Amazon Affiliate Links

A great affiliate program to be associated with is the Amazon Associates Affiliate program.  They are the biggest online store there is and everyone knows who they are.

This is just a short post on getting a list of the products you want from amazon.  Getting a single product is straightforward.  Getting a list is a little less straightforward.

Listmania!
Getting a Listmania list and having your ref id attached to it is easy.  Go to the Widgets page and find "My Favorites".  Amazon now has a Listmania! search where you can easily get anyone's list and have your associate id in them when you put it on your website.

Every Page
For any URL on Amazon.com, you can just tack on your ref id.  The easiest way to get your ref id onto an amazon results page is by going to the Link to Any Page page.  The last box title "Link to Any Page" has a textbox where you can paste in your url and presto, you have a link with your associate id.

RSS Every Page
Often times, you have a blog and you have some space to list a bunch of products from an RSS feed.  Amazon makes it easy to do this by simply replacing "gp" in the address to "rss" in most cases.  You can read more about it on their rss help page.  Once you get your RSS url, be sure to go to the Link to Any Page so that you can add your associate id to it.

Check it
If you aren't sure if your referral link is working, just check the link with Amazon's Link Checker.  It is located in the Links & Banners section.

Get Rewards for Changing Your Search

What if I told you I get about $10/month in Amazon.com gift cards because I use a certain search engine?  Swagbucks uses Google and Ask.com so you will get the results you need.  You can also watch videos, do online scavenger hunts, do online polls, and play some games to get even more rewards.

How it Works
Do a few searches in the morning and a few searches at night.  Swagbucks randomly rewards you "Swagbucks" for searches you do through their site.  Once you get enough "Swagbucks" you can get a $5 Amazon gift card or many other rewards.

Why Should I Sign up?
Because it is FREE and they are legit.  They sound like a scam, you say?  Since April 2010, in 18 months, I have gotten about $360 in Amazon gift cards.  Sign up here and start using Swagbucks to do your searching.

Get "Free" everyday products

Summary
Initial Cost: $200
Cost down the road: $0
Time Investment: as low as 5 hours one time
Payout: Everyday products paid for by profits

Disclaimer:  This is something I wanted to do, but unfortunately, I live in Hawaii and so cannot participate in Amazon's Subscribe and Save program.  I'll probably be taking this blog soon as when the traffic dies down.

What is it?
This idea will SAVE you money, not necessarily MAKE you money.  This is all about helping others make money.  It will not work if you are feeling ungrateful and do not want to help other people.  The idea is that  you will be letting people know how they can save some money and time.  In return they will hopefully go through your website and purchase products they want from Amazon.

This idea consists of Swagbucks, the Amazon Affiliate program, and Amazon's Subscribe and Save.

• Swagbucks is a website/search engine where you can earn Amazon gift cards.  Read more about it on my Swagbucks post.
• Subscribe and Save is where you can tell Amazon you want them to ship an item to you once every so many months.  When you do this, you save 15% off the price of the product.  Most of these items have the Free Super Saver shipping.  You only get charged when the items ship and you can cancel at any time.  Read more about it on my Subscribe and Save post.
• Amazon Affiliate Program is something you can use to get a commission whenever someone clicks on Amazon links on your website and purchases something.  You initially earn 4% commissions on whatever a person buys.  In this blog I will use 6% as your commission because you only need to have 7 items shipped before you get the 6%.  I was told if you are an Amazon Affiliate and a visitor gets to Amazon.com through your links and purchases an item using the Subscribe and Save, you get a commission each time that item is shipped.  Once you earn $10 you can cash out and get a $10 Amazon gift card.  Or you can wait until you earn $100 and get cash.  NOTE:  This program is not available in Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico for some reason.  Living in Hawaii, I am not actively participating in this.

What do you get out of it?

• $10+ / year
• $200 worth of products you would normally buy (like brand name toilet paper, paper towels, etc).
• Time saved from standing in line at your local store.

What do you have to do?
Step 1:  Use the Subscribe and Save program in Amazon and buy everyday products using my links to Amazon.

Cost:  $200/year

Savings:  Time (as it gets delivered to your door).

This is where I will be helping you save some time and trusting that you will buy through my Amazon links.  The cost is the same whether you use the Amazon search on this page or just go directly to Amazon. Below are just some suggestions that you can Subscribe to and Save money and time.  If the products below are not ones you normally buy, please use the Search box on the right to find the products you prefer.

Charmin Ultra Soft, Mega Rolls, 12-Count (Pack of 4)
Bounty Value Big Roll, Select A Size (Pack of 24)
Vitafusion Fiber Gummies Weight Management, 90-Count Bottle

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, For all skin types, 16-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 2)

Tide Powder Detergent, Original Scent, Case Pack, Two 120-Load Boxes (240-Loads)
Dove Beauty Bar, White
Lipton Black Tea, 312-Count Tea Bags


Those are the products that I usually buy at Costco or Target.  I have priced out these products on Amazon and Costco and have found that Amazon can compete in price with these products.  These products also qualify for their Free Supersaver Shipping.  You don't need to buy these specific products, but just remember to compare prices because Amazon can sell products for twice the amount Costco does

Try to get about $100 worth of products that you buy 2 times a year and use Amazon's Subscribe and Save program so you save 15%.

Step 2: Use Swagbucks and get Amazon giftcards
Profit:  About $90/year.

For money savings, use the Amazon giftcards you get from Swagbucks.  To see how to get Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks, read this blog.  By leisurely using Swagbucks, you can get yourself $5 every 3 weeks or $90/year (more if you actually put some effort in).

Steps 1 and 2 alone save you the time and money.  Steps 3 - 6 are where you get the other half of your money so that the products are paid for and you can possibly make a net profit along with getting products.

Step 3: Sign up to be an Amazon Affiliate
Step 4:  Do what I'm doing... get a blog

Get a free blog or website and write about what you are doing, which is buying your products from Amazon and saving yourself some time and money.  Add Amazon affiliate links to your website so that when people click on your links and buy products you get a commission.  If you decide to buy $200 of products a year through my site, I would get $12/year from Amazon's program.  Not much, but it's something.  Note:  You cannot purchase products through your own Amazon affiliate links.  This is a no-no and your account can be terminated for doing so.

Step 5:  Get 10 people to buy from you.

Profit:  $120/year

Help 10 people save money and time by getting them to buy products through your links to Amazon.  If they use Subscribe and Save, you should continue to get commissions from their purchase.  If you help 10 people to do what you are doing and spend $200 / year, you will be getting $120/year from the affiliate program.

Step 6:  Get more people for more profits!
Basically any additional people you get to buy through your website is pure profit.  The more people that buy through your site, the more your commissions rise and the more profit you get.

So lets review the numbers:

-$200 / year -> the cost to buy the products you normally buy.

+$90 / year -> Gift cards from Swagbucks to be used on Amazon.

+$120 / year -> Profit you get when you get 10 people to buy their normal products through your site.

____________

+$10 / year  -> Net profit to you after purchasing $200 worth of products.


What's the catch?
You'll be supporting Amazon and the person you are purchasing through.  Though this doesn't cost you anything and in fact saves you time in the long run.

The profits from this are laughable to a blogger who is getting a lot of traffic through their website.  This idea is meant to try and kickstart the affiliate program for bloggers who don't see a lot of traffic or profit.