Why You Should Consider Amazon Associates

By Samuel Frost
Why You Should Consider Amazon Associates

 

When you think of affiliate marketing, what name springs to mind? If you're anything like me, then you probably think of Clickbank. After all, Clickbank is pretty much the biggest name in affiliate marketing. With a massive array of products available for you to promote, big commissions (of up to 75%) on offer, and even recurring products available, why would you go anywhere else?

For many affiliates, leaving the safe haven of Clickbank is an absolute no-no. However, in this blog post I'm going to show you why you should consider Amazon Associates (the affiliate program for Amazon.com) as your next port of call for finding highly profitable products. 

In my experience, far too few affiliate marketers use Amazon Associates to find great products to promote. There are all manner of excuses for why many affiliates choose not to use Amazon Associates, including:

  • Lower commission rates than Clickbank. On Clickbank, you're probably going to get a commission rate of anywhere from 50-75% on any product worth promoting. With Amazon, the maximum commission rate is 15% (but it usually much lower) This puts many affiliates off, because you earn less per item sold.
  • Stricter promotional rules. With Clickbank, provided you're not cookie stuffing or using super-Black hat methods to promote products, you can pretty much do what you want. However, with Amazon many affiliates seem to worry that their accounts could be suspended at any minute. For example, Amazon Associates' T.O.S forbids affiliates from promoting products via email (imagine if Clickbank banned this practice!) It is also forbidden to state the price of a product sold on Amazon, unless the price is served by an Amazon link!
  • Too much choice. Virtually every physical product under the sun is available on Amazon. Many affiliates are put off because there is so much choice that it can be very confusing to know what to pick.

Without wishing to sound rude, these are all very poor excuses for not wanting to take the plunge with Amazon Associates. To put it another way, if you aren't using Amazon Associates then you are missing out on large amounts of money. Do you really want to leave money on the table? Of course you don't! 

Here's why you should consider Amazon Associates:

  • Lower competition for products. Because there are so many average products on Clickbank, the ones that are good tend to be very competitive. On Amazon there are so many great products to promote that competition tends to be lower. The only exception to this rule is in the electronics category, where big brand name products can be difficult to promote successfully. 
  • Easily target "exact match" keywords. When selling Clickbank products, the usual process for most affiliates is to target a long-tail keyword phrase (such as "natural weight loss tips") and then try to entice visitors to click through to a digital information product about weight loss. With Amazon, you have a massive potential customer base of people who are specifically searching for product names. Pick a reasonably popular product, do an "Exact" search with the Google Keyword Tool, and you'll see that people are searching for that product. Now create a page targeted to that keyword, build links, and watch the money roll in.
  • Higher conversion rates. Amazon is one of the most trusted brands in the world. Just about anybody who has an Internet connection knows about Amazon, and has probably purchased from Amazon. Combine this with the huge variety of trusted, brand-name products that you can promote and it becomes easy to see why Amazon conversion rates are so high. With effective pre-selling, my conversion rate on Amazon is more than double that of any Clickbank product I promote.
  • Earn through higher sales volume. You want to know the secret to success with Amazon Associates? Firstly, take great conversion rates. Secondly, sell big numbers of low-cost items to boost your commission rate (you get a higher commission rate when you sell more stuff). Finally, promote big ticket items to really give your bank balance a boost. If you want to live large with Amazon, then you need to focus on selling in bulk. Once you've climbed the commission rate ladder, start selling bigger items to make even more money.

Hopefully now you can see why you need to start promoting with Amazon Associates. If you're finding it tricky to get ahead with Clickbank, then you should definitely give Amazon a try. 

Pick a product, set up a laser-targeted page on your site, then drive traffic with SEO, Web 2.0 link building, and article marketing. 

To show you this method works, I've picked the following product:

I'm going to set up a page targeted to this product/keyword on my Diablo 3 website, and then I'm going to use Web 2.0 sites, SEO, and document sharing traffic to make sales and drive traffic. 

My goal? To make at least 10 sales of this product in the next month. In next week's blog post I'll give you a progress update.

I hope you've enjoyed this blog post! Go and join Amazon Associates, and then leave a comment below with any questions, comments, or tricks that you might have.

54 Comments

View all 54 comments (Currently displaying latest 50)

Jaky Astik 12 years ago
Wow man, I'd really like to see how it goes. In fact, it is really easy to create a product review of a high quality product with less popularity and rank well for it instead of competing with thousands of reviews of popular products and never reach the front page.
Samuel Frost 12 years ago
That's the biggest advantage with Amazon, in my opinion. Take a popular Clickbank product in the Diablo 3 niche, like "Diablo 3 Billionaire" (for example) Great product, but there is mega competition.

However, these Amazon products have far less competition.
jay3 12 years ago
Things get even more interesting when you throw video reviews into the equation ;).

Sam, it would be REALLY interesting to see what type of videos convert well with amazon products. Any tips?
melvin williams 12 years ago
I enjoyed your method of teaching and can't wait til next week! I like no fluff! You make great sense!
Renee Pfeil 12 years ago
I have what may be another reason many affiliates may not bother with Amazon, and that is this: I assume that most online buyers already know about Amazon, and when looking to purchase items will simply go straight to Amazon's site. I assume they wouldn't be googling a product name, but would click thru to Amazon and search for it there. Am I wrong?
Samuel Frost 12 years ago
Hi,

I see your point. However, most web users try to get what they want by using Google.

For example, if Person A wants a Diablo 3 QCK mouse pad, they will probably Google 'Diablo 3 QCK mouse pad' (rather than head straight to Amazon.com)

If my site can rank on the first page of Google (and I pre-sell effectively) then there is money to be made!
Naaman Anthony 12 years ago
Hey Sam

I started my affiliate marketing journey using Amazon and i haven't looked back. I did try Clickbank because of all the hype, but as you pointed out here, the competition is way too fierce for my liking. The only bad thing I can say about Amazon is that their international affiliates (like me), still have to wait for a cheque in the mail. C'mon guys, this is 2012 get your act together.
Russ Turner 12 years ago
I joined Amazon as an affiliate over a year ago and the did nothing more with it. Thanks for this article it has spured me into action to revisit this opportunity.

Look forward to seeing your results with diabilo 3.

Regards
James Blackwell 12 years ago
I have just started using Amazon with EzWholesale.com but what I discovered was the products from EzWholesale were way over the price of Amazon and Ebay so I am back at square one. I am a newbie at this so could someone give some advice where I should start from as an Amazon Affiliate. All advice will be greatly appreciated as this is an urgent matter for me.
ollie 12 years ago
Hello,

Will be looking forward to your tips on building a page/site around this one product and I really hope you meet your goals.

Cheers.

Ollie
Andy Lawrence 12 years ago
Great info Sam,

Not sure how long this method might last before big G closes the loop hole but traffic is traffic and if you want to make some fast affiliate earnings rather than long term traffic building then its all good.
Thiet ke lgo 12 years ago
Great tip, i will be wating for next week
David 12 years ago
Sam - thanks for the Amazon post. I have been selling on Amazon for about a year. I have done OK and I hope to do better soon. Another good thing about Amazon is that if the customer goes there from your site and they end up buying something all together different, or other items besides the one your site promotes, you will get the commission. And I beleive this cookie will last for a while, maybe 30 days, so they buy and you get paid!
Debbie 12 years ago
I have been an Amazon affiliate for a couple of years and I love it. I have tried Clickbank and did not have any success. Thanks for a great post on the benefits of being an Amazon Associate.
marioverkerk 12 years ago
Shouldn't be too hard with that product. Good luck.
Arny McCleary 12 years ago
Great Post, Sam. I'm relatively new to affiliate marketing, having just recently signed up for AffiloBlueprint. I really like it here - the method and the style of teaching is really good. I'm looking forward to see how you get on with your Amazon product.

Arny
Andrew Larder 12 years ago
Love watching your "experiment"

I'm looking forward to seeing just how you set up your page/site, and exactly how you go about using Web 2.0 sites and document sharing traffic to make TEN SALES!

Not ten sales total, but ten of THAT PRODUCT - that'd be impressive, repeatable and scalable!

Looking forward to updates!

Andrew Larder
MarketingSharks.com
Forextrading 12 years ago
I tend to think the way "renee155" thinks about Amazon - why should anyone buy any Amazon products through my site when they can go str8 to the Amazon site and do their shpping there?

@nizzybelle

But having said the above I'd like to know how the likes of "nizzybelle" have made it work?

Dawn Kay 12 years ago
Hey Sam

I'm just setting up a blog to promote amazon products and what confuses me is which Amazon affiliate program do I sign up with.

Obviously I'm going to promote to all countries but I'm in the UK and have an Amazon.co.uk account.

Does my affiliate link count for all countries then?

James McDonald 12 years ago
Hi Sam
Thanks for the info. However, I live in Colorado and Amazon banned us because our legislature imposed a sales tax on them. Do you know whether this has ben lifted or not? Originally there were many other states involved besides ours. Hope you can help with the answer.
Richard Mellick 12 years ago
I too live in Colorado and found Viglink to be a solution, although they take 25% of the sale so it may not be viable unless your selling high end merchandise!
peggy goodman 12 years ago
Would love to be able to promote through Amazon but in my state of Arkansas, they have cancelled all associates accounts. 'they have done this in alot of states. I know that it can be very profitable. just wish there was a way around this problem
mrdizzy 12 years ago
I tried Clickbank, but found the conversion rates to be super low. My amazon sites convert at around 5%. All I have to do is bring traffic to them. I'm really like it so far, but it does take some work.
Mike 12 years ago
Sam, what wordpress theme do you use? Are you using any Amazon plugins?
Marc 12 years ago
The money is in the list unless you're selling Amazon products. Darn. That's a bummer.
JC Dean 12 years ago
Really informative thanks.

Another grip for the list is the short cookie duration.
Joyce Knake 12 years ago
I'm always interested to learn new ideas. Especially if they work.
And you are going to "show us the money". That's great!!!
jeffrey 12 years ago
It is better if you show your domain so that we can follow closely the progress.
Chris Shaefer 12 years ago
Hello Sam,

I have been using Amazon in combination with Adsense on my sites for awhile now and I get about about equal amount of revenue from each one of them when used together.

Nice thing about using Amazon is i get so many orders that are not even relevant to the category I am promoting, everything from lawnmower starters to curling irons when I am promoting something like coffee.

Like you said Amazon is a trusted retailler and you do get high conversions of 13-17% a month, not bad.

Amazon is like Google, if you play by the rules then you won't get into trouble.

Shaefercd

ruditrg1 12 years ago
After panda and pinguin updates Google puts more trust in big name like Amazon.com. I see most products sold on Amazon.com the first search page on Google is always Amazon.com. Now we compete directly with Amazon.
Owen Cooper 12 years ago
You make it sounds easy I will be interested to see how you get on in the coming weeks.
darren ackers 12 years ago
When promoting Amazon, do you need to set up a separate account for each website you own?
Dan 12 years ago
Another reason to promote Amazon.

They offer not only general merchandise but also food and household supplies which in many cases are cheaper than going to your local grocery store.

Word of caution - do not use your own associate link to buy from Amazon personally as it is against their rules and you could end up having your account suspended.

Dan
Wilfredo Matamoros 12 years ago
If I promote Amazon products, I notice amazon has their products set up mainly into widgets. How can I grab that code, place it into my wordpress page and add a nofollow tag. I'm afraid to add the the raw code into my page and then search engines will see my outward link and hurt my SEO.
Dana Raquel Bryant 12 years ago
I greatly appreciate all the info I've read here. I will spread the word about your blog to other people. Cheers.
yougpeter 12 years ago
This is one of the best review about this topic.Must say about Amazon i have little confusion when starting promote there products.
Jen 12 years ago
Sam
I've been trying to set up a niche site for a very long time and just don't know the right way to go about. I've been reading and reading and believe I am missing some key elements. How can I get started, I'm desperate to change my financial position. Can you point me in the right direction. Nice article!
Ratanak 12 years ago
I have also tried to promote Amazon products but I feel that I could not earn much from it. But this post is spurring me back to work on Amazon associate.

I just place an amazon market on my simple site.

Thank you sharing.
Marc Mathews 12 years ago
Hi Sam,
thanks for the great post. The great thing about Amazon Associates is of course, that your customers may buy things other than the stuff that you originally
promoted. This may make up for the lower commission levels.
A major downside though is the validity of cookies of only 24 hours. I read about a plugin that extends that to 30 (or even more?) days. Have you used
such a plugin? Is it "legal"?
Robert Salafia 12 years ago
In the past it has been my understanding that Amazon does not accept anyone into their Affiliate Program if you have a Colorado mailing address or are a Resident of Colorado? Not sure why that is? Can someone verify or deny this?

Thanks

Bob S
sue parker 12 years ago
I thought that selling for Amazon was easy until I read these questions and ans. I don't understand a lot of the terms used. For eg.: How do you use Adwords with Amazon to promote traffic?
What are Web 2.0 sites and "document sharing traffic"? I know nothing about getting traffic. What is a "short cookie duration"?
Do you need Wordpress to sell for Amazon? Does Amazon deliver the product to the customer?
If even some of these questions could be answered, it would be helpful. Thank you.
12 years ago
I like the digital products of clickbank.No costs of manufacturing or delivery.
Joyce Knake 12 years ago
Looking forward to see how that product goes for you. I would have thought that you'd pick a more expensive product so you could make more money per sale but maybe the quantity of sales will make up for it.
Kieran Gracie 12 years ago
Does anyone know if you can promote your own Kindle ebook on your website and also link to it with an Amazon widget (and therefore get a commission as an Amazon Associate as well as the profit from the sale of your ebook)? I don't seem see anything about this in the Amazon TOS, but somehow I feel that Big A would not approve!
Lin 12 years ago
I would like to see your results on this matter too! So far, I haven't had much success with Amazon Associate program or Clickbank.
Martin Hamilton 12 years ago
What about using Kindle Direct Publishing as a platform. It's where we actually publish an ebook for sale and have it full of links to our site. I haven't heard anyone talk about this. It is sort of a pain to format your ebook for the kindle website but think it could provide some big results. What are opinions here?
Richard Mellick 12 years ago
Are the results posted anywhere yet?
Jason Orban 12 years ago
I agree Amazon is an excellent choice especially if you are doing well with Clickbank.

Never keep all your eggs in one basket always diversify your income streams. Amazon products sell a lot easier too, because everyone trusts Amazon.
frank rijkers 12 years ago
Yep I am also waiting to see how Sam is getting on.
MICHAEL K AGBODAZE JR 12 years ago
Sam, after I finished reading this your post, I took the bold step to Amazon Associates. Unfortunately my sign up can not see the day of light.
Because my country Ghana has never been captured in the seller country, my seller membership turns to prove futile.
What do you suggest be done at this point? I'm very desperate after having purchased an order to become a member.
Help me out!

Thanks very much.
MICHAEL K AGBODAZE JR 12 years ago
Hi! Sam,
I went through the mail to the very last point signing up with Amazon before encountering a hitch. I could not register as a seller because I live in a country which does not have authorization permission for sellers from amazon. What's your advice?
joshua 12 years ago
Have been looking for a comparison between amazon and click bank and thank you for this. i think i will give click bank a try
Joseph 11 years ago
Another option for non-profit organizations is BookBenefit.org, which includes amazon but also other major book sellers and other merchants.
Denise Hilton 6 years ago
For Wordpress users the biggest attraction is that you can use their Wordpress plugin to link Affiliate account from different countries. That way you won't lose any potential review from other country's visitors. You can find more details about what I am talking about here: https://www.webemployed.com/amazon-affiliate-program-guide-earn-money/

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