Several years ago, back in 2006, I joined the Amazon Affiliate Program. I put up some banner ads on the sidebar of my blog and that was it. I think I made 2 sales from the Amazon Affiliate Program back then. It was over a long period of time too. In the Amazon Affiliate Program, you can choose to cash out at $100 or turn it into an Amazon certificate to buy stuff from Amazon. Of course, I was never going to reach $100 with my 2 sales so I opted to get Amazon Gift certificates once you reach $10. Even then, I was never going to get any Amazon Gift Certificates with my miserable two sales.
I took down all my banners from the Amazon Affiliate Program.
Since my Amazon ads were doing so badly, there was no point in putting them in and making my blog ugly with so many ads. I was very busy then because my kids were growing and I didn’t have time to learn new things or look into it seriously.
Then recently, I joined Squidoo. Squidoo makes it easy for you to incorporate Amazon modules into your lenses which are really sort of like a cross between a webpage and a blog. Not too long ago, Google’s Blogger also made it easier for bloggers to include Amazon products into their blog posts with user friendly built-in tools. I also have more free time now that my children are in school. So I took a relook at my Amazon ads. I built another Amazon Quotes A-Store but that is miserable and a waste of my time.
I studied my stats and started placing my Amazon Affiliate Program Ads in my pages that were performing well on Google (those that ranked in the top two pages for example).
What a difference that made! Last night I made 4 sales and the night before another 4 sales! Woohoo! If you make 7 sales and above in a month, your commission from the Amazon Affiliate Program goes up from 4% to 6%. Yay! Ok. Ok. It is really nothing to shout about since they are for small items like books and toys (I wonder when someone will buy something bigger like the Kindle 3G. Still, I can’t help feeling a small sense of achievement. Not monetary achievement but personal satisfaction in trying out and making something work. Amazon also works well on Squidoo and I’ve had some sales coming in from there. Just 2 actually but I hope to have more when I make more lenses. Right, I’m off now to make more lenses. My latest lens that I am working on is The Top Ten Gifts for Women in their 40s. Thats me and my wish list. 😉
Oh yes, one can make money online in your pyjamas (after all the sales came in while I was asleep), however, be warned. You’ve got to work really, really hard!
Congrats on your achievement! You are just full of resources. I haven’t checked out Amazon. Will do one day. Thanks for sharing.
Resources are plentiful out there and I haven’t finished testing them all out yet. 😉 Some works and some don’t. You just have to try everything provided it is legit and then discard those that don’t work. 🙂