Sometimes, the most bizarre things lead me back to Amazon.
I've been crocheting an afghan using a very well-known, free pattern that's been around for ages. I was just wrapping up the final steps and decided I'd had so much fun that I wanted to make it again in another color as a gift for my sister and use a different yarn than the one that was recommended.
So, off I went to Google Image search to see if anyone had done something similar so I could get a feel for what it might look like and that's when I found an image result that led back to Amazon. Huh?
This threw me for a loop because this isn't an afghan you can buy anywhere. The pattern is very distinct. You can only make it yourself so why would it show up on Amazon?
And then I found the answer!
A few months ago, Amazon started a brand new department on their site called HANDMADE.
Yup - it's there. Go to Amazon and search through their Departments and you'll find it.
Turns out Amazon is taking a run at Etsy and they've created this new department where artisans and crafters can sell their handmade products. For now, they're limiting the
categories of products but you can read more here: https://services.amazon.com/handmade/handmade.html.
Obviously, if you make anything that you sell, this offers a new marketplace for your business but there's something else we should all be aware of and that is....
Handmade products can be promoted as an affiliate!
For now, it looks like the commission is capped at 4% but this does present some
exciting new opportunities whether you make things to sell or whether your work is affiliate based.
The afghan I just made is listed by several people in the Handmade section for
as much as $330 (which I found eye-opening as I'd purchased the yarn on sale through Amazon for less than $50...but it did take me two weeks to finish doing it part-time so I know there's some value to the time spent making it).
It did look like there were a fair number of reviews for things like crocheted kitchen washcloths and I can make those in my sleep at the rate of about four an hour.
Let's look at five ways you can profit from this new department at Amazon:
- As an affiliate, use the low competition keyword strategy I sent out a week or so ago and look for keywords that include words like:
- artisan
- hand crafted
- custom
- personalized
- crocheted
- knitted
- unique
- heirloom
- painted
- hand crocheted
- hand knitted
- hand painted
- Go through Etsy departments and find the product categories and products that seem to have the most reviews. Which products are most popular? Are those
kinds of products available on Amazon Handmade? If so, find corresponding, low-competition keywords to use to promote those products.
- If you make things to sell, whether you use Etsy now or not, read up on joining Amazon as a Handmade seller. Do some research in the Handmade section to see which kinds of products are
getting the most reviews. Those products are either more popular or the artisan is doing a better job at driving traffic to their listings. Do some searches in Google to see how they might be driving that business and mirror their approach.
- The products in this department are a perfect match for my PinFabulous strategy. (Yes, that STILL works! I made over $770 last year from a small PinFabulous site I haven't touched in two years! And with so little writing required it's an easy strategy for those who don't have a lot of time or like to
write.) Look through the Handmade section for new ideas of products to promote where you can use Pinterest to drive traffic to your PinFabulous site.
- There are lots of handmade holiday, movie and character related products in this new section. If you have any sites fitting those niches, take a browse through the
department to find new products to promote. For instance, the new season of Game of Thrones starts later this month and there's a slew of related products in the Handmade section already.
I realize the commission rate is low but remember that consumers are very comfortable buying from Amazon and these products are going to be
pretty unique, in most cases.
If you can drive a visitor to Amazon for something they can't buy anywhere else as comfortably, you still get credit for anything else
they buy and those items would be at your regular commission rate. Pretty cool, right?
Check out that new department and see if you can't find new ways to sell what you make, new products to promote as an affiliate or even an idea for a new kind of site to add to your
portfolio.
One more thought - just because this is how my brain works - is that the second yarn I chose gave me another possible internet marketing opportunity. It's yarn I
can buy locally from a little shop nearby where the owner only takes cash or check (who does that these days??!!) and where she never has enough balls of one color OR I can buy it through two specialty stores online where there's no option for fast (or free) shipping. It's not on Amazon. I would gladly have paid an extra couple of bucks per ball of yarn to get it through Amazon - especially if it was available through Prime. It might be an arbitrage opportunity where I could
buy the yarn through the specialty stores (or even the manufacturer) and sell it on Amazon using their FBA program.
Always be thinking when you're a consumer AND an
internet marketer - "is there any way I can profit from what I've just gone through myself?".
You never know when you'll come face to face with a new opportunity.
Have fun!
