How I'm Testing Facebook for Amazon Affiliate Marketing
Published: Sat, 10/29/11
Hey, guys!
It's been a couple of weeks since I've written but please don't think I've forgotten about you! Been testing out a few new strategies, working with a new VA and doing some research on higher commission programs for physical products. So much going on AND I had my fingers in some Halloween niches that required attention the past few weeks.
As a result of all that work, though, I have a few things to pass along.
FACEBOOK
There's been a lot of talk about using Facebook to promote Amazon products and, if you research your niche at all, you've probably seen Facebook pages come up when doing searches for specific product review keywords. That's what originally got my attention. I'd worked my tail off to rank a specific product review and not far below me was a newly posted page from Facebook about the same product.
As a test, I've taken the RSS feed from my demo Extreme Review site and imported it to my Facebook Notes on October 23rd. However, I'm having a problem getting the Notes to even be viewable outside of Facebook so I have some more research to do. (I WILL figure it out but if anyone has the answer, could you let me know? I've already set the note to be viewable to the "public".)
It's been a couple of weeks since I've written but please don't think I've forgotten about you! Been testing out a few new strategies, working with a new VA and doing some research on higher commission programs for physical products. So much going on AND I had my fingers in some Halloween niches that required attention the past few weeks.
As a result of all that work, though, I have a few things to pass along.
There's been a lot of talk about using Facebook to promote Amazon products and, if you research your niche at all, you've probably seen Facebook pages come up when doing searches for specific product review keywords. That's what originally got my attention. I'd worked my tail off to rank a specific product review and not far below me was a newly posted page from Facebook about the same product.
As a test, I've taken the RSS feed from my demo Extreme Review site and imported it to my Facebook Notes on October 23rd. However, I'm having a problem getting the Notes to even be viewable outside of Facebook so I have some more research to do. (I WILL figure it out but if anyone has the answer, could you let me know? I've already set the note to be viewable to the "public".)
There's a new WSO out about taking Facebook pages viral in a way to promote Amazon products. I purchased it today to see if it would help with the test. Because it's such a low price, I expected a short how-to guide but it's actually 95 pages of detailed instructions for setting up a viral campaign through Facebook fan pages and it covers EVERYTHING.
There are very easy-to-follow instructions for creating a fan page, creating an Amazon aSTore, putting your store up on the fan page and then creating a promotional campaign for your fan page to attract traffic. It even covers how to select niches. I did NOT buy the one time offer as it was two pieces of software that I would either not use or would have my VA do for me. You can read more about the WSO Here: Viral Amazon
Two other FREE Facebook apps caught my attention this week, as well.
RSS Graffiti lets you add any RSS feeds to your Facebook wall and allows great flexibility for adding multiple feeds and designating on which walls (fan pages, personal wall) those feeds will get posted. You can add the feeds for all of your review sites to your personal wall or parse them out to a fan page for each niche - however you want to set it up. If you have a large following on Facebook, you may find this useful for sharing your sites and lenses.
The second app is called Social Wish List and if you are active on Facebook with your friends and family ADD THIS APP to your profile! During set up, you add in your Amazon Associate ID. Then, as you do your shopping for the holidays, when your kids have finished their Christmas lists, or when you find a hot product for 2011, use Social Wish List to put a little comment about that product or that list on your wall. The app attaches a link to Amazon along with your Amazon Associates ID. If your friends and family follow the link and buy the product - or anything else from Amazon - within 24 hours, you'll make a commission. It's a great way to share your associate link with your personal network and it costs nothing to set up.
OUTSOURCERS
Several people have sent emails asking how many lenses per week they should expect from a VA who is building Squidoo Niche Blaster sets for them. You should always have goals for your VAs and you should evaluate those goals at least quarterly to make sure they still apply.
The teen who does SNB lenses for me in my house works 12 hours a week. She doesn't do the master lenses, only the sublenses. Those take her 1-2 hours to finish and she has the benefit of being able to use my template (a tool in Squidoo you earn after you reach Giant status). I do the master lens and that takes me about 2-3 hours depending on the topic. So, at the best end of the scale, it would take about 13 hours to finish an SNB set consisting of 6 lenses.
At the same time, I have a VA in the Philippines who I've had start to do these lenses for me just a few weeks ago. She does not have the benefit of using the template and follows the SNB strategy exactly as it is in the book. It takes her a full 30 hours to do a set of 6 lenses for me.
This gives you a range of about 5 hours per lens at the start (maybe the first month) which equates to 8 lenses a week and then work towards a target of 2-3 hours per lens to reach by the end of three months which would equate to about 20 lenses per week.
There are ways to use spreadsheets to speed things up and I happen to get carried away with adding custom touches to my lenses which means there's some room to improve on those times. Getting better and faster is all a matter of controlling your processes and finding ways to automate the more repetitive tasks.
VIDEO TIP
Another great tip from a loyal reader! Bart sent me an email about his solution for videos to add to his content when he can't find one for his product.
If you can't find a product video on youtube, you
can quickly and easily make your own for free.
Go to http://animoto.com/.
Register and you can create an unlimited number of up to 30 second "slide show" type videos.
Simply upload a series of still pictures and Animoto combines them with music you choose from their archives into a video slide show. You can then upload the video to Youtube for use on your lens or site!
This can work well for some Amazon products that have a series of pics of a given item...simply copy and paste the series of pics and Animoto creates a music acompanied video slide show for you.
It's also easy to create a series of "Features & Benefits" placards as photos too using say powerpoint, or any graphics software. Or you can simply do a bulleted product pros and cons or "How To Use" pages in your favorite word processor and take screenshots of the pages so you have them as a jpeg.
Insert the written info photos in between the product photos and you have a very informative video! Quick Simple and Free!
MOTIVATION
One thing I know very well is that it's hard to stay motivated in this business. We spend a lot of time working alone and wondering if we're doing the right things. It's so easy to question yourself and your strategy. When that happens you need to do a couple of things. First, ask yourself if you're TRULY following the directions that were in whatever strategy guide you are following. If not, you can't expect the same results but you at least know you can go back and fix whatever was missed.
Second, ask for help. If you have followed directions to the letter and aren't seeing anything, get someone to take a look at what you've built. Ask questions, send me an email, talk to your contacts in IM, and do some research about what might be holding you up. Go back to the 3 legs of the IM stool - traffic, clickthroughs, and conversions. Zero in on which one is troubling you and research it until you know it inside and out. Which, by the way, means you better have some stat tracking tool in place or you'll just be operating blind!
DOUBLE DIGIT COMMISSION PROGRAMS
As I mentioned, I'm working on something to show you how to get more commissions than even Amazon can provide. More to come in the next few days.
Phew, that's a pile of stuff for you to consider!
Make sure to fit a little fun into your weekend, too. For me, although the World Series may be over (congrats Cardinals fans), my son's baseball season is just beginning and as the team mom (my husband is the coach), I'll be out and about watching the game, suiting up the catcher (they're 7-9 years old), and handing out drinks. Nothing like some over-excited kids to get you off the computer for a few hours!
Sincerely,
Erica
erica@extremereviewer.com