Amazon Associates is one of my favorite affiliate programs. Don’t let the 4% entry level commission fool you, once you make only 7 sales in a month you jump to 6% which is pretty competitive for a store that is that well known. Of course the more you sell the more you make.

Not only that but Amazon have some of the coolest toys for affiliates.

They give you access to all their data to use on their site via their api and also provide bunches of cool widgets to use and test.

I don’t recommend slapping an amazon ad on a random page, generally product type sites do best, duh, probably because amazon sells products ;) Now for my favorite at the moment.

Omakase Links

Omakase links “will show an Associate’s visitors what they’re most likely to buy based on Amazon’s unique understanding of the site, the user, and the page itself. To create Omakase links, simply modify the template and appearance elements below and copy the resulting code on to your page. Then leave the rest to Omakase!”

Here is why I love Omakase links

1. They convert the best. My report shows my conversion rate of visits into sales for this quarter is 5.5%. That is selling 5.5 products for every 100 clicks.

2. Not only are Omakase links contextual based on the page they are on, they are also based on the user. So amazon shows related products to the page AND the user. If the user shopped for wooden nickels earlier it might also show that ad in their widget.

Direct links still account for most of my amazon earnings, I’ve been using them the longest, however Omakase is my best converting widget.

When/Where to test

Any place that you use something like Chitika or widgetbucks or adsense I would split test with Omakase Links, IF, the page is product related.

If you don’t have much volume it won’t make you riches over night, but over the long haul you might be surprised that amazon affiliate sales pay you more than getting paid per click from other places.

Amazon Negatives

While we are on amazon, I HATE their lame reporting. Not only can you not create dynamic tracking id’s (you are limited to around 1200) it takes over 24 hours for your stats to update.

Also, while I’m writing this I just saw Darren make this tweet:

Amazon Affiliate program’s ‘customer care/support’ is the most antiquated frustrating system I’ve ever used

Do you use amazon affiliate program? Any favorites there?