Have you ever searched for the latest gizmo on Google and seen a link to a relevant Amazon search page with the same Amazon Affiliate tag you saw the LAST time you were searching for a random gadget. Who the heck is googhydr-20? Is he some sort of super affiliate, raking in millions of dollars in commission revenue from the Amazon Affiliate program? Is it a bot made by Google that uses their own services to automatically generate links, and thus revenue, based on trending products? What could it be?

Well, to put it short, the Amazon Affiliate tag googhydr-20 is not owned by some sort of elite affiliate marketer, and it’s certainly not owned by Google. It actually belongs to Amazon itself. Whether they did it to effectively launder their own money (I doubt it) or to maintain control of how their brand is presented in paid search results (more likely, I think), I can’t tell you. But what I can tell you is that since the appearance of the infamous googhydr-20, Amazon has made it apparent that advertising direct affiliate links using PPC will warrant you no referrals for any sales made through those clicks, effectively discouraging anyone from purchasing PPC advertisement space directly linking to Amazon through their affiliate tag. (Which supports the second of my hypotheses.)

Anyways, fear no more, there is no super secret affiliate bot network that automatically generated Google AdWords campaigns with Amazon Affiliate links based on trending products; and if there was, they can’t make money any more.

So, sleep safe, and until next time, cheers!

I’m currently running experiments with different link sets and widget types for displaying products from Amazon’s catalog.

Currently the widget that converts to the most sales is using classic links placed within a well worded review with a nice picture of the product. Link them twice to the sales page in the text, and make the product image link to the sales page as well.

I’ve gotten a couple of conversions from the “My Favorites” A.K.A. the “I Recommend” widget, but I wish it was more customizable.

What’s your favorite Amazon widget? What works best for you?

Sure, on the long run, from a statistical point of view, if you have steadily increase your flow of traffic, you will steadily increase your conversions. But you are not increasing your conversion rate, merely adding to the tally of actual conversions.

A website that converts well naturally gains more traffic, so it’s good to make this your focal point. Make sure you try and test different advertising strategies and placements. Maybe you should try to find another venue or medium to market your brand in.

Perhaps you need to change the way you write your headlines. Could it be possible you aren’t submitting your social bookmarks to the category that most fits your article?

Is AdSense not converting well for you? Try out another pay per click network, or maybe experiment with some affiliate programs!

Just remember, don’t ever be afraid to try something new! It just might be worth it!

What have you done in the past to increase conversions?