Amazon

Amazon has a great affiliate program and makes it easy to take advantage of their API to create your own Amazon Niche Stores. Up until now there has not been a truly easy way to create an Amazon Niche Store. I recently had the opportunity to test out a new WordPress Plugin that allows you to create a Niche Amazon store that is really a true store. So far the only options available that we found are CRAP!!! This new WordPress Plugin allows you to have a full blown Amazon Niche Store literally within minutes. I suggest using a WordPress Hosting company to get your Wordpress site setup, and then second just simply enable the plugin. The next few steps are just configuring the plugin to have your information and the products you want the store to have. But best of all the plugin is free!

The Amazon Niche Store WordPress Plugin will be available to the public and for free to everyone.

Amazon Associates Program

Amazon’s Associate Program is perhaps one of the most popular ones for bloggers because it is pretty simple to use and has such a wide range of products in their system ranging from books, to electronics, to jewelry, to CDs and DVDs etc. It’s also great because there are many tools that can be used to integrate it into your blog including WordPress Plug ins. Some bloggers even integrate Amazon stores into their blogs (something I need to get set up).

Another beauty of the Amazon program is the variety of ways that they give you to link to their products. Even using just their basic tools on the Associates page you have the option to link to products using text links, pictures, buttons and a variety of keyword triggered techniques.

I personally use Amazon’s program quite a bit on some of my blogs and find it quite effective. While my earnings from Amazon are far less than my Adsense income it’s a nice bonus each quarter (they pay every three months). This quarter (just over half way) my total is just over $900 (USD).

Amazon’s affiliate program pays out in either gift vouchers (to be spent in the store), cheque (check) or direct deposit (if you’re in the US).

Amazon Associates Program Pros:

• massive array of products to choose from
• reliable payment system
• options for different payment types
• reasonably easy to use
• variety of linking tools
• Amazon are fairly well regarded and trusted by consumers

Amazon Associates Program Cons:

• only quarterly payments (many other programs are monthly)
• commissions can be lower than some other programs (although they have an incentive/bonus program that increases the % when you sell certain targets)
• incentive program can be a little complicated to understand
• some of their buttons and link methods are a little dated
• not great on some products internationally (ie while Amazon will send books and some products internationally some of the bigger ticket items will not be sent overseas. So if you have a non US readership you might have to also sign up for other Amazon affiliate programs (ie they also have a UK, Canadian, Japanese one etc this can get a little messy)).

I’ll share more tips to help maximise Amazon earnings later in this series – but in the mean time I’m sure others have a variety of experiences with Amazon and can shed some light on it as a program for us. Share your thoughts on the Amazon Affiliate program in comments below.

REVISION

It’s here!!!  http://OnlineVelocity.com

Let me know what you think of it!

There are so many folks who will just take whatever phones their carrier is currently offering rather than switching or changing their service around. You can purchase a cell phone at any time, but contract renewal time is when most people will find their greatest deal on a brand new cell phone.

Is the Droid catching your ears and eyes or do you want to give the iPhone a chance? depending on the carriers in your area and the coverage they have, your decision will probably be based on who commands the best coverage in your area. Most everyone just want something that works, in every sense of the word.

The Motorola Droid has many great features that zip you along from one to the next. The 3.7 inch display on the droid is larger than its counterpart iPhone. The color support is very nice at 16 million hues and the rich resolution of 440×854 is a very rich look that you won’t complain about. The display is very bright, sharp and vibrant as the graphics and touch screen work very well underneath your fingertips.

You will find that the Droid is a bit bigger and heavier than most phones, but it will be a small prove to pay for the screen clarity and speed at which everything works so well. Below the screen display are four main control buttons that you will find very handy when needed, they are the back button, the menu, the home page and the search feature.

The last search feature opens up the Google search engine with the press of just that one button. Most everyone loves searching the most well indexed website listing in the world. The Droid also features the option of sliding the top display portion up so that you can use the keyboard to type in what you need. The keys seem to be a bit too flat and close to one another which makes it more difficult to quickly input your text.

There are so many features that can be reviewed with this phone. It may all come down to your specific preference as far as the feel of the phone seems to work in your hands. You may like the feel of this more solid cell phone as compared to a tiny little thing. The main thing we all want is for the applications and programs to just easily work without the worry about freezing up or locking up.

Easy navigation tends to be one of the favorite items on most wish lists that are encountered when purchasing a new cell phone. Performing your due diligence online with Droid reviews and iPhone reviews will help to shine much technical light on the subject. Make sure to check them out in person for a while to find out if that feel and performance of the phone is what you really are looking for. It’s best to find someone who already has one and is willing to let you fumble around on it for a while. Happy Hunting!