The Amazon Associate Program
Yay – I’m an Amazon Associate!
But I’m not. And to be clear, I am not an employee or contractor of or to the ‘zon in any capacity. I’m primarily writing this for my friends who are also authors, or who are looking for a way to break into a side hustle – or ones who are just after a way to maximize their potential income (which if you intend to do this for a living, you should be). It’s also to post to ‘lead in’ to a new menu item that’ll appear on the front page before the end of January.
Let me back this up a little:
Recently, Amazon instituted a new service that allows people to post Kindle Book Previews directly on their website. This allows someone to say, read a book review and then actually read part of the book without leaving the hosting webpage. (There’s a slew of marketing studies behind this concept, but the short version is, “Once you’re on my page I don’t want you to leave.”)
If you’d like to learn more, that’s at:
https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=13489836011
This is a great idea. For me, it removes the necessity to have *.pdfs of the first chapters of my books available (which is no longer possible for sagadmw.com, my apologies) on a web host for preview purposes, or forces a potential viewer to go to Book Funnel or even navigate away from my page.
It’ll allow you to make an educated decision about my work if you stumble on it through my website – and I do have sales funnels to get you ‘here.’ This blog is actually one of them, so hey, welcome to the funnel. Now that you’re here, I want you to buy stuff.
Turns out, there’s another perk.
Once I heard about this program, I went digging. Turns out, to get it, and this is a very long story short, I have to become an “Amazon Associate,” which is something that people who are far brighter than me have been using for years. In short, this is their influencer program (or the predecessor step for it; the Influencer program is separate).
Let me drop a link to this program here, too. Just in case you like how this sounds.
(I am not getting any kind of commission off of this link. I just want my other author friends to do well.)
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com
I don’t want to misconstrue anything here and there is an epic ton of data to sort through about this program – how I can use it, how I can expect to get paid, when I have to use hashtags like #ad, and so on. The very short version is that if I want to get access to the API that allows me to place the Kindle Previewer directly here on my site, I have to complete the program in the next 180 days.
To do that, I have to have 3 ‘qualified’ sales tracked to products I’ve promoted through my page or my social media services. In theory, as long as it means some reasonably strict criteria, I’ll get paid a commission. Now, here’s the perk: One of those product types is… or can be…
…my books.
Yup. You read that right. The books that I sell through the KDP Publishing Program on Amazon, the ones that I get a royalty for when you read them on Kindle Unlimited or buy them for your Kindle device, I’m eligible to get paid for if you follow one of my new snazzy Amazon links. I’ve spent the morning updating every link on my site except my Shop links to point to the right pages. If any send you to the ‘zon, I may actually make some (extra) money off of your purchase.
In the long run, I don’t know if this is going to work. I’m going to give it a shot. I don’t expect to suddenly make BIG MONEY or win BIG PRIZES (there are no prizes) recommending a teapot or the like that someone decides to buy.
But, hey. It’s a hustle. It helps pay the bills.
Ko-Fi, Anyone?
In addition, I’ve added something else. Publishing is expensive, and I have to be honest that I haven’t started to turn a profit. If you look on this page (and every page), you’ll see a Ko-Fi link. It’s a tip jar. If you like what i do, like what I produce, or you just want to pay for a Diet Coke or something, you’re welcome to drop a coin for your Witch- I mean, slip some pay to your writer.
To give you an example, I recently ordered two brand new book covers by the insanely talented Christian Benultan over at Covers By Christian.com. They weren’t cheap (but they’re awesome), and it set me back over $975. I’ve also got more editing costs coming up, as well as a new round of ISBNs to buy at $300. And taxes. And marketing expenses.
My sales haven’t matched that level of expense lately, and I understand – it’s the economy, stupid – but the more books I put out, the better my career is going to be in the long run.
Still, every bit of caffeine helps – and this can’t hurt. Right?
Dead Man Streamin’
And finally, I’m now streaming on Twitch.tv!
I like to play video games to relax. It helps me calm down. It puts my brain on other topics and frees up my background processing headspace to solve one issue or another. As a perk, once I reach “Affiliate” status with them, I can use it to generate funds for the charity that I run.
Hey. I am absolutely on board with that.
If you would like to give me a follow over there, hit it up at:
https://www.twitch.tv/joshua_akaran_smith
But hey, about the delay…
If you’re hoping for more frequent blog posts, it’s on my list. I got really busy with NB’s launch back in October, then really sick, then really busy with my fundraising in Nov and Dec, and then suffered some minor head trauma right before Christmas.
I’m getting caught back up, but I apologize if you were waiting for some of my other posts!
I’ll see you soon!
~Josh
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