Utilizing The Amazon Affiliate Program
Over the next few weeks I want to write a series of posts concentrated around the Amazon affiliate program. Originally I was going to cover this in a separate blog because it's so focused around Amazon but I have since changed my mind and opted to cover it here, I hope this doesn't alienate any of my readers.
I have spent the last 3 out of the 5 years I have been working online building and developing product based niche affiliate websites in conjunction with one affiliate program or another. Like many people I used eBay for around 25% of these sites and have made a lot of money utilizing their affiliate program as a monetization method. But one program for me which I still feel is underutilized is the Amazon affiliate program and there have been several reasons for this:
- The cookie provided by Amazon only lasts 24 hours in contrast to a program such as eBay where the cookie life is 7 days.
- Amazon has always seemed to produce lower conversions on many websites where I have used their program to monetize the content in comparison to other popular affiliate programs like eBay.
- The affiliate tools to promote Amazon have never really been that good...until recently that is!
- It just didn't provide me with enough money to warrant the effort!
Okay, so lets look at each of these individually and decide whether I've missed out as an Amazon affiliate by not building more sites around Amazon in the past.
The Short Cookie Life
Lets face it, there is nothing quite like referring someone to eBay on a Monday and still pulling in cash from the same referral on the Sunday for any other items they decide to purchase, at least that's how it was before eBay decided to spoil things with QCP!. Of course Amazon has never promised this luxury which is why many affiliates have steered well clear of them in the past, and that's a FACT!. But the truth is this. Firstly should we be rewarded for items we didn't actually refer the person for 6 days later, no probably not! If your website does the job it's designed to do, that is convert your visitor into a sale, then a 24 hour cookie should be more than long enough to earn a commission provided that the site you build is very well targeted.
Amazon Produced Lower Conversions
I don't think I ever tested Amazon's affiliate program enough to make this statement with any substance or truth, the fact my conversions were lower is probably because the sites were poorly built, poorly structured and poorly optimized. With a good 3 years plus of niche site building behind me there is no reason why Amazon shouldn't be converting as well as or better than their rivals, in fact using ReviewAZON has already significantly improved my Amazon profits.
A Lack of Affiliate Tools for Amazon
Back when I used Amazon the only tools on the market were Amazon aStores with which we used with iframes and simple HTML pages, very basic indeed. Since then there have been many affiliate tools released onto the market, some static based and some WordPress based, many of which I will be looking at over the coming weeks right here on the blog. These tools allow you a greater deal on flexibility in relation to where you place Amazon ads and what items you display.
It Didn't Produce Enough Income to Warrant the Effort
No, that's because I didn't make the effort, you get out what you put in and I didn't put much in.
Am I Abandoning ePN?
Quite frankly I've heard enough and read enough about ePN over the last few months and it's getting old! I'm actually not doing that bad under the new system, I'm up by around 5-10% on last month which isn't really of any great significance, so in short I will continue to publish as an eBay affiliate for the moment. This doesn't mean I like it though, I've had days where, according to how QCP should now work, I should have earned 10 times more but have actually earned 10 times less. Their system which should make sense, makes none whatsoever! As a result I'm not actively building any new websites centered around their program at the moment, I'm concentrating more on getting my existing ePN sites to perform which is also giving me a little more time to play around with Amazon Associates.
In my opinion and experience the Amazon affiliate program still remains very under utilized, certainly from my own point of view. I want to change that by significantly increasing my stream of income as an Amazon associate. Essentially the basic method of building an affiliate site won't change, so it actually shouldn't be that hard but we'll see how it goes.
Will you be following along and building your own Amazon affiliate empire?
Hi Ben,
I will be interested to read your other posts on Amazon. I have found this really interesting – it isn’t an opportunity I have tried, I might give it a go!
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
Hi Ben,
I’m dead smack in the same quagmire that you are. I’m going back over my EPN sites to determine if a switch to Amazon might do the trick.
Like you, I’ve got some sites I did a while back using Amazon banners and that was about it. I too was put off by the short cookie, long payment timeframe and what seemed to be a very low entry commission percentage.
That was all WAY before this latest EPN mess.
I’ll only say this-if it makes sense to switch, I’ll do it. If it’s a toss-up, I’ll do it. The EPN site will have to be doing well not to get yanked from their network.
Not panicking just reading some writing on the wall.
Look forward to following your progress.
Jeff
I’ve had good success with Amazon always a high conversion for me. Glad to see you’ve hoopped on the bandwagon.
Still hunting for themes here…
Can you recommend any theme sources, particularly themes that aren’t hard to edit. I find it hard editing a lot of the newer ones like church etc :-(
Even the one you recommended I find it hard with it too.
And the drodown.. how do you do that?
Thanks
Thanks for another good post. Since Overstock went to cj they seem to have opened up to new affliates. They approved me imediately so I could finally buy Ostock.
I change the bottoms of some pages from phpBay listing to Adsense and $$ per click went from 2 cents to 30 cents right away.
Hey Ben,
Thanks for the interesting post. Yes, I have been reluctant to work with Amazon because of all the factors you mentioned.
It didn\’t seem the best use of time to create a website for an affiliate program that paid next to nothing when so many other programs are out there.
It might pay to take another look at it.
Stew
@Mandy Allen – Have a go, Mandy. You’ve got nothing to loose and lots to gain.
@Diane – Thanks Diane, I know someone else said that Overstock are being a lot easier with who they approve now. It was mainly due to the whole change over that they became so restrictive I think.
@Mark – Is that the Arthemia theme your trying to use? It was Mark Hansen who origionally hacked that theme and he has quite a detailed tutorial video on how to use it if your struggling. It’s over at N1WayGuide.com.
The drop down is part of the theme and the tags drop down on the far right are generated using the List Tags plugin for WordPress. If your still struggling if you drop me an email I’ll give you a hand to set it up.
@Jeff – I know what your saying, Jeff. ePN have caused a lot of hassle for a lot of affiliates. Their program still works, or at least it’s working for me but it’s so hit and miss at the moment I just wouldn’t add any new sites using it.
It’s good to be sensible about it which it certainly sounds like you are.
@stewkelly – You should, I have been making reasonable amounts with Amazon considering the lack of effort I’ve been putting in lately, but I just know there is more to be had.
Ben,
I would like to know how to incorporate aStore into a WP site. I set up a test aStore last night just for kicks and I see some potential.
I mean I see the option to cut and past the code into a page but I get the impression people are using it like PHPBay or PHPZon and only using listings.
If anybody who is using aStore profitably could give me an example of how best to do it I would be grateful.
Jeff
@Jeff – This isn’t too difficult just quite fiddly, I’ll put a post together on the ways to do it if that’s okay rather than try to explain it here.
Ben
Ben,
That would be great.
Do you think that PHPZon is just a much better way to go?
Jeff
@Jeff – No problem, there are a couple of ways to do it, you could use the entire aStore or use the category pages within different pages of your own site.
Absolutely, phpZon is definitely better IMHO, much more flexibility, easier to get going with and also SEO friendly.
Ben
I’d really like to see a couple examples of using the aStore within a WP site if anybody has one they’ve done.
@Ben I’ll have to get that plugin for sure. I already own PHPBay so I can get it a little cheaper.
@Jeff – You don’t want to put an astore in your site. I have tested it rigoroulsy and it’s not anywhere near good nor as benificial as seprating your site into more and more posts with product descriptions in them.
Although if you still want to. A quick search in google for “amazon astore wordpress page temaplate” should give you what you need.
@Jeff Jones – Ultimately there are a couple of ways of doing it, the first is creating a page template and the second is using custom field ID’s to insert the iFrame of a specific category page on your aStore. Honestly though using a tool like phpZon is far far easier for the sake of $49.
@Mark – I agree entirely, there are far better options available now, of course this hasn’t always been the case but it’s changed a lot over the last 6 months with the introduction of so many improved WordPress Amazon tools.
Ben,
I’ll make sure to get the plugin and mothball the aStore idea. I appreciate the timely information.
The last thing I want to do is spend time “fiddling” with stuff that probably won’t pay off anyway.
Jeff
@Ben I’m curious about phpZon Pro and the API package. I’m a coder at heart but not too familiar with PHP yet. I plan on learning it more and more but what I’m wonder is… is it worth purchasing the API with phpZon?
Or is it smarter to get phpZon, get a couple sites up and running and THEN delve into the API? Just looking for yours or others advice on this.
Thanks!
@Ryan – Personally I would get comfortable with phpZon plugin first and then look more into the API. I have the phpZon API and plugin but I’m currently only using the plugin for similar reasons to yourself. I’m fine with html/css/javscript but only know basic php so I want to enhance my php knowledge to be able to fully take advantage of the API.
Of course the good thing with the API is that you can use it on other CMS which are php based, like Joomla for example. The instructions for the API are really good and to get it up and running you just have to insert a section of code into the page where you want listings to appear. So from that point of view it’s relatively easy to use, it’s just when you want to build a php site from scratch with your own features and functions that it becomes complicated.
I hope this helps
Ben
@Ben –
As always you come through with some great advice.
This kind of thing is invaluable to me because of just starting out and attempting to set a course for my first bout of sites. I have a single one up and running right now and letting it sit for the most part. I need to do some forward and backward linking and maybe a couple adjustments to the Adsense on the site and that’s it.
Now I need to do one last thing and that is decide upon phpZon Pro first or ReviewAzon, lol.
@Mark – I too have had success with Amazon. I’ve never tried Ebay and from what I’ve read it probably wouldn’t be worth my time now. Ebay has seemed to alienate not only their affiliates buy also sellers.
I know a few people that used to sell things on Ebay that have also switched to Amazon.
If you’re looking for a theme, try Thesis. It’s a premium theme but well worth the money – you can really customize anything on your wordpress blog that you could possible imagine.
Ben ~ This is a great post! I have had all of the same thoughts about Amazon over the years .. but have not given them a fair chance (exactly the same reasons/results as you’ve had). The only difference is that my EPN earnings have gone down with the new "system" … so now I have to decided what changes/tweaks I want to make to my existing stores and how I want to structure my niche stores in the future. Great post and, yes, I’d love any and all information/tutorials on Amazon LOL *SmiLes* Suzanne
@Suzanne Franco – Hi Suzanne, thanks for stopping by. I think a lot of people are moving along to the ‘Amazon train’ as a result of the ePN who-ha.
I have a few posts to put together still just haven’t had the time but I’ll get around to it :)
Ben
@Ben – I look forward to them … I’ve been meaning to look for some good info on Amazon for over a year now LOL … always distracted I guess. ;)
I`m a EPN refugee and am seeking as much info I can about Amazon. Great post ! Want more !!!!
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