Why You Should Choose Amazon Associates to Conquer All (and some Game of Thrones References)
Before you need a good affiliate program, you need traffic or a quality conversion rate. Preferably, both.
There are tons of ways to get traffic and rise in the SERPs (“dominate” the SERPS is what you’ll read in most SEO sales pitches). White, Gray, Black. As colorful as the world is today, we internet rangers have opted to use the dullest of colors to define our effort.
Why not Green, Amber, and Red? These are the things I dwell on. If you’re looking solely on the surface, being an Amazon affiliate has a lot of offer. I think the case can be made (rather easily) why Amazon Associates is better than the rest…
It’s not until you start reading about raking in big bucks on programs like Clickbank and JVzoo that you start to doubt whether you started off with the right program or not.
Enough of the bulls**t, though. Here’s how I’m gonna’ lay it out:
If you can’t at least make a couple of sales per month from Amazon with a quality made, Amazon Review Site that is indexed, concentrates on content and worthwhile reviews as much as you concentrate on how many affiliate links you place per 100 words then you need think about a career, hobby or side-hustle change.
Why Choose Amazon Associates
I did a search for “Why Amazon Affiliates is the best” and got a result page of “how to make money with Amazon affiliates”, “how to increase your Amazon Affiliate Earnings” and the ever present “how I made 22 gazillion dollars with Amazon this year (and you can too)” results. But who am I shitting, I wrote a post similar to them all recently.
BUT I couldn’t find a recent, authoritative niche site guy or gal trying to tell everyone why they SHOULD be using Amazon Affiliates over all other affiliate programs. At least to start off with!
One site, waaaay back in 2012 actually still ranked. http://technicalblogging.com/6-reasons-why-the-amazon-associates-affiliate-program-is-highly-underrated/
Here are my thoughts on why I think everyone should be trying to break through with Amazon Affiliates like they’re Jon Snow and Sansa Stark trying to take back the North. (Which they did…and that punk Ramsay Bolton's grave marker should read “Purina®”.
Low commissions? Pshhaw!
Sure, you start off at 4% but it only takes a 6 items sold to bump it to 6%. And then, it’s progressive. Once you hit one of the new commission levels (below) everything that you’ve sold up to that time and after is adjusted to that commission level…until you hit the next one and then it’s adjusted again!
“It’s still small, though, Ken”, you're saying in that annoying, whiny voice that makes people leave the room when you're around. Okay, you’re not a believer. But I am. Every $100 that I sell in the early stages of the month make $4 to $7 but by the end of the month, when I hit my 8% commission rate that commission has increase by to $8.
Amazon is a gold mine. Sorry. If you disagree then you’re most likely a Ramsay Bolton fan and you’re an affiliate snob who probably talks more about lead generation and email capture pages than putting your ass on the line, having opinions, and vouching (or not) for an actual product.
Other Affiliate Program Issues and The Ever Present “How to Make Money on the Internet” jargon that most of us have read for years.
Adsense sucks a Wildling’s dirt feet. Sorry. It goes. Banners (even “text” banners) are losing. Ad blindness. Add blockers. All that shit. But, if you ask any guy or gal making money with affiliate programs other than cost-per-click, banner boxes, they’ll tell you that works best is text links back to the affiliate site. That said, Amazon works better than most.
“You said what about Amazon?”
Amazon is the equivalent of a Casino. They make it difficult to see outside, pump in oxygen, and blast the brain and pleasure senses with lights, colors, booze, and the sounds of ching-ching-ching falling everywhere.
Commission Junction, ClickBank, JVzoo, ShareaSale and others are all pretty legit. But if you refer someone to those kinds of links then they need to buy that product on that page (in most cases). Amazon is simple. Get someone to the site by following a bird seed text link and whether they buy bird seed, a papaya seeds, or a seedy novel…you’re getting the commission. Shit, even if they don’t but remember that Little Johnny’s birthday is in a few days and email them an Amazon Gift Card, you still make money.
Brand Recognition
The only people I know who don’t trust Amazon are those who hang out in the Amazon Affiliates Discussion Forums. According to them, there’s always a conspiracy or an error in Amazon’s tracking that is hurting their earnings. (Seriously, I tried to help once by leaving my email address for a guy that had a question and the vultures attacked me like a Lannister on a Stark!)
People trust Amazon like they trusted Ned Stark. Unfortunately for them, they also get bad mouthed by affiliate marketers (like the Lannisters) So even if you’re new in the niche and your authority/trust level sucks…just get them to Amazon and you'r trust level goes up.
Pages are optimized to sell. They’re a selling machine. All the little areas below the actual product on the page are well-greased and oiled to sell.
- Buttons and CTAs
- “People Also viewed” when a person scrolls away from the main product…
- “People Also bought’ after the purchase…
- Add to Cart Follow ups, emails
Random Purchases make up a nice chunk of the money that I make on Amazon. Whether I’m selling outdoor gear or speakers, I’ll always get those random children’s books, Kindle, lingerie purchases. And, remember, with the way the commissions are progressive even the smallest of items are gonna’ make you more money because the more items people buy then the higher your commission rate gets.
Forget the Banners
Go with Text Product Links and Random CTAs. They work best and people aren’t blind to links on a web page…they expect them. They’re blind to banners, though, and find them pretty annoying. Hell, no offense to Doug and Steve, but I even find the ad in the left hand sidebar or the Domain Search screen a little perturbing here.
A World of Options (Amazon.ca, Amazon UK, etc.)
You can sell to almost anyone in the world on Amazon with the different country and geo sites that Amazon caters, too. I’ll admit, though, it’s not always the easiest thing to do in order to apply to those sites because they’re all in a different language. “Translate this page” usually helps, but not always.
A Booty of Bounty
A WORLD of Plugins, Themes, and Tactics to Help Earn are already on the market and in cyberspace for the Amazon affiliate program. I have my favorites (EasyAzon, UAT, Authority Azon, etc) and I’m sure you do, too. Point is, it’s already easy to link in with Amazon’s API and use them to help you make commissions. Of course, they’re also using you to help them make money. Win-win.
All you need to be able to do is get an affiliate account, access key, secret id, affiliate ID and write a review and you can sell stuff.
New Native Ads
The old Amazon image and text product ads looked like they belonged in 1980s. Native Ads are pretty awesome. They’re Clean, agile, sharp looking and responsive. I always have a page on my sites labeled “Store” or “Shop”. Even on my review sites. I make that page full width and throw 4 to 5 Amazon Native ads codes with custom products on that page. It’s another place for people to go to click to Amazon and make me money.
Blowout Holiday Spending!
I have no stat to back this up by I’m willing to bet that Cyber Monday equates to “must go to Amazon and buy stuff” to lots of people in the world.
Retargeting and Follow Up
Yes… Amazon Re-targets for You.
- You click my sneaker affiliate link on my review site and go to Amazon.
- Add to cart but don’t buy.
- Later on that night you’re on your Game of Thrones fan site and there’s an ad banner with the item that you added to your Amazon cart and a similar one.
- You click to Amazon because you just remembered that the lonely item was waiting to be purchased.
- The items is already in your cart. You buy. I commission.
- Tang. A-Ching-Chang-Chang!
Payment Methods
Amazon pays on a NET 60 pay schedule. In case you don't know what that means, 60 days after your monthly earnings are finalized you'll either get your money or get sent your money. Amazon will send you a check, an Amazon Gift Certificate, or direct deposit your money into your bank account. The problem lies within international sales. I cant use my Amazon UK funds to order merchandise and have it sent to Hawaii. I can't even purchase an Amazon Gift Certificate on my UK account and apply it to .com account. So, I'm waiting for a couple of checks from Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk.
The 90 Day Amazon Cookie
If a customer/reader follows your link to Amazon and adds a product to their cart then you have another 89 days (on top of the usual 24 hour cookie) to make a commission. You just have to hope that the customer eventually comes back and makes that purchase. They often do. This works great around the holidays as people “shop” throughout the season and add products to their cart then check out and finish the order in lumps. It's juicy little burst of money that sometimes comes out of nowhere.
Summary: Is breaking through online and making some good money easy? No. Do Amazon review sites and a safe, reliable, spam free PBN domains make it exponentially easier? Sure does. Get in with Amazon and take advantage of the good stuff that we just talked about. “The North Remembers”.
About the Author Ken Muise
SEO, Internet Marketing, Amazon Review Money Site Builder living in Hawaii. 22+ years, US Army.
