Guide to Getting Amazon Sales

Many people wonder why they get very few Amazon sales on their articles, even if they put Amazon items on every single one of them. Here are some of the main reasons:

1. Writing to inform instead of sell. People who are looking for information are usually not looking to buy, just to answer a question.
2. Not offering an item as a solution. If you're writing an article about how to fix a mower, advertising mowers is unlikely to get you a sale. Advertising a type of oil that makes mowers run longer and not need repairs as often is going to solve the problem and is more likely to get you sales.
3. Throwing in the item without a mention. If you want people to buy something, they need a reason to do so. Even in an information article, a mention of how you used a particular item with great success is more likely to get a sale that simply throwing in an Amazon item as an afterthought.
4. Wrong prices/brands. People are more likely to click or buy when they see a trusted brand or a bargain price.
5. Not choosing item placement carefully. Throwing some Amazon capsules at the end of your article is unlikely to get many clicks. Whether you like it or not, you need to put the adverts in their face, otherwise you're unlikely to get their attention.

I had a comment on this article which I'd like to address directly, about not using or using low adsense settings for sales articles.

Based on my experience, I'd like to disagree with this. Sure, if you're just after Amazon sales, feel free to go ahead and turn off Adsense - but if you're just after all the money you can get, leave Adsense on. Why?

Adsense adverts are usually aimed at items. People looking for information aren't likely to click an Adsense advert in a lot of cases, because they are often aimed at items, not information. My highest CTRs have always been on sales articles. People who want more information WILL scroll down anyway - so why not catch the 'browsers' with Adsense, and the 'buyers' with Amazon?

Certain types of articles are more likely to bring in sales because the people searching those articles are in the market to buy, not just to get an answer.

• Comparison - compare various types of products. You can either compare the same product from different brands or compare different forms of a product and suggest which ones are best for which people (for instance, comparing different types of prom dresses, such as sleeveless, vintage, long or short.)
• Reviews - Do a review of a product you own, letting people know the good and bad points. 
• Problem Solving - Explain to people what product works to solve their problem. For instance, in an article on how to solve severe dandruff, recommend a dandruff shampoo that works wonders.

When writing an article aimed at a product, it's important to choose products that are unique enought that there aren't lots of other articles about them - but common enough that they'll still be searched. Some good ways to pick items for your articles include:

• Look at new release items on Amazon in a particular category of interest (click on 'best sellers' at the top and then find the 'hot new releases' button.)
• Television adverts - companies with new release products often have big advertising campaigns. 
• Catalogues - junk mail can be a great way to find products worth writing about. Catalogues are already designed with the interest of the buyer in mind, so half your work is done for you!
• Blogs - many companies send out new items to well known bloggers for a review. 
• Conventions - toy conventions, for instance, are a great place to see new release toys.

It might be difficult to think of a few hundred words to write about something like a coffee maker, but you'd be surprised how many different things you can talk about. Some ideas:

• Cost and how long the item will take to pay itself off.
• Different types available (colors, styles, ones that perform more tasks.)
• Recipes and different ways of using the item.
• Other items that can be purchased to aid or go with the main item.
• History of the item and how it's improved over the years.
• How to clean the item and how difficult this will be or special precautions that need to be taken.
• What type of people would get the best use out of the item (for instance a new high tech gym machine might be best suited for people who want lots of information about their actual goals, weight loss, average speed, while a more basic machine might suit someone who just wants to get some exercise.)

Another good place to get information for  your sales articles is off the Amazon item page. Many people write long reviews of items, and you can easily pick up information to use in  your articles.

Wizzley gives lots of choices when it comes to displaying Amazon items. Some of those include:

• Large pictures in the gallery option (see example below).
• Adding a buy button.
• Displaying information about the item along with a picture.
• Displaying the pictures in a way that don't look like the usual Amazon capsules. This is a great way to get reader attention, since many people have developed 'banner blindness' when it comes to Amazon modules.
• Fun moving carousels so readers can interact with product lists.