This article is part of the series “Looking at Affiliates”.
Amazon has been around since 1995, even lasting through the dot-com bubble. They were originally an online bookstore, but soon developed into much more. Today, Amazon sells everything from books to computer hardware and weight equipment. And the best thing? They have an affiliate program that allows webmasters to take advantage of their large inventory.
Amazon’s affiliate program details:
- 4% startout commission, can increase up to 8.5%, with select products at 10%
- Trusted brand
- Cookie stays for 30 days
- A product search widget is available for websites
- Context links
- Omakase
- Product Preview
- Images in product links
Although the commission rate is lower than some other places, the brand makes up for it. By now, almost everyone who bought something online has shopped at Amazon. This raises customer’s trust to a whole new level. So even though you get ½ the rates as some other places, the name makes up for it.
My favorite tool Amazon offers is product preview. Now, by itself it isn’t much, but with the use of Amazon’s product links (which can display an image by itself or with the product price) it is amazing. I’ve used this several times on impNERD alone, including 9 Great Gifts for Computer Nerds Under $100 (which has since been removed, see below as to why).
The reason why I discontinued using product preview is due to Amazon’s server response time. At first, I encountered zero problems. After a few days the service began to lag and hasn’t recovered since. Which made me drop product previews completely. Amazon’s response time has made one of their coolest gadgets one of my biggest disappointments.
So if you plan on using regular product links, you’re safe; however, if you plan using other services which rely on javascript, you’re out of luck. Hopefully Amazon will improve their response time soon, but until then, it’s time to stay away.
Conclusion
Amazon is a solid company with a great affiliate program if using product links. Once their servers get a little work done, Amazon will have a great product with several great supplemental services to help out.
Written: Jan 13, 2008
Ben
January 13, 2008 @ 10:57 am
I have tried Amazon for sometime now and have not really had any luck with them. I tried posting their ads in post and even giving them a prominent spot on the landing page of my site. Nothing seemed to work. So for the time being I will not be using them as a revenue source.
Gary R. Hess
January 13, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
Did you try reviewing the product in question on its own page? That is generally what works best with affiliate programs. If you just place an ad somewhere randomly (even if it is within a post) it’s hard to sell. Some people might see it, click out of curiosity with a low chance of selling. If you review the product, they will see it and click to it and possibly buy it at a higher possibility.
sir jorge
January 13, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
I’ve tried a lot of things with Amazon and while I get 50 clicks a day, no one buys anything. I’m not sure what is wrong or how to optimize it any more.
Gary R. Hess
January 13, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
Have you tried product reviews or top 10 lists?
Maldiveslive
January 13, 2008 @ 3:04 pm
So many affiliation programm to follow. I didn’t know before this article there is Amozon one.
Juha Ylitalo
January 14, 2008 @ 12:59 am
My main complaint about amazon’s affiliate program is that it doesn’t work well global scale When you sign up, you sign up with amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, or other individual shop instead of Amazon as a whole. This is all fine and dandy, if you sign up to amazon.com and all your visitors come from USA, but for example in Europe, some europeans might want to prefer Amazon.de or Amazon.fr over Amazon.co.uk, because they a) live in that country, b) are more comftable with germany or french and/or c) prefer to get prices in euros instead of GBP or some other reason.
Another issue is that amazon.co.uk is very country specific in its banner etc. they have banners advertising how they offer free shipping within UK if you order over 15GBP’s worth. Free shipping would be nice, but if you don’t live in UK …
All in all, in Europe its very hard to pick up the best Amazon for your readers.
Of course you can get around these issues by signing up into all Amazon stores, building up country detection into your website and choosing best shop based on that, but I feel that it would be in everyones interest if Amazon stores would do that for us.
P.S. Reason why I haven’t signed up to amazon.com is that its so much simpler to buy something from a store that is inside EU boundaries (i.e. amazon.co.uk). Also I would assume that shipping times are more reasonable that way.
Gary R. Hess
January 14, 2008 @ 9:46 am
So true. That is something I forgot to mention. I have no clue why they haven’t found a better way to work with non-US visitors.
Richard McTaggart
February 6, 2008 @ 1:06 pm
I’m using mini-sites! in the form of blogs, so no url. but as a disabled person, just embarking on affiliate marketing,(I’ve had good results so far) so I’m hoping the lack of a site wunt deter you?
thanks
Richard
Gary R. Hess
February 6, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
If you’ve had good results, then go for it.
Could you enlighten me more on the “mini-sites”? Are you talking about something like Twitter or something else entirely?