I wasn’t promoting Amazon products hard enough a couple of years ago in this blog. I put up some Amazon widgets here and there, got zero conversions, and gave up. I found that Amazon’s product widgets were not sexy and flexible enough to attract buyers to click the ads (or so I thought). Copying and pasting the product links’ codes were messy too. Not until I found a WordPress plug-in called “Amazon Product in a Post“.
Since then, I’ve started promoting Amazon products quite heavily, especially on my review posts. Does it make a difference?
Aesthetically, the Amazon product ad looks much better now with the plug-in’s help compared to the Amazon’s default widget code. It’s also flexible because you can modify the CSS to further customize the ads appearance:
Adding one or more Amazon products in a WordPress post is easy too. At the bottom of your Post editor, you’ll find Amazon Product in a Post widget where you can set a few settings and also enter the product you want to display to your readers. Of course, you need to enter your Amazon ID first on the settings so that the sales can get tracked.
If you need to display more than 1 product, you simply add a specific code inside your post (read more on the plug-in FAQ page). The plug-in will then automatically grab the products and display them for you in a nice order like this:
Easy, eh? I also like the fact that it occupies the width of my post layout nicely, compared to the not-so-flexible Amazon’s default widget ads.
So the question remains: DOES THIS MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE AT ALL??
Statistics speak louder than words so here is my Amazon earning report summary from last year:
- 05/2009: I earnt $2.92 using the default Amazon widgets. I then stopped using Amazon ads on this blog.
- 08/2009: I decided to give Amazon another try. I earnt $1.16 that month.
- 09/2009: I found this plug-in and converted all my Amazon ads. I earnt $12.01 that month!
- 10/2009: I earnt $10.38.
- 11/2009: I earnt $17.03.
- 12/2009: I earnt $21.83.
- 01/2010: I earnt $14.30.
- 02/2010: I earnt $49.02.
So, there you go! The figures prove that ever since I used the plug-in, my Amazon earnings have increased by ten-fold due to the increased number of clicks. Whether or not the clicks are converting is another story, of course. So I’m not gonna give you any promise here. You’ll still have to do the work in writing good posts and put the right positioning of the ads.
Of course, the figure is still too low to brag about. Lots of bloggers are earning thousands from Amazon. But they’ve gotta start somewhere, right? The fact that I’m going to receive my first Amazon check by the end of the month is already good enough for me. Besides, I’ve been giving honest reviews, not some fake reviews to make people buy the products through my affiliate links.
If you still haven’t tried the Amazon Associates program, perhaps this is the time to start? (Don’t worry, I don’t get any commission if you sign up through that link. There is no such offer at the moment 
) If you like this post, please share it to your blogging friends (tweet, stumble, etc).
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting post, Michael.
My blog is relatively new (70 days) and I only started placing affiliate ads a week ago.
A lot of bloggers talk about nice revenues from Amazon affiliates so I guess I will check it as well.
Without specifying numbers, can you share whether Amazon is more profitable for you than regular affiliate ads?
Unfortunately I’m not good at affiliate marketing – I tried ClickBanks, NeverBlue, even promoting my web host and many others. Amazon is the only one that makes me money at the moment (in terms of affiliate sales). The rest, you can check it on my Traffic statistics category page
I actually forgot about my Amazon Associates account I setup ages ago. I rarely use them on my blogs except for one blog before where it earned quite a lot selling MMA gear. This plugin would be a good reason to try this again.
.-= Archon Digital´s last blog ..LinkWithin-Inspired YARPP Template =-.
I guess it’s never too late to give it another try. I certainly didn’t regret that at all
I just started using the plugin, took me a while to customize the CSS and still tweaking.
.-= Archon Digital´s last blog ..Why Re-Invent the Wheel? Because Great People Do So. =-.
Thanks for sharing those stats. I saw that you had a nice income from adsense.
I suppose it only works well on blog that write about products? People coming to my blog usually look for free things, probably won’t convert well.
It will work better on blogs that write about products, that’s true (from my past experience). I got more conversions from my review posts compared to if I put some random Amazon ads on the main page
I have registered for Amazon Associates for quite some time but never have the chance put up the ads on my blog. After reading your post and learn about the wordpress plugin for Amazon Associates, I am ready to give it a try.
Hope you can squeeze some dollars out of them! AdSense is still the best so far but for my review posts, Amazon converts much better
I’ve earned my first dollar few days back.
I earned some money from amazon from hubpages. But never tried from blogs. i think hubs are great way for promoting affiliates
Glad to hear it. I tried posting on a hub page before to promote a Clickbank product. Didn’t go quite well so I stop using them and continue to focus on my blog instead
This seems to be a good plugin to invest some time and give it a go. I have abandoned Amazon for a while as it was not generating any sale at all, probably because of the ugly widgets they have which were not to compelling enough. I have a bog about cell phones and this plugin seems to be a perfect fit. Will give Amazon another shot. Thanks for letting us know about this.
Ah..if you put up Amazon ads on your cell phones posts, they might convert. And don’t forget even if they don’t, you’ll get commission if they buy something else at Amazon through your links (happens to me all the time, people buying weird stuffs)
I have been waiting to see a good amazon plugin for wp, they have had a great one for blogger but not for wp? So I will try the plugin, it will save me some time.
Yup. Been in contact with the author and he’s a very nice guy. We’ve been trying new things and test things out too
Nice plug in. But come back again, the commission amazon pay is really too low…
True, but it’s one of the best program to convert because everyone knows about Amazon
I can’t help noticing that there are no longer any Amazon product links/ads on thist very page. Have you eventually given up on it and removed Amazon? I myself am a 10 years+ veteran (if you can call it that) of the Amazon Affiliate program and I have maybe earned $50 or so in 10+years(!)
But, strangely enough, I keep coming back to them when I need a filler ad or something like that. So, how would you describe their performance lately? Worth another look at it or “keep going, nothing to see here”?
Cheers!
Hi there. I actually still use Amazon on this blog. I only put them under the Gadget review posts though. So if you go to the Gadget Reviews category (from the sidebar), you should see my Amazon ads at the bottom of the post (assuming the product I reviewed is in Amazon, of course)
Still earning $20-40 a month with Amazon, so it’s not a bad income earner for me
i just open my account that I registered for long ago. Trying to gig out earning from there. Hope will sheds the light.
All the best! It may take some time before you start earning, so be patient!
Hi Michael,
I am in the process of building my first niche site and learning how to monetize it. I guess I had always included Amazon in the back of my mind so this post is of great interest to me…bookmarked for a day not too far in the future!
Thank you!
Lesley
You’re welcome and all the best with the site!
I love to do my site with wordpress and promote amazon products. There is not until I came to know reviewazon wordpress plugins which make my product insertion to my blog post easy. I have my earning increase by then thanks to this cool plugin.
Hi Michael, its great to see that your amazon earnings are increasing slowly and steadily. I’m trying to do the same.
It’s been a while and I’m going back to visit some of the blogs I visited last Summer.
I’ve been busy growing my business and building new niche sites. This Amazon information will now come in handy as I do now promote Amazon products on a couple of my sites.
I still have a way to go with my business but I’m keeping at it!
I hope all is well with you!
Hey Lesley. Sounds like a busy life ahead of you! All the best for the future of your business
Thanks a lot sir Michael.Although in Blogger it’s easy to put a lots of amazon widget like what I have tried the carousel which looks neat but I find it hard to monetize.
So what are the steps you did to gain a conversion?
I had that problem too before. It was about traffic.. you need like hundreds of them before you can make <10 sales. It’s crazy, I know but you will rarely get some affiliate sales if you only have 20-50 hits
Mostly from my reviews posts, I guess
Like James, I’m using reviewazon wordpress plugins for my review site. English is not my primary language, so I found this plugin very useful to extract info from Amazon.
Apart from using Reviewazon, I believe, exact match domain + unique and original product review is one way to go. Google love original contents.
Agree with that one, Azman. Be honest on the reviews as well, so don’t write to just persuade people to buy from your Amazon ads
Can you offer any tips on editing the CSS code of this plugin? I would like to eliminate prices and the buy now button. Or at make the buy now button cleaner. Thanks!