The Ultimate Amazon Thread Mark 2 - Q/A - Good/Bad

[audioguy]

@jtdoesit: well, this is not a poll about who gets the most votes win.

 

[busaboss]

Hi guys, I want to start trying Amazon Affiliate but I'm just wondering how can I get my earnings? I'm from the Philippines and is it easy to receive the payment? Thanks guys! Nice info here!

 

[Raven13]

Hi guys, I want to start trying Amazon Affiliate but I'm just wondering how can I get my earnings? I'm from the Philippines and is it easy to receive the payment? Thanks guys! Nice info here!

By check, or you can get a Payoneer account so they send you direct deposite. My recommendation goes for the second option.

 

[gromhold]

My recommendation goes for the second option.

Be careful, amazon prohibits direct deposit outside US and ban accounts with such payments option

 

[Danny1111]

I see that argument quite often - ugly sites and ugly sales pages convert ... that maybe true or it maybe false

but if I'm going to sink my time and money into something - I'm going to make it above average than below.

I'm not talking about $2000 worth of site -- but there are plenty of themes for $60-$120 that can give you something
that allows you to do what you need too.

 

[fernando1954]

Be careful, amazon prohibits direct deposit outside US and ban accounts with such payments option

Payoneer set you up with US based bank account for the deposit to go to, then you just use payoneer credit card to withdraw the money in your home country. Saves a fortune on bank charges, especially here in Spain.

 

[gromhold]

Payoneer set you up with US based bank account for the deposit to go to, then you just use payoneer credit card to withdraw the money in your home country. Saves a fortune on bank charges, especially here in Spain.

http://community.payoneer.com/index.php?/topic/3772-amazon-international-affiliates/#entry16369

I apologize for any misunderstanding. In order to qualify for the direct deposit of your Associates earnings, all three of the following conditions must be met:

1) your payee address must be in the United States
2) your bank must be a United States Financial Institution
3) you must have a U.S. tax ID number or a Social Security number.

 

[fernando1954]

From payoneer
The way Payoneer works is this:
We provide you with a prepaid debit MasterCard, that has an associated US account/routing number. You provide Amazon with this number, so they can pay you via US direct deposit. The payments sent by Amazon generally take 1-3 business days to arrive, after which they are funded to your Payoneer card.
You can then use the card to make purchases online, in stores, and at ATMs worldwide.

 

[johnnyd77]

Hey Audioguy,

By no means i'm telling you that ugly site wont work. I know for fact that ugly sales letters work. The thing is that I'm personally not building sales letter, but blogs that people will trust.

Thats totally different.

Instead of building a bunch of crappy sites, i'd rather focus on one site and give the best website possible for my audience. Design is part of the solution. I treat this site as a business, and I dont want my site to represent something ugly. I want a site that looks clean, that looks pro and that users will trust, period. It doesnt take much longer to put a nice design. As Danny said earlier, no need to spend 2000$ on design. There are some nice themes at 60-100$ that looks very professionnal. All you need to do is to get a nice slider and put some pictures/content. Just to make sure you understand, after one day of work, i'm almost done with design/structure/pages. It is not an endless process.

Again, I treat my sites as a business. I care if I lose a customer at first.

Also, you said that people will spend more time on a beautiful postcard. You're right on this, and thats what I personally need for my site. If average time onsite increase and bounce rate decrease, i'll climb on Google. Thats the metric i'm looking at. Plus, if you have a nice design, you'll gain trust. I gained several links from niche related authority forum in the last weeks because my site looks freeking pro. We're not amateur and we know what we're talking about. Ultimatly, those forum links bring targeted traffic and help me climb in Google.

That being said, I have nothing against your business model. If it works, then good for you. I never tested ugly site and I never will. I still think that nice design/trust factor is the way to go in that business.

Have you tried ugly long form sales letter? Design has to support content, not the other way around.

http://www.marketingexperiments.com...-research-topics/call-to-action-location.html

And oh, what is this ugly website

http://www.drudgereport.com/

It's in 500th most popular sites on earth.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean you should overlook design and skip that. No but you can start with ugly. Then when your site performs, launch a new design. Tidy it a bit.

Launch fast. Launch a bunch (or whatever tasks more important). Then based on your results, adjust.

I don't care losing some customers at first, but I'll save hours and hours by not wasting time on design.

Ideally I wish I have the resources to be like Basecamp.com. Their pages always look very attractive, even they try to push visitors to sign up immediately. From time to time they test new layouts but still very eye pleasing but remember for every beautiful site, there are ugly sites that work out there.

Direct response marketer will argue about how a simple post card works better than beautiful post card. In the former, people actually look at the message instead of just glimpse on it and spend more time on the beautiful post card pictures.

That's why I have friends who still use XSitePro. Looks like websites from 90ish, but due to speed, they rank very well and make money. One reason is because of speed. Google puts a lot of weight on that nowadays, so chuck out those beautiful and bloated jQuery, if possible.

Guess I made my point.

Again i don't say there's an absolute truth in this. Just the way I operate. It works in my info business. And it will work in affiliate marketing too. I guess we can just agree to disagree.

 

[audioguy]

@johnnyd77 Well said. It's a business, and there is more than one way to do business. Good luck with your endeavour.

 

[mohamedelhosary]

do you think this theme design is good enough for trusted amazon site
http://themeforest.net/item/gonzo-clean-responsive-wp-magazine/full_screen_preview/2415788

 

[zep123dmc]

Amazon hasn't updated yesterday's (May 30) affiliate stats?

 

[johnnyd77]

do you think this theme design is good enough for trusted amazon site
http://themeforest.net/item/gonzo-clean-responsive-wp-magazine/full_screen_preview/2415788

I would choose another one, but this one isnt bad.

Amazon hasn't updated yesterday's (May 30) affiliate stats?

Yeah its nit updated. I guess we're all waiting.

 

[peetrike]

do you think this theme design is good enough for trusted amazon site
themeforest net/item/gonzo-clean-responsive-wp-magazine/full_screen_preview/2415788

It`s good but i like Sahifa and Boulevard theme better

 

[T2tkid]

Hello Johnnyd77, if you are to choose any theme for an authority/semi authority site, which will it be?

 

[johnnyd77]

http://themeforest.net/item/powerma...zinereviews-theme/full_screen_preview/4740939

Pravda is cool too.

http://premiumthemes.in/preview/?theme=evolve_wp

Just browse and take what you think

a) represent your site the best
b) is the best for your audience

 

[Raven13]

F5 F5 F5 F5.... guess u know what i'm talking about

 

[zep123dmc]

Right now I'm using MaxMag. It may or may not be more effective than the previous !LesPaul responsive theme I started with, but both definitely have brought in sales. What I have noticed is switching fonts for the body text, which I think is critical for the aesthetics and even bounce rate. I started with Ubuntu (as that is what !LesPaul is loaded with), and yesterday I switched to Verdana which seems to have likely helped in lowering the bounce rate

So: 1 site/ basically no seo, some social/ 9 months old/ approaching $300 for May, last month $197

 

[jtdoesit]

Can anyone confirm that the Payoneer card still works for International Associate?

From payoneer
The way Payoneer works is this:
We provide you with a prepaid debit MasterCard, that has an associated US account/routing number. You provide Amazon with this number, so they can pay you via US direct deposit. The payments sent by Amazon generally take 1-3 business days to arrive, after which they are funded to your Payoneer card.
You can then use the card to make purchases online, in stores, and at ATMs worldwide.

 

[kunu56]

@jtdoesit . Yes, you still can get payment via Payoneer. Make sure that both names in amazon and payoneer are the same, and to change the payment option at least 10 days before asking for payment or amazon will send a check instead. GL