Low Amazon % sales,,,,,

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   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   I have a few hubs with Amazon links, plus some store pages on my own sites all with Amazon products. They are very targeted, all about Harry Potter merchandise.
   
   Yet I see with 2 new sales today my conversion is only 0.96%
   
   Now, I only have maybe 3 hubs with Amazon links, plus two pages of products in my own sites. Could the low conversion be because I just don't have many links out there?
   
   They also are only about Harry Potter items. I suppose they could just be a bad converting product, right?
   
   Just trying to figure out why my conversion is so low. Maybe I just need a lot more Amazon links and different items to be pushing, right?

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      Susana Sposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You can try putting an amazon capsule above the fold (float right on first text capsule) and I would also add a prominent call to action such as "buy now in time for christmas" or something along those lines. Looking at your harry potter action figures hub you have an outgoing link before you even get to the products, I would put this much lower down on the page (unless they are buying from that page instead).
      
      Just some ideas that may or may not work

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         Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for the tips Susana, I'll try them. As for the link, yeah that goes to my own action figures website page, LOL!

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            Susana Sposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Yup I worked that out
            
            As an aside when you go to amazon to choose products do you visit through your own links? I always used to do that for ease until I realised that I was actually lowering the conversion rate stats through all my visits.
            
            Now enjoy your hols!

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   tobey100posted 14 years ago

   Hey, you had sales.  My total Amazon sales in 11 months??? 0

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   Spacey Graceyposted 14 years ago

   A few thoughts - none of which my be correct:
   
   The products you point to - how do they seem to you? Good quality? Rated well? and most importantly are they fairly priced?
   
   If you are not getting many clicks then math dictates that your conversion could vary wildly. For example, with a 100 clicks, I would expect to make 5 sales at least, but it would not be unheard of for me to make just 1 - so the conversion could range anywhere from 5% down to 1% - because missing out on 4 sales is not that unlikely. On the other hand, if I were getting 1000 clicks per day (which I am not) I would not expect the same level of variation. Sales may vary between 40-60 per day (4%-6%) but not all the way down to 10. Does that make sense?
   
   Getting more links may increase your sales, and it could stablise your conversion. But if you are getting good traffic levels, and those people are clicking your link, you need to ask yourself what is putting them off after that point?
   
   Are they getting fair warning of where that click is taking them? Or do they panic when they see Amazon and hit the back button?
   
   Or are they happy to be at Amazon but not happy with the products / prices.
   
   Grab a coffee, look at your pages and put your customer head on for a while.
   
   If it helps to know - My conversion is usually around 8% of clicks. About 1 in 4 readers will click a link.

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      Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the info. Well since I only started putting up Amazon links a month ago I've only had a total of around 600 clicks. So that could be why, I need more clicks to see a good average.
      
      Also I think I get most clicks from my website stores. Those I made the pages look like a real store in my site, and I admit I don't say that once they click a product they will be taken to Amazon.
      
      So maybe they are mad once they see they are taken to Amazon. I suppose a little "once you click a product you will be taken right to that item in the Amazon website" blurb might help.
      
      Thanks again.

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   waynetposted 14 years ago

   The way I've always understood it, is to test out the placements of your Amazon capsules. I'm going through my older hubpages and trying to segment my capsules, so that I spread them more out throughout the article page and if that means 3 amazon products per text capsule then I'll do that.
   
   Crazy online buyers will buy at different points of reading your hubpages, some will want to look at the products almost straight away, others will read the entire article first and then decide, others won't because they'll say too many ads or they could be blind to them.
   
   As Spacey suggests, more traffic and links and your cleverly placed Amazon capsules will pay off more. If you know for sure that a branded product will be there forever like as an example Crayola art products, then you can add the descriptions and the exact Amazon ASIN number and mix it up throughout your hubs.....Amazon and Adsense are all I have now that Ebay has got rid of me, so it's my duty to amplify these two earning streams....and also Clickbank and some other choice affiliates too.

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   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   Bill - whilst I don't hide the fact that I'm selling Amazon products, I don't bother writing some kind of affilaite disclaimer. Not that you would if you used those exact words of course.
   
   Just sell the products. Think about what it is that makes you buy. Presuming you've got the money to buy something - are you looking for product feature info, someone else's review or viewpoint. Maybe you just need the pertinent info all delivered in a short snappy review?
   
   And then, like Susana points out, a clall to action. It doesn't have to smack them in the face - just appeal to their buying side.

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   girly_girl09posted 14 years ago

   I am suspecting that Harry Potter items are more likely items sought after by kids, who can't buy - only nag their parents to buy. They're not impulse shoppers. Obviously, many parents shop for gifts online so you should make more sales around the holidays, but the rest of the year would understandably be slow.
   
   This is why I target products for kids that only adults would buy, because they are the impulse purchasers and they convert. That being said, is their any preschool-aged harry potter merchandise you could market?

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   Spacey Graceyposted 14 years ago

   Also meant to add that it is research time for kids and parents in prep for christmas. By November, December time they will buy when they aee it rather than just store the information on their Christmas list.

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   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   Bill--In my experience, your conversion rate shouldn't change depending on the amount of clicks. I see roughly the same conversion rate on 100 clicks as I do on 1,000. It's all about your pitch. Are you attracting an audience ready to buy something, or are they just looky loos? You need to start with your hub's/page's title and summary text or meta-description. That's where you pull in the buying audience.

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   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   Thanks for all the advice everyone. It may very well be that since all my items are Harry Potter toys, I'm getting clicks from kids just looking, as others have suggested.
   
   So maybe once the adults start buying my conversions will go up. Time to get more product pages made and out there, at least they are clicking, and I am getting sales. Thanks again.

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      girly_girl09posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      You could also write about HP products that kids wouldn't necessarily look at. i.e. Harry Potter Christmas Ornaments... That's all I can think of for Christmas. For Halloween (kinda late now) you could do Adult Harry Potter Costumes.
      
      I like livewithrichard's idea of writing about items they could bring to theme parks...that could definitely boost up your conversion. And who knows what else they'll buy on impulse while they're buying that $5 mini fan? All of my biggest Amazon sales are impulse buys that I don't write about, for example, I sold $700 worth of lamps yesterday and have never written a hub on that topic. You just have to find a way to get them into Amazon via your affiliate ID and Amazon will do the rest!

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    livewithrichardposted 14 years ago

    If you want higher conversions you're going to have to widen your horizons. I would suspect that the majority of traffic coming to your Harry Potter hubs is internal traffic. Also, as others have said, the term may be getting high results on the Google Keyword tool but its certainly coming from a segment of consumers that are not buying which can be determined by the low cpc on the adwords traffic estimator.
    
    I know you like to write about theme parks, so how about brainstorming some products consumers would bring to a theme park.  Some of the cheaper items would do well to bring up your conversion rate which will also increase your % of the cut.
    
    Mostly though, I would say a lot more content on this site because the traffic to this site is certainly higher than the traffic to your personal sites. More traffic means more opportunities for your products to get clicked on.

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       Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks. Yeah there are SOOOOO many things I want to write about and put many more different items on the web about. I'm actually in Vermont on a vacation right now, LOL!
       
       So once I get back I'll push harder, going to start doing Disney products and so on. As for traffic, I actually get 10 times the amount on my own websites than hubpages.
       
       But only because they are several years old.

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          livewithrichardposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          That's great, but I meant the overall traffic to Hubpages not necessarily to your hubs.
          
          Anyway, sounds like a great place to vacation. You should write a hub about it too.  It might not be the type of content you are use to writing but its been my experience that writing articles that are specifically designed for traffic really help out my product and adsense hubs. I think of them as an investment to my overall portfolio

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    relacheposted 14 years ago

    Bill, on an Internet over-saturated with Harry Pottet, how are your Hubs offering better info to catch the attention of the Potter crowd?  That's more likely your problem...

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       Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Ahhh, just got back from taking fall foliage pictures. Yes, good point Relache. Try to make them different or give them more reason to visit my hubs / sites. Thanks.

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    Bard of Elyposted 14 years ago

    I never get any money from Amazon but do from eBay so although a lot of my older hubs have Amazon ads I now usually put eBay ones instead.

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    mcbeanposted 14 years ago

    Hi Bill,
    I have a crap load of Amazon hubs and one thing I noticed was they earned me straight away when my adsense was minimal. The Amazon doesn't seem to increase automatically with time for me unlike adsense. Adsense has now taken over.
    The majority of my Amazon hubs have pitiful conversion rates but a few on cheap products do well. This helps me push up through the payment levels so if I do sell something good I get more for it.
    As Mark Knowles says: Cheap plastic crap is the key.
    With the very short cookie duration it is hard to sell an expensive item as most people like to think about that for a while and shop around. $20 is my target price and I sell plenty getting around $1 or slightly less a go.
    Every so often the $250 product will sell and thanks to the crap it will net me $15.
    I regularly average over 5% conversion but this is due to about 3 hubs. These 3 on their own do very well and this number is dragged down by the rest.
    I guess in this way it is like adsense. You never know which one will take off.
    
    One final thought re Harry Potter. If 50% of your readers are kids without a credit card you are going to struggle.

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14. 74

    Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

    Just thought I'd give an update. I now have sold 11 items and my conversion is up to 1.86.
    
    So I guess it will get better, as someone told me. Not bad for only having Harry Potter products to offer. I will add lots more items,,,, once I have the time!
    
    It also is true you get items bought that has nothing to do with your items your pushing. Someone bought a $128.00 coat and another a $82.00 pair of boots.

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    Stacie Lposted 14 years ago

    I used to make lots of sales with Amazon but sales have literally dropped for a few months now..don't know why..

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    Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

    I'm actually having one of my best months ever. Someone bought a George Foreman grill...

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       frogdroppingposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I want one of those UW
       
       Mostly I selll products I've written about. It's the ones I don't that tickle me. Kindles, cell phones, tools. Not that I'm complaining

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          Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          I have a George Foreman grill...love it

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    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    sales will always fluctuate, howver october should be a good month.  Christmas is coming up though, and that is when you should see hte real boost in earnings!

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