Is it worth promoting Amazon products?

[rainmaker11]

Amazon offers such a low commission per product. Is it worthwhile to promote these products, considering how not every person who clicks through on your link will make a purchase?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Ron Killian]

The million dollar question. And similar that get's asked so often.

And the answer is, it depends on what you put into it.

Amazon might have a lower payout, but they often have some of the best prices. Not always, but often. Plus you get the commission on the entire order, people might order multiple items at once and they have a huge selection. Not to mention they do a pretty good job or pushing related products. I think they have an outstanding sales and promotion system, quite smart.

Most importantly, Amazon is a trusted brand so conversions should be higher.

 

[Developer]

In my experience, if you're looking only to promote 1 product here and there, then,
Amazon is probably not your best choice. However, if you looking to strongly promote
many of their products, either through direct advertising or even through links in other
products you create and/or sell, then absolutely. As Ron pointed out, they have a HUGE
selection and once you've earned that "click" everything the customer buys, earns YOU
a commission. So again, if you looking to put in some serious effort, then absolutely YES!

 

[Miguelito203]

Amazon offers such a low commission per product. Is it worthwhile to promote these products, considering how not every person who clicks through on your link will make a purchase?

What are your thoughts?

Amazon just recently started allowing marketers in my state to become affiliates, again (dropped all of us years ago because of tax legislation). It's going to be something I'm going to add to my portfolio in the coming year. I have a lot of ideas just from stuff I saw this year. The payout is low in comparison to commissions on digital products (will continue to do this both in and outside of the internet marketing niche), but Amazon has a built-in trust factor. When I go there, it's because I'm going to buy something. I know what I'm going to buy before I go there.

Since the payouts are so low, however, I know that I am going to have to go into niches that pay out more per item and/or just plain sell a lot. With the list of ideas I've got, I think I'm going to do a mix. In other words, I'm going to promote some higher-priced products as well as some low-priced stuff (just because I like the products). Unlike with digital products, I'm also not worried about refunds. I've personally never returned anything because I know what I'm getting when I buy it.

Joey

 

[adeaugustus]

For newbies, amazon is one of the fastest ways to learn about affiliate marketing. Although their commission rate is poor (Reasons why you should never promote amazon product with ads), you can scale up the commission rate by quickly selling cheap products to climb the commission ladder. The higher your number of sales the higher your commission (up to 8%).

I make money from amazon product, and I consider it one of the easiest method to make money online, all you have to do is get your readers on amazon.com and whatever they buy in the next 24hours, you earn the commission for it. I think that's a pretty fair deal.

Take note that some seasons are super lucrative and they're best monetized through amazon site because people trust them and they're always buying during this season, so even if they don't buy the product you're recommending, they might eventually buy something on amazon before they drop off the site.

 

[LavaHotDealsCom]

In amazon, you will get paid if visitor buy something else rather than the product you promoted. e.g. if you promote a $10 book but the visitor bought a $1000 laptop via your affiliate link, you get paid too.

Amazon affiliate is my one of major income of my site. online shopping is the trend and i remember Amazon beats Walmart in 2015.

 

[netprofit]

Try promoting higher-priced (big ticket) products. You need to make just a few sales to earn significant commissions.

 

[HCFGrizzly]

Amazon offers such a low commission per product. Is it worthwhile to promote these products, considering how not every person who clicks through on your link will make a purchase?

What are your thoughts?

Amazon Affiliates is a great point to start for a beginner. Sure it has some disadvantages like low commissions (even after you sell multiple products the 8.5% max commission is not that much) or just a 24h cookie but it also has some advantages.
Like people above me stated, you don`t get a commission only for the product you referred but for all the products a person buys in the first 24 hours after visiting your website. (and let`s think about it this way: if a person buys something of $1000 value, you will get a $80 commission just for a sale).
Another advantage is that Amazon is known all around the world so you won`t have any trust issues from your customers.

After you build some experience with Amazon Affiliates, I suggest you move on to selling digital products because the commissions there are higher (even 50%)

 

[MValmont]

Your commission will go up as you sell more.

The commission is still low but people trust Amazon so it is easy to sell with Amazon

 

[Alex July]

Yes, the comission is low, but Amazon is free to join, and you may be sure, you are promoting valuable products (whether digital or physical).
Amazon is not the most profitable, but, maybe, the easiest way to understand what affiliate marketing is, and how it works.

 

[Developer]

Developer

I beg to differ with you Alex. Many people here, and on the internet as a whole, make a GREAT living from their Amazon affiliation alone.

In all fairness to you Alex, I think what you meant is that there commissions are lower than the what most people think of when they think of affiliate commissions, especially with all the 50%, 75% and even 100% commission programs out there.

The thing is, however, Amazon may only offer single digit commissions, HOWEVER, who else are you going to promote that will offer you commissions on TENS OF THOUSANDS of decent (sometimes AWESOME) products and from such a trusted source.

Most of the money made from Amazon is not even what people promote to begin with. I am not sure where exactly I read this, but it was numerous places for sure, but most people do not actually purchase what they were referred to initially. They go deeper into the Amazon site and buy either a similar product, or even something completely different.

One of the greatest things about Amazon is that you can easily promote a low cost product, niche specific to whatever you're initially posting about or promoting, hoping to make a buck or so and end up earning a much larger commission on a $4,000 digital camera which had nothing to do with your initial referral link, how GREAT IS THAT!!!

 

[HCFGrizzly]

Here is the deal with Amazon which I really hate. Let's say your customer comes with your affiliate link which is for one light bulb, but ends up not buying it and instead goes back to amazon and finds a pack of light bulbs and buys that, well, guess what... no commissions for you bud, thanks for the customer...

Hmm...are you sure you know what you are talking about? From what I remember Amazon has a 24hrs cookie and if you get a person to their site you will get a commission for ALL the products they will buy.

 

[khassani]

Although Amazon's commission is 10%, but if you build great review websites around a niche and rank them on page 1 of Google you will get commissions for several months and even years without putting additional work. So from this perspective it's totally worth it!

All the best!

 

[Hawker]

The thing is a lot of people build sites just to earn with Amazon and then after they don't get much success, they give up and burn the site.

That's why you should never make a site that is intended to be an Amazon affiliate site only.

You should just make a site, and then make it great, with lots of great content and usability.

And then, once its start picking up and actually ranking for something, then monetize it with Amazon products, Amazon ads, links etc

Concentrate on making a great site not just some cookie cutter run-of-the-mill Amazon affiliate site.

You could make an all-in-one site that blogs/writes about, covers many different subjects related to Amazon products.

Or you could make a niche site that blogs/writes about, covers one particular product such as Microsoft Surface Pro or some other big ticket seller.

But don't make it so its an Amazon affiliate site from the start. Don't even have anything to do with Amazon from the start.

Just keep churning out amazing high quality content on that particular product/subject and then add your Amazon ads later AFTER its ranking.

That said, it's all about keyword research and doing your homework. Picking something that you are passionate about and care about.

And sometimes you get lucky, but the majority of times it will take blood, sweat and tears and even then there's no guarantee.

That's why doing your homework is so important before launching any site like this otherwise you could just end up wasting your time and money.

But like I always say, there's always room at the top for 1 more. And sometimes you do get lucky so go ahead and try because fortune favours the brave (generally).

 

[onegoodman25]

I am really not sure what worth it would be for you but personally i am opposed to dedicate my site for a single network / or affiliate program. It can be very harmful.

Amazon commission compare to many other product and service are considered low, they showed again and again affiliates were never priority when they cut them off at many states were nexus law passed ( They didn't even bother trying putting an agreement around it which few other programs do in other states to keep their affiliates ).

I been in affiliate marketing since 2009, been an affiliate for over 5000 company, including amazon, generated for them few millions in sales ( not barging ), amazon by far is one of my least favorable programs.

 

[Developer]

The old adage "to each their own" applies to many things, including peoples' opinions. So, as entitled as you are to yours, and I respect that, in order to see the true value of Amazon, you need to stop weighing just the commission percentage.

When you factor in the MASSIVE database of products and product categories multiplied by the fact that you earn commissions on almost EVERYTHING your referral purchases, the lower commission rate is definitely out-weighed, IMO anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I used to be of the same mindset, I wanted the BIGGER commission percentages, however, I hardly EVER receive a check from Amazon that isn't at
least 4 figures... a lot more than I can say for MANY of the other products I promote which carry a much higher percentage.

In the case of Amazon, the sheer quantity of "everyday items" as well as "far fetched items" definitely wins out - bar none. Again, IMO of course.

Furthermore, I agree completely with your "i am opposed to dedicate my site for a single network / or affiliate program" statement. No one should EVER put ALL their eggs in one basket, be it online or off...

 

[entrepreneurjay]

yes just look for the high ticket items it will offset the low commission rate.

If you are selling something on Amazon that cost a few thousand bucks then you will still get a nice commission

Research, research, research!