Amazon Affiliates

Have a few questions before signing up

[sadelb]

I would like to join amazon's associate program but I first have a few questions.

- First off, if I want to sell direct products through amazon can I pick pretty much any product I like to link to or do they only give me a few products for each category? For example, if i wanted to sell televisions through amazon could I sell any one I like?

- Also, I see that some products amazon sells goes through a bidding system similar to ebay. If I sell a television (example) through amazon but the customer buys the product from one of the bids, will I still receive credit for that? Even though amazon doesnt actually carry this product.

[superbird]

I just got a new commission structure off them and I believe you get paid for sales from Marketplace sellers but it didn't say anything about Zshops or auctions. You can link to any product you like or even any page.

[sadelb]

How is the amazon affiliate program.. Do you do well with it?

[superbird]

To be honest, I don't put a lot of work into aff. programs and I don't get a lot back! ;) but I think for most sites Amazon would probably be a fairly reliable but not spectacular income stream.

[onlineleben]

You can link directly to all their items.
Puting links into your content increases conversion. Much better than having an Amazon banner somewhere on your site.

You also get credit for purchases of articles you didn't link to but the visitor coming from your site bought within 24 hours (24 hr cookie).

The commision system has been changed as of October 1st. I recommend choosing the tiered commissions, asthey also payout for marketplace sales.

Good luck.

[hunderdown]

I've been an Amazon affiliate for more than three years and am fairly satisfied with the program.

ZShops and Auctions (news to me that they did auctions!) do not pay commissions to Associates, so far as I know, but they must be a very small part of the overall Amazon pie.

Amazon is a great match for book-related sites, and arguably for CD, DVD, etc. too. Their base commission is 5%, but if you sell at a high enough volume, it goes up, and you get a bonus 2.5% on an item bought via a direct link (If someone clicks on my link to a specific book, and then buys that specific book, for example).

For non-book stuff, you can probably find sites offering better commissions, though perhaps not better conversions--one big advantage of Amazon is that so many people already have accounts there, so you have fewer abandoned orders.

I run a niche book-related site. I have a lot of book lists and book reviews, plus quite a lot of basic information in my area. Last quarter, I sold 484 items, and made over $500. However, over $100 of that was a growth bonus, which they don't seem to be offering this quarter. I'm a small-to-middlling Associate. The vast majority of the 900,000 (!) Associates probably earn nothing or a few dollars per quarter. The most successful are making tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.....

[sadelb]

would you reccomend selling electronics through amazon? digital cameras, cell phones.. etc?

[guitaristinus]

Here's my payment history from Amazon. Seen better times. To be fair to Amazon, my earnings dropped because my site tanked in the SERPS. Biggest drawback with Amazon is that you only get a commission if customer buys within 24 hours.

Most of the income below came from [I'm not going to tell]. I've made another [I'm not going to tell] site and affiliated it with someone else. I am thinking of selling books on a site and will probably use Amazon.

Date-------Transaction----------------Amount---Balance

7/3/2000 2000 Quarter 2 Referral Fees $1757.37 $1757.37

7/12/2000 Payment by Check -$1757.37 -$0.00

10/2/2000 2000 Quarter 3 Referral Fees $1266.45 $1266.45

10/2/2000 2000 Quarter 3 New Customer Bonus $150.00 $1416.45

10/31/2000 Balance Transfer to Associates ID [my id] -$1416.45 $0.00

1/1/2001 2000 Quarter 4 Referral Fees $2081.17 $2081.17

1/1/2001 2000 Quarter 4 New Customer Bonus $350.00 $2431.17

1/30/2001 Balance Transfer from Associates ID [my id] $1095.58 $3526.75

1/30/2001 2000 Quarter 4 Payment -$3526.75 $0.00

4/1/2001 2001 Quarter 1 Referral Fees $524.77 $524.77

4/1/2001 2001 Quarter 1 New Customer Bonus $150.00 $674.77

4/11/2001 Payment by Check -$674.77 -$0.00

7/2/2001 2001 Quarter 2 Referral Fees $601.54 $601.54

7/10/2001 Payment by Check -$601.54 -$0.00

10/10/2001 2001 Quarter 3 Referral Fees $477.36 $477.36

10/30/2001 Payment by Check -$477.36 $0.00

1/1/2002 2001 Quarter 4 Referral Fees $412.26 $412.26

1/29/2002 Payment by Check -$412.26 -$0.00

3/27/2002 Referral Fee Credit $100.00 $100.00

4/2/2002 2002 Quarter 1 Referral Fees $141.28 $241.28

4/29/2002 Payment by Check -$241.28 $0.00

7/1/2002 2002 Quarter 2 Referral Fees $240.56 $240.56

7/29/2002 Payment by Check -$240.56 $0.00

10/2/2002 2002 Quarter 3 Referral Fees $120.76 $120.76

10/29/2002 Payment by Check -$120.76 $0.00

1/4/2003 2002 Quarter 4 Referral Fees $79.30 $79.30

1/30/2003 Payment by Direct Deposit -$79.30 -$0.00

4/2/2003 2003 Quarter 1 Referral Fees $40.77 $40.77

4/30/2003 Payment by Direct Deposit -$40.77 $0.00

7/8/2003 2003 Quarter 2 Referral Fees $15.28 $15.28

7/30/2003 Payment by Direct Deposit -$15.28 -$0.00

8/17/2003 Payment adjustment $8.84 $8.84

8/19/2003 Payment by Direct Deposit -$8.84 -$0.00

10/6/2003 2003 Quarter 3 Referral Fees $5.83 $5.83

1/5/2004 2003 Quarter 4 Referral Fees $23.84 $29.67

1/28/2004 Payment by Direct Deposit -$29.67 $0.00

4/2/2004 2004 Quarter 1 Referral Fees $5.77 $5.77

7/6/2004 2004 Quarter 2 Referral Fees $2.07 $7.84

[sadelb]

wow, january of 2001 u did awesome....it took a really big drop though.. was that all because of the serps? Hey do you think u can sticky me ur site? just to get a basic idea of the format etc... thanks..

[guitaristinus]

Yes.

I can, but I won't. :)

[sadelb]

ok... but how do you feel about selling electronics through amazon?

[guitaristinus]

I haven't done anything new with Amazon in a couple of years. It used to be the max commission you could get on a product was $10. Now you can "... earn a maximum of $25 in referral fees on personal computers--for all other product groups, referral fees are unlimited." And, now, with their "Amazon Web Services", you can do a little programming and have people buy stuff without ever leaving your site. This could take a little time to learn, but it would be the way to go. Yes, with these improvements, I think you could be successful selling electronics through Amazon.

[hunderdown]

But to be successful, you need original content. A LOT of people have used AWS and various scripts to create sites that are essentially clones of Amazon or of parts of Amazon.

Those sites are no longer doing so well. As there get to be more and more such sites the marketplace gets stretched thin, and search engines get wise to them and start to drop them out of their indices (might have been what happened to g's site). This has been discussed elsewhere at WW and also on the discussion boards Amazon has for Associates, so you might find on this more by searching.

[nakulgoyal]

there are some scripts opensource that have bombed amazon products around, you do actually need some real quality content and it will work. Amazon Aff system works well for me, it gets me a not so high 4 digit income every quarter with almost no work/maintenance.