Don't Discount The Amazon Affiliate Program Just Yet

Can you believe it? People are actually making money as Amazon affiliates! I thought that with the low 4% commission it was next to impossible to make a lot of money as one of their affiliates. Boy, was I ever mistaken! Just last month, I read an encouraging and interesting post by Problogger titled 9 Reasons I Am An Amazon Affiliate.

Back in June/2007 alone Darren Rowes earned over $2500 US as an Amazon.com affiliate. Not bad. Definitely reason to pause before discounting the Amazon Associates program just yet as a means of monetizing our website and/or blog.

As for that low crappy 4% commission, that is only with the Classic Fee Structure or if you don't sell very much. Now when you sign up into Amazon affiliate marketing program, you are automatically enrolled in the Performance Fee Structure. So, what the heck does that mean anyways? Well, glad you asked. What it means is that on most products there is a sliding scale. In other words, the more items sold the higher amount of money you earn(4-15%). Bottom line is hopefully more money into yours and mine pocket.

Another cool thing is that affiliates earn money on all items purchased by the buyer on Amazon within 24 hours of sending them to their website. Problogger actually makes more money on other products that the buyer purchases than the original item he sent them to.

Darren also points out that links to Amazon do better in a post with a helpful review of a product than links and banners on the sidebar. From my own personal experience and what I have read from other online entrepreneurs, banners are dead anyways. People are so sick and tired of those pesky banners that they simply don't click onto them anymore. After all, can you remember the last time you visited a site advertised on a banner? I know that I can't. I rest my case.

After reading this post I am seriously considering signing up for the Amazon Associates program once I obtain a larger audience.

Banner Advertising Money Down The Toilet

Have I caught your attention yet?

Thinking of purchasing a banner ad in hopes of having your door busted down with all the new traffic coming to your website and/or blog? Well, from my experience with banner advertising I can tell you that it likely aint going to happen. Like the picture, your hard earned cash spent this way is money down the toilet.

Sometime towards the end of September/2006, I had the bright idea to purchase a banner advertisement for one month on the front page of a podcast site totally unrelated to my niche. At the time, I had a 30+ page Internet Security and Privacy website and blog published on the vast electronic frontier called the World Wide Web.

As the site claimed to get 10,000 unique hits a day, I thought it was a great idea. I was certain that I would get a ton of traffic for my small investment of $26.00.How much traffic did I get you ask? 300 hits, maybe a thousand? Nope, nowhere close. According to my web stats I got a grand total of 35 hits, and at least one of those hits was from me making sure that the link was working properly.

I should have listened to Shoemoney, who says that banner advertising brings in really crappy traffic. From my limited experience from banner advertising I certainly agree with him.

I have also read in numerous marketing blogs, sites, and forums to only have links placed on sites relative to your site.

Of course, I knowing more than every other web marketer and SEO expert worth their weight in gold, ignored them and wasted 26 hard earned bucks to get 35 some odd shitty hits. That works out to 75 cents a click folks, for traffic that resulted in little or no monetization!

What have I learnt from this experience? First, to only pay for advertisements in sites that have the same niche as my website and/or blog.

Second, from my personal knowledge and what I have heard from other Internet entrepreneurs banner advertising is dead. Not only that but it also brings in real shitty traffic, that usually doesn't convert to sales.

Third, to obtain those valuable back links that are so crucial to obtaining a good search ranking and Google PageRank, you need text hyperlinks. Theses links need to be in reputable sites related to your website's theme, preferably with a good PageRank. The ever important search engines don't index banner ads, thus they don't even count as back links anyways.

I guess $26 is a small price to pay to learn a lesson in how not to spend my limited advertising budget.

Honesty Is The Best Policy

Lisa from 2 Create a Website brings up a really good point(among many) in her blog entry How to Build Credibility Online. She advises us “to take the good with the bad” when writing about products that we are affiliated with.

After reading the later sentence you might be left saying, “won’t I lose sells if I mention anything negative about the product I’m supposed to be selling to the reader?!?”. Lisa goes on to state that by being honest to your audience they will ultimately “take your reviews more seriously.” This is ”because they don’t appear to be too biased in one direction.”

I think this is an excellent point that Lisa brings up. After all, who are you going to trust more? Someone who goes on and on about how wonderful such and such product is. Than tells you how you can’t live your life without that product. Or a writer that truthfully writes about the pros and cons about a product.

I’m sure you’re like me and you would trust the last writer more than the first. Guess what? I’m going to be a lot more likely to buy something from someone I trust, that I see as a friend. Not just a person yelling out to me that I have to buy a product.

I am ashamed to say it, but I too have been guilty of being the pushy salesman instead of the trusted friend.

Right now, I’m not affiliated with any products. However, in the future when I am I will be sure to include both the negative with the positive.

As Lisa says, “the long-term results of this practice equates to more credibility and sales for you.” And I think that is ultimately what we all want. Wouldn’t it be good to accomplish this goal while providing honest, useful content to your reader?