Making Sales with Amazon.com

This question was recently posted in the Affiliate Marketing section of the SSWT Forum:


Q: Can anyone give any tips on how they get sales with Amazon?

I have had Amazon affiliate links up for years and don't seem to get sales from my links. I read where some people make a substantial income from Amazon. Any tips???

Posted by Stefani Partin


A: I can relate. In fact, up until this year (2005) I rarely ever made a sale through Amazon's associate program. However, this year I have consistently doubled my commisson each quarter... and it is still rising!

It is not my best performing program, by any means, but I have added products from Amazon.com to one of my product-based affiliate sites where I couldnt find those products anywhere else (or an affiliate program for them, at least).

Instead of recommending books on say, a marketing site - instead I am recommending actual products. Things like electronics and toys, etc. As I mentioned, this is on a product site - and so that works out very well.

I actually order quite a bit from Amazon, myself. I like their site structure, I trust them (when it comes to laying down my Mastercard)... and they have good deal. Not to mention it's easy, and they put everything right there in front of you (options: new or used, related items, etc). It's where I go for books, of course, but I find myself comparing prices there on things like electronics, electric blankets, etc before I purchase elsewhere as well.


About their links:

I really dont like the "product links" that they offer. These are the little iFrame boxes - I assume you know what I am referring to. Often if you put that code on your site, it will show up as a generic orange Amazon box instead - unless you refresh the page a couple of times. If you've had this happen on your own site, or seen it on others, it's just tacky (in my opinion).

I like the "recommended product links" section better - this is where you can put in a keyword and have "blocks" created... much like the sizes and layouts of Adsense blocks. In fact, I replaced Adsense on most of my pages with "Amazon ad blocks" of a similar size just recently.

Also, I like to use text links and actual images - which takes a little "manual work" - but the result is much nicer when displaying specific products or putting images & links with specific reviews.

So instead of using the little iFrame code they offer, I would copy my affiliate link from that... and then go to the landing page and grab the URL to the actual product image.

For example, on a Black Eyed Peas CD, I would click through and get the actual picture URL:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00096S3RC.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg

And link to that with my affiliate link:



(that's not actually my affiliate link - just a direct link - but you get the point, I am sure)


p.s. I have sold 70 items just in the last 2 weeks through Amazon!