Daniel J. Lewis

Internet entrepreneur, award-winning podcaster, podcast consultant, keynote speaker

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How to use Amazon tracking IDs to measure separate affiliate income

August 29, 2014 by Daniel J. Lewis 29 Comments

Amazon associates affiliate page

If you have multiple websites, you should track each site's affiliate income separately with Amazon tracking IDs. Here's how, plus helpful WordPress plugins

This assumes you already have an Amazon Associates account.

Why separately track Amazon.com affiliate earnings?

If you try to monetize multiple websites—blogs, podcasts, communities, and such—then you need to see how each site is performing. Is your personal blog earning any money from its affiliates? Do people buy your recommendations from your podcast?

When you look at your Amazon.com affiliate report or see the payout, you will initially have no idea what earned that income. With separate Amazon tracking IDs for each site, you could segment your earnings easily and automatically.

Why not create separate Amazon affiliate accounts?

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The more sales you refer, the higher your Amazon.com commission rate goes. You start at 4% and can earn as much as 8.5% in most categories, based solely on the number of products you sell through your affiliate links. (You earn commissions from any product someone buys after visiting your link, even if it's not the product you recommended.)

If you have ten websites each with their own Amazon.com affiliate accounts, then each website needs to refer enough volume in order to reach higher commission rates.

Separate accounts also mean logging in and out of Amazon.com in order to track each account's performance. This becomes even more cumbersome if you use international Amazon affiliate programs (like Canada, United Kingdom, and others).

But it's entirely possible and easy to use a single Amazon.com affiliate account (one per country) to track multiple sites. When you do this, the sales volume from each site contributes to your total sales volume, and can potentially bump you into higher referral rates. (I average a 7% referral rate from most of my sites.)

All you need to do is create separate Amazon tracking IDs.

How to create Amazon tracking IDs

Add Amazon Tracking IDs

  1. Login to your Amazon.com (or other Amazon domain) affiliate account.
  2. In the upper-left corner, under the logo, click “Manage” next to “Tracking ID.”
  3. You'll see a list of all your tracking IDs here. Click “Add Tracking ID.”
  4. Enter the ID you want to use. I recommend your domain without the “.com” or similar. If you're making similar tracking IDs for the separate international Amazon affiliate stores, then I suggest adding the Amazon's top-level domain (TLD, the “.com,” “.ca,” “.es” part). For example, my USA affiliate idea for my personal blog is “danieljlewis”; for Canada, it's “danieljlewisca”; for the United Kingdom, it's “danieljlewisuk”; and so on. Amazon will add the appropriate “-20” or similar number.

It doesn't cost anything to make extra tracking IDs. Income from all of your separate tracking IDs contribute to your core affiliate earnings, so you may earn a higher commission rate.

How to create Amazon affiliate links with separate tracking IDs

When you have your separate Amazon tracking IDs created, you can select it from the Amazon associates page, or when you create a link with the Associates toolbar on the main Amazon site.

Amazon associates toolbar

To confirm that you're using the right tracking ID, look for “tag=AFF_ID-20” in your embed code or link URL. Where “AFF_ID” is your tracking ID. This is what you would change if you need to fix old URLs or accidentally used the wrong ID in a new URL.

Making easy Amazon affiliate links in WordPress

For even more power and faster affiliate-link creation on WordPress, I recommend EasyAzon Pro and Fresh Bundle Master. Watch my video, from The Audacity to Podcast, to learn more about setting up and using these powerful plugins.

How to track separate affiliate earnings

After you have your separate tracking IDs created and implemented across your properties, you can start tracking the separate earnings in your Amazon affiliate account.

To view separate tracking ID performances together

Amazon tracking ID affiliate report

  1. Login to your Amazon affiliate account.
  2. Go to “Reports” > “Tracking ID Summary Report.”
  3. The report defaults to “Yesterday,” but you can select a different time period.

To view separate, detailed reports

Amazon associates tracking ID selection

  1. Login to your Amazon affiliate account.
  2. View any report.
  3. In the upper-left corner, under the logo, select the tracking ID you want to view.
  4. Just below the previous step, uncheck “Combine reports” (this option is only visible on a report page).
  5. View the homepage or any report you want to see just the tracking ID's performance.

To combine all tracking IDs in reports

  1. Login to your Amazon affiliate account.
  2. View any report.
  3. In the upper-left corner, under the logo, check “Combine reports” (this option is only visible on a report page).
  4. View the homepage or any report and you'll see all tracking IDs combined.

Look for this feature with other affiliate programs

Many other affiliate programs, such as Commission Junction, allow you to set similar tracking IDs. They may be called websites, campaigns, or something else.

Filed Under: Business, Money, Technology Tagged With: affiliates, Amazon.com, EasyAzon Pro, Fresh Bundle Master, WordPress, WordPress plugins

The best WordPress plugins for blogging or podcasting

October 11, 2013 by Daniel J. Lewis 7 Comments

wp-light-hi-1024x768WordPress is my preferred platform of choice, and that for many others. A basic WordPress website may not do enough for your needs, and that's why there are tens of thousands of free and premium plugins! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhkxDIr0y2U But in similar words as those spoken to Spider-Man, “With great plugins comes great responsibility.”

The purpose of a plugin

I believe that a WordPress plugin should make things easier for you or your website visitors. I'll focus on my top picks for the following categories.

  1. Images
  2. Interaction
  3. Social
  4. Stats
  5. Email and privacy
  6. Making money
  7. Writing
  8. Backup & security
  9. SEO
  10. Links
  11. Site speed
  12. Mobile-friendly
  13. Podcasting
  14. Development

Images

Resize Images Before Upload—Feel free to upload big images to your site because this plugin will resize them with your browser before they go into WordPress.

Grab & Save—Paste an image URL and optionally rename it to import it into your media library without having to download and re-upload.

jQuery Colorbox—Make your small images stand out with a colorbox zoom.

Interaction

Disqus Comment System or LiveFyre—Make it easy and more social for commenters to sign in with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and also get great spam protection.

bbPress—Forums integrated right into the WordPress system.

BuddyPress—Turn your website into a social network. This combines well with bbPress.

Social

Social Sharing Toolkit or Digg Digg —Add buttons to your pages and posts so visitors can easily share your content to social networks.

Social Subscribe & Follow Icons—Add retina icons for blog, podcast, and social networks to encourage visitors to subscribe or follow you.

Stats

Google Analytics for WordPress or Google Analyticator—Easily add Google Analytics to your site so you can see visitor information and even real-time views.

Blubrry podcast stats—If you host a podcast, you need to know actual download numbers for you media. Blubrry's free and premium stats can easily be integrated with PowerPress or even a simply hyperlink.

Email and privacy

Contact Form 7 or Gravity Forms ($)—Make a contact form, application, and more. Contact Form 7 is easy for simple forms, but it's torture for anything more complicated, so Gravity Forms makes simple work of complex forms.

CryptX—Don't kill people by writing your email address as “Daniel [ at ] danieljlewis [ dot ] com.” CryptX will encrypt your email address to protect you from spammers.

Making money

WooCommerce—Free and extremely ecommerce for your site, but extra functionality often costs extra.

Amazon Link—Generate Amazon.com affiliate links and images easily.

Pretty Link Lite or Pretty Link Pro ($)—Make memorable and easy-to-say links for affiliate programs. Pretty Link Pro can automatically hyperlink keywords.

Writing

Simple Post Template—Create templates for posts that follow the same pattern and use these when you start a new post.

Shortcode Exec PHP—Create shortcodes to do anything! This is especially useful when you want to include the same text or media without always repasting old code. You can also update these.

Public Post Preview—Share a temporary link to let others see a particular draft post without logging in.

Backup & security

BackWPup Free or Pro ($), BackupBuddy, or VaultPress ($)—Backup your site automatically, including remote backups. I like BackupBuddy the best.

Better WP Security—Lock down your website with several tools.

SEO

All-in-One SEO Pack or WordPress SEO—Integrate search-engine optimization practices into your pages and posts. A great WordPress theme (like StudioPress) sometimes does this for you.

SearchWP ($)—Intelligent, weighted search for WordPress and even bbPress. This may not be necessary when WordPress 3.7 or 3.8 comes out.

Links

Pretty Link Lite or Pretty Link Pro ($)—Make easy links to anything.

Redirection—For advanced links and redirections, but also helps redirect renamed slugs.

Site speed

W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache—Optimize and speed up your site with caching tools.

GTMetrix and Pingdom—See how quickly your site loads and get tips for improvement.

Mobile-friendly

A really good WordPress theme or WPTouch—Mobile-friendly design should be the responsibility of a good WordPress theme by a good web designer. If you don't have that, WPTouch plugin can suit many needs simply.

Podcasting

Blubrry PowerPress Podcasting—The podcasting plugin for WordPress to enhance your RSS feed and add media players.

Development

Shortcode Exec PHP—Make a shortcode to do anything, even advanced PHP!

WP Migrate DB or Pro ($)—Synchronize WordPress databases (including local dev to remote live) with powerful find-and-replace functionality.

JetPack (or Widget Logic Visual with a small patch)—Make certain widgets show on only certain pages.

What about you?

What needs do you have that weren't covered in this list? What are your favorite plugins? What has been your experience with any of these plugins (or their competitors)? Please comment below!

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: affiliates, Amazon.com, WordPress, WordPress plugins

The ethics of choosing affiliate links in your blog or podcast

April 19, 2013 by Daniel J. Lewis 13 Comments

Amazon associates affiliate page

How much consideration do you put into choosing which affiliates links you use?

For most of my podcasts, affiliate links are easy—Amazon.com for everything because they sell everything at usually great prices.

But on my “how-to” podcast about podcasting, The Audacity to Podcast, affiliates are more complicated. I recommend many more products:

  • mixers,
  • microphones,
  • software,
  • audio cables,
  • video cameras,
  • mobile devices,
  • web hosting,
  • and anything else that helps podcasting.

In the past, I've used several affiliates:

  • Amazon.com,
  • Musician's Friend,
  • Monoprice, and
  • B&H Photo Video.

The decision for a link is hard when affiliate programs vary in payouts and certain companies will happily reshare my content if I use their affiliates exclusively. But when a single product is the same price on several sites, it's even harder to decide which affiliate to use.

I appreciate the affiliate relationship I have with B&H, but I know it's often more convenient and cheaper for my audience to purchase from Amazon.com.

A quick poll on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ revealed overwhelming preference for Amazon.com, even when other retailers had the same price. The reasons usually focused on the following.

  • Amazon Prime members who could get free two-day shipping
  • Amazon.com giftcards earned through programs like Swagbucks
  • Account already exists on Amazon and don't want to sign up somewhere else
  • Amazon.com's trusted reputation

I even prefer Amazon.com for most purchases because they usually have the best price, we have a warehouse nearby, and I regularly earn free giftcards from Swagbucks. Am I violating any rule by using an affiliate link to a retailer I may not prefer?

Then looking on the profit side, I usually make more money through my Amazon affiliates than I do with other affiliate links. Almost every month, I sell enough items through my combined Amazon tracking IDs that I earn a 6.5% commission (I'm always so close to 7%!). Each additional item sold through Amazon increases the possibility that I could earn a higher percentage rate.

Amazon offers handy widgets and plenty of linking options, including simply adding “tag=danieljlewis-20” to any URL to turn it into an affiliate link.

Then there's B&H. They have a great website, accurate search, great customer service, and handy link creation. While they offer a variety of widget formats, making widgets are a pain. My earning potential with B&H is a little lower. But they've reminded me that if I exclusively use B&H affiliate links in my product reviews, they would share my reviews with their social-media followers. And the better I perform, the more likely I can borrow some demo units for more reviews.

For most podcasting equipment I talk about on The Audacity to Podcast, I end up including affiliate links to both Amazon.com and B&H. This makes my linking process twice as long.

So what's the ethical thing to do? I believe that is to continue offering Amazon.com affiliate links first unless a better price or better product is available elsewhere. Sure, this won't make me popular with companies like B&H, but I believe this will give my followers the right options for them to make their own choices. After all, they're smart people.

How do you handle affiliate links for the same product from competing retailers? I'd love to hear your opinions and experience in the comments below.

Filed Under: Business, Social Media Tagged With: advertising, affiliates, Amazon.com, blogging, monetization, podcasting

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