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Advice on Amazon conversions

by jodiesmitham
12 replies
Hi all,

I've recently tackled Amazon Associate again in the UK and am experiencing the same problem as before - no sales.

I'd really like to get some advice on how best to get visitors to buy within 24 hours of clicking through to Amazon. My website has been up and running for a few months and reviews household items. I've had 383 unique visitors and 102 click throughs to Amazon, but no sales! I'm not having a problem getting visitors to Amazon, but they're just not buying.

On each review, I've added an Amazon buy now button at the top of the review along with a few pointers:

"FREE Super Saver delivery"
"Buy safely from Amazon TODAY"

In the middle of the review I have a link to Amazon reviews and at the bottom of my review I have a bigger Amazon buy now graphic.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jodie
#advice #amazon #conversions
  • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
    Originally Posted by jodiesmitham View Post

    Hi all,

    I've recently tackled Amazon Associate again in the UK and am experiencing the same problem as before - no sales.

    I'd really like to get some advice on how best to get visitors to buy within 24 hours of clicking through to Amazon. My website has been up and running for a few months and reviews household items. I've had 383 unique visitors and 102 click throughs to Amazon, but no sales! I'm not having a problem getting visitors to Amazon, but they're just not buying.

    On each review, I've added an Amazon buy now button at the top of the review along with a few pointers:

    "FREE Super Saver delivery"
    "Buy safely from Amazon TODAY"

    In the middle of the review I have a link to Amazon reviews and at the bottom of my review I have a bigger Amazon buy now graphic.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks,

    Jodie
    It's a numbers game. Ideally, you'd like to see at least 100 visitors PER DAY. Once you hit that volume, things will really pick up. That is, if you are catching visitors late in the buying cycle. If you are capturing more generic traffic, conversions could be difficult, regardless of traffic volume.
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    • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
      Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

      It's a numbers game. Ideally, you'd like to see at least 100 visitors PER DAY. Once you hit that volume, things will really pick up. That is, if you are catching visitors late in the buying cycle. If you are capturing more generic traffic, conversions could be difficult, regardless of traffic volume.
      Thanks for the info. I suspect you're right about the buying cycle. How do you target those late in the buying cycle? Do you mean target keywords such as 'buy product x' as opposed to 'product x review'?

      The low comp keyword with high searches that I built this site around does not include 'buy' or 'review'. The keyword is the product category for these household goods.
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Jodie, you perhaps should try to capture your visitors' contact information. Offer a free related report for them to download in exchange for their email address. Often it takes several exposures before buyers make their purchase decision. My marketing is nearly exclusively through email promotions, which is resulting in an average 39% conversion over the course of the autoresponder sequences.
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      • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
        Originally Posted by myob View Post

        Jodie, you perhaps should try to capture your visitors' contact information. Offer a free related report for them to download in exchange for their email address.
        This strategy doesn't work particularly well with review sites. Visitors looking for reviews are looking for product information, not free reports. I suppose you could provide them with in-depth reviews in exchange for an email but then you are giving up the affiliate clicks.

        Unless you are committed to the email marketing strategy 100%, this method will fail miserably because there is virtually no income on the front end.
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      • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
        Originally Posted by myob View Post

        Jodie, you perhaps should try to capture your visitors' contact information. Offer a free related report for them to download in exchange for their email address. Often it takes several exposures before buyers make their purchase decision. My marketing is nearly exclusively through email promotions, which is resulting in an average 39% conversion over the course of the autoresponder sequences.
        Thanks for the advice. Problem is my reviews are for very niche products. I'm not experienced enough with email marketing to know how to monetize lists, so trying to up sell or provide lots of information for very niche products would be pretty hard for me.
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        • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
          I've just had a thought. I don't show price on my review pages mainly because I can't get the API to work. Maybe if people are aware of the price before they click through, the CTR will drop, but I'll start to see sales?
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          • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
            Originally Posted by jodiesmitham View Post

            I've just had a thought. I don't show price on my review pages mainly because I can't get the API to work. Maybe if people are aware of the price before they click through, the CTR will drop, but I'll start to see sales?
            I don't show prices on my sites. You need to do it right to be within TOS. However, I don't bother because I'd rather get the click.
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        • Profile picture of the author myob
          Originally Posted by jodiesmitham View Post

          Thanks for the advice. Problem is my reviews are for very niche products. I'm not experienced enough with email marketing to know how to monetize lists, so trying to up sell or provide lots of information for very niche products would be pretty hard for me.
          Just by way of suggestion, since you do write your own review articles and blog posts, it's really not much more of a stretch to provide these in email promotions. Be sure not to include direct Amazon affiliate links in emails (it's against their TOS), but with as little as 5-7 promotions per product, you should see dramatic results in conversions. Note that a new 24-hour cookie is set with every click from your link.
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          • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
            Originally Posted by myob View Post

            Just by way of suggestion, since you do write your own review articles and blog posts, it's really not much more of a stretch to provide these in email promotions. Be sure not to include direct Amazon affiliate links in emails (it's against their TOS), but with as little as 5-7 promotions per product, you should see dramatic results in conversions. Note that a new 24-hour cookie is set with every click from your link.
            I may try this with a site or two. The only real issue I see with it is the fact that while you may get 30 affiliate clicks per 100 visitors, you might get just a fraction of those that subscribe. Of that fraction, you get yet another fraction that actually opens your emails. And then, you have an even smaller fraction who buys anything because by the time they get your promotion, they've already bought the lawnmower they were checking reviews for.

            As I mentioned earlier, if you are committed long-term to the email marketing route, this could work but the results aren't anything one should expect to happen quickly. This is definitely a 5-year plan type of strategy.
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            • Profile picture of the author myob
              Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

              This is definitely a 5-year plan type of strategy.
              In comparison to the OP's repeated attempts using the same exact method as before, this really is an alternative although long-term strategy, which I have been doing very successfully for 15+ years.

              Niche lists of repeat email buyers are real business assets that can produce increasing dividends year after year, so the question is why should anyone not go for it? Beating one's head repeatedly on a brick wall seldom makes an impact on the wall, no matter how many times you may try.

              There is no reason to settle for the sporadic, one-time sales from wimpy low-competition "review" sites when you can skip all of Google's quirky shenanigans and make direct sales in the most lucrative (although also the most competitive) arenas.

              An excellent description of this solid marketing model is detailed in this Clickbank classic Turn Words Into Traffic (not an affiliate link). This strategy can mean the difference between struggling for many years, or make a payoff of a steady 5-6 figure monthly income within just a few years.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimGreen1
    Would you be able to post a link and I might be able to have a look?
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