Pump Up Your Amazon Earnings- Huge Increases in Amazon Affiliate Revenue Over Holidays
Amazon Revenue Potential Overlooked- Pump Up Your Amazon Earnings
The bulk of my revenue comes for Google Adsense and Amazon I make some from TLA, Text Link Brokers, advertisers and I have been playing around with Kontera/Chitika and Widgetbucks.I have been noticing a steady increase in CTRs with Amazon and marked increase in profits. They have skyrocketed since cyber Monday ( day after American Thanksgiving) I was in retail for a long time and pretty much across the board 50% of revenue was made in the Christmas season- during November and December. I made more last month with Amazon Affiliate marketing than I did for the entire year. I made more money the first week of December with Amazon than my Google Adsense earnings for the ENTIRE month of November. A significant amount of money. I have been keeping that in mind when posting over the year and looking at analytics to see what keywords are performing well and placing related amazon product with the post. I have also been placing products reviews throughout the year as well. “Top 10” type lists are great , linking to Amazon or placing Amazon ads in the posts and having whole lists of products. i.e. Best diaper bags, funniest dog books, top books for teachers, dumbest new toys, etc. The whacky, irreverant lists work VERY well. People will click through to see what a product “is” . ie. Grossest blah blah blah, Gifts Men Give That Women Hate the Most. This may sound bit out there – but put your head in “Family Feud” mode to get ideas for your posts and lists.
What Did I do to Increase My Amazon Affiliate Earnings?
Am I some kid of marketing genius? Nope. If I can do it- so can you! Here’s how to increase your Amazon earnings. If you implement some of these now- you will get an instant boost to your commission cheques.
Niche Blog
I mention this over and over again- your blog must have a theme or voice or niche and not be scattered. You are looking for targeted traffic. This is the key to any kind of marketing and advertising. A dog food company will want to advertise on a site that is all about dogs vs. a site about animals vs. site about your life with occasional post about your dog. You are carving out a niche. With a niche site you will have higher quality traffic and better CTRs. Always.
Here are some examples of niche blogs:
Joy Of Christmas Blog Devoted entirely to all things Christmas
http://neasoapworks.blogspot.com/ – Blog on Soapmaking
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/ Blog about Breastfeeding and Nursing.
AnyThingButIpod Blog about all mp3 players Except Ipods (brilliant- why didn’t I think of this!)
The above blogs can command top dollar for advertising because they are EXPERTS and the bulk of their traffic has predictable behavior.
A site about Christmas will have all kinds of Christmas AdSense Ads on it and a high CTR. People coming to that site will be looking for Christmas-y stuff. A Nursing support site will be a site that attracts moms, pregnant moms-to-be and nursing moms. these moms will be looking for baby gear, baby books. toys, etc.
Soapmaking site will have a market of crafters and soap makers. Products related to Fragrance Oils, packaging, soap making supplies, small home business, etc will all do well here.
Your niche or topic will also have related products. If you are using contextualized advertising then you can see what kind of products advertisers are looking to sell on your site. Google is “scanning” your site for keywords and placing ads it feels best suits your blog/site. The ads are based on keywords- match between advertiser an your site. . An advertiser tell Google what kind of sites it wants- or rather- what keywords it looking for. ( The Flip side of Adsense is AdWords- you may want to sign up if only to get a feel on how the system works)
Deep Links and Embedded Links
Amazon also offers contextualized advertising- but you can’t run both on the same page. Google has changed its TOS recently and you are to place certain kinds of contextual ads within in your site. You can experiment and see what makes you the most money. You can also do your OWN “scanning” and place product link in post on your blog that complement your site. get in the habit of doing this!
There is an okay Amazon Plugin for Wordpress. I used to love it but the have made some changes to it that I don’t like all that much . Give it a try , it does not play well with Internet Explorer however. I ended up using an old version on an old blog that still uses wordpress 2.1.
You can also go to Widgets section for Amazon Affiliates .
Learn what Amazon Affiliate Widgets Can Do
What will work best for your site? The object is to get a visitor to click on that link and buy.. lead them by the hand, They got to your site and landed on a particular post. Put something in the post that they might find interesting. Have cloud in your sidebar that you think will appeal to visitors. Think outside the box and TEST.
A tip for higher Amazon CTR- don’t give too much information about a product or give a sales pitch. Tease your visitor with just enough info that the click the Amazon link to get more information.
Keep your blogs voice “honest” and maintain credibility at all costs.
Deep Linking
Get in the habit of adding a product link or widget to your posts. Over time you will have hundreds of link within your posts. Don’t go nutty on this. You don’t want to come across as an Amazon er.. “professional” . If you are new to Amazon as an affiliate then go over your sites posts and see what products you can add. I am a fan of lowkey text links and not HUGE LEADERBOARD BANNERS, although banners after a longish article work well.
Analyze Your Traffic
Do some basic analytics. You can get some pretty good info from MyBlogLog pro and your hosting company. Better still figure out how to use something like Google Analytics. Look and see what your most popular posts are, Expand on them. If you get huge rush of traffic for your “carrot cake recipe” then do some posts on other kinds of cakes, ways to prepare carrots and other recipes. Use that traffic. Pop in a link or a small product image, Try a cake cookbook or cooking pans. TEST TEST TEST.
Content Development- whats hot?
Look at what is in the news. Check Yahoo Buzz, news sites, social media sites and popular blogs , etc and see what’s in the news. Spin that to fit your blog’s niche. When a popular child’s toy was recalled this year I did a post about it- and listed other “safer” toy alternatives. That post got me a link off of CNN.com and BIG Amazon profits. It still does
Anticipate Trends
The flip side of what’s writing about what’s hot is being ahead of the game. I am pretty much finished writing about Christmas stuff. I tweak and update and make posts about current trends- but I am looking forward. I am looking for information about Winter and upcoming holidays. I am making lost of posts ( unpublished) about Valentines Day. I will post these after Christmas. I tend to think in Holidays and Seasons from my retail years. Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, Easter, Spring, etc. and be ahead of the game. Will give me time to get backlinks for these pages and build up page rank in I am months/weeks ahead. I can make adjustments as the season/holiday demands.
You can anticipate trends. Holiday time means any kid of gift idea, recipes, party and entertaining ideas. Winter means winter sports and activities, holiday planning and travel. September mean back to school anything, etc. Also big events like Elections, Olympics, World Series and Super Bowl are predictable and you can anticipate and write about them before during and after.
To Make More Money With Amazon
Have a niche blog.
Know Your Niche
Learn How To Use Amazon Widgets
Track posts for high performing topics (keyword analysis)
Deep Linking
Keep track of what’s hot. Spin Spin Spin.
Anticipate Trends- Be ahead of the pack- write articles for the “next” season, holiday or big event.
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