The debate whether the Amazon Associates Program is worth it or not for bloggers is an old one. Some warmly recommend it, praising it as the best affiliate program out there, while others like John Chow state simply that it’s more trouble than it’s really worth and, pointing at the low 4% commission, frown ☹.

What’s obvious to me is that the Amazon affiliate program works really well for some blogs, while for others it doesn’t at all. I myself have a good opinion of it and I advise all bloggers who haven’t tried it yet to give it a go, for there is no other way to find out whether it works for you or not.

To justify my recommendation I’m going to give seven reasons why I think the Amazon Associate Program to be well worth it.

1. Amazon Enjoys a Good Reputation

Despite some critics here and there, Amazon enjoys a fairly good reputation all over the world, being one of the most trusted online brands. Many of your blog readers are familiar with it, in contrast with other stores that offer affiliate marketing programs which, even though worshiped by some, don’t enjoy the same wide acclaim. If you link to Amazon you’re more likely to generate a sale than if you link to a less known store for the simple reason that people have confidence in it.

2. Commissions Are Not That Bad

I know some fellow bloggers who see Amazon’s 4% commission as too low, and who point that other affiliate programs are more rewarding. While it’s hard to disagree with them, the rate is indeed humble, it’s important to consider that this is only the base rate. When selling certain products in large quantities the rate can go up to 8%.

Even if this doesn’t impress you then keep in mind that in time it all adds up. My Australian friends Paula and Wanda of Only-Cookware.com started with a few dollars a day on Amazon Affiliate commissions and 3 years later they are earning over $1000 a day! So, 8% commission is not restrictive by any means.

3. Amazon Knows How to Convert

With the Amazon affiliate program you earn a commission for all the products bought by a person in a 24-hour time frame after he or she was directed to the store by your blog. Due to Amazon’s compelling recommendations it frequently happens that the people you redirect make multiple purchases. All these will bring a commission, which really adds up.

You will often make more from the additional items purchased than from the particular product you promote. In fact, 2 out of the 3 Amazon sales that my weight loss programs blog generates have nothing to do with the products featured on my site.

People visit my site to read a weight loss product review or learn how Medifast diet compares to Nutrisystem meal replacement program, and yet they will often head over to Amazon to end up buying a digital camera, an iPod touch case, a deep fryer or the book “Dirty Money” in paperback! Amazon is obviously the master of cross selling.

4. Instead of Receiving Money You Can Receive Products

The Amazon affiliate program enables you to choose from multiple payment options, including one in products. The store has a rich variety of items for you to choose from whenever you’re in a buying mood.

Being paid in items is useful when you feature a contest on your blog and you need prizes for the winners. While it’s unlikely that you’ll want to be paid in products every month, every now and then it can come in handy.

5. It’s An Income That Grows Steadily

The amount of money you get from the Amazon Associate Program, while it fluctuates based on the season, it tends to increase steadily if you keep on at it. Each new link you add to your blog increases your chances of making cash, and once you have quite a lot of them (along with enough traffic to your blog) you’ll begin to see noticeable improvements. It takes time but money will come.

About a year ago, I started writing every other day relevant content with links to Amazon products. Since then, my diet blog of Medifast coupons and Diet to Go discounts has shown an upwards trend in its Amazon affiliate earnings, as the graph shows below (compare 2010 to 2011).

6. It Works Really Well With Holidays

The income the program generates can be considerable every month, but during the holidays it gets a boost that sometimes exceeds 50%. I’ve noticed that in December earnings with Amazon always grow, as long as the right links are prepared with about one month in advance. I’ve talked to other bloggers about this and they too earn more with the program during the holidays, so I suppose it’s something that happens for all who use it.

7. It’s Compatible with Different Kinds of Blogs

Being a large and diverse store, Amazon features an associate program that seems to be compatible with all sorts of blogs. This cannot be said for many other stores that offer such programs. Even bloggers in obscure niches are likely to find products on Amazon that they can advertise.

While Amazon’s affiliate program is not for all, it definitely works well for many. There are professional bloggers who use it and recommend it, so you should at least think about giving it a chance. It’s the only way to discover if it’s profitable for you.

Are you an Amazon affiliate? If you are, what’s your opinion of the associate program? Do you think it’s worth it?

Guest author Matthew is a scientist who early in his professional career figured that blogging as an affiliate would give him much more freedom than conducting biology research. His first online venture, WeightLossTriumph, is a diet blog that features weight loss plans and monetizes partly through Nutrisystem discount code deals and Medifast discount promotions, two medically designed meal replacement programs.

© guestposter for DazzlinDonna, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Affiliate marketing, Amazon
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So when I brought up the subject of personal branding, it was a little surprising that my normally loud, raucous family went totally silent. Quizzical expressions and dumbfounded looks surrounded the table. Finally my sister spoke. “Personal branding?”, she asked. “What is that? Like branding a cow?”

I sighed. “No, Sis,” I said. “It’s NOT like branding a cow. It’s like a product brand. You know, like Coke is a brand. Or Walmart is a brand. If Gary (my brother) decided he wanted to be known as the Louisiana Real Estate guru, he would market himself that way, establishing his own personal brand as Gary, the Louisiana Real Estate Guru. If he marketed himself well, then he would become well-known, and everyone would know that HE was the Louisiana Real Estate Guru. That’s what personal branding is. Marketing yourself.”

Although I’m not sure they completely “got it”, it was a good enough explanation to allow us to move on to safer topics that everyone could participate in – like how our local college baseball team was doing this season.

Personal branding is on my mind lately because Dan Schawbel’s book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success is now available at Amazon.* Dan is the guy behind the Personal Branding Magazine, and as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a staff columnist for that magazine. So of course, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Dan’s book get published. I ordered it before it was even published, so I could be one of the first to have it. It arrived on my doorstep (ok, in my post office box, actually) a few days ago. I’ve devoured it since then.

Although I won’t be recommending the book to either my sister or brother because they are at the tail end of their careers, I am recommending it to each of you. If you read this blog, you should read Dan’s book. If you have any interest in furthering your career (even offline), you should read his book.

In fact, Dan’s main focus in Me 2.0 is that of young people embarking on careers, and using the power of personal branding to get the jobs they want and be successful in their chosen careers. This is especially useful information right now, when so many are laid off. Competing for a job has gotten a lot tougher because so many people are desperate for work. How you market yourself can make all the difference in whether or not you land the job you want. The book does a great job of showing how to market yourself before, during, and after a job interview.

Of course, I work from home, so I’m not particularly interested in resumes or interviewing. But the world of freelancing and online marketing involves lots of personal branding as well, and if you are involved in ebusiness in any way, you need to understand personal branding. Your reputation is on the line every day in the ebusiness world, and your personal brand is your reputation. How you manage your brand’s reputation is critical to your online success.

Luckily, the advice Dan gives in Me 2.0 works just as well for me and you as it does for the recent college graduate looking for that perfect job. The concepts of personal branding – marketing yourself – extend to all of us, regardless of what kind of career we’ve chosen.

Here’s a little of what you can find in the book:

• A 4-step process for building a powerful brand (discover,
  create, communicate, maintain).
• Tips on using social media tools for personal empowerment, confidence building, and professional networking in order to attract jobs directly to you, without applying!
• Tested advice on how to create an online and offline presence for
  career protection and self-promotion.
• Over 40 expert quotes from leaders including Don Tapscott, Guy Kawasaki, Penelope Trunk, and David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine, among others.
• More than 70 research reports, 3 personal case studies and examples to give you a broader perspective on the topic.

I personally bought this book because I know Dan’s advice is always excellent. I know that he knows this topic inside and out. I trusted that the few dollars I would spend on the book would be worth it, and I was right. Dan’s own personal brand is that of a personal branding expert, and there’s good reason for it. Anyone looking to market themselves – for online or offline careers – would be smart to read Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. It can make a huge difference in your future career plans.

If you are interested in the things I’ve had to say over the years on the topic of personal branding, you might want to check out the branding category here on my blog. Needless to say, I’ll continue to post on this in the future as well, because it’s an important topic to understand if you want to be successful in an online business.

*

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amazon, Dan Schawbel, David Kirkpatrick, Don Tapscott, e - business, Fortune Magazine, Guy Kawasaki, Louisiana, online, online and offline presence, online marketing, Online success, Penelope Trunk, professional networking, social media tools, staff columnist, the Personal Branding Magazine
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I try to cover as much of the basics as possible for creating a successful site online that will earn you a comfortable living. I’m not able, within a blog format, to really get into the kinds of detail that a full hard-cover book can get – on every detailed subject. Jon Wuebben, in his book Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web, does a great job of really covering one very important topic well – how to create compelling, keyword-rich copy for your site. The right copy will convert well, it will enable your site to rank well in the search engines, and it will attract traffic and links. All of these things help to bring your site to the level of success that you’re looking for.

Here’s a quick look at what’s covered. Jon begins with the basics of SEO copywriting, which includes analyzing your site’s copy and usability, keyword research, and optimizing the content. He then moves on to discussing the various types of seo copywriting, such as site copy, articles, press releases, blogs, wikis, landing pages and newsletters. Next, he puts it all together with real world examples and case studies of various sized businesses. By showing you real-world examples and case studies, Jon helps to really clarify the benefits of seo copywriting, and gives clear instructions on how to do it right. Finally, he ends with showing how to outsource your copywriting project, discusses choosing seo copywriting as a career, and wraps it up with the future of seo copywriting.

Because I’m an old SEO by trade, I wanted to pick the book apart and find where he might have gone wrong, but I wasn’t able to do that, because he gives straight-forward, easy to understand information that is right on the money. If you want to write compelling copy that attracts traffic and converts visitors to buyers, you won’t go wrong by reading Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web. It was a good read, and I’ve added it to my collection.

Oh, this just in…the author has informed me that he will be holding a “super 1 Day sale” on Amazon on Wednesday, February 18, 2009. If you order the book on that day, you’ll receive these extra goodies:

• Dianna Booher’s ebook “Affect or Effect? 258 Commonly Misused Words Along with Proper Usages” + her Online Grammar Assessment ($39.95 value)
• Scott Fox’s ebook “E-Business Strategy Basics” ($34.95 value)
• Bob Bly’s ebook “Online Marketing that Works” ($39.95 value)
• Free website copy analysis (priceless!)

That’s enough to make me consider getting a duplicate copy of the book just to get the extras.

*

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Post tags: Amazon, Author, Bob Bly, Dianna Booher, e - business, Jon Wuebben, Online Grammar Assessment, online marketing, Scott Fox, search engines, straight-forward
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Not Yet Started A Site:

• Write a 140-character elevator pitch. Condense what you do, or what your site is about into just 140 characters (not words…characters). If people “get it” in that short space, you’ve accomplished a lot. You can always use that elevator pitch on Twitter when needed.
• Determine what makes you different from the crowd. There’s always competition in any niche. That’s ok, but you need to think about how your site will be different from the competition.

Need More Traffic:

• Become known as the “something expert”. This could even be a very limited sub-sub-sub-niche of your main niche. The point is to share content that shows you really know your stuff about “something”, and do your best to get people to start linking to you as the “something expert” or “something guru”. (Obviously, your “something” will be different than my “something”. You know what you know best).

Need More Monetization Ideas:

• Create one extraordinary review of something each week. Make sure that something can be purchased via an affiliate link – either directly through the manufacturer, or via someplace like Amazon. (Remember: Amazon sells almost everything – it’s not just the place for books).

If you’ve already used these tips on your own, or just don’t have time right now, add them to a to-do list. You can implement many of the tips more than once, and you can always come back when you have time to tackle those you didn’t have time for.

Keep your Quick Tip Tuesday to-do list handy so you can add more later, and implement whenever you have some spare time.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amazon, Twitter
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If you do any affiliate marketing at all – occasionally or as a large business – you should consider adding a new free tool that can make a huge difference in your affiliate earnings. This awesome new tool is a URL shortener called Cli.gs. For those of you who may not be familiar with URL shorteners, they are simply web tools that allow you to turn all those extremely long, extremely ugly URLs into nice short ones. The one most people are used to seeing and using is TinyURL, and although I give them respect for being around so long, they just no longer are the winners of the best URL shortener out there anymore. That honor goes to Cli.gs now, and Cli.gs has special features that are especially wonderful for anyone who has ever used an affiliate link on their site or blog.

Here are the main reasons why an affiliate marketer should use Cli.gs:

1. The affiliate URL is shortened and looks much less intimidating, and much more inviting to users. But of course, other URL shorteners do the same, so this one feature alone doesn’t put Cli.gs above the rest. But Cli.gs also allows you to rename the URL using user-friendly words, and that is very cool! Here’s an example. Let’s say you set up a Cli.gs URL pointing to a product page that is selling straw hats. You could rename the Cli.gs URL so that it would literally be http://cli.gs/strawhats. Can you see how inviting that URL is to visitors, as opposed to some random mix of letters and numbers, or a long affiliate code?
2. Cli.gs allows you to set up a private account (free) that lets you track statistics of every Cli.gs URL you use. What does that really mean? That means you can TRACK WHAT AFFILIATE URLS YOU’RE USERS CLICK ON. Yes, Cli.gs comes with its own analytics, so you are no longer in the dark. You know which ads work and which don’t! That is powerful information to have. You can create different Cli.gs URLs for different ad placements – all leading to the same affiliate URL. You’ll be able to test your ad placements and decide which section of your web page provides the best clickthrough rate for each affiliate you place! Or test different versions of link text for each affiliate link, and determine which is most clicked on by users. The amount of information you can gain from analyzing which affiliate links get clicked on most can improve your success rate – a lot! And you’ll never again wonder if the affiliate company is being honest about the amount of traffic you’re sending either!
3. Geotargeting – This one is extra cool. This feature is called Right Clig, and it allows you to set up Cligs with various alternative destination URLs that are targeted based on the visitor’s country. An example use would be if you wanted to direct UK visitors to Amazon’s UK URL and German visitors to Amazon’s German site. You would only use one Cli.gs URL on your page, but the rules you set up would determine where the visitor was from, so each user will be sent to the correct destination. This feature isn’t one that would be used in all of your affiliate links, but when appropriate, it can make a HUGE difference in your affiliate earnings.

Cli.gs has been the most exciting new thing I’ve used in a long time. It can literally change your affiliate marketing. Look, it’s free – and it’s extremely simple to use. If you’ve ever placed an affiliate link on any of your sites, I urge you to try this. You won’t really get how absolutely awesome this can be for you until you take a couple of minutes to try it out. No gimmicks. Just a straightforward tool that is easy to use, and gives back a wealth of information and usefulness for free. You can read more about Cli.gs on its blog, and you can follow Cli.gs on Twitter as well. Oh yeah, one other thing I forgot to mention – Cli.gs can automatically post new blog posts to Twitter, and since it has an API, any service can be hooked up in the same way. Trust me – Cli.gs is cool. It’s the affiliate marketer’s new best tool.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: affiliate marketer, Affiliate marketing, Amazon, awesome new tool, Cligs, free tool, short URL, straightforward tool, Twitter, United Kingdom, URL shortener
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I pass along thoughts, ideas, sites, and information that can help motivate us whenever I can. Today is one of those days.

Have you been looking for a motivational book that isn’t like all the other motivational books out there? An acquaintance of mine, JK Ellis, wrote one and I wanted to let you know about it. This ISN’T your normal self-help kind of book. It’s called “The Forbidden Book of Getting What You Want” and it is designed to literally “trap” you into creating an unstoppable motivation. There are no punches pulled. Everything is laid out so that you are destined to absolutely and unwittingly GET WHAT YOU WANT.

It’s been described as “the most direct, irreverent and devious self-improvement book on the market” and “you will get an idiot proof process so devious, so well thought out, that the only way to NOT get what you want is to NOT read the book.”

It’s cheaper than most ebooks you see hyped, and the great thing is that it is NOT an ebook. It’s only $24.95, and what you get is an actual paperback book – you know – with real paper and stuff, that you can actually hold in your hand and flip the pages.

Oh, and if you order the book from Amazon before Friday, 2/29/08, be sure to email your amazon receipt to support@TheForbiddenBook.com. Why? Because you’ll be sent a thank you gift worth $327.89. How cool is that?

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amazon
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So take some time off today, spend a little money, and have fun!

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amazon, Amazon.com, black friday, deals, shopping
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