Here I show you how to make money using the Amazon Associates’ “Share on Twitter” feature. It is as easy as 1-2-3!

Wait! you need to be a member of Amazon Associates. Registration is free. Of course, you must be a Twitter user too!

Got both accounts? Great! Read on for the tutorial.

1. Login your Amazon Associates account, activate the “Site Stripe“. Then, visit any Amazon.com product page. You will get the “Site Stripe” with a “Share on Twitter” link in it.

   
   Amazon.com Site Stripe with “Share on Twitter” link

2. Click on the “Share on Twitter” link. A new window will open and load the Twitter homepage with Amazon-generated message pre populated (you can edit it, of course).

   A bit.ly shorturl link (with your affiliate id embedded) is appended to the end of the message.

   
   one of the Amazon.com “Share on Twitter” message format

   As far as I discovered, the pre-populated Twitter message has a few different formats:

   Check out this Amazon deal: ‘[product name]‘ by [author] [link]

   Great deal on “[product name]” by [author] [link]

   Just saw this on Amazon: ‘[product name]‘ by [author] for [price] [link]

   The message format is chosen randomly. You can try to click on the “Share on Twitter” link on the Site Stripe for a few more times to get a different version.

3. When you are happy with the Twitter message. Click on the Twitter “Update” button. Then, pray that your Twitter follower will follow the link and buy the product.

Yes, only 3 steps to make money using Amazon Associates’ Share on Twitter link. Told you it is as easy as 1-2-3, haven’t I?

My two cents

I am member of Amazon Associates for years. I use the commission earned to buy books on Amazon.com. Meaning, I get FREE books from Amazon.com!

With the new “Share with Twitter” feature, you can now recommend a great product with friends and, at the same time, stand a chance to make some money.

Highly recommended!

*Have you found other ways to make money from Twitter?

P.S. Follow me at @liewcf

AuctionAds is generously giving free $25 AuctionAds bonus for new publishers.

Existing AuctionAds publishers can earn 5% affiliate referrals by spread the word using their affiliate link.

The new publishers just need to sign up and they will receive an amount of $25.00 automatically. However, the minimum payout is also being raised to $50.

Try AuctionAds

My two cents

“Have you made money with AuctionAds?” if you ask me, the answer is, sadly, NO. I dropped AuctionAds shortly after signed up. I had 17 clicks and 15 referrals but $0 earnings. I should sit down and think about how to make money from AuctionAds…

Have you succeeded with AuctionAds? Please share your tips with us.

auctionads, affiliate, money

Image: Setup Google AdSense Referrals 2.0

AdSense Referrals is CPA ads. Unlike CPC ads, you only get paid by CPA ads after your visitors satisfy certain actions required by the advertisers. It is harder but higher revenue.

Here are some of the key benefits of Referrals 2.0:

• More choices: AdSense publishers are no more limited to refer Google products. Referrals 2.0 offers products from AdWords advertisers, so you can find product ads that fit your sites better.
• Category and keyword targeting: Referrals 2.0 gives you the toption to refer products by category and keyword. So, you can find the suitable products that will perform best on your sites.
• Ad unit optimization: Not sure which product to promote? There is a “Pick best performing ads” option for you. AdSense will compare your selected ads to other relevant ads and pick the ads “expected” to perform best on your site.
• Higher traffic earn more: Because it is CPA ads, the more traffic you send to advertisers from your site, the higher chance the traffic turns into a completed lead/sales. thus, you will earn more with referrals.
• Recommend it: Unlike AdSense CPC ads, you CAN make recommendation to referral ads on your site. You write a review of the products you refer, or say “I recommend XXX”.

My two cents

OK, more chances to make more money with Google AdSense

I have little experience in promoting affiliate products. I shall take some time to get myself familiar to the new Referrals 2.0. I will share the tips I discover with you all in the AdSense Tips.

adsense, advertising, affiliate, google, money, referrals

Microsoft Affiliate Partner Network is the first affiliate program by Microsoft that opens for public registrations. As a member of Microsoft Affiliate Network, you are given marketing materials to promote Microsoft products and earn money from the affiliate programs. Currently, Microsoft accepts limited number of affiliates and opens to US and Canada residents only.

Windows Live OneCare is the only product promoted now at Microsoft Affiliate Network. Microsoft pays for each free trial download of Windows Live OneCare. Text links and Banners are available.

Apply for Microsoft Affiliate Network

microsoft, affiliate, microsoft affiliate network

For every Text Link Ads (aff) members, if you are not an AuctionAds member yet, you can get a bonus $5 if you sign up AuctionAds now through TLA promo! You will get the bonus $5 in 24 hours after sign up AuctionAds, placing the code on your website. But note that the minimum payout is $10.00.

By the way, you might interested to read the AuctionAds Tips to Make Money from eBay Ads

TLA, text link ads, AunctionAds, money, tips

Image: Easy AuctionAds options

Easy AuctionAds plugin allows you to add AuctionAds into blog post by adding a custom tag. The AuctionAds layout and format can be set on Option page. It means you can only have one ad format at one time. The plugin installation requires to edit WordPress internal file (general-template.php), which I do not recommend to newbies.

It would be nice if the plugin allows users to set a few of different ad layouts like AdSense Deluxe did.

auctionads, wordpress, plugin, ebay

the eBay US affiliate program reported experiencing tracking issues that began on Saturday April 7. These issues affect revenue share and ACRU performance.

Image: Amazon.com Associates context link in action

The Context Links read web page content and create special link for the keywords. A product preview will popup when mouse points to the links.

Amazon Context Links setup panel

Setting and customizing Context Links is rather easy. The setup panel allows you to configure the link style (default, double underline, dashed underline, etc). You can also customize the product preview as well, such as background color, text color, display product image or not, and more.

Image: Amazon Context Links setup

Even more advance, you can control the context links to match exact product names, open in new window, and limit to the products of certain product categories.

Applying Amazon Context Links is as easy as pasting a javascript code block into your page footer. The Context Links will appear almost immediately if Amazon system have already processed your web page. Else, it will take a few minutes to determine the phrases to link.

Performance?

Using the default Context Links style, I had 22,464 impression and 111 clicks for the context links, but no single sale. Well, I have no luck with Amazon Context Link. Perhaps I need to change the preview style?

Please share with us if Amazon Context Links work for you.

Sign up for Amazon.com Context Links

amazon, context links, affiliate, money

What is AuctionAds?

AuctionAds shows non-contextual eBay ads on your site. It is a Cost-Per-Action ad. You are making money when your visitor register at eBay or places a winning bid or purchase using “buy it now”. You do not make money when visitors click on the AuctionAds ad.

AuctionAds review

I only tested AuctionAds ads in my blog’s sidebar for a few days. In the beginning, the AuctionAds reported incorrect ads impressions because of wrongly generated ad code for me. I emailed them and received the correct ad code.

sample of AuctionAds ad

With over 10,000 ad impression per day, I did not make any cent from AnctionAds after running for three full days. It didn’t meet my expectation and I took it down.

Do I mean AuctionAds is a useless program? No, after reviewing it back again, I think there are few things we can do to optimize the AuctionAds performance.

AuctionAds Optimization Tips

I reviewed AuctionAds again after removing the ad code from my blog. I discovered a few optimization tips that most probably increase the performance of AuctionAds. I share them with you here.

Products — Similar to Chitika ads*, AuctionAds will do quite well on a site talking about tangible stuff(especially those hot stuff on eBay). If you are doing product reviews, adding AuctionAds will attract your visitors to bid the reviewed item on eBay.

*Note: You get paid for each Chitika ad click.

Keywords — Since AuctionAds is not a contextual ad, we need to use correct keyword(s) to get the related eBay ad. AuctionAds prepared some keyword information for publisher. For WordPress users who do tagging, Techtites has the tip to control AuctionAds display using Ultimate Tag Warrior tags.

Ad for Page — Instead of putting a side-wide AuctionAds ad, I suggest putting an individual ad for each page to get a more content related eBay ad.

eBay URL converter — Discovered interesting stuff on eBay? Blog about it and generate an AuctionAds link to the eBay page using URL Converter! URL Converter is new feature at March 12, 2007. Here is an example of link generated: mosquito repeller.

What’s hot on eBay — Since AuctionAds is about eBay bids, it is good to know what’s hot over eBay. You can get the information at eBay Pop. You will get some ideas for AuctionAds keywords from there.

Sign up for AuctionAds(aff)

My two cents

I will give AuctionAds a second try using the tips above. Do you have other AuctionAds optimization tips? Please share with us.

Now, who is gonna make a WordPress plugin for AuctionAds?

auctionads, bid, ebay, make money online, money, tips

I haven’t claimed it. I am not sure what should I do with it, even though I have a long list of Amazon.com shopping list.

I haven’t told you about this. I bought a BOX of books via a Taiwan online bookstore early this year. I don’t wish to buy  more books before I even finish them.

Any suggestions, please?

amazon, gift, certificate, books

“When it comes to enforcing policies on third-party contextual ads, we’ll be following the updated program policies instead of the T&Cs on this point. That is to say, publishers may now display other contextual ads on the same site or page as Google ads as long as they don’t have the same look and feel as our ads,” Brian Axe tells Jennifer Slegg of JenSense.

Brian Axe is the senior product manager of Google AdSense Team.

Meaning, AdSense publishers now can run other contextual ad programs such as Chitika eMinimalls(contextually targeting products), and Amazon Omakase Contextual Links on the same page with AdSense ads.

More income sources for publishers, and more targeted ads for readers.

ads, adsense, advertising, chitika, eminimalls, contextual, google, money

Sign up Cafepress and start selling your own products!

affiliate, cafepress, check, cheque, money

However, as part of this change, referral fee tiers will be adjusted to reflect monthly item quantities. Meaning, you need to make more sales in a month to earn higher referral rate.

My two cents

After the change, Amazon Associates members get paid quicker, no need to wait quarterly. However, it might also means you get less commission when selling same amount of products because of the change of referral fee tiers.

I would rather wait for late but bigger check. How about you?

Update: Amazon Associates increased the commission of referral fee tiers. Basically, it reflect the change of quarterly to monthly payments.

affiliate, amazon, money

Amazon Associates Check

I join Amazon.com Associates Program since 2005. This is my first payment check received. This is not considered successful if compared with my other money-making programs. The link type that works best is text link.

Does Amazon.com Associates Program work for you? Share your tips, please?

P.S. I changed the payment method to Amazon.com Gift Certificate

affiliate, amazon, associates, money

• Build and maintain multiple aStores using a single Associate ID
• Specify products to feature on Category and Sub-Category pages
• Create multiple instances of individual categories and sub-categories (e.g. Beatles Music and Rolling Stones Music)
• Feature up to 54 products on the front page of your store rather than the current limit of nine
• Write longer custom product descriptions
• Better control the layout and design for use in frames by providing the capability to remove the store header and category navigation

My two cents

The ability to build multiple aStores using single Associate ID is the feature I am waiting for. It is good for Amazon associates to build different aStores for different websites.

By the way, here is my Amazon aStore.

ads, advertising, amazon, aStore, affiliate, associates

Amazon.com Omakase Links setup is very flexible

Creating Omakase Links is very easy. The setup panel is very flexible and easy to use. One of the template style that does not find in other Amazon.com associate banners is that you can hide Amazon.com logo in the Omakase ad, which I believe will greatly increase click through rate(CTR).

Can I use Omakase links with AdSense?

Amazon.com does not mind you use Omakase Links with other advertisements such as Google AdSense. However, Google AdSense team told me that Omakase links is not permit to display on the same page as AdSense ads. So, we cannot use Omakase links with Google AdSense ads.

Other websites say Omakase links is allowed with AdSense ads? You might get the information from other websites that Omakase Links are allowed with AdSense ads. Google AdSense team does not seeem to have a single decision about Omakase Links.

I still do not think you should take the risk. When AdSense has two different answers, take the “No” as your answer. Or, write an email to Google AdSense team to get your answer. Remember, “Better safe than sorry”.

Omakase Links is not relevant?

I read somewhere where Amazon.com associates complain that Omakase Links are not relevant to the content, eventhough they are contextual links.

Have you try Omakase Links? Tell us what you think.

affiliate, amazon, associate, money, omakase, tips

Screenshot of Amazon aStore at LiewCF.com

Previously, we need to use Amazon Associates tool to create an Amazon.com associates store. With aStore, the whole process becomes very simple and easy. You can create and customize your own online store in minutes.

Amazon.com aStore features

• Up to 9 featured products on front page
• Include all Amazon products, or display only the chosen categories.
• Customize store’s look and feel
• Offer an online shopping cart
• Show product details and reviews
• Show related products, listmania, Amazon.com wishlist, and etc
• It is FREE

My two cents

I won’t say aStore would generate much revenue for you, but it is a good add-on to your existing website. Afterall, it does not cost you any cent to try. aStore is only available to Amazon.com Associates member (free registration).

Visit LiewCF.com’s aStore (integrated with WordPress Page)

amazon, aStore, affiliate, associates, money

Amazon Online Store running on WordPress blog showing product information and reviews.

The installation is quite easy, but you need an Amazon Developer Key. The default installation assume that your WordPrss blog was installed on the domain root and the path is http://YourSite.com/amazon/. If you install it on other path, you may need to tweak the code a bit as I did.

My two cents

After installed for 48 hours, there hasn’t any sales at the online store. The script would be better, if I can add Amazon.com categories at the sidebar.

Visit Amazon.com Online Store on LiewCF.com

affiliate, amazon, AWS, online store, store, wordpress

CJ is one of the largest affiliate networks in the world. Many web publishers make handsome revenue from it. Before this, CJ was not accepting new Malaysian publishers for years. Recently, CJ lifted the restriction. This is great! Sign up CJ.

[Thanks, Yin Howe]

affiliate, cj, commission junction, malaysia

Amazon Feed Generator takes a keyword and generate a RSS feed according to your choice of sort. Then, you may read updates from your feed reader.

The generated feed includes product images, reviews, descriptions, and prices.

My two cents

The Amazon Feed Generator saves the research time on products. A great tool for Amazon associates members. It could be better if we can integrate our Amazon associate ID into the links of the generated feeds.

Amazon Feed Generator [via Amazon Web Services Blog]

amazon, feed, rss