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How to Make Money on Every Holiday

Posted By Darren Rowse 8th of June 2010 Affiliate Programs 0 Comments

Guest post written by @ChrisGuthrie from Make Money on the Internet

I made a little over $60,000 in the past 12 months using Amazon’s Affiliate program and it’s actually my primary income stream. Many people are turned off by Amazon primarily because of it’s short 24 hour cookie length, but I want to show an example on how I make money using Amazon by focusing on the holiday shopping season every holiday. The next holiday coming up is Father’s Day and will be your opportunity to make some money today. But before we get to that I highly suggest you read some of the tips Darren has written in the past on how to earn money with Amazon which can be found here, here, here and… here! I also shared my own Amazon tips to earn more, but in a twist I used Amazon tracking ID’s for every single strategy all through 2009 so that I could determine which specific tactics were the most effective in terms of how much revenue they generated. The results can be seen here and in doing this I found out which tactics should be avoided as well.

How to Make Money with Amazon Today:

How to Make Money on Every HolidayHow to Make Money on Every Holiday

Now that you’ve read the tips above you may be thinking to yourself, ‘Alright that sounds great but, I’m still not sure where to start.’ Well, if your blog is in any way loosely related to consumer goods (almost everyone) there is an easy way to get started today by promoting deals for Father’s Day. Most bloggers focus on just the big holidays and shopping periods like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas. These are all great, but you can take it one step further by promoting products on almost every holiday without annoying your readers (I would skip this holiday though unless you have a blog about Pirates). Early last week I received an email from Amazon’s Associates team that stated Amazon would be running Lightning Deals for Father’s Day for the first time from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM PST on Monday June 7th through Wednesday June 9th to celebrate Father’s day on June 20th. Amazon frequently creates landing pages like this for holidays so for every holiday worth promoting just search for the respective holiday landing page and replicate this strategy below on future holidays. Promoting products around the holidays is the best way to make money without looking like it’s your only focus. First I’ll show you a simple blog post I’d write for my cooking website and second I’ll break down the steps I incorporate into most of my posts designed to make money with Amazon:

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Great Deals for Dad on Amazon This Week

How to Make Money on Every HolidayHow to Make Money on Every HolidayAmazon will be running lightning deals from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM PST on Monday June 7th through Wednesday June 9th to celebrate Father’s day on June 20th. For those that aren’t aware – lightning deals run for only a few hours and the very best deals tend to sell out quick so be sure to keep your eye on Amazon.com/fathersdayHow to Make Money on Every Holiday so that you don’t miss anything. In addition to the lightning deals there are already great prices on How to Make Money on Every HolidayShun cutlery products like this 22 slot bamboo knife storage block:

(Information pulled from an Amazon plugin I use)

Again, the lightning deals only run from June 7th to June 9th so watch Amazon.com/fathersdayHow to Make Money on Every Holiday and if there are any great lightning deals on cooking products I’ll be sure to let you know on the blog here and via our free newsletter. Sign up for our newsletter now and get your free guide to Summer Grilling Healthy Meals and to ensure you hear about all the great Father’s Day deals that will be shared this week.

See more Fathers’s Day Deals at Amazon.comHow to Make Money on Every Holiday

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How I write the Father’s Day Deal Post:

Step 1: Go to Amazon.com/fathersdayHow to Make Money on Every Holiday to find potential products to promote

Step 2: Sort through to the appropriate section for your website and look for pre made “deal images” like the one above that can be used on your website (Amazon usually creates several of these for sales within each product category)

Step 3: Save the image and generate an affiliate link for the page it goes to. Use this in your blog post somewhere as people love to click images especially if they outline the specifics of a sale.

Step 4: Start writing the blog post and linking to Amazon products and the father’s day home page where appropriate (see above as an example)

Step 5: Optional I use an Amazon affiliate plugin like PHPzon, Review Azon etc. to quickly and easily toss product information into my blog posts but this can also be done manually instead
Important Note To Potential Shoppers: Yes, a knife holder would make a terrible gift for Father’s Day though lol so pick something different, remember that was just a joke example.

Step 6: Reinforce that you’ll keep the reader up to date on the best deals via your blog and then take the time to promote your newsletter so that they don’t miss out on any deals you will send to them over the next few days.

Step 7: Finish the post with another link to the Amazon.com Father’s Day page

Step 8: Over the next few days watch the Amazon’s Father’s Day page for Lightning Deals that are appropriate for your audience. When the deals crop up write a quick blog post about the product on sale and send an email to your newsletter. Remember to write the blog post and send the email quickly as the popular lightning deals really do go fast.
Step 9: Required Buy me lunch with your increased Amazon earnings next time you’re in Seattle, WA.

The important thing to remember is that you can make money and still provide value to your readers at the same time. People have either forgotten Father’s Day is coming up soon or they’re already starting the process to find a gift. If you’re the first person to tell your readers that Father’s Day is upon us AND there are some sweet deals on products he might like your readers will thank you for sharing this information. This is just one way I make extra money during the traditionally slow season.

Now that you’ve learned how I make money on every holiday with Amazon, I’d love to see people actually take the advice and use it. Share your father’s day posts in the comments below and let me know what you think of this strategy.

Chris Guthrie has been a full time internet entrepreneur since October 2009 and has been earning money online since 2005. When he’s not working or playing Xbox 360 he enjoys speaking in third person. If you learned something from this blog post you’ll probably learn more by subscribing to his blog.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Thanks Chris for your useful posts and I have been trying to get my hands with Amazon. Till now I was using CJ and other direct aff programs, related and referred post are very helpful for beginners. Overall great post.

  2. This is a great post. I am not sure how this will work with my blog, but if I can figure out a way, I am going to put the ideas to use. I could definitely use the money. Wonder if books will sell as well for gifts.

    Thanks,
    Jenn

  3. Thanks Chris, This is a really great step by step how to.

    The holidays are perfect for Amazons short cookie. I would have never thought of it. I know of several people that are looking for ways to monetize their sites that would love this post too. Sending them your way.

  4. Hey Chris,

    Thanks for writing this. I like to use Amazon Affiliate program on other blogs that I own. However, what you just went over and including all of the older post on how to make money with Amazon is fantastic. Thanks!

    Chat with you later…
    Josh

  5. Hey! Some of us take Talk Like a Pirate Day very seriously.

    I make a bit of dough from Amazon on my hiking blog, but I haven’t done much with it on my other blogs. Thanks for the info.

  6. Awesome Amazon affiliate tips – I need to make sure not to let holiday promotion fall off my radar. I think my blog is somewhat difficult to promote products on, but there is probably still a way to work it in somehow.

  7. Great tip, but this is only going to work if your readers are used to seeing a LOT of content on a daily basis. If you typically publish one post a day and one newsletter each week and start pushing out multiple Amazon offers daily, the readership is going to revolt.

  8. Hi Chris,

    Thanks for the post.

    In step 3, you mention to generate an affiliate link.

    I would like to know, that shouldn’t we have a cloaked link, so that the link looks better (although it would’t show directly, it will show in the status bar)?

    Nabeel.

  9. Thanks Chris for the post.

    I have never made much off of Amazon’s Affiliate program. After reading Darren’s articles and this one, I will make some tweaks and see what happens.

  10. Excellent steps. I only make a couple of bucks with Amazon, so seeing your figures really gives me hope. It’s good to know that someone understands how to maximize them. Good tutorial. Love the tips. Pirates day, here I come! :)

  11. Thanks for the positive feedback everyone! I’ll continue to monitor this post and answer questions when possible.

    @Nabeel I personally just use Amazon links except for perhaps when I use PHPzon or Review Azon wordpress plugins. I believe visitors really trust the Amazon brand so that’s why I prefer to just use the links generated by their site stripe.

    The important thing to remember again is that depending on the niche of your website you may have better or worse results. Blogs in this niche (blogging, make money online, etc. etc.) are pretty bad at monetizing via Amazon’s affiliate program but if you have a blog that is more centered around products you stand to make considerably more money.

  12. Guess I need some product based sites. I’m amazed at how much money your are making from Amazon when their payout is so small. I ‘ll see if I can do something with my blog.

  13. I made a little over $60,000 in the past 12 months using Amazon’s Affiliate program [..]

    Congratulations, that’s great. Everyone in my state (North Carolina) was kicked out of the program some time ago, so I for one won’t be following in your footsteps.

    Amazon can go to hell. >:|

  14. Some great tips and hopefully I can do this at some point or another… I’ll have to find a holiday which would be based around my readers though. Hmm…

    Great tips anyway and I will have to try them out on some of my others sites, cheers.

  15. These are valuable uses for the Amazon affiliates. Whenever I think of the system, I think of books, but the site is almost limitless for the amount of things that you can order.

    I would be careful about having it as your sole income stream, however. That’s like having adsents just paying your bills. If the plug is pulled overnight, then you lose your business.

    -Joshua Black
    The Underdog Millionaire

  16. @Joshua Black

    For me, it’s more about picking the monetization method that’s most profitable and then if that method is cut out at some point I can always fall back to option 2, 3, 4 etc. but in the mean time may as well make the most money while the going is good right?

  17. I make nothing with amazon and it’s been a year. Guess I’m doing something wrong or there are too many blogs that use amazon.

  18. Chris,

    I seriously never thought of this and I’ve tried to make money with Amazon to no avail. I will try these tactics. Thanks.

    Tony keep at it. It’s been much, much longer for me, but I keep trying.

    CookingwithKerwin.com

  19. Thank You Chris, Some of my first affiliate commissions came from Amazon and I am always looking for tips to improve what I offer.

    Quick note to the comment by Nabeel above. I believe that since Amazon is such a recognized name having the link show amazon in it is good. It is a recognized brand. I personally don’t like when affiliated links are http://www.xogysd … they need to be nicer so the reader does not think a genuine link is a spam link.

    I hope my comment helps Nabeel.
    Cheers,
    David

  20. Yes, Thanks Chris And David.

    Your comments helped me and you guys cleared up the matter on affiliate links and cloaked links.

    Thanks again,
    Nabeel

  21. The post is great, but the ad below it makes me question my grammar (or maybe ProBlogger’s grammar – who knows?). “Give me 31 dayS”? I believe it is 31 day without “S”. Any opinions?

    And yes I know I am pain in the @$$ at times, but I would appreciate that kind of a hint.

  22. Good tips, and glad to see a blog post on this topic. Some people are actually making a fortune on holiday niches (putting together holiday-focused affiliate websites). I blogged about it half a year ago at http://www.amnavigator.com/blog/2009/12/17/holiday-niches-or-how-to-make-annual-salary-in-one-month/

  23. Nice change of pace for some serious down-to-earth making money strategies. Probably won’t use it this time around as most of the deal period is already over.

  24. I don`t really understand what is Amazon’s Affiliate program. It seems it would be better for me to read some of the tips which were in the previous articles…ok, thanks, try to find these advice

  25. Hey chris,
    Very interesting article. I’ve been playing with the holiday surges in traffic. It can be quite a place for even newbies to play around with. Once again, great work.

  26. Excellent article and Amazon would be my gold mine in the future. I have been going around to do some quick snapshots on how to monetize Amazon on my blog and problogger seems to be the best model for this. Thanks

  27. Shhh, this is almost too much valuable information at once. But definitely true, although the cookie duration is short, the brand “Amazon” itself sells extremely well. It’s a trusted site, most people already have an account, perfact base for a quick sale.

  28. I know alot of people think this method is saturated but I very easily made money with this the first time that I tried it. It was a method that gave me that little bit of daily income to get me to realize money can be made. I also thought it was worthy of posting because I showed two of my friends and they both had success with it, so 2/2. Lastly there are always TV shows coming out, and all you gotta do is a little better then the last guy to start getting traffic. You may look at the stats and say its not worth it to you but when it came down to it I probably spent 1 hour to 2 hours total doing work, and totalled just under 100$ last month. I easily could have plugged away a lot harder at this method, but I digress. But enough of that lets start with it:

  29. hey!
    Great post, thanks for this. just loved it. i was trying with clickbank until now. now i will try my hands with CJ
    thanks again
    regards

  30. I must confess I am extremely impressed with that. I’ve perused a ton concerning it already but your purpose of view very opened my eyes to another approach of thinking. Cheers .

  31. now i’m 18 absolutely no people hiring along with we need money now to refurbish my best auto and give my gma rear exactly what do i really do

  32. Hi Darren,
    Could you please tell me the best way to get paid by Amazon affiliates if you live in Australia. I can’t see a good way to do it. I was getting Amazon gift vouchers but as my earnings tick up I find I can no longer spend enough. At the same time I don’t know what to do with US dollar cheques.
    I did look for this answer in your book that I just purchased, but can’t find it there.

    Thanks

  33. I know alot of people think this method is saturated but I very easily made money with this the first time that I tried it. It was a method that gave me that little bit of daily income to get me to realize money can be made. I also thought it was worthy of posting because I showed two of my friends and they both had success with it, so 2/2. Lastly there are always TV shows coming out, and all you gotta do is a little better then the last guy to start getting traffic. You may look at the stats and say its not worth it to you but when it came down to it I probably spent 1 hour to 2 hours total doing work, and totalled just under 100$ last month. I easily could have plugged away a lot harder at this method, but I digress. But enough of that lets start with it:

  34. Great post, Chris. I recently found your site while looking for some tweaks to my Amazon strategies. Bloggers concerned about their specific niche and the ability to monetize it should understand that roughly half of your sales will be for products not related to the products they’re promoting.

    The Amazon cookie set when a user enters Amazon via your link is good for 24 hours no matter what they buy. Be creative with the ads you use or create.

    Adsense used to be my primary source of revenue until I took the time to really explore the Amazon affiliate program.

  35. Very informative. Wish I would have stumbled upon this sooner.

  36. Just had to take the two seconds to post a thank you. Read through your webpage and really liked the content, bookmarked and I plan on coming back soon!

  37. WOW!I am not really a novice, anyhoo sometimes I guess you really don’t know it all. I suppose that’s what the internet is for. LMAO! I think to make the most cash from any program, you just need to stay a student of the business.

  38. Thanks for this awesome post. I made a website and my Amazon affiliate sales isn’t going as good as i expected and still struggling. You gave me a great idea which is really helpful

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