Amazon Affiliate Program
February 2, 2008 – 8:18 am
Affiliate programs were really kicked off by Amazon in the mid to late 1990s. The idea is you promote amazon.com products on your site and when someone clicks through and buys products at amazon.com you get a percentage of sales (starting at 4%.) Now, years ago I started plugging books on another site and I did see some income from it. Back then, they paid quarterly. Now if you reach a minimum of $10 per month you will receive monthly payments (direct deposit.) If you require a check I believe there’s a higher minimum (and possibly a service fee (?) Direct Deposit is preferred for me. So how do you make it really work?
Frankly, just promoting books you’re not going to see a phenomenal income unless you have a very high volume site. With just books early on I’d just reach payout maybe twice a year (on the quarterly scheme.) Here’s why…
Say you refer someone to a book that’s $19.99 your commission then is about 80 cents. Now, if you’re getting two or three of these referrals over to amazon each day that’s a couple dollars a day, and maybe $70 or so a month, but if you only refer one every few days… it’s not quite so much.
Now some of you may be laughing at $70 a month, but I like to think of it this way, would you rather have a check for $70 a month or a bill? It’s certainly not a living, but it’s not a bill.
The real secret to amazon.com associates is either a) traffic or b) big ticket items or c) a combination of a and b. If you sell someone a $100 product through your site you’ve made around $4 (I’m saying around because the commissions can vary based on the number of sales made.) Of course, you’ll be less likely to refer high dollar amount sales than low dollar amount sales typically. There are a LOT of other factors to the equation and as I continue posting we’ll talk about many other things to consider.
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