Did you know that almost ANY blog post can potentially be monetized with Amazon Associates? Perhaps you were under the impression that you could only make money from Amazon by doing extensive product reviews. Lots of people do make money that way and it works really well. Many webmasters even devote entire websites just to doing product reviews around a specific niche or type of product.
Today, I’m going to show you how to monetize almost ANY blog post by promoting products that are available on Amazon. The great thing about Amazon is that you can find just about any product imaginable for sale on the platform. Which means that your possibilities as an affiliate are pretty much endless.
You Don’t Have to Write Product Reviews
Writing specific product reviews is a great way to earn Amazon commissions. If you can rank in Google and get people, who already want to buy a certain product, to read your review article first – you can make some serious Amazon commissions.
But – there are many other strategies that also work well for earning money from the Amazon affiliate program. If you have a website that gets decent traffic – then you can absolutely start earning money by promoting products available on Amazon.
Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of thinking outside the box. You can almost always find a way to add a link to a product on Amazon and make it relevant to whatever kind of post you are publishing. Here are a few examples of some different post types and possible strategies to add links to Amazon…
List Posts
These types of posts can be found all over the internet. Some examples of how these types of articles start out can be…
- Top 10 Tips for…
- 8 Reasons You Should Never…
- 5 Holiday Recipes to…
Example: In this blog post on lifehack.org – 8 Reasons You Should Never Throw Away Your Orange Peels – tip #7 tells you how to mix a natural air freshener using orange peels and then transfer it to a spray bottle. Ya see what I did there?!? Easy text link to Amazon to purchase spray bottles. That same tip (#7) also mentions storing some of the mixture in small glass bottles to use around the house. What better place to easily find a set of small glass bottles than Amazon!
The product ‘Showcase Box’ shown above was easily created with AmaLinks Pro® with just a few clicks after searching Amazon (from within WordPress) to find the bottles to promote.
How-To Guides (Tutorials)
Step-by-step tutorials or just general how-to guides are an extraordinary way to ‘promote’ Amazon products without having to overly promote or try to sell products. It’s as easy as showing others how to use certain products and how they can benefit or how it will make their life easier.
Example: In this blog post on campingconsole.com – How to Hang a Hammock – the entire article is full of opportunities to link over to Amazon! It talks about various items that can be used to hang hammocks and all of these items can be found on Amazon…
- Rope
- Hanging Tree Straps
- Hammock Hanging Hardware
Not to mention – they could easily promote various types and styles of hammocks, within this post, that are sold on Amazon. A great way to highlight some of these types of hammocks would be to use a comparison table like the one below…
The comparison table shown above was created in just a few minutes using the AmaLinks Pro® Table Builder.
Checklists (Cheat Sheets)
A checklist or a cheat sheet can serve as a quick reference guide for your audience when nothing needs to be left to interpretation. These can be super-simple and short or long with complex descriptions for each item.
Example: This post on outdoorproject.com – Mountain Bike Packing Checklist – is a good example of a simple checklist. Every single item on the list provides easy opportunities to link to Amazon to promote various products…
- Bike helmet
- Bike gloves
- Spare tubes & a patch kit
- Bike pump or CO2 inflator
- Tool kit
- First-aid kit
- Backpack, fanny pack or frame bag
- Snacks & hydration
Interviews
Interview articles aren’t typically thought of as the type of article used to promote products. But it’s really not hard at all to throw in an easy product promotion. Here’s how to think outside the box and earn affiliate commissions from your interview articles…
It’s all about the question(s) you ask. Simply ask the person that you are interviewing what their favorite product is for whatever. Then throw in Amazon affiliate links within their answer before you publish. You could also mention your favorite product as part of the question.
Example question: My favorite utility for camping is my Coleman Classic Propane Stove. What is one thing you won’t go camping without?
Guest Blogging
Here is another ‘think-outside-the-box’ strategy you may have never heard of or thought of. Actually, there are two ways you could use guest posts to increase your Amazon earnings.
- Allow others to publish guest posts on your site and find places within their content where you can insert Amazon affiliate links.
- Use Amazon affiliate income as leverage to get other blogs to publish your guest posts on their sites!
Tip #1 is self-explanatory. I want to further explain how you could use Tip #2
You need links pointing back to your site for SEO benefits. One way to get links is to secure guest blogging opportunities – where you publish content on somebody else’s site with the agreement that you get to link back to your site. The problem is – it’s very difficult to get other webmasters to agree to this kind of arrangement.
Here’s what you do… When you pitch your guest post idea – explain to the webmaster that you will include Amazon affiliate links within the post and that they will be able to earn commissions through their own Amazon Associates account with the content that you are going to write for their blog! It’s a win-win situation. They get free content that could lead to Amazon commissions for them. You get a link to your site.
Newsworthy Articles
Here is a really good quote from this article on the smartbugmedia.com blog…
Extra! Extra! Newsworthy articles are intriguing to audiences because of their timeliness. People want to know what the buzz is all about and are more apt to click on your article when they think it’s helping them “be in the know.” If something important happened within your industry, it’s important to let your buyer personas know about it. If they see that you’re current with all of the latest trends in the industry, they’ll see you as a true expert and an authority in your field where they can go in the future for all of the latest trends and news. The more a person trusts you as an expert, the more likely they’ll buy from you.
You can publish these types of articles to build trust with your audience and then they will buy from you or seriously consider your product recommendations – like the products you recommend on Amazon! Again, a little thinking-outside-the-box will even allow you to insert product recommendations within the newsworthy articles.
Personal Stories
Perhaps you have a journal-like blog, or even just a section on your site where you blog about personal stuff. Personal stories enable you to connect with your readers on an emotional level. When you connect and relate with your audience, you build trust and they are more likely to buy from you or pay attention to your product recommendations.
Example: Within the post, I was talking about home improvement projects that we’ve been doing and I mentioned that one of my favorite tools that I use during these projects is my Bose Bluetooth speaker. I threw in a nice product Showcase Box, like the one below, to show off the product. I seriously love that little Bose Bluetooth speaker!
Case Studies
A case study is similar to a ‘how-to’ post – except that you are actually DOING whatever it is you are teaching ‘how-to’ with the intent of showing how it works or showing off your results. If you understand how to insert Amazon affiliate links in a ‘how-to’ or a ‘tutorial’ post – then you’ll easily be able to figure out how to insert them into your case study posts.
Example: One ‘think-outside-the-box’ way to earn money as an Amazon affiliatee is to show others how you earn money as an Amazon affiliate! This Niche Site Project 4 case study on the Niche Pursuits blog is a perfect example! The main intent of this case study is NOT to get Niche Pursuits readers to purchase Amazon products from the case study site – although, that is certainly one of the unintended consequences.
Publishing case studies is another wonderful way to build trust with your audience. A case study serves as proof and when others see what is actually possible – they will want to try whatever it is you are teaching and they will take your recommendations to heart.
How to Monetize Existing Content on Your Blog
All of the different post types mentioned above can work amazingly well to increase your Amazon affiliate income. But here’s the thing – it takes a little bit of time to create this type of content. Maybe you’re interested in getting some quick wins by monetizing some of your existing content on your website. Here’s how…
Tip: Identify your higher traffic posts first and focus on those.
Use Google Analytics (or whatever you use for analytics) to identify which posts on your site are getting the most traffic. Then click through to those posts and start scanning the content. Look for places where you may have mentioned physical products. If you find any – simply add at least a text link over to Amazon. You just never know… people click on text links all the time and you can get that 24-hour Amazon cookie set!
Note: The Amazon Associates program offers a 24-hour cookie good for ANY product purchased within that time frame after a reader clicks over to Amazon using your affiliate link. Example: a reader might click on your link to look at hammocks, but they don’t purchase a hammock. Instead, they later purchase some underwear or something. You get the commission for their underwear!
If you don’t mention any physical products in your high-traffic posts – it’s usually not hard to find a place within the content where you can add a mention to a relevant physical product. Remember… Amazon sells almost everything imaginable under the sun – so it’s not difficult at all to find something that you can promote.
Insert Amazon Affiliate Links with AmaLinks Pro®
There are many ways to insert Amazon affiliate links into your WordPress content – including free options offered by Amazon Associates. There are also much simpler and more effective ways to insert high-converting Amazon affiliate links using a premium WordPress plugin, like AmaLinks Pro®. Once you get over your perception that paid plugins are too expensive – you’ll never look back! When you realize that using a paid solution can actually help you increase your income (and save a lot of time), you’ll wonder why you never tried it earlier!
