Affiliate Programs I used to not like Amazon

[Jonathan]

I was an Amazon associate, but I saw very little results for a long time. Then I guess I got some decent sites going, and got into the search engines. Now I'm a fan. My only real gripe would be that very occasionally the stats don't update for a few days.

You only get paid a commission once an item has been sent, so if someone does a preorder, you don't get the % until the item is released. (I've had a bunch of preorders for a dvd set that comes out at the end of February). The cool thing about preorders is that you get a bunch of commissions on the same day when the item actually ships.

Quarter to date: October 1, 2005 to December 5, 2005, I've made $217.38. That's from 115 items sent. The commission is pretty decent since it works out to about $1.89 for each item that someone purchased.

At this point I'm getting orders about every day, although I usually have to wait 2-3 weeks to see a commission since most people do the free super slow savers shipping.

So share how you're doing on Amazon.

Oh and... if you haven't changed your fee structure to Performance, do it right now. I thought this wouldn't matter when I started out, but I changed it and my earnings jumped quite a bit since you get a higher %. Even if you change it right before the end of the quarter, Amazon will go back and recalculate your earnings and they will go up. Just make sure you do it.

 

[JEsports]

Sounds nice Jonathan ... can i take a look at your site if you care to share?

thanks

John

 

[ForumDomains]

I used to be Amazon associate for 2 years and finally I gave up. I am not active in promoting Amazon anymore. Seems a waste of ad space on our sites! Customers just prefer to buy directly from Amazon.

During that time I have made a couple of suggestions to Amazon support and developers but no one is listening. They do not care to customize affiliates sales process. Even the AWS is all about searching and displaying products from Amazon's catalog but not about customizations of sales under affiliate brand!

 

[Jonathan]

Well, I use a nice script called Associate-O-Matic, and it creates a shopping cart so that the person doesn't leave your site until they 'checkout' and they are taken to Amazon's checkout. So you keep them at your site, and all of the sales are considered 'direct' so they are higher.

You can check out one of my sites setup with this script at:
http://www.familymovies.com - I've only spent maybe 25 minutes customizing the site with the script, I might get a header, but that's not a priority right now.

You can read more about this script on my blog, following the link in my signature. Yeah, the links in my blog have an affiliate link, but I don't see the problem in that if I'm hyping a quality script. Feel free to skip my link if you decide to buy it.

Oh- another nice little feature. You can set it up so that it emails you whenever someone does checkout. Obviously they still have to go through Amazon, so the sale might not be completed. But usually it is, and it's always cool to get the orders by email.

 

[ForumDomains]

Well, I use a nice script called Associate-O-Matic, and it creates a shopping cart so that the person doesn't leave your site until they 'checkout' and they are taken to Amazon's checkout. So you keep them at your site, and all of the sales are considered 'direct' so they are higher.

I know about that script but decided not to use it. Anyway, I am done with Amazon after 2 years of modest and rather disappointing results.

 

[Focus]

well alrighty then....seems like Jonathan is having better luck!

 

[ForumDomains]

Amazon has more than 800 000 affiliates so there should be some that have better luck I guess... All depends what is your conversion rate. It may happen that you are investing too much traffic for the sales generated!

 

[Theo]

I'd love to hear about Amazon results with music content. I've a domain that gets 3,000 type-ins /month.

 

[Jonathan]

I've got a site setup regarding a particular not terribly popular group, and it doesn't do well at all. I haven't actually installed Associate-O-Matic on it, I just have the little boxes that Amazon makes, one for each of the cds that they've put out. Doesn't do well at all.

Of course, I kinda neglected the site so I don't expect it gets much traffic. Another problem is that a lot of cds are really cheap especially if purchased used, so the commission is tiny.

 

[Theo]

Mine's a very generic name, so I would like to hear from others that perhaps were luckier. Currently it makes about $230 /month with Sedo.

 

[JEsports]

You can check out one of my sites setup with this script at: http://www.familymovies.com - I've only spent maybe 25 minutes customizing the site with the script, I might get a header, but that's not a priority right now.

Nice looking site Jonathan ... I may have a few domains in mind to try this script out ... If i choose to, i will signup through your affiliate account.

Thanks for sharing

John

 

[stevesko]

me too... I checked out their site - looks cool and only $99 for unlimited sites. As for Acropelx. If you are making that much on SEDO- if not this ... why dont you have a PPC template done. Why share the revenue with SEDO... Do something!

Steve

 

[Rarethings]

Nice stuff. You should also trythe zshops and the ebook distribtion on amazon

 

[hugegrowth]

I don't like affiliate programs like Amazon because
the commission rate is too small, and it's a one time
deal. Now, if you earned lifetime commissions on customers
you referred that would be better. Unless you have a huge
amount of targetted traffic that are likely to be buyers,
Amazon is probably something that should just be a 'side offer'
on your webpage, promoting Amazon products related to
your subject matter. Just my two cents.

 

[Jonathan]

I'd have to disagree on Amazon having to be secondary on a site. Some sites, yes. I don't think you should really have only an Amazon store if you owned something like dogs.info. What a waste of traffic. But if you have something like buymovies.com - you already know what people are looking to do.

With Associate-O-Matic, you don't lose someone as soon as they click on something as is the case if you use any of Amazon's provided links/images. So they will be at my site until they do checkout. Since they did all of the product selection through my site, I believe they are more likely to remember my site.

Lifetime commissions would be nice, but I think overall it would just mean a lot more commissions for people who got into the game very early on, and much less for people who haven't been doing this as long, like me.

 

[carlton]

Great work Jonathan with your site. As you mention, your content exactly matches the theme of your domain name: family movies, and people find just what the name implies. Also want to mention the site is clean with just the right amount of products. Good example for others, imo. Curious if you by advertising on Google, other?

 

[Jonathan]

I'm not doing any advertising, although maybe I should be.

 

[ForumDomains]

...With Associate-O-Matic, you don't lose someone as soon as they click on something as is the case if you use any of Amazon's provided links/images. So they will be at my site until they do checkout. Since they did all of the product selection through my site, I believe they are more likely to remember my site...

Right, they may remember your site but they will not shop Amazon stuff from you again. They will go directly to Amazon. It is a one time deal as already said above.

Have you an idea how many of your customers are actually returning customers to enter Amazon through your site? I can bet it is a very small number if any. Currently you have success because of the nice generic traffic from SEs but what will happen when Google changes their algo again after couple of months? Nobody knows. You may end up to again not like Amazon.

Most important indicator of a successful commercial site is how much is the % of the returning customers? And that seems to be a major issue of all Amazon affiliate sites. Because next time the vast majority of your customers go directly to Amazon...

 

[nikkiblue]

Nice stuff. You should also trythe zshops and the ebook distribtion on amazon

Good advice! I forgot about the zshops! I will try to implement this over the weekend.

 

[domainer111]

I find book traffic does excellently.

I would definitely try cds!!

Also check out MrRat.com - he has a great script. If you sell something using this script you get 2% more.