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

[BIrish]

Nice, so wanna ask something about the payments.
Basically, if you are outside of the states your only option is to go for check payments. As far as I've read it takes 60 days for you to get paid, and then it takes another 20 to get the check.

How are the payments? Are they according to your screen or do they get shaved like the adsense's ones.

Also, what does the 60 days payment really mean? Does it mean that you will get the money you have made up to those 60 days, or does it mean you get the money from the previous 60 days?

One last question, how many products you need to sell to get 15% commission?

Thanks a lot for such a thread, really helpful!

Just want to add my two cents here...I had been making money with Amazon for at least 3 years now. They are honest as far as my experience goes when it comes to payment unlike other affiliate programs who like shaving your incomes.

The payout for affiliate sales goes like this:
- Earning for January will get credited to your account on the 2nd of March
- Payment via Check will be dispatched in the last week of March around the 28th or 29th
- Check are send out via ordinary mail (no other option available presently) and takes 7-10 days to receive (will vary from one country to another)
- In India it takes 25 -30 days to clear a foreign check, and then I can finally visit the ATM

 

[BIrish]

Great Thread! Loving it.

One question for Danny and anyone who got the answer - how do you handle visitors to your sites to redirect them to their respective local Amazon store with our affiliate id embedded of course?

Some people put 2 -3 link options targeting different local Amazon store. But this looks ugly.

I tried using 'Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer' plugin sometime back but got doubtful and stopped using it.

How are you guys handling this problem? Any inputs will be highly appreciated

Thanks.

 

[audioguy]

@Danny1111: Which content structure works best for you?

Currently even for product review page, I try to put a call to action above the fold. I also put a medium-size image on the top left or right side of the content with active link to Amazon.

This works better than common "article directory" format with full content on top plus call to action at the bottom.

What's your experience? What else have you used / tested? Star rating, banners, widgets have you used any of those?

Oh, like you have noted, I also use custom buttons and they work well... although I am still looking for ways to increase click through.

Also, to use your wireless router example, how do you link the content together? From my imagination:

- Tier 1: Informative articles
- Tier 2: Reviews

Tier 1 links contextually to Tier 2. Tier 2 goes out to Amazon? Or do you apply links randomly? At the bottom of the page as "Other Pages You Might Be Interested In?"

Others please feel free to chime in if you have anything to share related to tips to increase click through rate.

 

[Danny1111]

think we have discussed most of these :

* I only use Amazon.com the products to redirect are pretty poor - and items are not the same in each location - so you have to take them to a search page instead
* Custom Buttons are a must - but text links have been shown to convert the best.
* Used the carousel on some sites and it makes some sales - but nothing like text links or buttons
* reviews / articles / stars -- depends what theme you use and the niche - how much research goes into buying an electric knife / wireless router or a outdoor furniture set --- > that's where alot of answers lie.

 

[audioguy]

I've read the whole thread several times last month. Some questionsi have been asked but I think they are not 100% similar as I try to be very specific.

I understand each web site is different. What works for one theme may not work for others. I'll definitely test various combination myself. So thanks for your input.

Could you elaborate on point 1? Are you talking about different Amazon locations like de, fr, it, es? I haven't looked into redirection based on geographic area. Maybe I should.

 

[Panther28]

There is a good plugin called amazon affiliate link, that will automatically redirect visitors to their relative country, although it only works on custom links, and not the actual product box widget links. Plus in some countries that particular product is not available, but at least you still have a chance to earn as they might buy something else, better that than nothing at all.

 

[Danny1111]

Well you have to join each country and set it all up - then use one of the crappy products that handle it .. if you look at them - they clutter up the site and don't do as good a job as you would like.

Products are not the same number in each country and nor are they available in every country ... so if you want to go down that route - then your on your own - you will have to test everything to find out what is worth the time and what is not.

Something else I want to address.

You see alot of people offering to sell you all kinds of get rich quick products on Amazon especially on WF. What these people claim or provide are basically ways to spam amazon in the short run and then face de-indexing in a few months. The only country where they seem to stay indexed is .de

So the moral to the story is if your promoting Amazon.com then you better stick to providing a quality product - its the only way to make money for the long term -- if you want to spam something or build crappy sites - then use Amazon.de --> as that seems the only country Google won't penalize you in.

 

[Danny1111]

To answer more directly your question : in the thread I'm including things I know work and don't work - and I mentioned several times I don't do those other countries - so its hard for me to give you an answer that you want.... I hope you understand.

Its like someone PM'ing me asking me for a Template / Niche and Products to Promote : I never pick for you -- because otherwise everyone will have the exact same sites ---> I'm sure that's not what everyone wants.

 

[gromhold]

I only use Amazon.com the products to redirect are pretty poor - and items are not the same in each location - so you have to take them to a search page instead

Danny, clarify please: better use link to amazon search page or to specific product page?

 

[Panther28]

I didn't bother setting up the multiple amazon link for any other countries after uk and usa, one of my sites is targeted completely to usa products, yet 10% of traffic is from uk, weird, since the same products aren't available to uk, anyway my uk affiliate hasn't shown earnings, but it does have clicks from all my sites. I'm defiantly registering with other country affiliate's as the traffic does show from them too, and the're bound to generate a sale sooner or later.

 

[Danny1111]

no - when dealing with multiple countries there are plugins that deal with them by country ... but the problem is the products fail due to not existing so you have to send them to a search only page - so it sucks in terms of conversion.

The answer to the question is I don't bother with other countries - but your welcome to try to figure out a way to handle it that generates some Sales.

 

[tpboi]

hey danny, you mentioned that when using shared hosting such as hostgator we will need to move on after certain extent. could you explain that in a little more detail? like how many sites can i host on 1 shared hostgator account before it start to slow down or something.

 

[Danny1111]

Well I started with Hostgator when I had no clue about anything - and had about 20 Sites on my Shared Plan.

I absolutely loved their support and everything because knowing little about anything I needed some help time to time.

But some sites traffic started to take off and I was interested in making more sites and realized that my loading times were slowing down.

Knowing that I have to provide the absolute best user experience I realized it was time to move up.

Tried a bunch of VPS's and now I have a dedicated server. All I can say is the Dedicated Server is the best thing ever. My pages load really snappy and it is along way
from where I started.

Anyway to answer your question -- > Alot Of Images // Plug Ins and Traffic as well as number of Sites determine what sort of level of hosting you need.

Hostgator was great but not at the level Im trying to play at now.

 

[tpboi]

thanks that is helpful!

Well I started with Hostgator when I had no clue about anything - and had about 20 Sites on my Shared Plan.

I absolutely loved their support and everything because knowing little about anything I needed some help time to time.

But some sites traffic started to take off and I was interested in making more sites and realized that my loading times were slowing down.

Knowing that I have to provide the absolute best user experience I realized it was time to move up.

Tried a bunch of VPS's and now I have a dedicated server. All I can say is the Dedicated Server is the best thing ever. My pages load really snappy and it is along way
from where I started.

Anyway to answer your question -- > Alot Of Images // Plug Ins and Traffic as well as number of Sites determine what sort of level of hosting you need.

Hostgator was great but not at the level Im trying to play at now.

 

[Judder659]

Well I must say this is quite the informative thread.I have no prior IM experience but use to be a Programmer and got away from it many years ago. I have had the itch to get back into creating websites, but want my time to be monetized. I have lurked here for a long while, studying different methods, procrastinating, etc. For some reason I keep coming back to this method. I love the idea of it not being a get rich quick method and being rewarded for the time and hardwork you put into it.

I have now gone through this whole thread 3 times, taken notes, developed my method from others input, and taken action. I have created my first website and due to advise in this thread will create more based on a method I have developed.

I think one of the most important things is developing your method (whethor it is a success or not) and then streamlining and tailoring it into a money making venture that works for you. I see so many questions on things that really cant be answered and have to be learned through your own experiences.

I look forward to participating in this thread once I gain more experience and send a big thankyou to Danny and all those who have participated in this thread.

1st post!

 

[Danny1111]

best of luck to you.

Some people are PM'ing me asking to repeat all the things that are in the thread - please don't bother --> if your not going to make some effort to help yourself you can expect me to sit there on PM all day spoon feeding you.

I have a business to run and bills to pay like most everyone else.

 

[Danny1111]

Also please remember electronics are capped at $25 .. so promoting $2000 products is not as rewarding as other niches unless you sell ALOT

so don't fall into the trap of accepting peanuts // try to maximize your earnings the best you can.

I know we discussed this several times - Keyword Tools say this and that --- ok --> but in the real world we need Sales - so ultimately how much is the traffic worth to you -- if its not $100 a month on average per site --> then you have to really look closely at it.

 

[Danny1111]

I have looked at quite a few peoples sites recently ... and the quality has gone right up -- > people seem to be getting that this is long term income and not spam and dump.

However I just want to make 1 point. I recommend magazine themes these days because it allows you to get content in front of the visitor but also have your Sales Things all around -- don't fall into the trap of just putting Ads on the top half of the Site and no content .. otherwise Google will end up pushing your site down the rankings.

So in your content put your affiliate text links --- but the point being to keep your site Google friendly and not just a Store Front.

All the best today.

 

[Manish Lamrod]

Danny, Nice thread, i am reading from first day..........
i just come across from a link : http://searchengineland.com/?p=151028 and have a question that is this update will affect affiliate link sites ?

 

[Danny1111]

I don't see anything on that page even talking about Affiliate Sites - other than Google allowing some Affiliates to list in their shopping network and redirect via landing page.