2011 Amazon Affiliate Earnings

As I finish organizing all my tax information and collecting all documents and information so I can file my taxes I finally got to see what my total Amazon Affiliate earnings were for 2011.

I was not disappointed after seeing I made $790 dollars in income from the Amazon affiliate program in 2011, and though this is small compared to my over $3,000 in Google AdSense income it is one of my top 4 income earning programs for the year.

The average commission rate came to 5.2% which is better than the default 4% commission you get for the first 7 items sold in a month.  I will say that about 50% of my Amazon affiliate earnings came in November and December 2011.  The huge power of the holiday shopping months cannot be denied when it comes to Amazon and you have to think about the holiday rush early.

Putting articles around holiday items, gadgets and such into late September/October can help them soak and get found in indexes early.  The Amazon cookie only lasts 24 hours, but is also lost if somebody clicks on another amazon associate link before that time.  Reviewing products and convincing readers to purchase them early before the holiday rush in October or early November can help you capitalize on those referral sales. (Provided they don’t flush cache or clear cookies before the 24 hour mark).

I definitely saw a boost in Amazon Affiliate income since I started using the EasyAzon WordPress plugin, which lets you easily and instantly add referral linked images to posts.

-Justin Germino