Spawned from the Big Sis, Little Blog program, Book Blogging 101 was born. Do you have a question? Leave it in the comments section or email me parajunkee at gmail dot com
Q. What is Amazon Associates?
The reason for the recent buzz regarding Amazon Associates is because of the recent launch of the Amazon Associates for Blogger. The companion app that you sign up for adds a very handy Amazon Finder feature to your blogger dashboard which allows you to insert product images, widgets and product links into your blog posts.
So what is Amazon Associates really?
Amazon Associates is you acting as a reseller for Amazon. You promote amazon products and in turn they give you a percentage of the sales generated from your site. Not a big percentage, but it still might put some change into your pocket.
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The Finder is the reason I signed up for Amazon Associates. Searching for book covers, saving them to my desktop, reuploading to blogger takes awhile. One click image insertion by using the finder made the Associates program worthwhile to me.
Some extra change in your pocket.
You are pushing amazon.com, which is slowly taking over the world, one bookstore, one publisher at a time. I have a fondness for small indie presses and bookstores and there is always a fear that amazon.com is the WalMart of the publishing industry and will put all the smaller stores out of business. Being an Associate might give you a feeling of perpetuating Big Business.
Gives readers the feeling that you are just pushing click-throughs.
My personal philosophy on using Associates is that I really try not to pimp out the links. It comes in real handy to include book cover images and product links and I use that, but for everything else, I try not to push it.
There are some kinks in it, especially when I’m doing a lot of product links, like for my New Releases post. Sometimes I find that when I publish it drops the images, and the only way I can add them is by putting that BUY NOW amazon link+image button. And by this time, I’ve published, I’ve got to fix it quick, so it really tends to anger me a bit. Considering that this is where I use the Associates the most, because it is so easy to just insert the images for the tons of books that I’m showing.
On blogwithbite.com I do tend to pimp the links a bit more, using the handy associates widgets to show off the monthly books. One again ease of use and it’s so flashy...those in and out scrolling and such, and I can put the date of the sign-up deadline. If you want to do something like this, once you have an Associates account, there is tab called Widgets and it will walk you through creating those.
What do you guys think of Amazon Associates do you use it? Have you made any money?
Personally in the 3 months I’ve been using it, I’ve made $10, which I was very excited about because I just threw it back into amazon.com and I am going to buy books on my kindle.
How do I sign up for Amazon Associates?
Step 1: Sign in to Blogger
Step 2: On the blog that you want to add the Associates program, click settings
Step 3: Monetize
Step 4: Click Amazon Associates
Step 5: Check “I want to create a new Associates ID”
Step 6: Click SET UP AMAZON ASSOCIATES button
Step 7: Follow the steps to set up your account, it is that easy!
