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7 Things I Did To Earn 5-Figure Amazon Commissions!
dave333
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Joined: 12 Apr 09
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10 Apr 11 6:18 am

7 Things I Did To Earn 5-Figure Amazon Commissions!

Hi Guys!

I've been away from the forum for a while now as I have been taking massive action with all of my sites.

Something I wanted to share with the Amazon affiliates out there is the 7 things I did to earn 5-figures within a year of being an affiliate of Amazon products!

1. Website Relevance

I have found that if you rank your page for a generic keyword or even semi-targeted keyword, you are missing out on a LOT of sales.

For example, I increased my conversion rate from 5% to over 40% by focusing on EXACT product name keywords. Instead of "buy fire alarms" I focused on "First Alert CO615". This gave me traffic for people searching for the EXACT product my page was selling.

Seems obvious but it took me a long time to figure out how to increase the conversion rates that high.

2. Optimize Meta Details For Humans!

For those of you using Wordpress, get yourself "All In One SEO Pack", it makes changing meta tags SO much easier!

Forget about SEO here... well nearly.

I found that another contributing factor to my success as an Amazon affiliate was to aim the meta tags to a searches point of view rather than a search bots point of view.

My title tag is always "[Product Name] Review And Best Price"

My Description describes the most interesting feature of that particular topic and then goes on to say: "Read my review and get the best price here!" (I always include the product name in the first sentence so that I rank higher).

Meta keywords are: "[Product Name], buy [Product Name], [Product Name] review"

3. Link To The Product From The Context Of Your Post

I always set up every page the same. After much split testing here is how my links are placed:

I have a link right after the first paragraph that is bold and says "I found [Product Name] at the best price here at Amazon"

I also have a larger link at the bottom of the review that says "Buy [Product Name] At The Best Price Here!"

4. Make All Product Images Clickable Affiliate Links

A substantial amount of sales I get are actually from the visitors clicking through to the product from clicking on the product images themselves.

Make these clickable with your affiliate link.

5. Write A Quality Product Review

Your review must be very high quality and contain some very interesting information about the product. I usually summarize a lot of the reviews on the Amazon page.

I figure, Amazon is so good at selling stuff, they must be onto something! And this helps me sell the products.

6. Target Fast Moving Items To Increase Your Commission Rate

Amazon resets your commission rate to 4% at the start of the month and increases based on how many sales you make. You want to ensure you increase your commission % as soon as possible.

The best way to do this is to mix your reviews between big ticket items and cheap items that sell fast. The cheap items will allow you to increase your commission % while the you will earn more on the larger sales you make.

Most of my big ticket items are over $120, while my fast moving items are a few dollars.

7. Create A List!

You've probably heard it a million times before but by building a list you are exponentially increasing your sale rate. Your subscribers are proven purchases of your and you know that they can buy again without hesitation, so promote related products to them.

The bigger your list, the more sales you will make!
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jcdean
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10 Apr 11 6:38 pm

 Really glad you came back to share that with us.

I do allot with Amazon affiliate program too, never at a loss for niche Ideas, because there is something new ever day.

Way happy for you man!
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Last edited by jcdean on 10 Apr 11 11:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 

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dave333
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10 Apr 11 10:48 pm

 Thanks J.C. Dean!

I will be hanging around here more often I think. It is definitely the best online community I have come across :)
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csherlock
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10 Apr 11 11:12 pm

 I agree with most of that yet, for 1. Website relevance, you are right in what you are saying, but if you you the create sub pages for each exact product keywords, and rank for that, then your over all site will get a lot more traffic, and it would save you time on creating a whole new website over and over again. Eventually when you have a bit enough site, the big G will rank a new post about a specific "Fire Alarm" in hours.
I'm not saying your wrong, you're right in fact but, I just thought i'd add to that.
Great post by the way!
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dave333
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10 Apr 11 11:26 pm
csherlock wrote:I agree with most of that yet, for 1. Website relevance, you are right in what you are saying, but if you you the create sub pages for each exact product keywords, and rank for that, then your over all site will get a lot more traffic, and it would save you time on creating a whole new website over and over again. Eventually when you have a bit enough site, the big G will rank a new post about a specific "Fire Alarm" in hours.
I'm not saying your wrong, you're right in fact but, I just thought i'd add to that.
Great post by the way!


Thanks for the contribution, you're absolutely correct.

This is all about building authority. Once you are ranking well for a lot of search terms, you will rank alot quicker. You will also have the opportunity to rank for more generic keywords that attract a large amount of traffic.

If you build your site structurally smart from the beginning and make good use of categories and sub-pages you will be very well equipped rank in many related search terms.

The more keywords you rank for, the more targeted traffic you will attract, which will bring in more sales.

Cheers,
Dave
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mythicus
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11 Apr 11 10:13 pm

 I was curious about how you go about building a list for sites that are marketing physical products. Do you go about it the same way someone promoting clickbank products mights?
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dave333
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11 Apr 11 11:13 pm

 I just use a sidebar optin for my Aweber subscription. I tested the popups but found it reduced my conversions.

I found that if your website is tightly targeted to a small niche you can get a larger subscribe-rate. You just need to focus the optin towards your product and accessories, maintenance, upgrades around your specific niche.

You could even offer a free PDF report for one of the above for subscribers, although I haven't done this yet and my mailing list already accounts for around 10% of sales.

Cheers,
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bigpunkin
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15 Apr 11 6:27 pm

 @ dave I been in amazon for a year have not made a sale yet can you show me what to do
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mario3173
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19 Apr 11 4:55 pm

 Hey Dave,

About how many Amazon sites do you have?
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chris72
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19 Apr 11 9:08 pm

 Thanks for this great info - I had been experimenting with physical products on Squidoo - but now I really should get my butt into gear and stat building my own review site for them :o)
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cecille.l
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19 Apr 11 10:29 pm

 Thanks for sharing Dave! This is truly inspiring and motivating. We have members who are considering promoting Amazon products as well. A good thing to note in your list is relevance and quality. This is becoming more and more of a requirement for your site to rank and gain traffic so always keep it in mind.

Congratulations Dave and more success to you! :)
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Cecille


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michellerana
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19 Apr 11 10:57 pm

 Wow! That's amazing! :) Congratulations, Dave! :) And thanks for sharing your strategies :)

The great thing about Affiloblueprint is that you can still use it if you want to promote physical products. The same principles that apply to digital products apply to physical ones, too. Including the ones on your list (choosing product names as keywords, having big, bold and blue affiliate links on the first fold, optimizing your meta tags, having clickable images, creating product review articles, doing email marketing, etc). The difference is that you need to be more specific in describing the products as those would be things that people would actually touch/hold. You would also need to discuss shipping in your promotion articles.

I would like to invite you to submit a post to the Affilorama YO Blog! Sharing your story and knowledge would inspire a lot of members. You can place a link from your blog post back to your site so you'll get a backlink from a PR6 page! :)

All the best!
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Want a step-by-step training program in affiliate marketing? Affiloblueprint is a "hand-holding" course that will will show you how to build a site, drive traffic to it, and monetize it.

Go to this link to start building your profitable affiliate sites now!
www.affilorama.com/affiloblueprint
 
etfimt
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10 May 12 5:14 am

 I have one question about choosing amazon's products
If you picked a nice product with excellent review but under the products says : only 3 or 5 or 9 left ...hurry ! should i worry than this product can be no more available , or maybe will take a month to be back on amazon and the link will change ?
On the other side i was thinking if they have 1000 customers review they should continue to sale this one with no problem but than why they run out of it not really adding more to amazon
Thanks Eva
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cecille.l
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10 May 12 9:07 am

 Hi Eva,

That looks like a scarcity tactic to me, meaning they indicate there that the item is "limited" but in reality is not. Unfortunately, I am not well versed with Amazon and I am unable to locate information confirming this. I will check with a senior staff and let you know as soon as I have feedback.

I appreciate your patience. Have a good day!
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Cecille


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etfimt
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10 May 12 9:19 am

 Thanks Cecille , i would appreciate this since i am in process of putting site together but it worries me after all the time i put in something like this is this going to just be constantly "sold out "
Thank You , Eva
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nationaldeals
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15 May 12 3:55 am

 Very good information. Thanks
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etfimt
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23 May 12 12:52 am

 I have one more questions about amazon products .
While i was looking at amazon site now , and found product with good price and great review almost 250 customer from which 230 is 4 or 5 stars review , but then i used Google adwords key tool to research this product i found out there is only 210 global monthly searches and 170 local monthly searches .
Is product with great amazon review but poor in volume from google key tool worth it to think about ?
Or maybe it works really different way than Google keyword tool for global or monthly search showing .
Thanks Eva
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Site Admin
cecille.l
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23 May 12 9:51 am

 The Google Keyword Tool can help you look up keywords and estimate the traffic you will get from targeting these keywords. Did you search using the name of the product? It's possible that while there are a lot of great reviews for the product, it is not a well-known brand, so it's product name will not be searched much online.

I suggest you look at the sales page for the product and what problems it resolves, then base the keywords you'll target from there.

Hope that helps. Have a good day!
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Cecille


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mouldedashideas
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23 May 12 11:31 am

 Hello Dave, thanks for sharing powerful information and insight. Am a newbie and would like to immerse myself in promoting Amazon products. My question is how do I go about it? Is there any "Over the Shoulder" Video lessons in Affilorama? Where I can learn the ins and outs of marketing Amazon products.
I kindly request Dave to share with me any resources, if at all you have, to help me catalyze my success with Amazon.
I will really appreciate anyone willing to share with me resources and what is expected of me when marketing Amazon products? How do I cherry-pick products which converts steadily? How do I increase my chances against the odds? Basically, Market research ,Keyword research, how to increase conversions among many other factors.
Thanks a lot, Dave for the post and for anyone willing to share with me the ins and out of Amazon.
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jimcoe
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23 May 12 4:02 pm

 Thanks Dave, for an extremely valuable and readable post! Big congrats on your well-earned success too.

Have only done Amazon affiliation on Squidoo so far. Good to know that real success is available direct on Amazon, if the current efforts requiring all my attention don't pan out.

I can see why people make the mistake of jumping from one online marketing opportunity to another too soon, with so many opportunities out there and such good advice shared by friendly folk. I'm SO tempted to try Amazon right now, lol.


The fun never stops!
_jim coe
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nates450r
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26 May 12 7:55 am
dave333 wrote:
4. Make All Product Images Clickable Affiliate Links

A substantial amount of sales I get are actually from the visitors clicking through to the product from clicking on the product images themselves.

Make these clickable with your affiliate link.

!


How many product images do you typically place on a review page?
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jay3
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01 Jun 12 7:10 pm
dave333 wrote:Hi Guys!

7. Create A List!

You've probably heard it a million times before but by building a list you are exponentially increasing your sale rate. Your subscribers are proven purchases of your and you know that they can buy again without hesitation, so promote related products to them.

The bigger your list, the more sales you will make!


Hi Dave,

Been looking into list building myself recently. Next on the line after racking up enough experience video marketing :)

What's your take on solo ads and ad swaps for the IM Niche and other niches?
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giang.toni.cao
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05 Jun 12 7:56 am

 thanks for sharing,

Will make sure I re-read it and apply it to my own campaign.

Thanks so much!

so much great information on this site!
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anuj2911
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06 Jun 12 4:26 pm

 Thanks for the share...

Amazon is a good income for many ...
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pbyservices
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07 Jun 12 5:17 am

 Are you actually reviewing the products, or using content from Amazon to pretend that you reviewed them?
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bestarticles111
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13 Dec 12 11:24 pm

 Hi! Im new here.. Im also trying to earn some money with Amazon.. Im intrested if someone could pm me a few examples of amazon product selling sites???? thanks
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