Worm99
Power Member
- Jan 12, 2012
- 632
- 376
Here's a guide I found, the guy used to sell it on WF, but someone shared it online. Some useful tips here.
1 - Text Links I am sure you are NOT impressed with this first technique. Text links have been around since the beginning of the internet.But to this day, in content links work better than any other type of link,banner, widget, tool, gizmo, plug-in, etc.Simple little text links, like the one in the screen shot above, do VERY,VERY well for me. That's not new... and it's not something I 'tested' this past year, but it is so worth pointing out the obvious when it seems we are constantly being bombarded with tools and gizmos. Text links are money.Text links anywhere in your content are always good ? but there is one place that they do exceptionally well for me.I started testing this wayyyyyyyy back in my early Squidoo days (for those that remember Squidoo). We had what was called an 'intro module' where we'd add a picture and type our opening paragraph for our web page.It's such a simple thing, but WOW, what a difference it makes. After your first few sentences of a web page, do this:
Simple, right? Write a little, and then link them out.I thought that this tactic would stop being so effective over the years, but it sure has NOT.If anything, it's gotten better.I truly think that's because the internet users of this world (like myself)have gotten painfully impatient ? they want something to click ASAP.If you have a web page that is getting decent traffic, but just doesn't convert to clicks and sales as well as you would like, try this.You just might like it =)
2 - Images Wow, this one drives me crazy ? both as a marketer AND as a consumer.You see an image on a page, it appears to be clickable...you click it and....it links to the image file.WHY do that? I either don't make it clickable at ALL ? or best yet, it links to Amazon.We are getting more and more mobile traffic ? images are big, people want to click them ? make those clicks work for you.No, this isn't a news flash, but I see it SO often that I have to add this to this years guide.Speaking of images....here's a neat tactic I've tested that works really. Make an image that lists out a couple buying tips for whatever you're promoting. Then make some sort of call to action at the bottom of the image that looks like a text link.Here's an example:
I tripped over this idea. I had some powerpoint slides I made for a slideshare test and needed an image for a blog post ? so I used the one above. It works extremely well.Note for Reverse Attack Marketing members: Think of all the sites we use that pull images from a web page. These type of images get clicked a LOT.Don't skip this idea because you think it's too hard to implement.It's not! I have horrible graphic skills and I still managed to make something that was useful, helpful, and clickable for my readers.
4 ? Twitter I've talked about this before in some bonus training of mine, but it really is worth repeating.Twitter is good for lots of things. Sure, you can get out there and build a following and be 'social' and all that good stuff...but that's not how I use it when it comes to my Amazon stuff.I really could care less if anyone follows me...lol!I like Twitter because.... it's so easy and so effective to embed tweets.You simply tweet an Amazon product, add a sentence, publish it, then click on the date of your tweet.Then you can click on the little dots at the bottom and grab the embed code.
It's really a beautiful and effective way to monetize your web page without it LOOKING and FEELING monetized.When the tweet is embedded on your web page, it's clickable...and it's all your Amazon affiliate link =)Try it out some time.
5 ? Embedly I'm one of those that gets annoyed playing with code, that's why I love this little tool I'm about to tell you about.With this tool/plugin on your Wordpress site, you don't have to mess with all that embed code and stuff.You just put the url of the tweet (or any web page) into your edit/create post screen and the embedly plugin automagically turns it into a pretty preview link (or full embed ? depending on the web property).For example, for my tweet, I'd just put the url of that tweet, and since I have the embedly plugin installed on my site, it automatically embeds the tweet for me.
You can test out how it works here: http://embed.ly/code (that tool will give you embed code for virtually ANY web page).If you want embedly to work on your site, get this plugin:https://wordpress.org/plugins/embedly/btw, embedly makes really nice embedded Amazon links too =)
note: ALWAYS check to make sure your affiliate tag ?stuck? in the url ?sometimes they disappear
6 ? Speaking of images ... they are more important now that EVER for your web content.You may have already heard of a free image design tool called Canva? (if not, check it out ? it's pretty awesome and makes it so easy to create good-looking images).But did you know that Canva has a free wordpress plugin?Once installed and activated, you will see a button like this whenever you are creating a new page or post:
Just click that, design your image, and then click 'publish' and canva will save your image to your site and put it in your post.
7 ? Yellow This is so not my own original idea. I had seen it done on a few non Amazon affiliate type sites so thought I'd give it a test.Turns out, it's very effective =)Remember that post example about blue widgets from above?If I simply turn it into something like this... it gets even better.
See that yellow box? Of course you do... anyone and EVERYONE that comes to that page would see that yellow box ? and the link inside it.
8 ? Screenshots I am BIG with screenshots of web pages.I don't copy their text content (no one wants the text of their page copied), but I do take a 'snippet picture' of what I'd like to share from another web page and have that image be clickable (with my Amazon link, of course).You'll see lots of examples of these screenshots inaction all over that web page ? like the one to the right.Yes, people love to click those. Did YOU try and click it? =)There are lots of free tools to make these screenshots of an area of a webpage. Jing is one of them.... I use that and I also use one called DuckLinkScreen Capture.They each have some options to edit the screenshot ? add arrows, sometext, etc.
9 ? BIG Images Along with my screenshot images, you'll also notice some bigger and really nice Amazon product images.These work great for clicks and sales... and for making your web page LOOK really great as well.I'd love to say I coded all them myself, but I most certainly did not.
For that, I use an unbelievably wonderful tool/plugin called Easy Azon. EasyAzon allows you to search for Amazon products, get their links, AND some great images right from inside your wp-admin dashboard while you'rewriting your post.It is not only a HUGE time saver, it is very effective for improving my CTR(clicks) and commissions.I started testing ?in the picture? links and had great results... like this:
The picture is clickable as well, but that 'in the picture' text link seems toreally help. If I was reading this guide, I believe I would test 'in the picture links' in a Yellow Box (like we talked about earlier).
10 ? Reviews
According to the Amazon Associate Terms of Service, we affiliates are not
supposed to copy/paste customer reviews on our sites.
Amazon wants all that unique user-generated content for their web pages ?
which makes sense, doesn't it?
But ? those reviews can really help convert our traffic to clicks and sales.
I have tested a few ways to get that 'real review' content on my web
pages.
I've copied a sentence or two (a short snippet) or a review with a text link
that says 'read more' or 'read the rest of this review' ? and that does ok.
Problem is, online consumers are now almost 'trained' to recognize and
trust the way Amazon reviews LOOK.
So based on that, I also tested
something
I did on that blender review
page ?
a screenshot of a couple
reviews, uploaded to my site,
and made into a clickable
image.
Works great...and people
totally click them.
Those gold stars are what
consumers are looking for...
and those blue 'read more'
links really stand out and make people want to click and read more =)
As a consumer, I like when web pages do this.... it let's me see some
reviews that help me decide what to get or if I want that particular thing,
etc etc.
And since it's an image, there's no issue with those crazy fears of duplicate
content or anything like that.
Now, there is yet another way to get Amazon reviews on your site and it
works really great.
It's done with a free plugin called 'ScrapeAzon'.
It uses your Amazon advertising API credentials to go through the Amazon
API and literally frame in the product reviews on your site... AND... all the
links in the reviews are your affiliate links.
These are real reviews with tons of active links. Here's an example:
Every single link in those reviews is your affiliate link to that product page
(or to that specific review).
Once the plugin is installed and activated, all you do is add a shortcode to
your web page that looks something like this.
[scrapeazon asin=?FG78123?]
That FG78123 is the spot where you put the ASIN number of the product
you are working with (I just made that number up).
Then, on the live published version of your post, you'll see the live Amazon
reviews for that product framed in.
You can tweak the height and width and some other things, but that's the
gist of it.
Very simple and very effective.Only issue I've had with it while testing it was on mobile view of some of
my sites ? it did some weird things. The plugin has been updated recently
which seems to have fixed the issues I had before.
The ScrapeAzon plugin is here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/scrapeazon/
Speaking of mobile...
11 ? MobileI had been noticing more and more sales come through
from mobile traffic in my Amazon sales report so I set
out to take a good look at just what people were seeing
on my sites when it was loaded in a mobile/phone
browser or a tablet, etc.
It was a VERY eye-opening experience!
about what people SEE when your web page first loads...and when they
scroll.
The biggest problem I saw on many of my pages was that the call to action
links weren't really clear and friendly to someone using a cell phone or
small device.
Subtle little blue text links just didn't 'pop' when viewed that small.
So a big change I made was to really look at my web pages ? especially
those that seemed to convert well with desktop traffic ? and make a few
tweaks to make the clickable stuff more obvious.
The Yellow Box sure works well for helping mobile traffic. See the image ?
that's how that blender review page looks on a mobile phone.
I am still working on and testing more ways to help my mobile traffic, but
just adding a clear call to action with a Yellow Box or a good image or a
button has really helped.
Just a little tip... remember those Twitter embeds I talked about earlier?
They work great and look great in these situations.
Here's an easy way to see how ANY web page looks on ANY kind of
device.
For PC users, simply push and hold Ctrl+Shift+M all at the same time and
you'll get a screen just like the one I showed of my blender review page
above.
You can change it to all sizes of screens and browsers so you can see what
THEY see.
When you're done, just click the little x at the top left and you'll be back to
your normal view.
That one little trick of ctrl+shift+m has really opened my eyes and helped
me to be better able to convert my mobile traffic.
I'm not a Mac user, but from what I've read, you push Cmd+Opt+M to see
any web page in mobile view and other screen sizes.
12 ? Mobile PopOver Ads
I don't hear many Amazon affiliates talking about this pretty awesome
option inside our Associates dashboard, but I've been testing it, and it's
working pretty darn well.
Amazon calls them their Mobile PopOver Ads.
It's a simple piece of code that you add to your web site and once installed,
when someone is on your web page via a mobile device only and they are
scrolling past an Amazon link on your page, something like this pops up at
the bottom.
These ads only show when you are truly on a mobile device, but
they work pretty darn well. And it's so easy... just pop a little code on your
site and forget about it.
When you're logged in to your Associates dashboard, go to this url to get
more info and your code:
https://affiliate-program.
I can't think of any reason to NOT have that code and those mobile popover
ads on all your sites ? sure doesn't hurt anything, but it absolutely helps.
Note: you can also ad this code to Blogger/BlogSpot blogs as well
Instructions to add the code and some FAQ's:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/mobilepopover/
faq.html
Something I've noticed when testing on my own phone.... it seems that
when you use those Amazon short links, those mobile popover ads may, or
may not show.
Go ahead and install the code on at least one of your sites and then pop on
your phone and check out your web pages on that site.
It's a total attention getter when, as a consumer, you're on a page reading
about some product and a little pop up shows telling you that thing has
been found on Amazon with the current price and sale price and review
stars and count. Good stuff!
Speaking of stars...
14 ? Stars!
Not too long ago, Amazon came out with what they call their Native
Shopping Ads for affiliates.
The tool to make these is inside your Amazon Associate account:
I fell in love with these ads as soon as I saw them- what a simple way to
add relevant, targeted, and up-to-date products to my web pages!
There are 3 kinds of Native Shopping Ads:
1 - Recommendation Ads: in these ads, you pick the specific products to
show OR the ad code will pick the most relevant products to show based on
your page content.
2 - Search Ads ? these ads show products for a search you define.
3 - Custom Ads ? these ads show the specific products you pick.
I've played with them all, but I am big fan of the Search Ads.
Why? Because they also have an active/usable search tool included.
Here's an example of how they look:
The tool settings to create the ads is on the left and a preview of the ad is
on the right.
VERY effective... has all that stuff that online shoppers have grown to know
and trust ? the Amazon logo....the Prime logo... very clickable.
BUT.... there USED to be the stars and ratings count in the ad code when
the Native Ads were first introduced to affiliates.... now the stars are gone.
That did NOT make me happy so off I went to figure out how to get the
stars back. And yep, I figured it out =)
It's a simple line of code you add to the Native Shopping ad code Amazon
gives you.
amzn_assoc_rating = "true";
I just add it to the bottom of the code like this:
WAY better... and has that extra piece of magical social proof that
consumers need...want... and trust.
1 - Text Links I am sure you are NOT impressed with this first technique. Text links have been around since the beginning of the internet.But to this day, in content links work better than any other type of link,banner, widget, tool, gizmo, plug-in, etc.Simple little text links, like the one in the screen shot above, do VERY,VERY well for me. That's not new... and it's not something I 'tested' this past year, but it is so worth pointing out the obvious when it seems we are constantly being bombarded with tools and gizmos. Text links are money.Text links anywhere in your content are always good ? but there is one place that they do exceptionally well for me.I started testing this wayyyyyyyy back in my early Squidoo days (for those that remember Squidoo). We had what was called an 'intro module' where we'd add a picture and type our opening paragraph for our web page.It's such a simple thing, but WOW, what a difference it makes. After your first few sentences of a web page, do this:
Simple, right? Write a little, and then link them out.I thought that this tactic would stop being so effective over the years, but it sure has NOT.If anything, it's gotten better.I truly think that's because the internet users of this world (like myself)have gotten painfully impatient ? they want something to click ASAP.If you have a web page that is getting decent traffic, but just doesn't convert to clicks and sales as well as you would like, try this.You just might like it =)
2 - Images Wow, this one drives me crazy ? both as a marketer AND as a consumer.You see an image on a page, it appears to be clickable...you click it and....it links to the image file.WHY do that? I either don't make it clickable at ALL ? or best yet, it links to Amazon.We are getting more and more mobile traffic ? images are big, people want to click them ? make those clicks work for you.No, this isn't a news flash, but I see it SO often that I have to add this to this years guide.Speaking of images....here's a neat tactic I've tested that works really. Make an image that lists out a couple buying tips for whatever you're promoting. Then make some sort of call to action at the bottom of the image that looks like a text link.Here's an example:
I tripped over this idea. I had some powerpoint slides I made for a slideshare test and needed an image for a blog post ? so I used the one above. It works extremely well.Note for Reverse Attack Marketing members: Think of all the sites we use that pull images from a web page. These type of images get clicked a LOT.Don't skip this idea because you think it's too hard to implement.It's not! I have horrible graphic skills and I still managed to make something that was useful, helpful, and clickable for my readers.
4 ? Twitter I've talked about this before in some bonus training of mine, but it really is worth repeating.Twitter is good for lots of things. Sure, you can get out there and build a following and be 'social' and all that good stuff...but that's not how I use it when it comes to my Amazon stuff.I really could care less if anyone follows me...lol!I like Twitter because.... it's so easy and so effective to embed tweets.You simply tweet an Amazon product, add a sentence, publish it, then click on the date of your tweet.Then you can click on the little dots at the bottom and grab the embed code.
It's really a beautiful and effective way to monetize your web page without it LOOKING and FEELING monetized.When the tweet is embedded on your web page, it's clickable...and it's all your Amazon affiliate link =)Try it out some time.
5 ? Embedly I'm one of those that gets annoyed playing with code, that's why I love this little tool I'm about to tell you about.With this tool/plugin on your Wordpress site, you don't have to mess with all that embed code and stuff.You just put the url of the tweet (or any web page) into your edit/create post screen and the embedly plugin automagically turns it into a pretty preview link (or full embed ? depending on the web property).For example, for my tweet, I'd just put the url of that tweet, and since I have the embedly plugin installed on my site, it automatically embeds the tweet for me.
You can test out how it works here: http://embed.ly/code (that tool will give you embed code for virtually ANY web page).If you want embedly to work on your site, get this plugin:https://wordpress.org/plugins/embedly/btw, embedly makes really nice embedded Amazon links too =)
note: ALWAYS check to make sure your affiliate tag ?stuck? in the url ?sometimes they disappear
6 ? Speaking of images ... they are more important now that EVER for your web content.You may have already heard of a free image design tool called Canva? (if not, check it out ? it's pretty awesome and makes it so easy to create good-looking images).But did you know that Canva has a free wordpress plugin?Once installed and activated, you will see a button like this whenever you are creating a new page or post:
Just click that, design your image, and then click 'publish' and canva will save your image to your site and put it in your post.
7 ? Yellow This is so not my own original idea. I had seen it done on a few non Amazon affiliate type sites so thought I'd give it a test.Turns out, it's very effective =)Remember that post example about blue widgets from above?If I simply turn it into something like this... it gets even better.
See that yellow box? Of course you do... anyone and EVERYONE that comes to that page would see that yellow box ? and the link inside it.
8 ? Screenshots I am BIG with screenshots of web pages.I don't copy their text content (no one wants the text of their page copied), but I do take a 'snippet picture' of what I'd like to share from another web page and have that image be clickable (with my Amazon link, of course).You'll see lots of examples of these screenshots inaction all over that web page ? like the one to the right.Yes, people love to click those. Did YOU try and click it? =)There are lots of free tools to make these screenshots of an area of a webpage. Jing is one of them.... I use that and I also use one called DuckLinkScreen Capture.They each have some options to edit the screenshot ? add arrows, sometext, etc.
9 ? BIG Images Along with my screenshot images, you'll also notice some bigger and really nice Amazon product images.These work great for clicks and sales... and for making your web page LOOK really great as well.I'd love to say I coded all them myself, but I most certainly did not.
For that, I use an unbelievably wonderful tool/plugin called Easy Azon. EasyAzon allows you to search for Amazon products, get their links, AND some great images right from inside your wp-admin dashboard while you'rewriting your post.It is not only a HUGE time saver, it is very effective for improving my CTR(clicks) and commissions.I started testing ?in the picture? links and had great results... like this:
The picture is clickable as well, but that 'in the picture' text link seems toreally help. If I was reading this guide, I believe I would test 'in the picture links' in a Yellow Box (like we talked about earlier).
10 ? Reviews
According to the Amazon Associate Terms of Service, we affiliates are not
supposed to copy/paste customer reviews on our sites.
Amazon wants all that unique user-generated content for their web pages ?
which makes sense, doesn't it?
But ? those reviews can really help convert our traffic to clicks and sales.
I have tested a few ways to get that 'real review' content on my web
pages.
I've copied a sentence or two (a short snippet) or a review with a text link
that says 'read more' or 'read the rest of this review' ? and that does ok.
Problem is, online consumers are now almost 'trained' to recognize and
trust the way Amazon reviews LOOK.
So based on that, I also tested
something
I did on that blender review
page ?
a screenshot of a couple
reviews, uploaded to my site,
and made into a clickable
image.
Works great...and people
totally click them.
Those gold stars are what
consumers are looking for...
and those blue 'read more'
links really stand out and make people want to click and read more =)
As a consumer, I like when web pages do this.... it let's me see some
reviews that help me decide what to get or if I want that particular thing,
etc etc.
And since it's an image, there's no issue with those crazy fears of duplicate
content or anything like that.
Now, there is yet another way to get Amazon reviews on your site and it
works really great.
It's done with a free plugin called 'ScrapeAzon'.
It uses your Amazon advertising API credentials to go through the Amazon
API and literally frame in the product reviews on your site... AND... all the
links in the reviews are your affiliate links.
These are real reviews with tons of active links. Here's an example:
Every single link in those reviews is your affiliate link to that product page
(or to that specific review).
Once the plugin is installed and activated, all you do is add a shortcode to
your web page that looks something like this.
[scrapeazon asin=?FG78123?]
That FG78123 is the spot where you put the ASIN number of the product
you are working with (I just made that number up).
Then, on the live published version of your post, you'll see the live Amazon
reviews for that product framed in.
You can tweak the height and width and some other things, but that's the
gist of it.
Very simple and very effective.Only issue I've had with it while testing it was on mobile view of some of
my sites ? it did some weird things. The plugin has been updated recently
which seems to have fixed the issues I had before.
The ScrapeAzon plugin is here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/scrapeazon/
Speaking of mobile...
11 ? MobileI had been noticing more and more sales come through
from mobile traffic in my Amazon sales report so I set
out to take a good look at just what people were seeing
on my sites when it was loaded in a mobile/phone
browser or a tablet, etc.
It was a VERY eye-opening experience!
about what people SEE when your web page first loads...and when they
scroll.
The biggest problem I saw on many of my pages was that the call to action
links weren't really clear and friendly to someone using a cell phone or
small device.
Subtle little blue text links just didn't 'pop' when viewed that small.
So a big change I made was to really look at my web pages ? especially
those that seemed to convert well with desktop traffic ? and make a few
tweaks to make the clickable stuff more obvious.
The Yellow Box sure works well for helping mobile traffic. See the image ?
that's how that blender review page looks on a mobile phone.
I am still working on and testing more ways to help my mobile traffic, but
just adding a clear call to action with a Yellow Box or a good image or a
button has really helped.
Just a little tip... remember those Twitter embeds I talked about earlier?
They work great and look great in these situations.
Here's an easy way to see how ANY web page looks on ANY kind of
device.
For PC users, simply push and hold Ctrl+Shift+M all at the same time and
you'll get a screen just like the one I showed of my blender review page
above.
You can change it to all sizes of screens and browsers so you can see what
THEY see.
When you're done, just click the little x at the top left and you'll be back to
your normal view.
That one little trick of ctrl+shift+m has really opened my eyes and helped
me to be better able to convert my mobile traffic.
I'm not a Mac user, but from what I've read, you push Cmd+Opt+M to see
any web page in mobile view and other screen sizes.
12 ? Mobile PopOver Ads
I don't hear many Amazon affiliates talking about this pretty awesome
option inside our Associates dashboard, but I've been testing it, and it's
working pretty darn well.
Amazon calls them their Mobile PopOver Ads.
It's a simple piece of code that you add to your web site and once installed,
when someone is on your web page via a mobile device only and they are
scrolling past an Amazon link on your page, something like this pops up at
the bottom.
These ads only show when you are truly on a mobile device, but
they work pretty darn well. And it's so easy... just pop a little code on your
site and forget about it.
When you're logged in to your Associates dashboard, go to this url to get
more info and your code:
https://affiliate-program.
I can't think of any reason to NOT have that code and those mobile popover
ads on all your sites ? sure doesn't hurt anything, but it absolutely helps.
Note: you can also ad this code to Blogger/BlogSpot blogs as well
Instructions to add the code and some FAQ's:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/mobilepopover/
faq.html
Something I've noticed when testing on my own phone.... it seems that
when you use those Amazon short links, those mobile popover ads may, or
may not show.
Go ahead and install the code on at least one of your sites and then pop on
your phone and check out your web pages on that site.
It's a total attention getter when, as a consumer, you're on a page reading
about some product and a little pop up shows telling you that thing has
been found on Amazon with the current price and sale price and review
stars and count. Good stuff!
Speaking of stars...
14 ? Stars!
Not too long ago, Amazon came out with what they call their Native
Shopping Ads for affiliates.
The tool to make these is inside your Amazon Associate account:
I fell in love with these ads as soon as I saw them- what a simple way to
add relevant, targeted, and up-to-date products to my web pages!
There are 3 kinds of Native Shopping Ads:
1 - Recommendation Ads: in these ads, you pick the specific products to
show OR the ad code will pick the most relevant products to show based on
your page content.
2 - Search Ads ? these ads show products for a search you define.
3 - Custom Ads ? these ads show the specific products you pick.
I've played with them all, but I am big fan of the Search Ads.
Why? Because they also have an active/usable search tool included.
Here's an example of how they look:
The tool settings to create the ads is on the left and a preview of the ad is
on the right.
VERY effective... has all that stuff that online shoppers have grown to know
and trust ? the Amazon logo....the Prime logo... very clickable.
BUT.... there USED to be the stars and ratings count in the ad code when
the Native Ads were first introduced to affiliates.... now the stars are gone.
That did NOT make me happy so off I went to figure out how to get the
stars back. And yep, I figured it out =)
It's a simple line of code you add to the Native Shopping ad code Amazon
gives you.
amzn_assoc_rating = "true";
I just add it to the bottom of the code like this:
WAY better... and has that extra piece of magical social proof that
consumers need...want... and trust.
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