Some of the mainstays of Ethical Affiliate Marketing are always provide readers and search engines valuable content, never use any black hat techniques for driving sales or traffic, and only promoting real products that have real value.
With that in mind, we’ve been part of the Amazon Affiliate program for a year now, and have used various techniques and websites to drive traffic to Amazon and earn over $10,000 in profits since starting last fall. Part of that was by advertising Amazon products on Google Adwords before Amazon decided to stop the practice. But the rest comes from a couple of websites we made that did product recommendations and reviews.
Amazon can be a fickle beast for affiliates, since the affiliate cookie used to track the purchases only lasts for 24 hours, but Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world and thus move a CRAP TOP of products. Their revenue last year, meaning the amount of money they brought in for sales of products and advertising and everything else, was $19 BILLION dollars. That’s Billion with a B. A big B. From that they made over $600 Million in profits. So if you can guess at an average item price they ship, I’d say it’s probably hovering around $15. That’s an average since they sell lots of paperbacks for $5, bestsellers for $15-20, and tons of larger items like video games and power tools in the $40-$40,000 range. That’s right, you can buy a $41,000 150 kW generator on Amazon from a third party seller. Divide $15 per item by the revenue and that makes… carry the 1… probably over 1 BILLION products sold.
So the Amazon Affiliate program is quite popular despite the fact that it only pays out on average 6-8% of a sale (it’s really 4%-15% depending on product types and numbers sold) and only for items added to your Amazon cart within 24 hours of clicking your affiliate link to Amazon.
Thus there has grown up an industry to basically scam people into thinking they can use a magic script to create an online store filled with Amazon products and have money just start pouring in! Ummm, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but really? You thought it would be that easy?
Let’s break it down with some examples. If it seems to you that we’re bashing on your site, look at it as practical advice and a free link!
Look at your Amazon Affiliate Site From an Outsiders Perspective – Does It Attract You In?
Would you buy anything from your Amazon affiliate site? Look at it with a very critical eye and think, if I came to this site from some other site, would I be interested in clicking on anything? Of would you head for the door? Your site must be well laid out and relevant to what a visitor is interested in.
Bad Example: dwlanes.com. There is nothing on the home page but blinking banners and ads. Even if I did click through to one of your categories (which I never would), they’re just pages with one Amazon widget on them. Google will hate your site. There is no original content to attract search engines to rank your site well.
Good Example: besttoysguide.com. Well designed and attractive. Plenty of original reviews over 500 words long which include YouTube videos of the product in question. Updates with new reviews frequently, 1-2 per day on average. Main page has links to their targeted keywords. No Amazon affiliate links on the homepage only sub pages. Google LOVES stuff like that and besttoysguide.com site ranks very well for a number of popular search terms. I bet they’ll make a nice chunk of change this Christmas season and the site deserves it.
Do You Have Traffic?
Lots of people comment in the Amazon Associates forum that they bought a site from someone and they get no traffic and can not imagine why hordes of people are not spontaneously typing in their URL greatthingstobuytoday.com into their browser. You need traffic, which you get either through paid advertising or through getting links back to your site from other sites. The more links you get, not only are there more ways for people to find you, but your site will rise up in the search engine rankings. If you expect Google to send you traffic because you setup a site that just duplicates a bunch of descriptions from Amazon then links to them with your affiliate link, you are sadly mistaken. You need clear compelling unique content with targeted keywords to rank in Google.
Bad Example: life-user.blogspot.com. Subject matter is all over the place, any traffic they get is likely from people clicking the “Next Blog” link in Blogspot then quickly moving on. Start over life-user. Go grab a real hosting account and three domains around your top two interests, heavy metal, geek tech, then FOCUS the each site on that topic. Signup for a Google Adwords account and use the keyword tool to find top keywords for those interests, then write posts around them.
Good Example: dvdbeaver.com. Clear relevant products and advertisements laser targeted to the sites focus. People come there for DVD reviews and advice, and the site delivers. Traffic is high for a site with just DVD reviews, with Alexa putting them in the top 50,000 sites on the planet out of hundreds of millions. That ranking puts them in the thousands of visitors a day level.
Is Your Traffic Relevant To Your Ads?
If you think you have “traffic” but are not getting clicks or any actual sales, is your traffic targeted to your site and what products you are promoting. Again, look at it from an outsiders perspective. How would you get to your site? And not just how would you get there, but would you be looking for the products you are promoting when you do get there? For example, if people find your site through an ad you place or search engine, is the page what they are looking for? Good traffic can have a click through rate over 20% and a conversion rate (that’s the rate of purchases made vs clicks through to Amazon) of 10% or more. Bad traffic can have a click through rate of less than 1% which basically represents misclicks and no conversions.
Bad Example: paulanealmooney.com – Paula does a lot of things right on her sites. She targets trending keywords which Google loves to rank highly for a few weeks. Sorry to pick on you Paula, can I call you Paula by the way? You left a comment here a few weeks back and have multiple pages that talk about various Google scams that are heavily targeted to search engine queries for the scams, yet the sidebar is filled with ads for books about how everyone is going to Hell when they die. Maybe you want the Google Biz Kit scammers to go to hell, but that stuff is not relevant at all to the visitors you are trying to attract. Luckily your blog is Wordpress based and can easily be fixed. Create categories for your posts, then use a plugin called Widget Context to deliver targeted ad widgets to the content for that category. Hell books for posts in the religious categories, money making books for Google scam categories, toys for toy posts, etc. Do that and I’d bet you double your Amazon earnings easily.
Good Example: gosale.com. Most pages are just price comparisons between different Amazon 3rd party sellers, but the pages are very relevant to the product search that will bring a person to that site. Similar products to the one searched for are listed and a review is there for each product.
Want Us To Review Your Amazon Site?
Drop the site in the comments below if you are feeling brave and want actual unbiased and truthful feedback. We’ll give it to you…
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s funny, I was just scanning this post, thinking — oh man, I hope my site’s not in the bad category — then up pops my name!
And yes, feel free to call me Paula.
Um, the books are actually about NOT going to hell, but some people make that assumption, since that’s the first assumption I made when I saw the “23 Minutes in Hell” book in Walmart a year or so ago.
Sometimes I think — man I could make more money using that website real estate for other ads — but those books have changed my life so much, it’s worth having them there.
It’s more like an eternal investment so much more important than trying to further my Amazon income, which — by the by, has dramatically increased lately.
I’ve found that going outside the box and boring web ideas has amazingly helped me. Like the time last year when the Lord helped me go on a juice fast and I didn’t log on to my Amazon account all week. And when I did, I was amazed to find one post about Oprah and the Kindle had earned me over $3,500 in Amazon earnings — not sales but earnings — just for that week.
So go with your gut. You never know…
…and thanks for the link love. At least they’re talking about you, as the saying goes.
Hey El Admin,
You have just uncovered another scam. I wonder if you realize that. How about making this one yet another cautionary tale for your readership?
The owner of the first site – dwlane.com is likely out a lot of $$$ right now. Far more than the few hundred $$ a month than the Google Cash types take folks for.
While dwlane.com doesn’t look like much, it cost anywhere in the neighborhood of $1500.00USD to $6000.00USD to have “developed”.
The poor owner of dwlane is an innocent who fell for the high-pressure sales tactics of a group called some outfit called the “Onlinehostingnetwork” who promises to build you an “Amazon Store”, often with a banner or two from a couple of other popular affiliate programs. They also promise a minimum of say, 10,000 (useless) clicks to “get your business off the ground”.
Of course, as El Admin notes, dwlane’s store is not likely to generate much if any sales. dwlanes “Coach” at the “Onlinehostingnetwork” will soon offer “help”. The “help”? Well, because s/he only invested $1500.00USD for the “Basic” package, the “coach” will do a hard-sell to get dwlane to upgrade to the “Platinum” package for about $3500 which is absolutely certain to generate the promised riches — likely another banner or two and some more empty promises.
Of course, even the Platinum level will begin to wear down dwlane’s patience after a while. However having invested so much effort (read dollars) in this website, the Coach will aggressively suggest upgrading to the 5K “Gold” package.
Of course the “Gold” package will be similarly yield nary a sale. At this point, the “Coach” gets harder and harder to contact since the max $$$ have been taken from the unsuspecting dwlane and heaven forbid dwlane should contact an attorney or the FTC or the local DA’s office in Phoenix. These schemes seem to thrive in AZ, possibly because of some loophole in the law. Also the “Onlinehostingnetwork” is likely to undergo a name change if things get complicated and will morph into one a new company name among the galaxy of similar operations that operate in this cruel manner. Company names in these sort of schemes change faster than you change your undergarments.
IMO, this sort of high-pressure, heavy-duty, big ticket scam is much more pernicious than even the slimy “Adwords Riches” spam offers that are all over out Inboxes each morning. The Adwords type scams which will create the headache of cancelling credit cards are pikers on the scale of evil compared to the outfits that “helped” dwlane create that “store”.
Those “stores” often wipe out the live savings of the unsuspecting and folks desperate to make a living in this so difficult times. Contracts are signed, in-your-face high pressure “investment” tactics have been honed by the “Coaches” and the companies behind them.
It’s enough to make one almost thankful if they’ve only been taken by a “Google Millions” scam which I believe was the impetus for El Admin starting this blog to educate folks to the lies and just barely within the law “opportunities” that we’re inundated with.
El Admin, I think it’s time for a new thread devoted to these types of operations. While I’ve only read of angry folks taken by “Google Riches”, I’ve been brought near tears after reading of folks who “invested” thousands of dollars in a “store” like dwlane.
Antony
Thanks for this article. I found it to be very useful. Your examples of good and bad really showed exactly what you were talking about with each topic. I now know why my affiliate program is failing me miserably! Thanks a bunch!
When I was contacted by Online Hosting network and asked them where they were located I checked their adress and it comes back to a UPS store. Its a scam!
Please review and give comments.
Brian,
Read everything above about dwlanes.com. Your site is complete and utter junk, it’s a cookie cutter copy site from the Online Hosting Network that’s just filled with links to Amazon and Drugstore.com. I’ll be absolutely and completely shocked if you make more than $100 a year off that site.
Seriously, try to get your money back at all costs.
Thanks for highlighting my blog Life User (any publicity is good publicity). I agree that my lack of a single fixed topic is a weakness, but I don’t think your advice is as relevant to me as to the average blogger, because I’m a university student. I don’t have the expertise to write about tech regularly (except product reviews, which would require that I spend hundreds of dollars every week buying a new gadget to review) or the free time to listen to and review new music regularly. So if I followed your suggestion, my two blogs would probably each get only one or two posts per month. Is that enough to be worth shelling out for domain names and paid hosting? (Hosting through my school isn’t an option on its own, since it doesn’t allow server-side scripting or custom domain names.)
Chris,
The only thing you actually need for a successful money making site is time! Time in the sense that you need to spend time to write stuff AND site age. The longer your site exists, the more traffic you can get from search engines and links. The minimum you should post is twice a week on average, around 100 posts a year. If a good post takes around 2 hours to research and write, that’s 4 hours a week. Find it.
You don’t have to write about tech. Write about something you know and like. What are you studying at university? What do you do in your free time? Movies, video games, books, drinking, whatever you like can be a good subject.
Don’t worry about expertise or actual products to review either! Look at any popular gadget site like Gizmodo or Engadget. They only have their hands on products for 1 out of 20 posts, probably less! The rest are simple rehashes of things found on other sites or rumors. For example, here are the five posts on Gizmodo right now:
Something they found on GadgetMix and reposted: http://gizmodo.com/5437479/ex+google-china-president-says-apple-tablet-is-a-101+inch-iphone-with-webcam
Something they found on Digg and reposted: http://gizmodo.com/5437199/apparently-lithium-batteries-cure-constipation
Something they found on CNN and reposted: http://gizmodo.com/5437455/britains-newest-knight+to+be-captain-jean-luc-picard
Something they found on CoolHunting and reposted: http://gizmodo.com/5437176/a-day-in-a-photographers-life
Something they found on Fark and reposted: http://gizmodo.com/5437088/cop-tasers-unconscious-diabetic-11-times
Seriously, there isn’t a single original story on there! Yet by most accounts Gizmodo rakes in well over $1 million in revenue a month.
For site hosting, you need $8 a month for Hostgator, which is our favorite host. They have a one click install for Wordpress that will get you started. Skip one pizza this month and next, and in 3 months you’ll be covering the hosting costs and then some from Adsense. In a year, you could be making a couple hundred bucks a month or more, in two to three years over a thousand a month and up from there. It’s the best part time job any college student could ask for!
The problem is that research and writing aren’t the only kinds of work involved. I’d have to convert my heavily-customized layout to whatever format Wordpress takes, and then I’d have to spend time finding specialty directories to submit myself to and forums to announce myself on. Plus, most of what I write is best suited to longer articles that take a lot more than two hours to research, draft and edit (although I do split them up into multiple parts when I can).
As for just blogging whatever I find and like on other sites: If I do that, what will I be able to offer that the competition (which, as you yourself point out, includes such giants as Gizmodo) doesn’t?
Having said that, if you’re as sure as you say you are that I can write a blog that will make money, then I’d be interested in a staff writing position that paid per hour, per post or per word.
Signed yesterday,now feeling worried.
I’ve just signed on with OnlineHostingNetwork, and have been busy setting up my site. I’d like to know first impressions, ideas, hints…anything. I have read multiple reports of OnlineHostingNetwork being a scam, and have read some that say otherwise…so I’m not sure.
Rebecca, we have heard from a great many people who have lost money with OHN, and not a single person who has made money using their service. If you know of someone or have read a review from someone who is successful with OHN, we’d love to hear about it. How much have you paid them so far?
Take a good hard look at the site you paid for. If you clicked on a link and ended up there, what would you do? Would you bother to click on one of the many random disjointed ads or would you hit the back button on your browser as fast as you could? I know what I would do.
I haven’t read a success story as such from OHN, just people saying that you never know unless you try and if you think everything is a scam, you’re going to lose out on alot. I was a little bit sceptical about OHN, but they are fast talkers and even though I said I’d try their basic package simply because I could not afford any others, he said he’d go ahead and forward me my first x-amount of dollars for referrals and upgrade me to the next package…kind of embarrassed to say what I paid them to be honest…thinking I should see about getting my money back.
They’ve sworn that I will make money within my first 90 days or I get my money back, but I’m sure there is a catch there too.
Hmm…seems maybe I’ve been caught in a scam-web?
Hi Rebecca,
The biggest problem I see is that you’re not offering any original content. If all people want to do is shop, they’ll quickly realize that “your store” is Amazon and that it’s more convenient to go straight to Amazon.
If you paid with a credit card, whether you went through PayPal or not, call the card issuer. Chargeback protection saved me a trip to Small Claims Court, and it can save you one as well.
Plumber,
I’m interested in being an affiliate for amazon, I can build a website and everything. But I have no marketing knowledge. I have been reading about internet marketing but I find it difficult on how my amazon affiliate website should be, Like what products should it include. I was thinking of having everything, from books, cloths to electronics, but now I think its a bad idea because I have no experience on affiliate programs (I wanted to include everything because I thought I’ll get more traffic). I live in Australia, so is that a factor? Should I be focusing on just 1 category? for E.g. Just TV’s or just toys? Should my website only include amazon products? If my website only had products and I did my reviews and articles submitted on a website like ezinearticles, is that good enough to drive traffic to the website? Or should I do the reviews/blogs on the same website that has the products?
Please assist, I’m really confused. I’m sure If I know how I should start I will be able to make it better. At the moment I don’t know where to start.
If you have extra tips for a beginner please write. I would really appreciate it. I will return the favor one day if I’m successful.
lol thats a big IF.
Thank you
Shaun Fernando
Shaun,
I’d suggest you get your own blog, so that it’s clear to people that if they like your reviews and want to read more, here’s the home page to bookmark and here’s the feed to subscribe to. I’d also suggest putting the product links right into the blog post, floated off to one side, in order to save the customer a click or two. It needs to be more convenient to buy through your links than through the Amazon homepage, even when the latter is on the user’s bookmark bar.
Ok i’m game – hit with me with your best shot:
http://www.senseo-coffee-pods.com
PLEASE give me feedback…I need it!!~!!!!
When pressed, the only thing OHN will offer to refund in first 3 months is approx. $300, not the $10,000 you may spend on their total packages. Take it from someone who was desperate for $refund to ask. I’ve lost heart, received no income, but hey I’ve received approx. $220 for 6 months of just having the affiliate companies sitting on my website, sadly no real income generated.
There’s also more $ and time spent setting up a legal entity as a US LLC company, plus The Tax Club and a tie in with a ruthless finance company called Prestige Financial Services/ Duvera/Palomar Associates. The clincher will be when Duvera & co- companies start chasing you up for money owed and you can’t work out why, when it’s already being deducted from your credit card ! If you live in Australia they’ll send all bills and collection advices via land mail that takes a month to receive and it may be too late to dispute. DON’T electronically sign your name to a contract with a tie in to the finance side, I’m still trying to work out what I’ve done wrong and it’s going to cost me dearly. I’m just hoping to get a reasonable US tax refund for all my outlays/set up costs, fingers crossed.
With all of OHN’s promises and hard sell, not one cent from a real customer yet. If I had my time again I would take 3 months to fully investigate every aspect of e-commerce and on line marketing first without giving my credit card details to anyone. OHN’s professional hard sell on the phone plays on your “gambling” nature to make money fast, get in quick, make quick profits ….. buyer beware. Think about it first and get them to call you several times and still think about it each time. Don’t be rushed to sign up with their sweet talking. If you live in Australia, OHN’s training / help desk is very limited due to time difference.
The other people making money are the piggybacked emailers who convince you to sign up for more online guru profit making gimmicks, CD’s, etc. again and again and again. Avoid giving out your credit card details, check your monthly balances for all their hits you may not be aware of.
Some advice from a sucker who’s still wanting to make it work.
PS: Suggest you do some online investigating for any negative information on Goldwares, Mining Gold Corporation, Shawn Casey, Jeff Paul, Michael Cheney, etc. Work it out yourself.
I have not heard one good thing about OHN – not one thing at all. In fact based on what I have read you really can do EVERYTHING they do for a fraction of the price. Heck you could probably hire El Plumber to do it for a fraction! What would you charge for their service?
http://www.moonbuckscoffee.com Please feel free to critique
I think I have been scamed by OHN!! I guess there is no hope to get my money back?
Here are a couple of sites that OHN say are doing well. What do you think?
- baypats.com
- sdfbeauty.com
- shoppersinternetedge.com
I could always use some helpful reviews of my site. Tell me what you think.
http://www.new2younow.com
Basically, my site displays the latest products/gadgets/electronics or helpful tools that are out of the ordinary or are really cool. To show these products, we release a newsletter and also have a cool products page.
I am having trouble getting any sales from my website. In total I have more than 200 clicks in the last six days why isn’t there any sales ? I can’t even see any sales in my adsense account.
If you have time Mr. Admin, I’d love some constructive criticism. I’m getting around 600 – 1000 click through per month to Amazon and have made $21.00 for my efforts. I use both SEO and Offline promotion of my site to stay off the beaten path of other marketers in my niche. I’m also in IT and resolve networking and computer problems (mainly viruses) every day in my real world. Some new variants of virus’ and malware are written specifically to intercept affiliate ID’s in TCP packets as the pages are being downloaded and cookies set.
This is a tough enough game to play without Amazon ripping us off too. Today I found out that (2) $100+ purchases that friends made through my site are not being credited to my account. Amazon says it looks like I made the purchases, so they dropped my commission. I didn’t. How many others are getting ripped like this?
Bottom line- don’t be an affiliate for anything you could sell yourself. Whether it be as a drop shipper, or through your own shopping cart and affiliate account direct from the manufacturer. I don’t trust Amazon anymore and I’m gonna pull all their links shortly.