What's the biggest item you've sold at Amazon?

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   I think some hubbers need some encouragement to work with Amazon. So I thought that I would share my biggest item. This summer I sold a big backyard swimming pool for $999. At my commission level that month, I made about $70 on that sale. Held my breath that it wasn't returned.
   
   Of course most of my sales are more for items around $20. But they still add up.
   
   Anyone else want to share? I know these kinds of threads always make me feel better on bad days. I still read Janet21's thread about her diamond ring, when I'm down. And Girly Girl's thread yesterday about her adsense earnings made me feel better as well.
   
   I know it's not always about the ca-ching. But in these times, money is such an issue for so many of us.

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      lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Nelle, you are my hero!

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   livewithrichardposted 14 years ago

   You know I just started to really push the Amazon products and recently sold a $240 iPod Touch.  Most of my Amazon-optimized hubs are for products less than $50. 
   
   Wish I could remember where, but I read that most new online buyers are reluctant to spend more than $50.  Once they become more comfortable and secure with online purchases, that ammount increases.

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   When you push Amazon you have to remember the short cookie duration. (Some say it's 24 hours others say it's a one-session cookie.) So if you a pushing high-end items, shoppers may be more likely to leave the site to do comparisons. And you may lose your cookie. But sometimes you do get lucky!

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      livewithrichardposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Good point about the cookie.  This is why I try to have a call to action statement in those hubs.  I may put more of an effort with Ebay but I havn't heard anything good from fellow hubbers about Ebay to put too much effort with that program.  There is one hubber that does put a lot of effort with ebay but he builds external websites completely devoted to EPN products so that may be a way to go, review products here to get the site authority behind you then direct potential leads to your own EPN website.

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   I'm starting to see some success with Ebay. I do think it's possible on Hubpages. Just gotta play with it some more. I made a bad decision to delete hundreds of links and dozens of pages when Ebay said that they weren't going to allow sites like hubs in their program. I should've just unpublished. I've set myself back by months.

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   sunstreeksposted 14 years ago

   I recently had an amazon sale for a $235 Olympus waterproof camera. $9+ commish on that one.
   
   I really try to focus on items that are $20 to $60. They seem to have the most success for me.
   
   I did wake up one morning, logged into amazon affiliate on my phone and saw I sold 70 items in a single day. That was my my highest daily total for items sold. I was in a rush and didn't go to see what was sold until I got to work..
   
   Imagine my surprise when 68 items were .79 cent bingo daubers =P The other two were packages of bingo cards. This was from my baby shower bingo game hub I'm guessing. But goes to show, you can write a hub over a year and a half prior, and still be making money off of it.

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   girly_girl09posted 14 years ago

   I have sold two mini netbooks which get a flat rate of $25 each...pretty cool. Other than that, it really varies. A lot of my commissions are around a dollar a piece. Last month, sales were going great. This month, I've only earned $6ish... it truly varies month to month!

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   ryankettposted 14 years ago

   I have only sold two things on Amazon, these were a pair of goalkeeping gloves and some shinpads (soccer) which netted me the grand sum of 71 cents.....
   
   But they were from my only Amazon sales page at the time, and I have done several more since. So hopefully I will sell a few more items soon.

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   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   "When you push Amazon you have to remember the short cookie duration. (Some say it's 24 hours others say it's a one-session cookie.)'
   
   
   its a 24 hour cookie, but it can be overwritten by another amazon associates cookie, so in essence your probably only going to get that one session

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      ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      What she is saying sunforged is that some items do not have a 24 hour cookie in the first place, and that this is stated, I believe.

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      livewithrichardposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Which is why it is essential to write good sales copy.  Your copy should create a sense of urgency and have a call to action.
      
      If you are writing hubs and just putting an amazon module up then your chances are slim that you will make a sale (slim, not non existent) 
      
      On the other hand, if you find a product that has a decent search volume and optimize a page for that product then most of your traffic will come from real leads, people that are searching for that product and possibly ready to buy.
      
      Give these leads all the info they need to make the decision to buy from you right now and you increase the opportuninty for a sale before they leave your page.

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   The Amazon cookie is described in 2 ways in their TOS.
   
   If shopper puts an item in the shopping basket, then the cookie is definitely set for 24 hours. So if they put an item in the shopping cart and return 4 hours later your cookie is still good. But yes if another affiliate sends someone to the site during this 24 hours you lose your cookie as well. The last affiliate in has the cookie.
   
   But if the shopper puts nothing in the shopping basket and merely browses, some feel that it's only for the one session.
   
   Amazon has never clariied this, despite many inquiries. And it has been the subject of endless forum posts on their discussion boards.
   
   To put this in perspective, just about every other affiliate marketing program I work with has a 30-day cookie. Normally I won't touch a 24-hour or 1 session cookie.
   
   Given the conversion rates I see, I tend to go with the 1 session cookie. But I can't prove a thing.
   
   I don't promote Amazon except at Hubpages and it only really works here because of the great traffic we get.

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    Aquaposted 14 years ago

    I got lucky and sold a piece of jewelry once. I keep plugging away at Amazon and definitely make sales but I've never reached the 8% threshold. Sunstreeks has a good hub on Amazon for those looking for some tips.

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    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    hmm, ive never seen any reference to anything but a 24 hour cookie, but havent researched recently.
    
    interestingly this forum thread already has first page placement for amazon cookie duration..go hubs.
    
    "But if the shopper puts nothing in the shopping basket and merely browses, some feel that it's only for the one session"..your right
    
    i just read through the the TOS ..it really is just a single session cookie with a 24 hour expiration..once your visitor leaves, if they come back via any route and purchase (even within 24 hours) you are not credited for sale.
    
    Thats pretty lame
    
    https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp … /agreement

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       girly_girl09posted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I think they must've recently changed that? (Came as a total shock to me)....wow.........maybe I'll try applying with eBay again lol
       
       edit: It says the TOS was updated in July...so the re-entering = no commission anymore must be new? UGH!

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    Helen Caterposted 14 years ago

    I had Amazon on all my hubs at one time and found no clicks at all. I didn't know if I was doing something wrong so deleted them all to concentrate more on adsense as I think my set up is all wrong.

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       sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       4 weeks, 14 hubs , your probably not doing anything wrong, just jumping the gun.
       
       Im happy with one paying click per 100 page views - regardless of which program its through.
       
       I know in my first month, I probably had about 4 hubs and 3000, 4000 pageviews max - i dont remember and i didnt have my hub earnings seperately tracked, but Im pretty sure I made only 1 amazon sale, 2 ebay sales and 3-4 adsense clicks in that entire month.
       
       Amazon and ebay work best with targetted traffic..just tacking in capsules to general hubs will get you occasional impulse buyers but thats just luck, it wouldnt be your setup
       
       In short, i dont think you have a traffic level yet that you can really create a strategy on. Throw the capsules back up in all your hubs, wait 3 months...then consider tweaking
       
       from your profile,im guessing you might find out about new products quicker than the average schmoe ..as long as that product is available on ebay and amazon you have a good chance of getting good ranking and selling them through your hubs
       
       http://hubpages.com/hub/Tigi-hair-products
       
       using this hub as an example:
       
       Why would you not have amazon product capsules? and why not be more specific in your product description.
       
       You could do an individual hub on every hair product you are familiar with, stick a very specific product in the capsule and probably be quite successful with it in 6 months time
       
       http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag … lla-search
       
       amazon certainly carries the products!
       
       
       oh, and the bold keyword thing prob drives away more readers than whatever seo benefits have been reported..

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    lindagoffiganposted 14 years ago

    I am in the process of getting Amazon account verified.  Earnings only from Google Adsense so far.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    Wow, the terms have changed recently. That explains why my sales haven't seen a huge increase, despite my large number of new stuff hubs, and really targeted traffic. You send 20 people a day who type in "Buy Brownie Pan" you expect to sell a couple a day.
    
    Well I'm glad my next 200 or so hubs are going to be Ebay.
    
    I really wish the Hubpages team would explore other major affiliate programs. Amazon really is one of the hardest to convert and apparently getting harder.

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    Helen Caterposted 14 years ago

    Thanks for this advice I will try again when I have a few more hubs. Oh no the bold doesn't work. I read marks and he said to do it. This is so confussing one saying do it and the others not to. So now I am unsure what to do. take away the bold or leave it. Please help as I went through all my hubs and put them in.

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