How to sell on Amazon.com

Ha! If I knew the perfect recipe for Amazon sales...rest assured - I would tell you about it.

However, I did notice something...

About 70-80% of my Amazon sales are products I had NOT advertised! Products I didn't even know about, or things I don't care writing about. Paraphrasing our Wizzley author Pukeko: We just love cookies!

More importantly, I've noticed something else...

No matter what items people buy, most of my sales come from a very small group of pages: my very best articles. ("Coconut Macaroons", "Fuzzy Bunny Slippers", and a couple more on Squidoo and Pagewizz.)

It's stunning because people almost never buy what I advertise. But they do buy plenty of other stuff.

I'm wondering...do they enjoy these pages so much that they get into a shopping mood, even if they're NOT interested in my ads?

Could it be that---even for sales pages---the content quality is more important than the ads?

What's your take on this?

Mine are probably about 50/50. I do get a lot of sales for the items that I advertise...particularly if it is a real "niche" item. Then there are those sales that have me scratching my head because I don't see a correlation to the link that took them to Amazon in the first place. But, I'm thrilled with the sale!

And sometimes those purchases give me an idea about something else to write about.

I do think quality content does make a difference. A personal review and meaningful information goes a long way in building trust with a reader.

I get some strange things brought, but the majority of items are ones that I've listed on my pages - the non listed items are usually sold on the same day as things that I have listed so I assume that they've gone shopping as well.

I  think that there are a couple of different types of buyers, those that want lots of quality information and then you just have to hope that you swing them over while they're in the buying process and not 'find them' while they're still in the research phase.

Another type of buyer are the ones that know they want say a Big Bang Theory t-shirt, but they're not sure which one - these buyers actually just want to see what's available and don't need a lot of information on the product, they'll click on what they like and buy from there.

The main thing (I believe) is to know your audience and know which type of buyer you're writing for and then (hopefully) you'll start to make regular sales.

Yesterday's blog post on my Squidoo blog was actually on how to make Amazon sales - not sure if it's appropriate to link drop here - let me know if you'd like me to do so

Sure, go ahead and give us your link, Lou.

Making Sales with Amazon is one in a series of posts that I am planning to write on my Swimming with Giant Squids blog.   It's written for Squidoo, but it's easy to use the tips for any platform.

Most of my sales come from specific products I am featuring on niche specific lenses. However, once they have bought that product then they often go on to buy other products.

This was certainly the case in the run up to last Christmas.

That's a very good blog post Lou

While I get loads of non-related sales, I do think the majority of my sales overall is on topic. Not that I ever did a statistical analysis. 

It's probably about 45%-55%. The sales come from sales pages though, in a majority of cases. I think people come to those pages looking to shop and while they may not be ready to buy what they were looking for just yet, they are in a shopping mood so will buy stuff from amazon anyhow. 

I do think this is one of the advantages of amazon over other affiliate networks. 

I agree with Katinka that Amazon itself is the factor in this case. Amazon is really good at selling things. I've even come to expect that related products row on the page to give me recommendations. I find lots of good things that way instead of searching.

I've read many times to put interesting products on your pages. Just get the reader to click to Amazon. Amazon will do the rest. (And there is no counting how many purchases were credited to my affiliate account because hubby came home and bought some hunting gear after wifey was researching homeschool curriculum. I've had some weird, weird things bought from curriculum lenses -- air filters, jewelery, ear plugs.)

I must confess that I "accidentally" clicked on an amazon ad in someone else's article. I hope they don't take my affiliate status away! Once I realized it I quickly shut everything down in a panic. but then realized I wasn't signed into Wizzley, so hopefully I won't have repurcussions.

But I wanted to share why it happened. I was so engrossed in reading Wrylit's pages that I forgot where I was and clicked on the ad. It was one of those little chairs for babies, I think it was called bumble or bumbler. I was so enticed and curious about the product (I often babysit an infant) that I wanted more information and absent-mindedly clicked.

I think success must lie in choosing products that are VERY useful and at the same time not as common as the every day type of product that everyone already has.