Written on November 29th, 2007 at 11:11 am by Darren Rowse
Add a Buy Now Button to Your Affiliate Links and Increase Conversions
Self Made Minds had a short but brilliant post last week that I think is Gold for those using Amazon’s affiliate program to make money from their blog (in fact it can be adapted to any affiliate program).
Al writes that he hacked together a little ‘Buy Now’ in the style of Amazon’s buy buttons (pictured below) and added it to his posts (linking it to Amazon’s pages for the products that he was writing about).
Here’s the button Al used:
Conversions went up by 50-100% on the pages that the button was added to.
I’m not sure if that kind of increase will be seen across the board – but it makes a lot of sense.
Most web users are familiar with Amazon and their buttons and simply adding one to your page is sure to grab their attention but also get people in the door at Amazon (a very powerful thing).
I’ve just added the button to quite a few of my own pages and am interested to see what impact it will have in the next 24 hours to my own Amazon Affiliate commissions.
26 Responses to “Add a Buy Now Button to Your Affiliate Links and Increase Conversions” - Add Yours
Jamie Harrop
November 29th, 2007 11:12 am
The age old fact that if you tell somebody to do something, they are much more likely to do it.
It’s the very same reason that banner adverts often have “Click Here” text on them.
Please let us know whether you see any change, Darren.
Stephanie
November 29th, 2007 11:14 am
So brilliant yet obvious!
I’ve had buy now buttons on some of my sites, although not in the Amazon style. I wonder how the two would compare.
sir jorge
November 29th, 2007 11:18 am
That’s not too bad of an idea. I’ll have to look into trying that.
Joe
November 29th, 2007 11:22 am
Wow.. that’s a great idea. I will have to try it!
Advice Network Writing contest
November 29th, 2007 11:27 am
Simple and brilliant. I hope nobody tells the Amazon legal team.
theblackactor.com
November 29th, 2007 11:29 am
Interesting. It’s the little things sometimes, isn’t it? Thanks for that gem. I’ll have to try it.
Thomas Sinfield
November 29th, 2007 12:17 pm
who would have thought asking someone to do something would make me do it? no one does what they are told these days :P
Max Powers
November 29th, 2007 1:25 pm
Sounds good to me as Amazon is one of my affiliates. Keep the ideas coming.
Michael
November 29th, 2007 1:38 pm
This is an interesting idea, it makes total sense though. I think I’m going to have to try it on my blog and see how things go.
Amy
November 29th, 2007 3:39 pm
What a great idea, definitely going to implement this one!
Mike
November 29th, 2007 3:49 pm
Adding a buy now button to my affiliate links is something I never would have though would work so well. I am going to me giving that a shot and see how well it work for me. Thanks for the tip.
Jake Bouma
November 29th, 2007 4:19 pm
Brilliant.
Christopher Stigson
November 29th, 2007 4:26 pm
Here’s a secret for Clickbank… use an image that’s linked to the order page of your target merchant site and have a javascript cookie them…
They’ll not only think the site is yours entirely, but they’ll be very inclined to purchase… I’ve seen massive amounts of money being made doing this. They think it’s the real site… thousands dollars/month trick right here. :)
Roman
November 29th, 2007 7:33 pm
this technique I use pretty long time. Yeah, that’s true it increases the impressions.
66tx
November 29th, 2007 7:39 pm
What a great idea, definitely going to implement this one!
Kenneth
November 29th, 2007 7:51 pm
Never did thought of this before, you’re intelligent.
2xKnight
November 29th, 2007 7:54 pm
Yeah, but does it violate the affiliate agreement with Amazon?
It looks official, and that might get more people to click on it, but it might look too official. I wouldn’t try that without re-reading the affiliate agreement or asking Amazon about it.
Shoot, if it works that well Amazon will probably make it available as a button.
Chris Jacobson
November 30th, 2007 12:49 am
I’ll be using that button for my non-Amazon items too.
Gisele B.
November 30th, 2007 2:28 am
Darren,
This is a very interesting concept.
The conversion percentage is quite considerable and can have an impact on your income…although Amazon income is usually very small.
That said, do you think it would work for other affiliate programs?
You are specifically talking about Amazon here…but what about the other affiliate programs? Do you think that a button inside a post that refers to an affiliate program would also increase conversion or would it be a total and complete turn off to clients?
Gisele
http://www.mybeautymatch.com
Mike
November 30th, 2007 4:14 am
I would think you can use the button. I don’t see why not. But you never know for sure. Sounds like a great idea.
John Hood
November 30th, 2007 5:04 am
A simply brilliant idea!
Opal Tribble
November 30th, 2007 5:50 am
That’s a great idea. I’m currently at 6% with my commission for this month. I’ll definitely be using this from now on.
Jenny Lens
November 30th, 2007 6:41 am
What specifically do you use re: “I use a keywords plug-in which adds keywords to the amazon search link”?
Any tips/plug-ins if we are not using Wordpress but BANS for our stores? I know to mention the product name several times as basic SEO, but what else can we do if no plug-in available?
It would be very helpful if you tell us what you use by putting a link right next to your suggestions, so we can follow your tips. Otherwise what’s the point?
I link to specific products because the first time I let Amazon determine products resulted in the worse links to Amazon, totally wrong and irrelevant products! I wrote about specific movies based on specific books, and included the actors names, the author, tons of keywords and content to make it very clear which products. Amazon widget linked to children’s products, not the movies nor books. The movies were geared for adults, not X-rated, but mature and insightful, not action packed or fairy tales for kids!
I found it fascinating that the products I’ve sold via these specific Amazon links have nothing to do with the products! People clicked on my links, then bought items I never mentioned! Sometimes our links are mere entries to stores.
But if I could save hours having to look up every item’s ISBN or AIN and copying/pasting my code, I’d be sooo happy!
So what’s the plug-in and where can we get it?
Buttons:
It shouldn’t be that hard to make or find other Buy Now buttons with different colors without using Amazon’s buttons for non-Amazon sites. I think they’d object. Big corporations are so protective of their identity and branding. Read the fine print, cos you don’t want to be penalized or banned!
thanks!
chloe
November 30th, 2007 12:41 pm
but i gues supporting images would also make it more appealing
Personal Development for the Book Smart
December 3rd, 2007 12:30 am
Interesting… I just added the button to my book reviews too. Let’s see how effective it is. =)
milos
January 14th, 2008 12:01 am
Darren, do you have any feedback after almost two months have this images improved conversion rate on Amazon?
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