Chapter 17

Best Reasons for Becoming an Associate

Every day, new people are joining the Amazon Associates program. Some use it in conjunction with their blog as a lucrative way to gain an extra benefit from the people who come to their Web site to learn about a specific topic. Some add several Amazon products to their own merchandising mix to have an extra advantage from Amazon’s brand and their own unique items. Others build an aStore and have no need to be concerned about any of their own inventory. Many Associates have multiple blogs, Web sites, or uses for Amazon in social sites. These Associates know that with the right amount of personal effort and commitment, this decision can be a beneficial way to earn supplementary income. These are some of the main benefits of the Associates Program:

Competing in today’s online world is complex. In the e-commerce world, providing a friendly and supportive site for a specific population can be an incredibly successful strategy. Analysts say that although there are the big sites such as Amazon online, there still is a place in cyberspace for the niche sites. As an Amazon Associate, you can have your cake and eat it, too. You can be a niche and be part of that larger e-commerce world of “the Amazons.”

The smaller businesses that have the best chance of succeeding online, according to these financial analysts, are those who can build brand awareness and provide goods that buyers are not able to find anyplace else, or have difficulty finding elsewhere. Do some traveling online and look around at the businesses and bloggers who have chosen this route of specialization. Amazon has so many different products that you are bound to find something that will pertain to these specialized buyers coming to your Web site.

Tips of the Trade

In another chapter, this book will cover some of the ways that you can promote your business. For now, though, here are some things to remember when running your business using Amazon Associates.

As noted above, people more often than not have a specific interest. As the saying goes, you are never going to please all of the people all of the time. Yet, you can please some of the people some of the time. Always give thought to what your customers, readers, music listeners, or video watchers want. Actually, you should be one of those people as well, since it is best to sell or writing about your own interests. It is not even necessary to put yourself in their shoes, as you are already wearing them. What products do you like? What makes you buy? What will bring someone else like you to your Web site and on Amazon?

Reputation, as Amazon knows, truly counts. You need to spread the word about your Web site, and that can be done with those visitors who have become regulars. They will tell others either through conventional ways or through testimonials on your site. Think back to those rating stars that measure different aspects of products and merchandisers on Amazon. There is a reason for these ratings: People will buy from and go to sites that have proven positive experiences. To build a positive reputation and have people returning to your Web site or blog, you have to be honest and let others know why you feel pros and cons about issues and products from your perspective. That is why they should be coming to your site: Because they know they can get a well-rounded idea about something before they invest their money.

You are offering them your expertise and knowledge about whatever product or service that you provide on your Web site. They do not want to hear that every product is wonderful; they want to know why it is wonderful for everyone, why it is only wonderful for some people, or why it is not wonderful for anyone. They respect your input is long as it is truthful.

That is also why anything you recommend, be it a product or another Web site, has to be high-quality as well. You surely do not want to suggest that people buy a product that is known to have major problems or falls apart the first time it is washed, nor do you want to send them to another Web site for additional information when it is erroneous. Something may look good for you in the short term — an extra bonus for adding a link to your Web site — but in the long run, you may lose visitors.

Amazon has a long and extensive following, but you need to work on that following. Too many people go online and think all they have to do is put up a banner, but throwing a banner here or a there haphazardly is not going to sell. You need to get into the heads of your visitors or blog readers and know what is relevant to them. This is why the copy on your page is so important; it needs to be completely integrated with the product you are selling.

If you have a Web site store or blog that sells bed and bath items and are writing about a new product that you endorse, this is where that text widget goes. As their mouse goes over the words, “new product,” the window pops up from Amazon, showing the photo and price of that item. If you have specialized in offering tips to men and women who do a significant amount of traveling in their jobs, the Amazon Kindle widget can easily be placed in convenient, rational locations. This is not to say that your site should be covered with links; remember that order and clarity are just as important to that visitor.

Also take note of standard tried-and-true advertising. How do people read in your country? In the United States, most people read from far left down, so that upper, far-left corner is going to be seen a lot. What are you going to put there that pertains to most of the people who look at your site? How often should you change it? Or, can it be something from Amazon that changes on its own?

What other areas of your site are going to attract attention? If you have a special prize being given away, you can bet that your visitors’ eyes will be moving that way. What item of interest will you be placing near that giveaway? Most likely, it should be something that is extremely close to what is being won in the drawing. You know that the people who sign up for the drawing want that product, so what better place to advertise an item that is in that same family of merchandise?

When those people sign up for a free gift, e-mail questions or comments, or purchase a product on your site, you are building a list to increase your traffic; that list is vital. Keep it growing. You need to continuously build your relationship with the people who are interested in your Web site. These will be the people who will buy again and tell others to buy through you.

Niches are important. Because Amazon allows 100 different sites, you can have a number of different niches that are of interest to you and others like you. This way, you are not just relying on one Web site to bring in all your business. You have several bringing in income at the same time. But do not overdo it. You do not want to get yourself so muddled that your sites become watered down. Just take note that you do not have to base everything you do on just one Web site or blog. Actually, if you keep these Web sites in some broad area of interest, you can link back and forth and have interested people going from one to the other.

Also recall that Amazon will let you know what your potential buyers were purchasing through Amazon after they left your Web site. This will give you an idea of some possible ways that you can expand your product line without going too far in another field.

Always remember that you have a two-fold objective. The first is to bring people to your Web site and keep them there — and coming back for more. The second is to continually open up avenues for them to want to go to Amazon and actually do so. You will see your sales steadily increase as you closely incorporate the theme of your site along with Amazon products that specifically fit the topic. You do not want to only provide information, nor do you just want to push products at people. Neither of these will make you successful in business. There is a fine balance here, and you will find it with time.

This is why it is so important to have information in addition to products. Even if you have an aStore, you can include valuable and interesting information for your visitors. This keeps them coming back; this builds your reputation; this sells products. Amazon products can also be picked up by the search engines and bring more people to your site.

Always make the best of the daily records that Amazon sends you. These are worth quite a bundle by themselves. They can tell you a lot about your customers — what makes them buy, what makes them stay or leave, what makes them like your site or not. Keep meticulous notes on how and when you change your Web site, so you can track the impact on your visitors. When you added a certain widget, changed the location of the ads, or tried a new technique, what happened? Is this something that you should continue or not?

Do not forget all the other successful Amazon Associates out there who can lend you advice. Through forums, e-mail, and even phone calls, you can find out why another Associate does or does not do something on a Web site — or if you should try a certain approach. It almost certainly has been done by someone else who can provide insight even before you try it. There is a wealth of information online from your fellow Associates. If you see something that interests you, do not hesitate to get in touch with that other affiliate.

Most importantly, always think outside of the box. That is what Amazon has been doing for a decade, and that is what you should be doing as well. Status quo never works in this day and age. Thinking inside the box means accepting that everything is fine just the way it is. If Jeff Bezos had thought that way, Amazon would never have existed.

In-the-box thinkers are just what the image implies. They are caught in a box; every way that they turn, they are surrounded by walls and obstacles. They cannot find their way out of the box and see anything beyond these four walls. They find it especially difficult to realize that they can come up with new ideas, let alone begin thinking about them. When someone tries to give them a new way to approach a situation or a different way to improve an ongoing, or even a struggling, program, they put up their blinders and put in their ear plugs. They make innovative people who are thinking with imagination feel worthless.

These people say, “This is the way things have been done, and this is the way they will continue to be done.” They love shooting down anything new; it is too scary and way too risky. “This one solution has worked for a long time, so it will continue to work for a long time to come. Why is an alternative needed? This one works fine. Let’s not muddy up the waters with another option.” Not only are these “in-the-box” thoughts unhealthy in the real world; in the e-commerce virtual world, they are deadly.

Thinking out of the box is being innovative, creative, and even crazy at times. That is what many people thought about Bezos and Amazon. The term “outside the box” is believed to come from the known puzzle developed by British mathematician Henry Ernest Dudeney, who lived in the early 20th century. In this test, people are asked to only draw four straight lines without the pen leaving the paper, in order to interconnect nine dots in a three-by-three grid without the pen leaving the paper. To be successful, the puzzle solver has to realize that he or she has to go beyond normally considered boundaries. The puzzle can only be solved in one way, or extending the lines further than the artificial boundary created by the nine dots.

Thinking outside the box means:

Is the Amazon Associates Program Best for You?

This is impossible to answer here for everyone. Nothing is perfect for all people, even those who are online pros. Yet, there are a good number of Associates who make a flow of money either through their own businesses with added Amazon products, blogs, sold Amazon merchandise, or aStores. It is necessary to keep that concept of niche and associated products, integrate with Amazon on a regular basis, attract and retain visitors, and most importantly, enjoy what you do.

Case Study: Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins Consulting

221 Sherman Ave

Ste #8 PMB 185

Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922-1173

(908) 364-2767

http://blog.affiliatetip.com

After working in the magazine publishing field with Ziff Publishing, Shawn Collins jumped into the Internet, with what is now www.Medsite.com and CafeMom (www.CafeMom.com). His involvement as an Amazon Associate goes back to 1997. He is the author of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants and co-founder of the Affiliate Summit with Missy Ward in 2003 “for the purpose of providing educational sessions on the latest industry issues and fostering a productive networking environment for affiliate marketers.” He publishes the annual AffStatReport, which includes research, analysis, and benchmarking information for the affiliate marketing industry.

Collins calls Amazon a leader in affiliate marketing, not only because it was one of the first to introduce the affiliate concept, but also due to having “the most options and advantages” for its affiliates. For example, he highly rates the addition of widgets to the Amazon Web site structure. This is just an example of how Amazon is continually updating its affiliate offerings.

Collins also gives a thumbs-up to Amazon’s in-house product opportunities. “They literally sell everything I want to sell. It’s a gigantic inventory that can be very lucrative as substantial incremental income.”

The biggest mistake by affiliates, he said, is a “lack of investment and understanding. It’s very difficult to be a success in affiliate marketing if you are unwilling to spend the time and money required to develop a long-term strategy. Affiliate marketing is definitely not a quick endeavor; it takes patience to endure and succeed.”

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