How it all started
After seeing many poor web sites which participate in various affiliate programs, I decided to try build my own Amazon affiliate links and compare my strategy with others. Well, about 4-5 months ago I got pissed off with my AdSense earnings (it is bad when it is not getting better :D ) and decided to join the
Amazon. 2 days later I deleted all Amazon product links and returned to old good
Google AdSense. Let’s talk about details...
- The first mistake was: Removing every AdSense ad and replacing it with Amazon links. Even I lost only a few dollars, it is completely mistaken to switch from PPC to affiliate without testing it before.
- The second mistake: Since my web site (my aqua-fish.net) is a large project with thousands of internal pages, I was lazy to create product links for every page and I left it to the random choice. So basically an article about fish pond was showing links to aquarium lighting. Totally wrong!
- The third mistake: I wanted my visitors to click on ads, but I didn’t care what happens next (where's the sale?).
As I mentioned above, after seeing 0 dollars after 2 days it was time to return to AdSense :) . And it was a good decision in general. My income returned to normal and even I lost 2 days, I was able to earn more than during the previous month. As time went by I decided to start the Amazon campaign again. But with different approach. Let’s read below...
- I decided to use Amazon and AdSense as well,
- I made strict rules... The Amazon links shouldn’t lower my AdSense earnings at all and people should know what’s going to happen after they click on any Amazon product link,
- In addition all of my affiliate links are “theme related” so I am not offering chillers within the Guppy article.
The result
You’d wonder, but it works well. My conversion ratio is somewhere about 1% (that means 100 people click on the product link and 1 man buys the product) and I make a sale nearly every day. What’s more, it successfully fills up my AdSense. AdSense earnings aren’t lower.
About being an affiliate in general
So what should you do exactly? Call affilate links properly. Tell the visitor “If you click on this link, you’ll be able to buy this and this”. Don’t try to increase your CTR because it won’t lead anywhere. Naturally, you should have reasonable organic traffic for such campaign in order to be successful. 10 visits a day isn’t enough. In my experience a page with approximately 1000 daily pageviews can earn at least 10 dollars with Amazon. Natually, this depends on the price of listed products. If you offer something for a few hundred dollars, such page can earn even $100 or more.
After some time
I gave up Amazon later... Not because I was earning less than with AdSense, but because of payouts (4 times a year, cheques only...).
Modified on October 12, 2009; Originally published on October 1, 2007