Amazon: I'm a bit confused

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   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   I've read several posts from people who say that they make the bulk of their money by writing hubs about Amazon's best selling products and inserting Amazon capsules for the products.
   
   I figured I could do that. So I went to Amazon and found that a certain type of knife sharpener was one of their hot sellers in the kitchen category. I did my research and was ready to start writing my hub on knife sharpeners. Fortunately, I searched HubPages first and found that someone had recently written the same hub I was getting set to write.
   
   So...there are only a finite amount of "best sellers" on Amazon. If everyone follows that same lead by writing about Amazon's best sellers, we're going to have hubs competing against hubs ad nauseum. Is that standard practice? Is it bad etiquette? Is it every man for him or herself?

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      traceyeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hi lrohner,
      
      I wouldn't worry too much about if someone else has already written a hub on that product, there is room for all of us here.  If every affiliate only promoted something that no-one else is promoting then we'd have nothing left!
      
      Besides you should be looking at your overall competition in the search engines rather than looking just on hubpages.
      
      Ok, so I'm assuming that you went and checked that people are actually searching for the name of this knife sharpener first right?
      
      Without knowing exactly which product you are looking at, currently the number one bestselling knife sharpener at Amazon is the Accusharp.  So I put that into the Google Adwords keyword tool and see that with Exact Match the keyword "accusharp knife sharpener" gets around 5,400 per month.  That's decent so let's continue.
      
      Next let's look at your competition.  Everyone does this differently, but this is how I do it.  In Google I look for sites that have that exact keyword in the title (since that will give you a boost in rankings).  So I type in intitle:"accusharp knife sharpener" into google and see that there is 78,200 competiting sites.  Whoa - way too competitive.  Skip this product.
      
      Keep doing this until you find a product that has decent searches but less than 1000 intitle competing sites.
      
      That is the product that will earn you lots of Amazon commissions.
      
      Hope that's helped!
      Tracey

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         johnr54posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know that I would give up that easily.  There are several results on the 1st page of Google that only have a Page rank of 2 or zero, you can easily compete with that on Hubpages.  You do need a reason for people to click on your listing rather than the accusharp site itself, or the Amazon listing below that, so you need to highlight that it's a review, or tease with a title that claims something like " 4 Key reasons to buy an accusharp knife sharpener".  But with a little work you can probably get on the first page of Google.
         
         For example, the gadgetgrid page only has 8 inbound links, all from the gadgetgrid site.  You can do that well on Hubpages by linking between your own hubs.

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            lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks all! John - question for you. What is the best way to link -- or does it make a difference at all? Linking directly in the article, through a links capsule or by creating a hub group so that you have that little linking thingee at the bottom?

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               johnr54posted 13 years agoin reply to this

               First, I always put hubs in groups.  That will give you a couple of links without any real work.  Hubpages generates some on its own.  Finally, I will add links to my related hubs, either with a link module or an RSS feed of my hubs with a related tag.

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         Maddie Ruudposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         78,200 isn't that bad, actually.  I'm the first result for wu yi tea (without quotes) which has 1,200,000.  While that's a special case, I've still got plenty of hubs on page one for keywords with many, many more results than 78,200. 
         
         Two more random examples: third result for celebrities with eating disorders (no quotes), which has 275,000 results.  8th result (first page) for natural vs organic food (no quotes), which has 25,500,000 results.
         
         My point is, it's very doable.

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            johnr54posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            You have to remember, you aren't competing with all 1.2 million sites, only the 10 on the first page of Google.  That's really the best way to judge the ability to rank.  Look at their Page Rank and inbound links.

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               lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               But don't you have to beat out the other 1,199,980 pages to get to page one first?

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                  KCC Big Countryposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Don't you think if you beat the ten on the front page that automatically means you've beaten all the rest?  Think about it.  Those 10 have already beaten all the rest.  You have to beat them.

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                     lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     If feeling just a little, teensy, eensy blonde right now...

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                        KCC Big Countryposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        'tis ok....we all do it sometimes. 

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   Dame Scribeposted 13 years ago

   Everybody has their own style of writing and it all depends on your presentation who says it has to be a review of the product? why not a story, a poem? let you mind wander freely n you will come up with your own version don't worry about everybody else

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   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   Thanks Dame, but the point of the Hub is to sell the product. Not sure I'm creative enough to do that with a poem! 

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      wordscribe41posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, knives, they are so sharp
      They cut and cut gracefully, like a harp,
      Oh buy this one from Amazon,
      It's good enough to cut the lawn.
      
      Sorry, had to get that out. 

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         lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         

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   Dale Mazurekposted 13 years ago

   You need to remember this is the WWW  different keyword research may end up at different places.
   
   buy kitchen knives online
   best kitchen knives online
   new kitchen knives online
   kitchen knives online.
   
   See what I'm getting at.  Ultimately these will all end up on different pages of different search engines.  You have little to worry about with competition.  Just do your keyword research and you will do fine.
   
   Oh ya the terms above are not researched but just examples so you may want to check them if you are going to use them.  Not very original but meant as examples.
   
   Cheers

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      lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Good point, Dale. Hadn't thought about it in that respect. It's not the products we'd be competing for. It's the keywords. Thanks!

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   Dame Scribeposted 13 years ago

   too funny, lol

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   annvansposted 13 years ago

   Yeah, just do what you want as long as it is not copied, who cares?  Just write away.  There are tons of hubs on the same subjects.

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   yoshi97posted 13 years ago

   Also, you need to work some magic to get the reader to the realization that they really need a knife sharpener ... and in particular ... the model you are discussing the attributes of.

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   Mishaposted 13 years ago

   It's called competition and it is healthy and beneficial for a buyer - those that do the best job in writing and promoting their hubs win, others lose

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   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   Thanks Misha and Yoshi. Just wondering how it works, is all.

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    Eaglekiwiposted 13 years ago

    Can someone tell me how to add an 'Amazon Widgets' to a hub.
    I get as far as copying the code etc ,but where to paste, and  have the widget (carousal advert.),on my page.
    
    Have many people had much success selling Amazon products via hubs?

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       lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Eagle - The easiest way is to just go to Amazon (not affiliate central), search for a product, go to that page and grab the URL. In your hub, add an Amazon capsule and for each item, just paste the URL into the box. You can also go to the Amazon Affiliate site and grab the product number as well and use that instead of the URL. You don't need any code for Amazon since you've already put in your affiliate ID into your HubPages setup.

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          Eaglekiwiposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Ohhhh okie doke, thanks alot ,off again to fiddle around!

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          Eaglekiwiposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Hmm,still not getting what I wanted , I get the normal Amazon adverts (like named capsule etc) ,but for the widgets I have to paste the HTML somewhere....I need chocolate ,be back soon..

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    cindyvineposted 13 years ago

    But Amazon don't pay much commission on sales, do they?

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       girly_girl09posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Unfortunately not lol. A lot of my products I feature in Hubs are smaller, low cost items so it takes a lot to equal anything substantial. Last month I made 40-ish and sold about 30 items. lol (One of which had a commission of $25), so you can imagine the commission on the other 29 products!
       
       Better than nothing, though.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    The widget codes do not work in the Amazon capsules provided by hubpages. You can just do products by keywords and product numbers. There is not way to get those snazzy carousel widgets into your hub. I have them on my other web sites and blogs, but not here.

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    Eaglekiwiposted 13 years ago

    Thanks Nellie... that solves that then. Appreciate it.
    
    Pity though huh , still I have chocolate I spose.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    My pleasure Eaglekiwi, I've been indulging in a bit of chocolate myself today.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    It always amazes me how you can optimize for a keyword or phrase. And then you can end up on page one for a slight variaton, that is probably just as good. You just never know how things are going to play out.
    
    What Johnr54 is pointing out is the value of backlinks, in competing. While hub linking is good, back linking from other sites and blogs is better (at least in my experience).
    
    But hubs are free, sorta, go for it and learn.

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    lrohnerposted 13 years ago

    Good advice. Thanks Nelle and John.

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    Marisa Wrightposted 13 years ago

    I'm wondering where you read all the threads about people making money with Amazon, anyway.  Most Hubbers I know have made very little with Amazon. 
    
    I make the bulk of my HubPages income with Adsense.  eBay is a distant second.  Amazon is way, way down the list and I've removed most of Amazon capsules from my Hubs for that reason.

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       lrohnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       That's what I thought initially. I make my consistent dribs and drabs from Adsense on HP. But from reading some of these threads, I ascertained that there is a very specific formula that will bring good revenues from Amazon. I'm still trying to find, but will shout to the world when I do. Wish I could remember what those other threads were. I think Mark Knowles was one of the posters? (Gotta write that hub on Alzheimers and short-term memory loss....)     

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          Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          If you're already earning consistent dribs and drabs on Adsense, you're doing well.  I had only earned $2 after two months.  Now my total earnings are over $500.  Not bad considering I only write about one Hub per month these days.
          
          The key to Amazon is simple - your Hub has to sell the article you're advertising.  I recall Mark decided to give up on low value items and only advertise the highest value items he could find.

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    Eaglekiwiposted 13 years ago

    Forever the optimist I am
    
    No I take your point re Amazon ,but as Im not making alot anywhere ,every little bit helps is my motto.

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