$508 So Far From Amazon This Year

I am very pleased that I have made $508 from Amazon this year. Hopefully I get a few more sales before the end of December but $500 is a good number. $500.22 is from sales commissions and $8.00 is from Bounties.

This is not a fortune. I can't quit my job. I am very happy however. I didn't put as much time into my websites this year so the fact that I made more on Amazon this year than last is a step in the right direction.

Amazon gets very mixed reviews among affiliate marketers but it has worked out very well for me. I love the Amazon Associate program and plan to keep using it.

If I promoted more high end products I could make more as well. You can see the totals at the bottom of the image. 344 items shipped,$500 in earnings, 12.49% conversion rate. That means my average commission is only about $1.45. I have learned it is easier to sell lower cost items however. People don't spend as much time debating on a $10 or $20 item. They spend a long time debating on a $200 item and then (this is the kicker I had not thought of before) they are more likely to return the expensive items. It is perfectly logical. I do it myself. I am not as likely to bother returning a $10 item that was shipped and has to be shipped back to wherever I got it. If it was at the grocery store I can just take it with me the next time I go but I am not going to go to the post office to drop it off and pay for postage to send it back.

I only had 8 returns this year but they were all expensive items :(

This was frustrating but it shows the pros and cons of selling lower end or higher end items. Many of the products I review are in the $10-$40 range. A few are lower, a few are higher. Of course there are lots and lots of random items people buy that have nothing to do with my reviews. Therefore, you will never be able to fully control the items people buy through your links. People often end up buying lots of small items when they are on Amazon...like cell phone cases, DVD's, books. The problem with many of these items is that they fall into a lower commission bracket for the Amazon Associate's program. Many items are only 4%. The items I review are all in the 8% bracket which really helps! Pet and home goods are in the 8% fee category.

If you want to try Amazon don't let the naysayers discourage you. It works well and has great advantages. The biggest advantages for me are that Amazon has so many products and people often buy items that have nothing to do with what you review. That means if someone buys a coffee maker after they read your review and clicked your link for shoes, you get the commission on the coffee maker. If they buy a blender, a car seat or a candle, it doesn't matter, you get the commissions.

Another advantage is that all these sales of random products go toward one payout for you. If you were an affiliate with 10 different programs for 10 different products, you might not get paid anything for a very long time because you would have to reach the payout threshold amount for each program. Some are only $20 but some are $100. It all depends on the individual program. If you have a sale in each of the 10 programs you might not get paid if you have not reached that threshold. For this reason I have not been paid yet in any of the other (just a few) affiliate programs I signed up for excpet W.A. of course!

With Amazon, every little sale adds into the big pot of commissions. This means I get paid every single month. Amazon and W.A. every month. Everything else, zero.

I hope you are all having a good Holiday Season and will have a Merry Christmas next week, or a Happy Chanukah or whatever holiday you celebrate!