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I don’t know about YOU, but since Amazon changed their affiliate commission structure to a flat percentage rate based on product category, I’m taking a hit in my Amazon earnings right along with other affiliates.
How about YOU?
Kinda sucks, doesn’t it?
So – NOW WHAT?
Do we bail on the Amazon affiliate program? No.
Do we whine and complain about it? No.
Do we DO something about it? YES!
Here’s what *I’ve* been doing about it to not only bring my Amazon affiliate earnings back as they were BEFORE the commission rate change…
but to also INCREASE my earnings in spite of the commission change.
UPDATE: Here are the simple things I did to get my Amazon earnings BACK
I’ve been waiting to make this post until I had some real data inside my own account to work with since the Amazon commission change…
AND – most importantly –
I can tell you what I’m doing about it and give YOU some ideas to fix your own Amazon earnings.
Well, today is the day. So let’s dig in and get to work.
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Amazon Affiliate Case Study
As a Case Study example for this post, I’m going to use a blog post I have out there on the interwebs that is monetized 100% with Amazon affiliate links (ie, no other ads, no other affiliate links).
While I have LOTS of these types of blog posts all over the web, this ONE blog post in particular is a great “case study” web page because I have 2 unique Amazon affiliate tracking IDs for this post – meaning, I can get some real hard data stats for myself – and to share with you.
(yes, I watch and track affiliate link clicks CTR and sales/conversions like a HAWK!)
Always be testing, tracking, and tweaking those affiliate blog posts, right?
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About The Case Study “Niche”
The “niche” for this blog post is kinda seasonal.
Traffic, clicks, and earnings “ebb and flow” throughout the year, but the products sell all year long (just some months are better than others).
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About the Case Study Post Earnings
The main product price point on Amazon is about $80 and up.
Before the Amazon commission change:
I’d make at least $6.40 per product sale in commission.
Now, after the Amazon commission structure change March 1st…
I’m lucky to make $3.60 in commission for the same product sale.
So my commissions for the one blog post have pretty much been cut in HALF.
Yep, it SUCKS!
Before the commission change, that ONE blog post earned $19.92 per day on average in Amazon commissions… and hitting a high month of earning $30.73 per DAY in commissions to ME about 4 months ago when the post got it’s traction and took off.
In March, AFTER the sucky commission structure change, that one blog post was down to earning me $9.37 a day in commissions – and I was selling the normal amount of product that month as the month before.
My Google rankings didn’t change, my affiliate link clicks didn’t change – nothing like that.
ONLY the commission percentage I earned changed from February to March.
That means, I have this awesome single blog post out there that makes great sales and…
It WAS earning up to $30.73 per DAY in commissions.
NOW it’s earning about $9.37 a day in commissions.
{insert BIG frown here}
{{ AND add a mean scowl here, too }}
{{{ ok, go ahead and add a bad word or two here as well }}}
So, NOW WHAT??
Just accept defeat?
Try and find another affiliate program?
Toss some AdSense ads on the page?
No, NO, Nooooooo!
There is an absolute Bright Side to this whole story.
And it involves:
DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
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What *I’m* DOING About It
In the first 2 months of this year (ie, BEFORE the Amazon commission change), that page converted at 4.08%.
Here’s a screenshot of an average span of time BEFORE the commission change:
Not bad – not EXCELLENT, but not bad (especially for high-priced products).
And when that ONE blog post was averaging at least $6.40 per sale in commission to me, selling 100 products in that time frame is a pretty good deal and GREAT EARNINGS for a SINGLE blog post, right?
That’s like $640 in Amazon commissions from that ONE blog post.
Cool.
But here’s the thing –
It’s NOT “cool” – not at all.
Affiliate bloggers, including myself, have this nasty, NASTY little habit.
When a blog post is making money that is “good”,
we get lazy and don’t do ANYTHING to make it BETTER.
I’m tellin’ ya, I do it, too!
And it’s SUCH a waste!
So that is EXACTLY where I started to fix my loss of Amazon affiliate earnings.
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Step One – Improve your Conversion Rate
Here’s the thought process here…
If my blog post is converting at about 4% before the Amazon commission changes, and that commission change cut my affiliate earnings in HALF…
If I can DOUBLE that 4% conversion rate, I’d be back on track with my earnings, right?
Lost HALF your Amazon commissions?
Then sell TWICE as MUCH to recover your earnings.
Same traffic, same Google rankings, same EVERYTHING –
except you convert twice as many affiliate link clicks to sales.
…and you’ll probably get more affiliate link clicks, too =)
And it’s NOT HARD TO DO.
The problem is – and why many affiliates DON’T do this is:
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As I said, that is EXACTLY where I started to recover the lost Amazon affiliate earnings for this one blog post.
And by golly, a few tweaks and a little creativity, and it worked!
and it worked almost instantly with the first traffic that hit that blog post following my “tweaks”.
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WHAT Did I Tweak To Improve My Conversions?
I knew I already had a very powerful “Money Link” on that blog post so I didn’t mess with that at all.
That ‘Money Link’ is such a subtle yet very effective little bugger – it’s my favorite =)
So, I didn’t touch my Money Link at all –
I worked on the rest of the blog post.
Here’s What I Did:
I removed any and ALL “distractions” from the post.
If it had nothing to do with the topic of my post – it was removed.
I added a lot more “eye candy”.
I wanted to keep readers eyes moving down the page AND draw (subtle) attention to my affiliate links.
I added subtle “social proof”.
Following the marketing mantra of “everybody wants what everybody wants”, I added in more ‘social proof” types of things to give readers the security that lots of other people like so-and-so product (and people DO… it’s not BS)
I Added additional HELPFUL information
I call the type of post this Case Study blog post is a “UBG” post (sorry, that’s my internal slang, not sharing what that means here publicly)
So, to keep more in line with my UBG type of post, I added more information that truly helped the readers make a good choice.
MOBILE!!!!!!
The MOST IMPORTANT thing is making sure the post looked AMAZING on mobile devices.
I get SO frustrated at myself when I forget to REALLY look at my blog posts on my cell phone – AND look at the post/interact with the post from a READERS point of view.
As you can see by my little screenshot of my Amazon affiliate conversion rate for that one blog post…
My Tweaks WORKED!
I almost DOUBLED my conversion rate VERY quickly –
heck, almost INSTANTLY.
which means:
that ONE blog post is making TWICE as many sales…
Which easily replaces the lost Amazon earnings caused by the commission change.
UPDATE: I have now TRIPLED my Amazon Earnings!
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Step Two – Increase Traffic
Now that I doubled my conversion rate on that blog post, it was time to get more traffic.
Here’s my mindset on doing that:
I already got my lost Amazon affiliate earnings back simply by doubling the conversion rate for that post.
Now, if I can get MORE traffic to that post, I’ll make MORE sales.
And end up earning MORE than that post was earning BEFORE the commission change.
(and yes, my mindset was correct – it worked!)
First Stop:
My Rankings in Google for that Blog Post
I pulled out my bestest tools and ranking data and dove in to find my best keywords people were using to find my blog post, found where I ranked to see what I could easily improve – and then did my 10 step process to rank better in Google.
Just moving from position 5 on Google Page One for your keyword
to position 3 can make a BIG difference in traffic.
But I didn’t stop there…
Next Stop:
My Google CTR
I also took the effort to improve my CTR (click thru rate) FROM Google search results for my keywords.
It’s all fine and great to rank #1 for your keywords,
but if no one CLICKS your Google listing
it ain’t worth squat!
Have you ever really looked at HOW your web page listing in Google really LOOKS?
Would YOU click it?
Here’s some advice, from one affiliate blogger to another:
You have GOT to know:
What keywords you rank for
What keywords bring you traffic
What your Google click thru rate is from your ranking keywords
You simply can not improve what you don’t know.
Here is how I increase my traffic from Google.
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Another Cool Google Trick I’m Doing
I’m getting pretty darn good at grabbing that “position zero” in Google keyword search results.
What is “Position Zero”?
That is those Answer Boxes also called “Featured Snippets” that rank ABOVE all the other organic listings in a Google search result.
Like this:
Grabbing that Position Zero Featured Snippet (Answer Box) is a BIG DEAL.
Those listings get a LOT of traffic from Google (or at least, *I* get a lot of traffic from them).
I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what my post needs to be a potential Position Zero result, formatting my blog post FOR that Position Zero ranking, and being able to see when Google is about ready to consider my blog post for that ranking.
For me, it’s really fun (I’m weird like that!)
And above the “fun” part of it – it’s TOTALLY worth the effort!
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Case Study Results
After putting my “tweaks” into action, that ONE blog post has seen a dramatic difference in traffic, Amazon affiliate link clicks, and SALES.
Just TODAY, and today is far from over as I type this….
That ONE blog post has sold $421.23 worth of products in a few HOURS today.
Which brings me back up to about a $20 a day earnings average – and it’s improving every, single day.
So, got my money back =)
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
Hope this Case Study helps YOU regain your lost Amazon affiliate earnings.
Questions? Comments?
Care to share your own “tweaks” to regain your earnings?
I’d love to hear it all!
Comments are open for the next 7 days.
Thanks for reading!
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Hi Jennifer! Excellent post! I’ve always been supportive of milking every drop of money potential from the traffic I’m already getting rather than simply chasing more traffic. Love these tips.
You said:
“I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what my post needs to be a potential Position Zero result, formatting my blog post FOR that Position Zero ranking, and being able to see when Google is about ready to consider my blog post for that ranking.”
How do you do it?
Hiya Julie!!!!
Wow, that’s a whole ‘nother blog post. In fact, it would take more than a post to even attempt to explain it – I’d show my post and what parts are getting that Google ranking… and then walk thru WHY it’s ranking. Then, I could teach HOW to do it.
It’s like 75% skill and 25% creativity. Actually, for me, it’s more like vice-versa –
I tend to keep breaking things until they work! haha!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
I get that, girl. And I’m just sayin’…I would DEVOUR that blog post.
Just sayin’. 🙂
LOL
~ Julie
Outstanding Tutorial!
I learned that there’s a lot I still don’t understand.
For example you said:
“You simply can not improve what you don’t know.”
Where do you get those stats from?
Thanks again for sharing your results.
Hiya Karen =) Thank you!
Where do you get those stats from?
Multiple places can offer you great insight.
Your traffic analytics… Google Webmaster tools, Amazon stats, your rankings, etc
Lazy might be one part of it… being scared you’ll tweak it until it stops working forever is another.
But have to say, I’ve used the ‘zero” info without even considering WHY it was there… or what it meant.
And that IS lazy.
And agreed- if you don’t really track everything, you don’t ever know what whether you’re fixing it, or making it worse. Toss in all the time lags slow or low traffic can add to your info loop.. and you’re into :”why good people drop out” territory.
Track it first. You can learn what it mens later.
As usual, you rock!
Hiya Hagar =) You know what, you’re totally right about being afraid to tweak things in fear of it never working again. The ol’ ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix’ type of thing ..
Thing is, I, personally, “break” things ALL THE TIME. I forget I’m supposed to be scared of breaking things…lol!
I have learned SO much from alllllll the things I have broken.
Heck, just the other day I made another little tweak test to this blog post, sent Google back, and RUT-ROH, Google did NOT like that tweak. I couldn’t UNdo it fast enough.
BUT: Now I KNOW – lesson learned =)
To be honest, I expected more from this post. Nothing I hadn’t already known, what is missing is details!
Hiya Nick =)
I’m so sorry! Everyone reading is at a different level in this “game” so I try to keep things a happy medium.
As for the more details…
That really comes down to this: I share more details, I’d really need to SHOW what I mean/did/tweaked – and that would require sharing the url to this case study blog post.
One thing I’ve learned the hard in my past 10+ years doing this is to be VERY careful what you share publicly. It was a painful and sad lesson and took me a few heartbreaks to get it thru my head, but I learned and I’m extra careful now.
Thanks for reading and for your comment!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Jennifer,
Great post as always and a great useful tip on how to improve our income.
What I do lately is looking at all the post and keywords that I rank for on page two and push those up to page one. This made a nice impact on my affiliate income in the last months. Instead of writing new post (what I still do) I focus more on updating older post and improve ranking for them.
Will start to implement your tip about taking away distraction and add more social proof to these posts also.
Have a great Easter!
Eddie
That’s an EXCELLENT strategy, Eddie! Thanks for sharing it!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Hi Jennifer,
I love reading all your post as you seem to have an amazing ability to know what I am thinking and then you write about it.!!!
I am not a fan of tracking and analyzing it just doesn’t float my boat, but I know I really have to start doing it more and I too will be able to double my sales.
I cannot bring myself to break things like you do, I think it is fear on my part but glad you can and then offer us your findings
Many Thanks
Vee
Hiya Vee !
It’s not something I ever *thought* I would love as much as I do – but it amazes me how one itty-bitty tweak can make such a difference. It’s become a bit of an addiction for me…lol!
You’re doing amazingly well – whatever you’re doing is working great for you!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Hi Jennifer,
I really like the way you always have a solution for any drop in traffic, conversion or ranking.
This post is enlightening and make you want to take actions.
Thank you for that, you are such a motivation.
And for position zero, I got some but I never seriously looked into it to see how I got there, have some ideas but they still need verification.
As for your case study, since it’s based on a seasonal product, was your conversion rate of 4.08% of the beginning of the year recorded in the “high” season or in the “low” one? Because if it was in the low one that is more than a good conversion rate.
Have a happy Easter.
Betty Parks
Hiya Betty =)
Thank you! Hope this post helps you out.
As for the 4.08% – that was the month previous to the commission change (or about a month worth of sales). The main product type itself is not TOTALLY “seasonal”, but does ebb and flow… and both the before and after conversion rates were during a “slow” time for that market.
Thanks for the comment and the great question!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl