Would you ever use amazon affiliate links if you had a high traffic blog post?

Discussions
#1

Hi all,

I wrote a blog post a while back on organizing your notebook. It really blew up and has been featured by lifehacker, fastcompany and a ton of other sites. It now ranks number one on google for terms such as “organize notebook”, “how to…” etc. and pulls in 40,000 uniques a month.

In the begining it pulled in a lot of the design crowd as I promoted it in their usual stomping grounds but now it’s just a totally mixed bag and seems to have served it’s purpose.

It seems a waste to let it just sit there so I’m now wondering if I should try and monetize it and use the funds for much needed content marketing efforts. Not expecting to get rich but hey every little counts.

I’ve been thinking I could perhaps sprinkle in a few amazon referral links relevant to the post in a section entitled “The tools I use” such as

Here’s a few things that could make it worthwhile

  • the post always prompts “Can’t wait to try this out” in a lot of comments so a trip to amazon is a logical next step.
  • the sale price of the recommended products is 10~20$ so not too low and not too high
  • I do have the traffic.

The bad point is obviously how affiliate links may come across on the blog of a bootstrapped product . I’d of course be forthright about the links and wouldn’t foolishly try and hide that fact.

What do you think?

#2

I dont see why you wouldnt. I know many successful and respectful bloggers who do.

You can put a note at the bottom saying all links are affiliate links, and while the buyers won’t have to pay anything extra, you will get a little commission to help run the blog.

If someone is offended by commercialism, they can not click the links, and search for the items the hard way (open a new tab, go to Amazon etc).

It’s one of those things you don’t even need to think about. Just do it.

#3

As @shantnu says, monetize. Also, why not write some more posts on organization/personal productivity/life hacks, and link to them from the original? Perhaps you have a knack for it and can build a successful business in that space.

#4

I’d do it if they fit in well. I have a blog about books I’ve read, for instance:

http://davids-book-reviews.blogspot.it/

It doesn’t make any money, but it pays for a new book once in a while. I’m up-front about it and mention it in the side notes.

#5

Thanks guys.

I guess I’ll give it a go then. I’ll report back how it goes.

#6

I wouldn’t do it. Think about it this way: “how will doing this affect on how people perceive my main offering?”

In your case, your app is about creating freelance proposals and your main education theme in the blog is “how to get new leads/customers?”

In my opinion, showing that you need money from affiliate-links (which is usually pennies compared to what the main business should be doing gives me the impression that you are short on money and maybe not so good on getting leads/clients. So I think affiliates in a blog like yours will erode the authority that you are trying to build.

You can always try how it goes, but with $40,000 uniques and Amazon affiliates, we are talking about less than <$100 per month, probably. It depends on the mindset people are in when finding this article (I love the article, BTW, great stuff - but I have a notebook and a pen). How much does your credibility cost?

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#7

Thanks @kulmala

That’s exactly what I was thinking.

The perfect plan would be to just create a totally separate site for that post alone and redirect traffic and avoid any authority erosion.

However that comes at a cost of losing general seo juice for my main site and a days work setting it up. And if as you say it results in very little it was all for nothing.

I wish there was a way I could just test it without any ramifications but looks like there isn’t. I’ll just have to try it out for a week or two and see how it goes.

Hmm Ill wait for more responses before moving forward with this.

#8

I wouldn’t do it. Rather keep the pagerank and brand.

#9

Cheers @Richard - does adding an affiliate link affect pagerank?

#10

IMO, add the affiliate links, and don’t even bother with a disclaimer. Don’t even think twice about it, just do it.

You might earn enough for a cup of coffee per month, and you are not going to upset anyone simply because your link to a product you recommend goes directly to Amazon with some affiliate id.

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#11

All links from a page are considered in pagerank, although not all recipient pages receive it.

A link will pass pagerank unless it’s listed as NOFOLLOW, in which case that pagerank is just lost. The linking page’s ability to pass PR is still affected by that link.

It might not be a significant amount, depending on how many other links you have. It’s not a nice internet when everyone hoards their PR, but Amazon certainly doesn’t need it.

So some would, some wouldn’t, you’ll have to make up your own mind :smile:

#12

@Robodisco

With 40,000 uniques you might get 500-1000 clicks per month on your Amazon links, which will translate to between 25-50 actual Amazon sales, which at their base referral rate would probably be around $1 for each sale.

In other words, you don’t have the type of traffic required to actually make decent money from Amazon.

You’d be much better off finding some type of affiliate deal that is related to that article somehow, preferably for a service of some type. The conversion rate might be lower, but you could benefit to the tune of a lot of money per sale.

Although that’s just general advice for an article like that.

My more specific advice is that your article tells me nothing about your startup, and the “ad” at the bottom looks like an ad, so I ignored it. I’m guessing your conversion rate on that isn’t good. So I’d optimize the article for the important conversion, which is people that might be interested in whatever it is that your startup does (I’m still not sure).

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