through this thread I've already thought I don't have to ask.

You have already generated big amount of answers and tips here and all I can say is congratulations with your success with Amazon. Haven't utilized Amazon much since I started with Clickbank and CJ without even looking back.

Glad to learn a lot about this from you.

Talk soon and all the best!

Thanks

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Fraggler

14 years ago

If you are already selling a particular product (or range of products) well, there is nothing stopping you from approaching other sources for a higher commission. If you do find some other sources you can also split test their sales pages against Amazon's and find out which one is converting better.

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Niche_Boy

Banned 14 years ago

Hey Chris.

I was wondering if i could generate a nice steady income with starting off with 1 wordpress e-commerce site selling amazon products then making 4 more e-commerce sites when the first one is doing good. Thanks.

Thanks

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tycoon828

14 years ago

Hi, Chris,

I remembered that you said you outsource some of your content writing, right?

What if the content quality is not good and will this effect your conversion rate?

Thanks.

Thanks
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Spot the Ball

14 years ago

Hey Tycoon,

I think you might be over thinking here, you dont need anything brilliant on your page, amazon will convert for you.

Just get started and add content, as much as you can. You can always go back and tweak your pages if you want to BUT get some content out there to start attracting the SEs as soon as possible.

Over thinking will only see you getting no where fast.

Thanks
2 replies

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tycoon828

14 years ago

Thank you for your advice. Yes I should just start to do something.

BTW, do you have any trick to inspire your visitors to click your affiliate link?

Originally Posted by Spot the Ball

Hey Tycoon,

I think you might be over thinking here, you dont need anything brilliant on your page, amazon will convert for you.

Just get started and add content, as much as you can. You can always go back and tweak your pages if you want to BUT get some content out there to start attracting the SEs as soon as possible.

Over thinking will only see you getting no where fast.

Thanks
1 reply

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Spot the Ball 14 years ago

Originally Posted by tycoon828

Thank you for your advice. Yes I should just start to do something.

BTW, do you have any trick to inspire your visitors to click your affiliate link?

Not really, I would just write objectively, highlight plus points as well as minus points.

I am reviewing products that have good feedback so the plus,s outweigh the minus points.

Try to be honest and dont try to sell, quote some lines from consumer reviews and then link (with your code)to something like " see 50 customer reviews at the most trusted store online"

Edit: It wont do your site any harm by reviewing/including some crappy products and reporting them as crappy products. This will give you some credibility and this can be turned into a positive by linking to more favourable products on your site.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
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- Spot the Ball 14 years ago
  
  Another tip,
  
  When you google a product, open the "wonder wheel" in the left hand sidebar, start clicking on wheel untill you find something like " green widget 1253"
  
  Then input this term/model number into google keyword tool, sometimes (not always) you can get dozens of longtails that collectively get thousands of searches a month with barely any competition that you wouldnt have dreamt about.
  
  Thanks
  
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indie08

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Spot the Ball

Hey Tycoon,

I think you might be over thinking here, you dont need anything brilliant on your page, amazon will convert for you.

Just get started and add content, as much as you can. You can always go back and tweak your pages if you want to BUT get some content out there to start attracting the SEs as soon as possible.

Over thinking will only see you getting no where fast.

Yup, Just build simple blogs then build backlinks to get them ranked...

Thanks

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RichardDean

14 years ago

Hello,

Can you explain the image shot you have in your OP of this thread?

What is advertising fee what you paid out to get people to your sites?

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

if you sell one item at say 5800.00 and earn .04 % that is 232.00 you had to return
or more to make the average 232.27 ?

Do you use photoshop much? Why is the Total refunds 00.000

The math does not add up. 1 million and only 60 grand I would move on to something else.

Great story thoe I think I read this in the breaking the amazon code

Richard Dean

Guys/Gals remember go back to the basics photos sell more than
words old school marketing 101

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Spot the Ball

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

The math does not add up. 1 million and only 60 grand I would move on to something else.

Great story thoe I think I read this in the breaking the amazon code

Richard Dean

Guys/Gals remember go back to the basics photos sell more than
words old school marketing 101

Arghhh!!,

Why do people fail to take conversion rates into account no matter how many times its explained.

Edit: Comments like this are starting to annoy me.

Why ?

Because this is one of the easiest ways to make money online and all these negative untruths do is to stop newer Imers from having a good crack at actually susceeding.

Seriously, do the math before knocking this strategy and stopping new Imers from actually having a good crack of the whip.

Thanks

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RichardDean

14 years ago

You're working on hopes and dreams people,

"trick them into clicking on the image then hope they buy in 24 hours"

"review something you don't own and then add some crappy reviews to look creditable"

This is why you always go to the browser and type in
http://www. amazon . com or what ever your looking for.

Think of how much better the internet would be without affiliate link hopping crap.

FTC should make sure you own any product you write a review about.
That will be next boys and girls. Wait and see....

Nice

Richard

Thanks
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indie08

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

You're working on hopes and dreams people,

"trick them into clicking on the image then hope they buy in 24 hours"

"review something you don't own and then add some crappy reviews to look creditable"

This is why you always go to the browser and type in
http://www. amazon . com or what ever your looking for.

Think of how much better the internet would be without affiliate link hopping crap.

FTC should make sure you own any product you write a review about.
That will be next boys and girls. Wait and see....

Nice

Richard

I agree that some sites are crap. However, if you provide
the visitor exactly what they need and provide helpful info
I see no problems. Especially if you use a plugin that pulls
info directly from Amazon!

Thanks

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Shannon Spoon

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

You're working on hopes and dreams people,

"trick them into clicking on the image then hope they buy in 24 hours"

"review something you don't own and then add some crappy reviews to look creditable"

This is why you always go to the browser and type in
http://www. amazon . com or what ever your looking for.

Think of how much better the internet would be without affiliate link hopping crap.

FTC should make sure you own any product you write a review about.
That will be next boys and girls. Wait and see....

Nice

Richard

That is interesting. The FTC is going to make sure everyone who reviews a product owns it first...........Just how are they going to do that?

That is laughable:rolleyes:

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Vanquish 14 years ago

Awesome info Chris, Amazon seems like a real powerhouse with high conversion rates and a ton of products to choose from keeping saturation at a low.
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- Niche_Boy Banned 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Vanquish
  
  Awesome info Chris, Amazon seems like a real powerhouse with high conversion rates and a ton of products to choose from keeping saturation at a low.
  
  Same, im gonna set up a few sites selling a mass volume of amazon products high and low and see how i do.
  
  Thanks for the tips chris!
  
  Thanks
  
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Spot the Ball

14 years ago

Sounds very much like sour grapes to me.

So, In your small world, we shouldnt have any shop on the high street selling Levi Jeans or Wallmart selling Lg Tv,s.

You Sir, are talking rubbish.

Lol, The guys preaching to us and then promoting a website that tells users how to make bucketfulls by becoming a google AFFILIATE promoting adsense that promotes thousands of other affiliates:;

Say no more.

Thanks
1 reply

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Jute 14 years ago

I just love this Post!

Good stuff!

Thanks

Jute
- Thanks
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JennRush

14 years ago

This thread is so educational. I had Amazon Affiliate on my To-Do list as something to check out. (Seems reasonable to give it a shot since it's one of my favorite shopping sites!)

I check out blog. Great resources. Thanks.

By chance would you be willing to send a link to one of your Amazon Affiliate sites so that I can see it in action?

(I sure hope I haven't asked a question that's already been answered. I apologize if I did. I only went through the posts on the first and last pages due to time constraints.)

Thanks! :-)

Jenn

Thanks
1 reply

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CatherineMay

14 years ago

When you google a product, open the "wonder wheel" in the left hand sidebar, start clicking on wheel untill you find something like " green widget 1253"

Can someone help me find this tool? I just can't seem to locate it.

Catherine

Thanks
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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Open your eyes... you can't review something if you never tried it.

Richard Dean

Richard, although I agree with you in spirit, I caution you to be careful posting terms like "Punk A$$" - it's a good way to get a post deleted, a whole thread deleted, or if it's habitual, an account deleted.

There is a middle ground between the kind of crappy fake review sites you were talking about and having direct experience with every single item recommended.

It's quite possible to provide good value for readers by honestly collating the experiences of others and putting them into context.

To take a well-worn example, I'm not likely to buy half a dozen plasma TV sets just so I can write first-hand reviews of them. What I can do is put together some research (real research, not scanning a few articles on some directory), a collection of models which sell well, and do the old compare and contrast thing many of us learned in school.

Add in a selection of comments and an unbiased recommendation, and you have a valuable time saver for someone looking to buy one of those sets. Granted, such content takes more than ten minutes and is impossible to do well in a few hundred words, but the results can last a long time.

Thanks
1 reply

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Thanks again for the overwhelming response from this thread.

Sorry I haven't been able to answer questions more than once a day or once every other day. I'm busy with several other projects.

This batch of questions is for everyone on page 4

Originally Posted by Cash37

You have the skills to sell a mill's worth of products and only took home 60k? That's good or bad depending on how you look at it

Well, I guess it all depends on what your website niche is. The way I've built these sites out and the markets I target would convert best with physical products and because Amazon pays out the best in this space I chose to go with them.

In my old day job (before I got fired last year lol) I was in IT sales and was responsible for bringing in over $1,000,000 in profit for the company I worked for and I was only paid about $60k for that. Here I'm bringing in less than $1,000,000 in sales and I still make $60k.

I guess people can be dissatisfied with the "low payout", but from what I was getting before this was a huge change.

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

Who cares about any of that? the truth is that with Amazon you need to generate 1 Million on sales in order to get 60k for you. With CPA you can get to 60k without having your traffic to shell out ANYWHERE near 1 Million, not even a fraction of that.

I dunno, I just dont find Amazon any efficient at all for internet affiliates.

I guess it just depends on what you like to promote. I like promoting physical products because it's easier to sell than an eBook trying to sell someone on the hopes and dreams of being able to make money online.

(that's not to say I wouldn't do that in the future lol

this is just where my decisions have lead me)

Originally Posted by sickbaomei

From the earlier post by Chris, he mentioned that Amazon stores are bad... does anyone have experience with amazon plugins like revewazon .amaniche and has has positive results ? thanx

I prefer PHPzon. Check out the review on my blog there is a 20% coupon code if you want it.

Originally Posted by Encash Yourself

Chris:

How does the 1-day life of the Amazon Associates cookie affect you? Considering they changed this last year, did you see a significant drop in your revenues?

As far as I'm aware it' always been 1 day since I've been earning this amount. I heard it dropped from 30 days several years ago but perhaps that is what you were referring to?

Originally Posted by indie08

Hey Chris,

I found a bunch of obscure niches that have
high search, low competition and an exact matching
domain and that contain products on Amazon. The
only problem is that there are not many reviews. I
want to build sites around these niches but I heard
I should only concentrate on products that have 3
star reviews and higher? Is this true? Do you think
these "obscure" niches I'm talking about would bring
in sales?

Thank You,
Brian Pelton

I don't think anyone can truly tell you if something will work or not. You just need to try it yourself and go from there. I do think higher star rating products make more sense to promote though.

Originally Posted by jimmidwest

Chris,
Thanks for the great information.
Do you use any autoblog plugin for amazon?

thanks again,
Jim

I haven't tried it before but was going to on a few small test niche sites.

Originally Posted by tyroneshum

Hi Chris,

By just reading through this thread I've already thought I don't have to ask.

You have already generated big amount of answers and tips here and all I can say is congratulations with your success with Amazon. Haven't utilized Amazon much since I started with Clickbank and CJ without even looking back.

Glad to learn a lot about this from you.

Talk soon and all the best!

Thank you very much. Yah for me Clickbank is foreign. I've only promoted a single product on there before - Shoemoney System because I've met Jeremy and can tell he'd make a good product. I use CJ from time to time but product payouts seem to be higher from Amazon for me.

Originally Posted by Niche_Boy

Hey Chris.

I was wondering if i could generate a nice steady income with starting off with 1 wordpress e-commerce site selling amazon products then making 4 more e-commerce sites when the first one is doing good. Thanks.

I don't make e-commerce sites and really no one can tell you if your idea will work or won't work. What I try and do is build something and stick with it until it's successful before I move onto my next project. I suggest you just go for it.

Originally Posted by onlineleben

You cannot do it directly, but some years ago Iv'e seen someone using following 'trick'.
He posted a message like:
'When you buy this widget via my link at amazon, come back to this page after the sale and enter your amazon order number to receive your free bonus report'

This actually worked - his form only checked if the order number entered had the same length as an amazon order number.

Hmmm, seems risky to me. I don't know if I'd be willing to risk my account to test that out

Originally Posted by tycoon828

Hi, Chris,

I remembered that you said you outsource some of your content writing, right?

What if the content quality is not good and will this effect your conversion rate?

Thanks.

I only outsource on my lowest income generating sites, but I'm slowly working to a point so that I don't have to write anything. I'm sure that the content quality does affect conversion rate but I haven't done any specific testing before to know this for certain.

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Hello,

Can you explain the image shot you have in your OP of this thread?

What is advertising fee what you paid out to get people to your sites?

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

if you sell one item at say 5800.00 and earn .04 % that is 232.00 you had to return
or more to make the average 232.27 ?

Do you use photoshop much? Why is the Total refunds 00.000

The math does not add up. 1 million and only 60 grand I would move on to something else.

Great story thoe I think I read this in the breaking the amazon code

Richard Dean

Guys/Gals remember go back to the basics photos sell more than
words old school marketing 101

Hey Richard, I'm not sure why the refund category is $0.00 perhaps because the returns are taken out of the returns category? And if that's the case I'm not sure why there is even a refund category.

As I've said before you aren't the first to accuse me of Photoshop work but if you really read what I've said before how does it not make sense logically? All I was doing with this post was to prove it based on data.

Originally Posted by RichardDean

You're working on hopes and dreams people,

"trick them into clicking on the image then hope they buy in 24 hours"

"review something you don't own and then add some crappy reviews to look creditable"

This is why you always go to the browser and type in
http://www. amazon . com or what ever your looking for.

Think of how much better the internet would be without affiliate link hopping crap.

FTC should make sure you own any product you write a review about.
That will be next boys and girls. Wait and see....

Nice

Richard

I don't specifically do the things you've listed above, but everyone knows that half the goal is just to get them onto Amazon.com so that Amazon can do what it does best - convert visitors into buyers.

The FTC would never be able to make sure someone owns a product that a review is written about. How would they enforce it? It would be a logistical nightmare and the costs to do such a thing would be way too high.

Besides, then I'd just move my business out of the US where there is no FTC if it really came down to it.

***********************************************

Will answer questions from page 5 in the next day or two. I may not be able to get back on the forum.

Thanks
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bocephus

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

I don't specifically do the things you've listed above, but everyone knows that half the goal is just to get them onto Amazon.com so that Amazon can do what it does best - convert visitors into buyers.

I seriously doubt that every celebrity that pushes products has an intimate knowledge of the products they promote. Ever notice that you see the same actors many times over in various commercials? Do you suppose that the first question they are asked is whether they own the product and can verify that it is a good product? Do you believe that the Gecko on the Geico commercial is a real talking gecko who has an intimate knowledge of the insurance business?

Thanks
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J23 14 years ago

Originally Posted by bocephus

Do you believe that the Gecko on the Geico commercial is a real talking gecko who has an intimate knowledge of the insurance business?

Had to lol at this one

I definitely agree. There's a huge difference with some crappy review site and a well thought out site that gives the visitor the exact information they are looking for.

What sense would it make to go out and buy every single product you want to promote on Amazon just so you can give the reader the exact same information you could by reading other real user reviews from people who have already bought the product?

You would end up spending way more on products than you're actually making off them...
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RichardDean

14 years ago

Hello,

Jenn

I see your sig making one k a day are you making one k a day, If not don't try to
tell others how to do it.

I'm not picking on you either. Just asking.

No he won't show us a site for his 60 k amazon sales.

Richard

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TimG

14 years ago

On the left hand side click on "More Search Tools" then in the drop down menu you click on "wonder Wheel" - By default we are setup for "Standard View".

You will find "Wonder Wheel" in between "Related Searches" and "Timeline"

Hope that helps.

Tim

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RichardDean

14 years ago

Hello,

JohnMcCabe

" I'm not likely to buy half a dozen plasma TV sets just so I can write first-hand reviews of them. "

Well if you're going to review plasma TV's not sure if your reviews will be read your a few years behind the times... Try LED TV's

Again many ways you can do this just think out side the box, go to your local TV store and use the TV's write down your own findings... See that easy and you did not have to spend any money and you got a honest review by you.

Shannon Spoon
That is interesting. The FTC is going to make sure everyone who reviews a product owns it first...........Just how are they going to do that?

That is laughable

Well again been around a long time and heard others dis on what the FTC can and will do
wait and see...

Richard Dean

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Success With Dany Banned 14 years ago

Should I post testimonals from people who DIDN'T like the product? Or good idea to lose sales?
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RichardDean

14 years ago

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardDean
Hello,

Can you explain the image shot you have in your OP of this thread?

What is advertising fee what you paid out to get people to your sites?

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

if you sell one item at say 5800.00 and earn .04 % that is 232.00 you had to return
or more to make the average 232.27 ?

Do you use photoshop much? Why is the Total refunds 00.000

The math does not add up. 1 million and only 60 grand I would move on to something else.

Great story thoe I think I read this in the breaking the amazon code

Richard Dean

Guys/Gals remember go back to the basics photos sell more than
words old school marketing 101
Hey Richard, I'm not sure why the refund category is $0.00 perhaps because the returns are taken out of the returns category? And if that's the case I'm not sure why there is even a refund category.

As I've said before you aren't the first to accuse me of Photoshop work but if you really read what I've said before how does it not make sense logically? All I was doing with this post was to prove it based on data. Quote:

"what I've said before how does it not make sense logically"

Ya but this does not make sense logically

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

if you sell one item at amazon say 5800.00 and earn .04 % that is 232.00

which is your average return of 232.27

the average sale on amazon is not even as much as 232.00

On average, online shoppers spent $1,225 on Internet purchases during the PAST 12 months, with 60% spending at least $500 over 12 months.

And at amazon only 42% of online shoppers this holiday season being the busy high rated
time frame.

Yet your returns say ... You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return ....It don't add up.

On the FTC I've been around to know that the FTC will pick one or two people to target they don't need to go after all just a few, and then make examples from them. You should be that smart to know how it works.

Richard Dean

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kindsvater

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

if you sell one item at amazon say 5800.00 and earn .04 % that is 232.00

which is your average return of 232.27

I'm always interested in smokin' out fraud - but Chris' numbers look legit.

The $232 is not the commission which would force the average sale to be $5800. The $232 is essentially the sales price upon which a commission is based.

Revenue from 6188 shipped items is $148 per item, with a commission paid to Chris of $9.93 per item.

But, 108 items were then returned, averaging $238 per item. Lost commissions were thus $11.77 per item.

End result is commissions of $9.89 per finalized item.

Finally, I quickly and easily found 3 of Chris' websites. Based on the products being sold on the primary site, I would say, if anything, $230 per sale is low. I'm looking at products that sell for more - and millions are sold per year.

The overall appearance is also very, very nice and more time has gone into it than 99% of the crap, quick, autoblog sites you see so many affiliates put up.

Way to go Chris. Nice to have you in the WF.

.

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TimG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by kindsvater

Finally, I quickly and easily found 3 of Chris' websites. Based on the products being sold on the primary site, I would say, if anything, $230 per sale is low. I'm looking at products that sell for more - and millions are sold per year.

The overall appearance is also very, very nice and more time has gone into it than 99% of the crap, quick, autoblog sites you see so many affiliates put up.

Way to go Chris. Nice to have you in the WF.

.

Which is another reason as to why he is successful with Amazon and many will fail. You can't just throw a garbage site up because you'll end up with garbage results.

Respectfully,
Tim

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zapp99

14 years ago

Originally Posted by kindsvater

I'm always interested in smokin' out fraud - but Chris' numbers look legit.

The $232 is not the commission which would force the average sale to be $5800. The $232 is essentially the sales price upon which a commission is based.

Revenue from 6188 shipped items is $148 per item, with a commission paid to Chris of $9.93 per item.

But, 108 items were then returned, averaging $238 per item. Lost commissions were thus $11.77 per item.

End result is commissions of $9.89 per finalized item.

Finally, I quickly and easily found 3 of Chris' websites. Based on the products being sold on the primary site, I would say, if anything, $230 per sale is low. I'm looking at products that sell for more - and millions are sold per year.

The overall appearance is also very, very nice and more time has gone into it than 99% of the crap, quick, autoblog sites you see so many affiliates put up.

Way to go Chris. Nice to have you in the WF.

.

Wow, I'm impressed by your very nimble mind! I think you have a very high IQ and a very logically advanced brain!

Thanks
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by airbusbarkley

Chris,

Thanks for all of the great tips, insights and inspiration. I just started promoting Amazon products about six weeks ago and have made a few sales. I agree it is a numbers game and a system that needs to be ramped up.

How many products are you promoting with your 10+ sites to generate the sales volume that you do? What is the average amount of clicks per month and the conversion rate? (I may have missed this info if you posted it earlier) Thanks for the info regarding what converts best such as content links and image links. I agree with promoting a few smaller priced items to increase the sales volume to achieve higher commissions.

Thanks again. I look forward to reading your blog.

Conversion rate is around 1 - 2 percent depending on the site. I just promote the number of products that fill my target niche and that's it.

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Ok

6188 sales for 912,789.55 average sale is 147.50

Yet the return Average is 85.00 more than the average sale

Simple math tells what is going on...

Richard Dean

I can make it more complicated but you can't understand simple math yet so....

I'll defer to the numerous other comments that have outlined why your math is wrong.

Originally Posted by L Wilson

Exactly what premise do you use to conclude that the return average MUST equal the total average. Your proof is anything but simple maths. Whether you are right or wrong about the validity of the thread is irrelevant, your reasoning is diabolical.

like this one

Originally Posted by shoeb000

This was such an awesome post! such an hard work cant be explained in such simple words than these.
you have taught a quality lesson to all of us!

Links within posts are more important than banner and widgets, thats very simple yet lot of us always skip that. though we also tend to click on links within articles or posts, rather than the ads or banners.

Yes, I'd much rather link to a "money post" than use a banner ad. Just trust in your ability to write good posts that convert and link to those from your other types of posts.

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

Or even a fluke low or non income producing site that you believe to be set up correctly. Perhaps a non-performer that you're thinking of flipping or have flipped to someone else in the past.

Speaking of which, how long before you decide that a website is a non-performer?

I never target a niche that is too small so I don't really stop until I'm ranking well. Even if it's a non performer I would just let it sit and age for a while before I got back at it.

Originally Posted by kindsvater

I'm always interested in smokin' out fraud - but Chris' numbers look legit.

The $232 is not the commission which would force the average sale to be $5800. The $232 is essentially the sales price upon which a commission is based.

Revenue from 6188 shipped items is $148 per item, with a commission paid to Chris of $9.93 per item.

But, 108 items were then returned, averaging $238 per item. Lost commissions were thus $11.77 per item.

End result is commissions of $9.89 per finalized item.

Finally, I quickly and easily found 3 of Chris' websites. Based on the products being sold on the primary site, I would say, if anything, $230 per sale is low. I'm looking at products that sell for more - and millions are sold per year.

The overall appearance is also very, very nice and more time has gone into it than 99% of the crap, quick, autoblog sites you see so many affiliates put up.

Way to go Chris. Nice to have you in the WF.

.

Thanks for the welcome to WF and another vote of confidence in my thread not being a fraud

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capone2009

14 years ago

Does anyone know a good html template to use for amazon affiliate sites? I had no luck finding one. Paid one is also ok.

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TimG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by capone2009

Does anyone know a good html template to use for amazon affiliate sites? I had no luck finding one. Paid one is also ok.

Actually I second that request. I'd prefer a standard html version as I don't use Wordpress much for my main money sites.

I'm in the process of building a template but would prefer to just find one for free or pay for one so I can focus on driving traffic to my sites.

Thanks,
Tim

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Jute

14 years ago

Originally Posted by TimG

Actually I second that request. I'd prefer a standard html version as I don't use Wordpress much for my main money sites.

I'm in the process of building a template but would prefer to just find one for free or pay for one so I can focus on driving traffic to my sites.

Thanks,
Tim

Hi,

what kind of layout are you looking for? I have a bunch of css valid templates, maybe if you tell me what you need/like I can provide you with it?

Thanks

Jute

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TimG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Jute

Hi,

what kind of layout are you looking for? I have a bunch of css valid templates, maybe if you tell me what you need/like I can provide you with it?

Thanks

Jute

Jute,
Do you have a portfolio or some sample layouts I can look at?

Tim

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Jute 14 years ago

Originally Posted by TimG

Jute,
Do you have a portfolio or some sample layouts I can look at?

Tim

Hi,

No I do not have a portfolio or sample layouts but I thought if you told me what kind of layout you were looking for (2-column, 3-column etc etc) I could send you some via email.

/Jute
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CherylJones

14 years ago

[DELETED]

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Hello,

JohnMcCabe

" I'm not likely to buy half a dozen plasma TV sets just so I can write first-hand reviews of them. "

Well if you're going to review plasma TV's not sure if your reviews will be read your a few years behind the times... Try LED TV's

Again many ways you can do this just think out side the box, go to your local TV store and use the TV's write down your own findings... See that easy and you did not have to spend any money and you got a honest review by you.

Richard Dean

Plasma, LCD, LED, whatever. I wanted an example and pulled one out of a dark, moist place you don't want to see.

I was simply taking issue with your assertion that the only way to review something was to buy it and use it until you could speak with authority. Like you say, there are many ways to get the job done.

IMO, the "own it and use it" criteria is much more important with intangible things like MMO systems.

For the record, if I'm doing a product roundup like I described, I don't even pretend to be writing a "review". If I do happen to own something I write about, I'll say so. If I don't, I won't. I credit sources, so I'm not deceiving anybody. I'm providing a service which I hope will end with another click-through and sale.

EDIT: I'm not sure how old you are, but for some of my readers, plasma TVs are still new-fangled technology, and they have a lot of money to spend...

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Ofthemix 14 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

EDIT: I'm not sure how old you are, but for some of my readers, plasma TVs are still new-fangled technology, and they have a lot of money to spend...

Guilty as charged. I bought a big screen plasma tv about a month ago.

But, back on subject. I don't mean to dig too close to your niches, but do you find it more profitable to promote big ticket products where there are a large variety of manufacturers and models, such as cell phones and tvs, or have you also had luck with more aesthetic type items, such as art and jewelry. Basically, do you think it's easier to promote items where people already have specifics in mind (model number) or items where people typically browse for what they want?

Also, when you target seasonal shoppers, do you build a blog around the season itself, or do you just promote your lists on new products coming available in the niches that you're already in?

I also have to add that I used to try to sell Amazon stuff via their ugly widgets but gave up on checking my Amazon affiliate account after countless months of not selling anything. I just logged back on, since I've decided to take up the Amazon torch again, and am pleased to report that I've made a few sales since my first initial abandonment. Oh the simple joys of passive income.
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leom700x

14 years ago

On my opinion this information allready on internet for some time ago and isvery important to star business with Amazon Associated on this web addres: 1001 Blog Tips: Tip #3: Amazon Associates affiliate program can boost your blog income.

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NickA

14 years ago

It would be interesting to hear from someone involved in promoting physical goods through CJ, to get a good sense of how the two networks compare...

Otherwise great thread for sure. I've started to experiment with Amazon, but the order size is REALLY random and you need a ton of traffic (as mentioned previously).

One thing I'd like to mention: someone said above that Amazon's commissions are justified because of the high cost to make product. Well, this isn't always as extreme as people may think - there are MANY physical products out there that cost 1/20th of the MSRP to manufacture. I'm not going to cite examples, but having lived in Southern China and from conversations with certain Factory owners and supervisors...I'm not easily convinced that it costs much at all to make something these days (especially apparel/electronics)

Amazon can afford to give low payouts because they're a big name - there's no trust issue when it comes to Checking Out an Amazon Cart.

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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Shannon Spoon

That is interesting. The FTC is going to make sure everyone who reviews a product owns it first...........Just how are they going to do that?

That is laughable:rolleyes:

Agreed - the FTC will never take it this far because there is no way to enforce it.

Originally Posted by Success With Dany

Should I post testimonals from people who DIDN'T like the product? Or good idea to lose sales?

Just use the reviews from real customers already posted on the website.

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardDean
Hello,

Can you explain the image shot you have in your OP of this thread?

What is advertising fee what you paid out to get people to your sites?

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

if you sell one item at say 5800.00 and earn .04 % that is 232.00 you had to return
or more to make the average 232.27 ?

Do you use photoshop much? Why is the Total refunds 00.000

The math does not add up. 1 million and only 60 grand I would move on to something else.

Great story thoe I think I read this in the breaking the amazon code

Richard Dean

Guys/Gals remember go back to the basics photos sell more than
words old school marketing 101
Hey Richard, I'm not sure why the refund category is $0.00 perhaps because the returns are taken out of the returns category? And if that's the case I'm not sure why there is even a refund category.

As I've said before you aren't the first to accuse me of Photoshop work but if you really read what I've said before how does it not make sense logically? All I was doing with this post was to prove it based on data. Quote:

"what I've said before how does it not make sense logically"

Ya but this does not make sense logically

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

if you sell one item at amazon say 5800.00 and earn .04 % that is 232.00

which is your average return of 232.27

the average sale on amazon is not even as much as 232.00

On average, online shoppers spent $1,225 on Internet purchases during the PAST 12 months, with 60% spending at least $500 over 12 months.

And at amazon only 42% of online shoppers this holiday season being the busy high rated
time frame.

Yet your returns say ... You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return ....It don't add up.

On the FTC I've been around to know that the FTC will pick one or two people to target they don't need to go after all just a few, and then make examples from them. You should be that smart to know how it works.

Richard Dean

Richard, you're missing the point. When I said this:

""what I've said before how does it not make sense logically"

I was referring to the tips to improve your earnings that I was providing - not the refunds category. I think Amazon treats refunds and returns as two different things, but I'm not sure why in the total year of sales I never had a refund. I had plenty of returns as you saw so I'm not really even sure what Amazon classifies as a refund.

Originally Posted by CherylJones

Chris, this is good information. I had read about people making money on Amazon and wondered how it was done. I'm going to check out your blog.

Thanks Cheryl, looking forward to seeing you there.

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

Guilty as charged. I bought a big screen plasma tv about a month ago.

But, back on subject. I don't mean to dig too close to your niches, but do you find it more profitable to promote big ticket products where there are a large variety of manufacturers and models, such as cell phones and tvs, or have you also had luck with more aesthetic type items, such as art and jewelry. Basically, do you think it's easier to promote items where people already have specifics in mind (model number) or items where people typically browse for what they want?

Also, when you target seasonal shoppers, do you build a blog around the season itself, or do you just promote your lists on new products coming available in the niches that you're already in?

I also have to add that I used to try to sell Amazon stuff via their ugly widgets but gave up on checking my Amazon affiliate account after countless months of not selling anything. I just logged back on, since I've decided to take up the Amazon torch again, and am pleased to report that I've made a few sales since my first initial abandonment. Oh the simple joys of passive income.

I try to promote items that are at least $100 or more, but I do have a few sites that promote items for even less. I'm not too worried about the total sale price as long as I can push enough volume, because at the very least those low total price sites can just push me into the next highest earnings tier right?

Originally Posted by leom700x

On my opinion this information allready on internet for some time ago and isvery important to star business with Amazon Associated on this web addres: 1001 Blog Tips: Tip #3: Amazon Associates affiliate program can boost your blog income.

I haven't seen it before. Did you not notice that I used tracking ID codes and associated them to each of my tips, so as opposed to just telling people this stuff works I showed how well each one worked for me?

I can't be certain of course, but I believe I was the first to do that.

Feel free to keep the questions coming. I keep getting PM's asking for more info but try to keep your questions to this thread.

Thanks,

Chris

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airbusbarkley

14 years ago

Chris,

Thanks for all of the great tips, insights and inspiration. I just started promoting Amazon products about six weeks ago and have made a few sales. I agree it is a numbers game and a system that needs to be ramped up.

How many products are you promoting with your 10+ sites to generate the sales volume that you do? What is the average amount of clicks per month and the conversion rate? (I may have missed this info if you posted it earlier) Thanks for the info regarding what converts best such as content links and image links. I agree with promoting a few smaller priced items to increase the sales volume to achieve higher commissions.

Thanks again. I look forward to reading your blog.

Thanks

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RichardDean

14 years ago

Hello,

I'm not saying your tips are bad, they do sound logical with common sense.

I have read this advice/tips before in a ebook.

In your screen shot lets look at

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return
that you had

That is not logical.......

The average sale on amazon is not even 232.27 but some how you managed
to have returns that are higher than the average sale.

Your advice is Logical and common sense marketing 101 I hope it helps a lot
of people.

You give good advice but stick with advice not screen shots that raise questions
you said yourself people think you photoshop stuff, ya when it is not logical
that's why.

I don't do amazon because the profit is not there, I do buy and shop amazon.

I have read enough stuff about amazon and been in many Mastermind Groups.

A++++++ on logical info

D------- on proof (you did not need any proof because your stuff is logical and common sense marketing)

Richard Dean

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Daniel Brock

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Hello,

I'm not saying your tips are bad, they do sound logical with common sense.

I have read this advice/tips before in a ebook.

In your screen shot lets look at

You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return
that you had

That is not logical.......

The average sale on amazon is not even 232.27 but some how you managed
to have returns that are higher than the average sale.

Your advice is Logical and common sense marketing 101 I hope it helps a lot
of people.

You give good advice but stick with advice not screen shots that raise questions
you said yourself people think you photoshop stuff, ya when it is not logical
that's why.

I don't do amazon because the profit is not there, I do buy and shop amazon.

I have read enough stuff about amazon and been in many Mastermind Groups.

A++++++ on logical info

D------- on proof (you did not need any proof because your stuff is logical and common sense marketing)

Richard Dean

You're making a complete ass of yourself here. Sorry but it had to be said.

Consider for just one moment that perhaps he is promoting high ticket items like he said. I have seen many hot sellers on Amazon that are priced well above $300. So if all he promotes is high ticket products, it would make sense that the average return is $230.

You are factoring in the average amazon return rate - you are not factoring in that he is selectively promoting items in a certain price range.

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RichardDean

14 years ago

Ok

6188 sales for 912,789.55 average sale is 147.50

Yet the return Average is 85.00 more than the average sale

Simple math tells what is going on...

Richard Dean

I can make it more complicated but you can't understand simple math yet so....

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Lee Wilson

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Ok

6188 sales for 912,789.55 average sale is 147.50

Yet the return Average is 85.00 more than the average sale

Simple math tells what is going on...

Richard Dean

I can make it more complicated but you can't understand simple math yet so....

Exactly what premise do you use to conclude that the return average MUST equal the total average. Your proof is anything but simple maths. Whether you are right or wrong about the validity of the thread is irrelevant, your reasoning is diabolical.

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mrdomains

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Ok

6188 sales for 912,789.55 average sale is 147.50

Yet the return Average is 85.00 more than the average sale

Simple math tells what is going on...

Richard Dean

I can make it more complicated but you can't understand simple math yet so....

Chill
The numbers you are seeing are not for a specific item, or value.
The value of average return compared to average sale for a period of time has no relevance on amazon since the item prices can range from micro to macro range

Sold/returned item comparison averaging is futile when the number of returned items is this low compared to the bulk of sales.

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Daniel Brock

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Ok

6188 sales for 912,789.55 average sale is 147.50

Yet the return Average is 85.00 more than the average sale

Simple math tells what is going on...

Richard Dean

I can make it more complicated but you can't understand simple math yet so....

You are also assuming things have stayed constant. What if he decided to promote low ticket items in the beginning, but decided to product higher ticket items as his experienced improved his method?

You can't use 'simple math' to determine someone is a fraud when you have no clue of the other factors involved.

Do you think someone is more likely to return a $300 item than a $15 item?

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jan roos

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean

Ok

6188 sales for 912,789.55 average sale is 147.50

Yet the return Average is 85.00 more than the average sale

Simple math tells what is going on...

Richard Dean

I can make it more complicated but you can't understand simple math yet so....

I also think you are missing the point mate. The returns work like this....

If someone buys a product for let's say $230 and for some reason there is something wrong with it they will return it. Amazon then list that as a return on your affiliate stats and you lose the commission momentarily. Amazon then ships them a new product and then credits your account again. If someone asks for a refund and not a new product then it will be listed as a refund and you lose the commission permanently.

I have not had any refunds at all and very few returns.

Cheers

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shoeb000

14 years ago

This was such an awesome post! such an hard work cant be explained in such simple words than these.
you have taught a quality lesson to all of us!

Links within posts are more important than banner and widgets, thats very simple yet lot of us always skip that. though we also tend to click on links within articles or posts, rather than the ads or banners.

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ultraimports

14 years ago

Very nice. I think I'm gonna look into the Amazon thing.

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onlineleben

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RichardDean
You had 108 returns for 25,086.68 that is average 232.27 per return

also be reminded, that amazon accepts returns from customers up to 2 years after purchase (e.g. in Europe), so returns from earlier sales periods can have a big influence on the stats shown

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LasseKohau

14 years ago

Hi Chris, excellent miniguide.

Well-written and well-explained.

Very strong advices for newbies. Im currently building amazon-sites myself and I can include the following;

These sites are perfect for making passive income. Its set up and forget.

Do a good site, it takes max four hours of dedicated work from keyword research to building backlinks, and watch the money rolling in - while you build the next one.

Keep the proces going of buildng amazon-sites, and very soon - you will hit that 1000 dollars a mark sign.

BR LASSE

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Plato 14 years ago

Hi,

could you or a reader please share an example of an effective amazon associate site ?

Thanks
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- Ofthemix 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Plato
  
  Hi,
  
  could you or a reader please share an example of an effective amazon associate site ?
  
  Thanks
  
  Or even a fluke low or non income producing site that you believe to be set up correctly. Perhaps a non-performer that you're thinking of flipping or have flipped to someone else in the past.
  
  Speaking of which, how long before you decide that a website is a non-performer?
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
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Jude.A

14 years ago

Great post here. Thanks for sharing this.

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bitmoney

14 years ago

Thanks Chris,

Very informative and simple so that any one can follow it.
How did you get the traffic though?

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TammieJJ 14 years ago

Thanks for the info Chris! I have read and subscribed to both your blog and Daniel's, and this is something I never do. Keep us the good work!
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zapp99

14 years ago

ChrisGuthrie, thank you for sharing. You deserve your success and my thanks!

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chooch

14 years ago

Hi Chris...

Great information. I'm just getting ready to start building some Amazon mini sites. This information is very valuable to me. Thanks for starting this thread.

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iNDESiGN

14 years ago

You must've put tremendous work to make that much. Good luck in the future and thanks for the advices.

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

Guilty as charged. I bought a big screen plasma tv about a month ago.

But, back on subject. I don't mean to dig too close to your niches, but do you find it more profitable to promote big ticket products where there are a large variety of manufacturers and models, such as cell phones and tvs, or have you also had luck with more aesthetic type items, such as art and jewelry. Basically, do you think it's easier to promote items where people already have specifics in mind (model number) or items where people typically browse for what they want?

See #1

Also, when you target seasonal shoppers, do you build a blog around the season itself, or do you just promote your lists on new products coming available in the niches that you're already in?

See #2

I also have to add that I used to try to sell Amazon stuff via their ugly widgets but gave up on checking my Amazon affiliate account after countless months of not selling anything. I just logged back on, since I've decided to take up the Amazon torch again, and am pleased to report that I've made a few sales since my first initial abandonment. Oh the simple joys of passive income.

Taking your last paragraph first, IMO, I've never had any luck with any of the widgets either...

#1

Without getting too specific, I try not to target either really competitive mainstream products or the art/jewelry end of things. I'll plug either one if it fits, though. For example, if a gift-giving occasion is coming up, I'll mention items which might make good gifts for someone interested in that niche. Since golf is the classic example for niches, for Father's Day I'd consider promoting a teaching DVD, along with a portable DVD player. Or a fancy set of golf-themed art prints.

If you look at the whole buying cycle people go through, you'll find opportunities for both the very specific (i.e., make and model shoppers) and more general information seekers. If I can catch their attention earlier in the cycle, I can lead them to those money pages.

While the specific items are easier to promote, many times there is much more competition at that stage as well.

#2

I tend to focus on the niches I'm already in, and follow the seasons naturally. But that's just me. I know people who do focus on specific holidays/events and do very well.

One of the "secrets", which has actually been revealed in several of these threads, is to use high volume, low ticket items to boost your commission rate and high ticket items to make your profits. Folks forget that those $0.99 downloads each count as an item when tallying up your rate.

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TimG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

One of the "secrets", which has actually been revealed in several of these threads, is to use high volume, low ticket items to boost your commission rate and high ticket items to make your profits. Folks forget that those $0.99 downloads each count as an item when tallying up your rate.

John,
That's a great tip you highlighted and one that can get lost in the massive amount of replies. Appreciate you bringing it back to the front again.

Respectfully,
Tim

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Ofthemix

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

One of the "secrets", which has actually been revealed in several of these threads, is to use high volume, low ticket items to boost your commission rate and high ticket items to make your profits. Folks forget that those $0.99 downloads each count as an item when tallying up your rate.

I did think about that. I personally think small ticket items are a lot easier to sell, since many of them can be impulsive buys. I just thought I might be better off targeting large ticket items, since that's what this thread seems to be about. $50+ items.

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nubchai 14 years ago

Thanks for a great thread Chris. I learned a lot. As I do more research into IM one thing that leaps out at me is the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket. Amazon looks like a great potential revenue stream. $60k (or whatever you might make) is decent money. That's not to say you can't or shouldn't also have sites that focus on Adsense or Clickbank or Ebay or other methods of generating income.

Sandy
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ChrisGuthrie

14 years ago

Originally Posted by bitmoney

Thanks Chris,

Very informative and simple so that any one can follow it.
How did you get the traffic though?

I use any and every potential traffic source and just do my best to see what sticks. Some times get a lot of recurring traffic via social media others are almost all organic search traffic.

Organic is my favorite as they tend to buy the most, but it's also the most fickle. It's a here today gone tomorrow sort of beast at times.

Originally Posted by TammieJJ

Thanks for the info Chris! I have read and subscribed to both your blog and Daniel's, and this is something I never do. Keep us the good work!

Thanks Tammie, I won't let you down

Originally Posted by zapp99

ChrisGuthrie, thank you for sharing. You deserve your success and my thanks!

Thank you much

Originally Posted by TimG

Actually I second that request. I'd prefer a standard html version as I don't use Wordpress much for my main money sites.

I'm in the process of building a template but would prefer to just find one for free or pay for one so I can focus on driving traffic to my sites.

Thanks,
Tim

Hey Tim,

I'll try and do some more analysis of the Wordpress themes / static sites I'm using to earn money and if I can find some more correlations between the designs and what works best I'll see if I can have my designer create some themes or templates. This may take a while though.

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TimG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisGuthrie

Hey Tim,

I'll try and do some more analysis of the Wordpress themes / static sites I'm using to earn money and if I can find some more correlations between the designs and what works best I'll see if I can have my designer create some themes or templates. This may take a while though.

Chris,
Appreciate that - No rush I was just thinking out loud. This thread has definately gotten my Amazon income producing juices flowing.

Respectfully,
Tim

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JohnMcCabe

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

I did think about that. I personally think small ticket items are a lot easier to sell, since many of them can be impulsive buys. I just thought I might be better off targeting large ticket items, since that's what this thread seems to be about. $50+ items.

I'm not going to say you are wrong. I'm just saying how I do things.

When people think of small ticket items, most immediately think of downloads, both ebooks and music, like I mentioned. Books, CDs, DVDs, etc are other relatively easy items which make you peanuts by themselves but which add up in terms of their effect on what you make on those higher ticket items. Add in batteries, cables, misc. supplies for various hobbies, cooking spices and hard to find ingredients... maybe I'd better stop typing...:p

Sell enough piddly stuff to raise your commission from 4% to 6%, and you just gave yourself a 50% raise on the bigger stuff (and the small stuff, too). If it wasn't for that cumulative effect, I wouldn't bother with the little stuff other than as a convenience for my readers.

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Matt Gannon

14 years ago

Maybe ill give amazon another shot. I already failed once using them.

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MorbitlyObesePaypalAccoun

14 years ago

Hey I sent you a private message!

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stevecl

14 years ago

Chris,

Out of curiosity how much traffic do you send to amazon on a daily basis?

Regards
Steve

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Andy Hart

14 years ago

This may have been asked already in the thread as I have'nt read all the posts, so i'll just ask anyway.,

Has Googles new changes (caffeine) effected your income at all, it seems they are targeting physical products in a big way, they have their own product results waaayyy at the top for most product searches.

Any effects?
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Paul Norwine 14 years ago

Does anyone know how to effectively (and easily) track adwords campaigns with amazon affiliate links? I use a combination of SEO and adwords but thought tracking adwords campaigns for my amazon affiliate sites was virtually impossible.

Jan Roos - if you're still reading up on this thread I know you mentioned being able to track your adwords campaigns with amazon. Any suggestions?
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- Adriana Copaceanu 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Paul Norwine
  
  Does anyone know how to effectively (and easily) track adwords campaigns with amazon affiliate links?
  
  Create a special tracking ID in Amazon for each of your AdWords campaigns. It won't be tracking to the keyword level, but you'll know which campaign the sale came from.
  
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Lett

14 years ago

Thank you for this thread, but i have few questions for you:
1) What is your average search volume every month in google?
2) Can you provide me with information with one of your website - all i need to know is the price product and the searches per month in google.

Thanks a lot, hope you make 10 times more this year

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claycath 14 years ago

Thanks for the great info Chris. I just checked out your blog and subscribed to it. Looks like great info over there.

I wish there was a way you could show us one of your amazon sites but I know that is asking too much.

I will ask though, how do you create your sites? What I mean, are they basic review sites? Informational sites about the products? Just curious as to how these type of product sites bring in so much traffic. It's somewhat hard to make these kind of sites fascinating so that readers are linking to them, sharing them, etc. and attracting big time traffic. At least, I have yet to find a way.

Cathy
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DJT

14 years ago

Hey Chris, great thread and info. Question - There's a chance they may already have be