Perhaps I’m a little slow on the update here and they’ve been doing it a while but today I noticed for the first time that Gizmodo have started linking to products in Amazon with their affiliate ID (see screen cap left) – obviously trying out the Amazon Associates Program.
I’d actually wondered why they hadn’t done this previously as it seems such a logical move to make. They are constantly featuring gadgets that are in the Amazon range so it makes sense to add this income stream to their numerous advertising options.
My own experience with affiliate links like these is that they are nowhere near as lucrative as contextual advertising in terms of conversion but when you have a critical mass of visitors to your blog the income derived does add up. The key is to make the links as relevant to the content as possible – ie this is what Gizmodo is doing in only linking to products in Amazon that match with the actual product that they are writing about.
This method does take a little extra work to set up (ie finding the product and adding the link) but it’s been worth the investment of time for me over the last year or so.
