Yesterday Jeremy Shoemoney Twittered to tell me that the review that he wrote of the ProBlogger book generated 38 sales of the book through his Amazon affiliate link. He went on to say that he made money money from the other things that people then went on to buy after clicking through on the link.
The great thing about the Amazon affiliate program is that you not only make commissions on the item that you link to from your blog but any item that your referred reader might buy after clicking your link.
I wrote about this previously in a post on The Power of Getting People In the Door at Amazon where I showed an example of when I linked to a photography book in a review on DPS. That one link generated over 160 sales – 100 of which were not items that I linked to in the review. Together those items were worth around $500.
This is my experience over and over again. The money in using the Amazon Affiliate program often doesn’t come from that first click – but the 2nd, 3rd (etc) ones once people are in the door at Amazon.
Related Reading on Amazon Affiliate program:
I got my first sale off Amazon Affiliates the other day and noticed the same thing. Yeah, he bought the item I was linking to but he went on to buy a couple more hardcover books. I was surprised when I got those as well. ;)
Now to get that new mp3 widget to work. I so wish they could just autopopulate to all the songs I’ve already linked on my site.
I’ve known this for ages but Amazon is still dropping the ball by not making their feeds as comprehensive as eBays imo.
I’m still waiting for either Amazon or eBay to put an end to this though. Right now they pay you a commision on ANY item someone buys if they come from your site. If amazon or ebay begin limiting the commision to only the item your link went to… commisions will drop a lot (and they will save money essentially cashing in on free traffic).
Heres hoping this never changes!
Please don’t give eBay ideas like that, Popular Wealth! The flip side is that if either eBay or Amazon made that change, lots of affiliates would drop their programs like hot bricks.
Great point about those Amazon links. A good reason to insert relevant product links to your posts even if it’s not a post specifically about that product.
I’ve been meaning to go to Amazon and sign up.. But now I will do it this weekend for sure.
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Wow, this is great news! Thank you for the tip Darren…
I absolutely agree, Darren.
My Amazon affiliate revenue has gone through the roof in the past few months, as I’ve also experienced the same that you’ve shared.
Most of all, I stopped selling my books, and this has been fantastic for my Amazon sales ranking and affiliate sales in general.
It’s interesting to see what people purchase once their “in the door,” as you’ve written. And all of the affiliate monies come through your door.
I agree, that mp3 widgets is another money earner tool for music blog.
Wow ShoeMoney is always making money lol
I just can’t make any money from affiliation programmes and maybe something is wrong. Thanks for your article, I will have to figure out what went wrong..
I wish that it were easier to get money from the affiliate program through Amazon. Perhaps it’s just my niche, I don’t know. However, I will keep building links and hopefully something will trigger an increase!
I’ve been using the Amazon.com affiliate program since 2003; it’s amazing the themes/niches/blogs you can monetize through them.
I generally don’t link to books, however; I find the commissions generated in other areas (Electronics, Kitchens, Tools etc.) are much higher. Did you know you that jewelry over 20K is available on Amazon.com? Really good stuff ideed.
Data points,
Barbara
I’ve just started using the mp3 widget. We arrange live music events in Amsterdam so it’s cool to promote the music on the blog using a widget. At the moment we are working with modern classical music which is a special niche, so I’m curious to see the results.
My problem with Amazon is the cookie expiry. Most other affiliate programs offer at least 1 week, Amazon’s 1 day is very poor in comparison. I wonder how many of my visitors follow a referral link to amazon, find something else they like, spend a couple of days researching it on the net and then go back to buy? I think that’s fairly standard buying behaviour for most online items that cost more than a few bucks.
eBay has always paid much better for me, most revenue comes 2-3 days after the initial referral.
Last year my biggest amazon sellers were tampons and green tea — which have never appeared anywear on my sites
I’ve seen a pretty good split between buying the actual advertised item and other items that were found after getting in the door. I’d say it’s probably 70% advertised items and 30% other items. But that’s just a gut feeling, I haven’t taken the time to check.
I get an abundance of clicks after reviews etc, but I have only had 2 sales in 2 months, I wonder if there is a problem?
Regards.
The 2nd and 3rd clicks is what you got to love with amazon. More ways or making money ….
I love the Amazon affiliate program, it is my second biggest money maker and I love the fact that you make money off of anything that someone buys through your link.
i iknew shoe was getting a cut lol
Your post implies that you can tell which Amazon links you created generated the 2nd hand purchases. Can you?
I can see what people bought and which ones were a direct referral, but I can’t tell if the guy that bought earrings originally clicked on my business book review or my dog bed review. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
I wish I had the luck with Affiliates program. My traffic has doubled and I am still without a purchase via Amazon. Someday, maybe that’ll change :P
I guess ‘2nd and 3rd clicks’ would also work while using Amazon Search Box widget.
I wish Amazon would offer adsense clicks on their 3rd party marketing links on their page. I don’t believe we get commissions from those sales, do we?