Let me make it clear from the outset: Affiliate Marketing isn't for the faint of heart. I thought I have what it takes; I'm putting in endless hours in my blogs; yet I'm barely making any sales. But I know why: My blogs aren't quite what Affiliate blogs should look like. A real Amazon Affiliate blog is about picking a topic, sticking to it, and writing about it.
For instance, you can decide to dedicate the blog entirely to printers. Or to laptop computers. Or tablet computers. Or childrens board games. Or household appliances. It doesn't have to be something you're remotely familiar with. You just have to be a good writer and researcher and have tenacity and determination.
I didn't go down that route. I chose to write about my life and link up to products that have helped me. It wasn't the wisest route money-wise; how many people do you really know who want to purchase that particular product I'm writing about? Plus, I haven't quite managed to reach out to the autism community in the way I really hoped to. That is because I'm not spending enough time reading other autism blogs and commenting on it, or cultivating a community of commentors. I actually did strike it big last week with one huge post which got people visiting in droves and commenting. But more on this topic later; I will discuss how to get your word out and get hits much later. Today we're going to talk about Amazon Affiliate.
Your first step is to actually become an Amazon Affiliate. Before you do that, choose a niche topic, a product that you think you want to promote. If you're not doing an actual niche blog, but want to write about random topics and just stick in some products here and there, like I do, just make sure your blog already has a few posts. The Amazon Associates division does check out your blog before deciding whether to accept you as an Amazon Associate, so your blog should at least look a tad presentable before you hand in your application.
Navigating Amazon's site to locate the link to sign up as an affiliate is suprisingly confusing. I surfed and searched until I found it. After that, applying was pretty much a breeze, and I had to wait a few days for an acceptance email.
Here is a link to Amazon's homepage
. (If you end up making a purchase within 30 minutes of clicking that link, then yay, I'll make commission. woohoo.) Scroll down or do a Control+F for "Affiliate", and you will find a link "Become an Amazon Affiliate." Follow the steps; I won't post a bunch of screenshots of the process, as I'm already an Amazon Affiliate and don't even have access to the sign up screenshots anymore.So sign up to become an affiliate. And in the few days it takes to get accepted, I'll give you a few tips to writing a successful affiliate blog.
So let's say you decided to focus on Small Household Appliances as your niche market. You know almost nothing about Small Appliances for real. But that's not a big deal; you'll do your research. Let's say you decide to focus on toasters. Go to amazon and do a search for toasters. Choose the one that seems to be a good seller. Read the reviews from the buyers. Rewrite their reviews in your own words. Make sure not to plagiarize, but to use your own words to rephrase what they said. Don't make the reviews to lengthy, but concise enough so people can make their decision to buy it or not. Then, you'll generate a link to that item. Once you're approved by Amazon as an affiliate, you'll be able to build links easily. I can show you how - in a few days, once I know you're approved.
Now that we have the Affiliate thing out of the way, in the next number of posts I'll concentrate on the various widgets/gadgets that blogger offers to spruce up your blog page. This includes a box where people can sign up to get your blog posts by email, a box to search your blog, an index of posts, and lots of HTML boxes to place ads on your blog. I'll show you how to put amazon ads on your page; and a whole bunch of other ads. I am a member of Linkshare, which has a whole bunch of different companies that are interested in advertising on your blog. Unfortunately I haven't made a single sale or commision from Linkshare, but I'm not giving up. And I'll show you how, in a future post.
