How Amazon AFFILIATES Can Help you as an author

For a while I have pondered if I should post my Amazon Affiliates Tips or not. Then I figured if my system helps me, it might help others in the author community. 
(Please understand that I'm trying to be transparent about this program in order to help fellow authors. My method is geared toward them.)

Let's start with the basics....

For those who don't know... Amazon Affiliates is a program that people can sign up for if you run a website, blog, etc.. etc.. You do have to qualify for it. But it's simple to do. 

What it offers you is the ability to advertise merchandise from their site and earn money while doing it. Which includes digital goods. --- For authors this means OUR OWN BOOKS + Any other books we choose to promote. Who doesn't want to make an extra 6% per book when someone purchases your novel? I know I do. (For a $2.99 book you'll earn approx 18 cents for the lowest earned revenue- which only increases the more items you sell.)

Once you sign up and are approved for this program you can start earning right away, by using the site stripe. This will come up on the top of every page that you use on Amazon. 

When you wish to get a link to share you click on the TEXT area and this happens. 

That is the link you use.
Yes. 
It's that simple. 

However, I'm not here to promote Amazon Affiliates just for the sake of making you some extra money... No... here's where things get awesome! Or I think it's awesome. You'll be the judge of this yourself. Many of you might already do this. 

A way to not only earn money promoting your own books, but to use as a beneficial research element to find where your sales are coming from, and how many books you're selling with your links. As well as how many people are clicking vs purchased/no purchase.
It's the perfect tool for marketing research. Telling you where your money and time is well spent and where's it's not. If an ad is driving sales or if it wasn't promoted well. It's amazing what you uncover. 

How do you do this? 
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Did you know you can make multiple tracking IDs using Amazon Affiliates? 
Well you can... 
You can make as many as you'd like. 

All you have to do is sign in to your Affiliates platform here. (Not Amazon directly.) 

At the top of the page will be your email address and if you hover over that it will offer a drop down menu. 
Click- Manage Your Tracking Ids 
This is where you can add as many ID's as you would like... 

Here are most of mine. 

To reap the most benefit I suggest creating ones for all of the platforms you use to promote your books.
You're able to select the one you need a link for using a drop down tab when you click TEXT on the Amazon products page to get your individual links. (As shown in the pictures above.)

Afterward you should use them via the application it's named as. 
Example: I use my GoodreadsBink one when I'm posting my link on my book on Goodreads, when I make a post, etc.. 
Or
EmailBink - that one I use in my newsletter. This is a great way to see how many people are actually purchasing the book once they click. 
The Ad one I use when doing Facebook Ads and so on and so forth. 

I hope this helps you realize which marketing areas are most beneficial. Obviously there will be purchases made that you'll earn money on that won't be your own books. And there will be purchases when someone doesn't use your link. But I love using this tool to tell me if people are really clicking on my Twitter posts, or am I wasting my time...etc.. 

Here's what my December  looked like on the Graph Amazon Affiliates provides. 
This is for ALL tracking IDS. 
You can select them one by one for more individualized knowledge. 
It shows the number of clicks, Items Ordered, of Amazon's shipped revenue (which does include ebooks), Average % of income/conversion, and my Total Earnings.

This next picture is going to show you one of my Tracking IDs when I separate if from the total month. As you can see I had 48 clicks on my book VIA Goodreads but only 2 were purchases... and I made a 7.4% off each purchase totaling 44 cents earned. 

This method is also a perfect way to drive sales from you book interiors. 
I add links to each of my book titles at the end to promote my other work.
To see if these links are truly providing results I check my clicks and purchase rates every month based on that Tracking ID. 
The conversion doesn't work for FREE books since you can't earn anything on something that is $0.
So it makes those links pointless. However, for any purchasable item on Amazon you are promoting it's the perfect tool. 
I also do this when I'm promoting a friends book that she just launched. I LOVE going back and seeing how many people ordered their book off my link. It makes me feel good to know that I CAN HELP. 

Well,  I think I've covered the basics. If you have any questions feel free to email me at [email protected] or contact me via Facebook. 
I hope this is helpful. 
Peace. 

​P.S. Share this with your author friends if you think they could benefit as well.