Getting Better Results with Amazon Associate Program

The Amazon Associate program is one of the oldest and most popular affiliate program out there. It was the first affiliate program I joined.

I didn't have a whole lot of success with it at first and forgot about it for a while. Then I decided to try and learn more about it and find ways to improve my results.

It's also been a while since I posted on this site so I thought I'd come back and share some of what's been working for me.

Easily increase Amazon Commission by 50%

One of the first things you should do is make sure you're using the tiered commission program. The more referrals you have, the higher your referral rate. The base is 4% which is pretty low for an affiliate program but Amazon has good prices and is well recognized so it seems to convert better than some other advertising programs.

You can easily increase your Amazon commisions by 50% if you can seel more than 6 items each month. Once you get to 7 referrals, your referral rate jumps to 6% and applies to all the products that you referred that month, even the ones before you hit the mark. For general products the referral fee can go up to 8.5%.

That's for general products though, consumer electronics, downloads and endless.com have their own referral rates. But if you can manage to get just 7 referrals a month you'll be much happier with your Amazon affiliate efforts. So don't just focus on high priced items, a combination of high and low priced items will help you get both quanity to reach higher levels and high commissions.

Forget about banners, write good reviews

Maybe on some sites Amazon banners or Amazon widgets work well enough for the amount of space they take up. Too much advertising like that can also turn people off. I have one site with nothing but Amazon on it and I only include links to indivudual products where appropriate. It has the highest referral rate out of any sites I have with Amazon on it.

Take the time and write thorough reviews of products you are familiar with. Make a compelling argument. Don't just copy and paste reviews from other sites. People want to know someone is being sincere and giving an honest oppinion of a product.

You don't have to make it sound better than it is. Just be honest. If you're writing a review of Product A and you think it did a good job of cleaning the grout in your bathroom but did a horrible job of cleaning your outdoor furniture then say so, even if you bought it mainly for your outdoor furniture. If you have nothing good to say about the product then be honest there too and maybe give links to other products that you've used that are better.

The most important thing is to be honest. Don't make stuff up. The people that will share links to your post recognice sincerity and will send more people to your site.

Don't forget the little things

As I mentioned before, if you refer Product A which costs $100 you will earn $4. If you seel one of Product A and 5 of Product B which costs $10 and you earn $2 for a total commission of $6. If you manage to sell one more Product B your referral rate jumps to 6% and instead of $6.40 total you earn $9.60. We're obviously talking smaller sites here but a lot of bloggers aren't making millions on their sites but a little extra beer money would be nice.

Also, remember that if someone follows one of your links everything they purchase during that referral will earn you commission. They don't even have to purchase what it was they clicked on.

Build Amazon Stores

This is going to be a lot harder and I don't recommend using a prebuilt solution. Cookie cutter sites don't cut it. This is a bit more involved and I'll try and cover it in another post.