Some folks just love it and others hate it. Well, it really boils down to how your promote it. Can the Amazon affiliate program fit into your blogging strategy? Absolutely.

Don’t be fooled by those who claim that it has a poor commission payout. The often quoted 4% commission applies only to the first tier of payouts. With Amazon, your commission increases based on the number of orders shipped in each month. So when you get to the next commission tier, your commissions increase for ALL your sales for that month. Everything except electronics, which is capped at 4% commission, is following the sliding scale.

As you can see, you can have a maximum commission rate of 8.5% if you can push the large volumes.

Here’s proof that it works:

Here are some good reasons why I love Amazon:

1. Trusted brand. It’s a lot easier to sell something when everyone knows that the vendor is a trusted name that isn’t going to keep their money and not ship the product.

2. HUGE selection. Yes, if you haven’t shopped at Amazon lately, take a look at the different categories of STUFF that they have there. They’re not just about books anymore. They sell a lot of third-party stuff too - even groceries!

3. People know what to expect. Since they’ve been around for so long, people know just what to expect when they buy something from Amazon. The checkout process is familiar. People are comfortable making purchases online when they are familiar with the process. Again, this ties in to reason #1.

4. Great prices. Amazon often has the best prices anywhere online. Another great selling point.

5. Constantly improving. They are continuously trying to improve their offerings with new widgets and new creatives for promoting their stuff.

6. Electronic payment. Payment goes straight into your bank account!

Ways that I think the Amazon affiliate program can improve:

1. They don’t seem to really care that much about communicating with affiliates. Even though I make 4 figures a month with them, I’ve yet to receive any special gifts like the Christmas gifts I’ve gotten from Google and Yahoo.

2. Payment timescale. You won’t get paid for the current month’s earnings until 2 months later. So expect to receive September earnings at the end of November. This can create some cash flow problems if you’re using PPC.

The bottom line is that you should really consider adding Amazon as a part of your blog’s income stream. Find out more about it here.

Technorati Tags: Amazon affiliate program

Popularity: 39% [?]