Any Amazon Associates / Affiliates here?

[motion]

I've been an affiliate for about 10 years. Its been pretty lucrative for me, and I haven't spent 5 minutes with my business model during that entire time. Anyone else making significant $$$ ? This could be a cool way to throw some ideas out that we could all benefit from

[KFC911]

I'm sure it's a good hurt, but them big wimmins scare me...

[Amail]

Now you piqued my interest, and I've spent the last hour googling Amazon affiliate programs.

Link to your site?

[Rick Lee]

I started looking into this a few years ago, but the trick was to either have a site with a lot of traffic or to spring for the Google AdWords. I was pretty excited when I got $600 in commissions for a cookbook I used Google AdWords for, but pretty bummed when I owed Google $900 for it. The thing I learned the hard way is that whatever daily budget you set with Google, they'll optimize your ads to make sure you use every dime of that.

[motion]

Mine is shopbot.com

Excite failed to renew this domain name many moons ago, after pouring millions of $$$s into it. I got it for $35.

[futuresoptions]

Great thread motion. I have tried in the past, but have not had too much success. I believe that I set up my sites too generically and just didn't have enough original content and/or products to make it work. I am currently in the process of building a new website that will be a supplement to a actual brick and mortar store that I will hopefully be opening sometime this year. I don't have much capital, but I do have a good local niche and can start off small. I have been considering padding my website with hand selected amazon products to offset my lack of personal inventory. What method has worked for you and do you think that my way of thinking is sound and within reason?

[Amail]

Originally Posted by motion

Mine is shopbot.com

Excite failed to renew this domain name many moons ago, after pouring millions of $$$s into it. I got it for $35.

So, your website just automatically redirects visitors to Amazon? That's pretty easy work right there!

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Amail

So, your website just automatically redirects visitors to Amazon? That's pretty easy work right there!

You sign up for an affiliate account and they give a unique, embeddable ID. You can then put that in the hotlink on the back end when mentioning the product name. If the reader clicks on it, it takes him to the page on Amazon. If he buys it, it gets logged as your sale. That's why the highest traffic websites can do so well with this stuff. It takes no effort to get the commission unless you're actively promoting a specific product. The trick is setting up a site that gets a lot of traffic from folks who want to buy stuff.

[motion]

Originally Posted by Amail

So, your website just automatically redirects visitors to Amazon? That's pretty easy work right there!

Yeah, like I said, 5 minutes in the last 10 years. Wish I knew how to make more money from it.... I'd invest another 5 minutes

[motion]

Originally Posted by futuresoptions

Great thread motion. I have tried in the past, but have not had too much success. I believe that I set up my sites too generically and just didn't have enough original content and/or products to make it work. I am currently in the process of building a new website that will be a supplement to a actual brick and mortar store that I will hopefully be opening sometime this year. I don't have much capital, but I do have a good local niche and can start off small. I have been considering padding my website with hand selected amazon products to offset my lack of personal inventory. What method has worked for you and do you think that my way of thinking is sound and within reason?

Traffic is key, as Rick stated. Everyone buys from Amazon, so you WILL convert some of your traffic to paid commissions. I'd just try a few things, with minimal time investment for each, and see what sticks.

[Amail]

Originally Posted by motion

Yeah, like I said, 5 minutes in the last 10 years. Wish I knew how to make more money from it.... I'd invest another 5 minutes

I'm curious how visitors make it to your page in the first place. A Google search for Shopbot shows a company that makes computer controlled router tables. If I were looking for Shopbot's website, I'd put in shopbot.com and see what I got. I guess if I were in a buying mood, being redirected to Amazon would be okay. If I were looking for Shopbot info, I'd next hit Google to find their actual website.

Have you studied reports from Amazon to see if there's a trend among the buyers? Are they buying Shopbot accessories?

How about Google Analytics - have you checked to see where your visitors are coming from?

[motion]

I really haven't spent any time analyzing anything. When I bought the domain name 12 years ago or whenever it was, I inherited tons of traffic. Not knowing what else to do with the traffic, I simply redirected it to Amazon. Those all became my "customers", and I continue to receive revenue from everything they purchase. For all I know, I'm getting revenue from the same batch of 1,000 people for the last 12 years. I really have no idea. I don't think anyone is actively accessing shopbot.com for any other reason these days.

BTW, the day after I bought the domain name for $35, I was offered 1 million and turned it down!

[Amail]

Spend a couple hours finding out who your visitors are. You may spot a trend you can exploit.

It's more than 5 minutes work, but I'd say your due.

[motion]

I should...

[Amail]

You may be sitting on a bigger gold mine than you realize...