During late 2009 I published a story showing that a highly anticipated camera was finally available for purchase on Amazon.com. I knew from my own blog that it would be a hit with the readers and that I would get an uptick in orders and increased commissions. What I didn’t expect is that several large blogs would end up linking to my story and in some cases – using my Amazon affiliate link to show their readers where they could find the product!
I’m Rich Biotch!
Now you can imagine what having larger blogs link to a product on Amazon using your affiliate link can do for you, but it’s better to see it for yourself:
The day the article was published I got close to 10 times as many clicks as I normally get and the two days that followed showed larger than average clicks as well. These higher clicks lead to substantially more orders than I normally receive capping out at 81 during that 3 day anomaly.
I later went back and checked the order reports and sure enough that one single blog post brought in more than $2,000 both from the original item from the article and other random items that were purchased during the 24 hour cookie period.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, ‘Snap! I need to go write blog posts about new anticipated products that begin shipping out on Amazon’ and yes this strategy will work well on your own blog, but no you will probably not have the big blogs link to the product using your affiliate link. I have since had other large blogs link to stories like this I’ve done before, but I never again got lucky enough to have them use my affiliate link as they always change it to their own. On this fateful day I’m sure it was just an oversight on the bloggers part as the link on was changed back to their own a few days later (note the drop in clicks).
What you can learn from this:
I suggest that you link to anticipated products during the holidays because your readers are looking for things to buy as presents for friends, family, themselves etc. and if you tell them about a hot new product available for sale you should earn some more extra cash. This is one of the tips I covered in my lessons learned after $40,000+ with Amazon Associates in 2009 but it’s worth repeating – focus on the holidays.
If you like seeing stories like this please let me know in the comments.
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Before you ask:
1. No I will not share the blog that I did this on or the actual product (obvious reasons)
2. No I will not say which blogs linked to my story (obvious reasons)
The blog I wrote this story on is done so under one of my fake names and hosted on a different server than this blog is.
Chris, what an oversight on part of the other blogger who linked to you. I’d say that was a lucky break. I enjoyed the post.
Hope you’re having a good time out there!
.-= Moon Hussain´s last blog ..Fun Friday Round-Up: OMG I�m Less Than 3 Weeks From My Move! =-.
Yah I agree it was more luck than something that could be repeated but it was still pretty sweet.
I did have one question – the article you state was just posted on your blog? Or was there a post on your blog about the new product AND another article submitted to an article directory? I’m guess just the blog that is ranked on the first page…thanks!
No article directories. I don’t use them at all.
This is new knowledge for me — a worthy new knowledge indeed since I am in preparing a blog for Amazon affiliate.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog´s last blog ..Theme Junkie Great Discount: 50% Off =-.
I am already starting to gear up the holiday season so I can get some rankings in place ready. Christmas can be both a stressful and an expensive time of year so I like the idea of earning some money from all those panic buyers and I also like the idea of getting that big payday in January so you can really start making some serious plans for the year ahead. In essence, I want to start the year in profit not deficit 🙂
.-= Richard @ Lifestyle Design Unleashed´s last blog ..Lifestyle Design In Action � Why You Should Reduce Your Monthly Expenses =-.
You have fake names? NO WAY! This is the first time I have ever heard of that tactic!
Yah you haven’t heard of that before? Glad I could help you /sarcasm
Nice!! Congrats on the post! That’s pretty awesome!
.-= Jonathan Volk´s last blog ..Facebook Ads Guide Launching This Week =-.
Cool post Chris. Very lucky indeed. It’s good to hear about times when something good happens, rather than failures.
It’s good to be a little lucky once in a while. Good story.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Giving Away The Farm Results =-.
I have the same effect n my post a two months ago when I posted somethign a aboxing match. That post got a me a lot of traffic and the adsense income increases to 10 times.
.-= paul | entertainment tonight´s last blog ..Willie Revillame set to return to Wowowee =-.
Don’t forget to factor in the long term benefits of the affiliate link.
I had it happen to me. A blog post I wrote over a 2 years ago had an amazon affiliate link which I completely forgot about. One day I decided to “start amazon” again and to my surprised when I logged in there was nearly $300 from affiliate sales.
I know it’s not a lot in comparison but it was quite a shock and opened my eyes to how building these passive income streams is something we should all strive for.
.-= Murlu´s last blog ..Become A Guest Blogging Superhero =-.
It is always good to see biggies linking to your website, the surge of traffic is so overwhelming. Making money from other sites is really awesome feat!
.-= Gautam Hans @ Blog Godown´s last blog ..Mind Mapping Exercise for High Speed Blogging =-.
Stop bragging.
.-= Tony´s last blog ..7 Youtube Channels You Should Be Watching =-.
lol, if you read the blog post you’d see how it was lucky. You’d also benefit from the advice I shared, but if you consider it bragging that’s fine.
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