Authors using Amazon Affiliate Links - More Money, More Data
You may have heard of the Amazon Associates program but did you know can use Amazon Associate affiliate links when you're promoting your own book?
More Money
The Amazon Associates program is free to join and enables you to earn a % commission when you refer people to Amazon products you've featured on your web page. Amazon even suggest this as part of the merchandising strategy they outline on their KDP pages (as at time of posting).
"Join the Amazon Associates program to earn an additional 4% on each sale you drive. Create custom links to your book and professional interactive widgets. When customers click these links and purchase your book, you can earn an additional 4% on each sale."
The above quote is from Ten Ways to Market Your Book (info on the Amazon site).
The amount of money you make will depend on how much traffic your website receives, how many products (or your own books) you promote, the propensity of your readers to click the buy links, and the referees behaviour once they reach Amazon - you'll receive referral commission for all the purchases made during the qualifying period (currently up to 24 hours but do check the Terms and Conditions to get up-to-date information).
It may not be a lot of money but the way I figure it, something is better than nothing!
You can also use Amazon Associates affiliate links on Pinterest. (Click here for more information from Amazon).
More Data
There's another benefit too. Since joining the program I've also noticed the data provided by the reports gives a little insight into the purchasing habits of readers who clicked on my links. For example, I used an affiliate link when I launched my last book which was published via a publisher. Usually I can't see sales data on Amazon in real-time (only my sales ranking), but affiliate links gave visibility of how many readers clicked my link, how many purchased my book, and what their other purchases were. I could see the titles of my other books that were purchased, and also what books by other authors my readers were buying. Obviously not all buyers came to buy my book from the affiliate link so the report didn't show all my sales, but it gave me an idea of the effectiveness of that specific promotion.
Things to Consider
- Check the Amazon Associates Program Policies to make sure you implement properly
- There are requirements to have disclaimers about using affiliate links on your website. Most blogs have a page with an overall Disclaimer as well as including an affiliate statement on individual blog posts
- Be aware of Amazon's rules about using their trademarks and logos
Follow Up:
Add the following tasks to your To Do List
- Sign up to Amazon Associates Program
- Make necessary updates to website disclaimers to support terms and conditions
- Update Buy Links on your site to use your new affiliate links
Happy selling,
Nicki xx
