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10. Your Campaign Calls for a Physical Product ~ Now What Do You Do?

· 55 Comments · OWM Month 1

The last couple days we’ve covered where to find digital products, but what if the campaign you’ve chosen calls for a physical product? Don’t worry, there are plenty of places for you to find any and every physical product you can think of.

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55 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dawn Rega Solar // Jan 25, 2009 at 6:29 pm

    Already hit a snag. I have an idea on a campaign and want to writing my squidoo lens. I get to this part and you make it sound easy to click on the link and sign up for an amazon affiliate account since my campaign would work better with physical products. It asks for a website which I don’t have being a newbie and without filling one in won’t let me do anything! Help please!

  • 2 Jackie and Andrea // Jan 25, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Hi Dawn -

    Snags are just what we’re here for :)

    That is something I certainly took for granted - having a site url to put into forms.

    So I just went over to Amazon and started fresh. And here’s what I did…

    I used one of my lens addresses where it asks for a website and in the description I put this:

    “I’m doing a niche series of Squidoo lenses for (niche name). I’ll include links to items like (niche name) books and xyz (some kind of item that make sense).”

    It went right through :)

    See how that works for you?

    Andrea

  • 3 Dawn Rega Solar // Jan 25, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    I will try that but will I have to do that for every campaign? Every campaign is gonna be on a different niche topic and therefore different products. Will they take that into account when it comes time to get paid on any product from any and all lenses?

  • 4 Jackie and Andrea // Jan 25, 2009 at 7:10 pm

    Oh no - this is simply to get the account open. Then you can use it on any site that comes down the pike.

    And don’t worry about what gets purchased - Amazon is especially good at cross matching products and upselling before checkout — anything that anyone buys through one of your links (even if it’s not what you originally pointed them at) “counts” towards your affiliate account.

    Keep on asking questions - that’s how you’ll make progress quickest :)

    Andrea

  • 5 Dawn Rega Solar // Jan 25, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    nobody will see my “associate id” right? It’s stupid because it goes with my one and only lens. I would have never picked it. Also, what payment option should I pick? Direct deposit? Getting paid by check has $15 fee attached. Also when picking payment option under c0rporation or something I have to make a choice: one is “individual” is that what I pick?

  • 6 Dawn Rega Solar // Jan 25, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    it’s under “organization” I have to make a choice. One of the choices is “individual” but then again one is “none”. Maybe that is the right one?

  • 7 Jackie and Andrea // Jan 25, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    Yes your associate id will be part of your link (that’s how you’ll know for sure it’s yours) - but there’s a way to have more than one within the same account. So no worries.

    You can also create something called a redirect which both shortens and hides the actual (long and ugly) affiliate link.

    Just pick the pay by check option for now - change it when it becomes more pertinent. And yes ‘individual’ unless you have a business tax ID.

    I’m pretty sure this can all be managed/updated from within the account once logged in.

    hth,
    Andrea

    PS. Jackie and I were talking about the domain options - another way to go would be to start a blogger.com blog and use that as your ‘main’ one.

  • 8 Joyce J // Feb 15, 2009 at 12:49 am

    Same problem as Dawn above. I don’t have a lens address, as I haven’t got that far yet, so I settled for trying Blogger.com.

    Blogger.com is also new to me.

    Is this blog about my campaign topic, or do I put something else in it.

    It says to put in an http address, but the only thing I can relate to with this, is the one in which I was given when I found a product at Clickbank for my campaign. Is this what I use, or do I make up another one relating to either the campaign topic or something new altogether?

    Thanks

  • 9 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 15, 2009 at 5:19 am

    Hi Joyce -

    What they want to know is where you’re going to place links to their products. So your CB link would not be much help here.

    I think what you should do is scan around at the products, just so you get a feel for the vastness of their product offering and then just wait to do this step (if you even need it) after you publish one of your lenses.

    A little out of order lesson-wise, but no biggie :)

    We get into blogger later - so no worries about that just now either, k?

    Andrea

  • 10 Joyce J // Feb 15, 2009 at 5:57 am

    Thank you for that Andrea. Good to know that it will fit in at a later time.

    I have already looked through Amazon, and have found a number of physical products that will fit in with my campaign and clickbank product - quite nicely I hope.

    Thanks,
    Joyce

  • 11 Jane Kline // Mar 24, 2009 at 8:33 am

    Hi Ladies -
    I have a few questions.
    Had to come back to this lesson to understand a few things for my Squidoo lens because I was not able to complete during this lesson. Had the same snag as the posts talk about. So…….
    Question 1: Is Amazon ‘associate’ the same as Amazon affiliate?
    Question 2: Regarding Squidoo’s Amazon module - when I add items in this module are they already linked to my Amazon account or are they linked to Squidoo and my webpage lens?
    Question 3: Can I apply an Amazon link and banner to advertise on my Squidoo lens?
    Question 4: Last one for now….. is it possible not to find an affiliate physical product for a niche. I spent time looking to no avail, decided to go on and just use Amazon products. Don’t mind telling either of you what it is but don’t really want it posted.

    Thanks in advance.
    Jane.

  • 12 Jackie and Andrea // Mar 24, 2009 at 8:52 am

    Hi Jane,

    1. amazon associate is the same as an affiliate.

    2. they are coded to squidoo ~ you will split the profits with squidoo. It will end up being about the same as you would make at Amazon (unless you sell a LOT of products) You will get paid through your dashboard from squidoo for the amazon products you sell.

    3. Most of the amazon banners use a script squidoo doesn’t allow. You can go to squidutils.com and create a banner to use with your associate ID. You can create links from amazon and put them on your lens.

    Unless you are making a LOT of sales at Amazon, it’s 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Your payout will be about the same.

    Squidoo qualifies for the highest payout through amazon (because of everyone making sales) and you get half of that which comes out to about 4% which is what the basic rate for amazon is, and what you would probably be making with your own links.

    4. Some times you can, and sometimes you can’t. You can always check ebay too. Nothing wrong with using Amazon products.

    Make sure you check clickbank for related digital products though ~ you’d be surprised what all people have written about lol.

    Jackie

  • 13 Russell Hart // Apr 14, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    Hello Jackie & Andrea
    I’ve now started my Clickbank A/c and created a hoplink to a C/B product. Can you tell me how to cloak the hoplink (I do have a Domain set-up should it be needed)? Or is this covered further on in the lessons?
    Regards
    RUSSELL

  • 14 Jackie and Andrea // Apr 14, 2009 at 8:41 pm

    It’s covered in Lesson 16 ~ domain forwarding. :)

    Jackie

  • 15 Carole Rowland // May 1, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    FYI - The link to sign up in Amazon that you have above in the tutorial, takes you to the sign in page, not where you sign up to be an affiliate.

    I just went to Amazon.com and found where to sign up.

    Thanks,
    Carole

  • 16 Jackie and Andrea // May 1, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    Good job finding your way anyway Carole - you’ll find things change online a lot, so that’s a good attribute ;-)

    It’s updated now.

    Andrea

  • 17 Carole Rowland // May 1, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    Through my sign up with Amazon, it takes you to a page and states that as of today it is no longer paying referral fees, etc.

    Since I am pretty new, I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. It sounds like this is just for paid KW advertising and does not affect the type of promoting that we will be doing in our lenses/websites, with a link to a product.

    If someone buys that linked through from our website, then we still get our commission, is that correct?

    Thanks a bunch,
    Carole

  • 18 Jackie and Andrea // May 1, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    yes

  • 19 Barbara Paine // Jun 2, 2009 at 9:35 am

    I had an existing Amazon Associate account so I was all set for this (I did change my tracking ID to something more appropriate for my current purposes — LOL). I noticed in looking through my account that I am signed up for the “Classic” Fee structure as opposed to the “Performance” one. Is this the way to go?

  • 20 Carole Rowland // Jun 20, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    I am starting a new campaign which calls for a specific physical product and the product is on Amazon. Am I able to use the pictures and text info from the products actual website (things that may not be on Amazon)?

    Thanks,
    Carole

  • 21 Jackie and Andrea // Jun 20, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    if it’s descriptive stuff, like sizes, colors etc I would say yes, but be careful because you want to have unique content on your lens, not just a repeat of the same content from the sales page.

    Jackie

  • 22 Jane Brewer // Jul 5, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    Hello - I think you two are a true Godsend!! You take was PPG has done and break it down into easy to follow “just add water” steps.

    I do have a question though. I am signing up for an Amazon Associate account and they want to know website information. I haven’t signed up for a Squidoo URL yet or anything. I have a website that I have used to sell on Ebay for the last 2 years, but I’m assuming for this I need a new site. What should I use??

    Jane

  • 23 Jackie and Andrea // Jul 5, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    Hiya Jane -

    Thanks for your kind words :)

    Any website that’s live should be fine (even an established Blogger blog is worth a try).

    Doesn’t matter which one you get approved with - you can use your Amazon links anywhere once tha account is established.

    Andrea

  • 24 Jane Brewer // Jul 5, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    Andrea — You are FAST!! 2 minutes to receive an answer back. You go girl!!

    Okay - so if I understand correctly, I should be able to just use my Ebay store url or I actually do have a Blogger Blog url that I started with the intention of affiliate marketing, but haven’t figured it out enough yet, so I could use that too, correct?

    Oh - and another thing…. how do I change my log in name on this site so my full name doesn’t show up — kind wierd to see full name.

    Jane

  • 25 Jackie and Andrea // Jul 5, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    Oh Ebay store - uhhh - not really someplace you can advertise Amazon links … so no. Sorry I misunderstood.

    But the blogger should work fine.

    Can you email us through the contact link above and I’ll change it for you when I get home - out at the lake right now - lol.

    Andrea

  • 26 Melvin Cole // Dec 6, 2009 at 10:55 am

    Amazon asked for a website which I do not have. Should I come back to this lesson latter?

  • 27 Jackie and Andrea // Dec 6, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    You have to have a website to get accepted at Amazon. You can set up a free blog at blogger.com and put a few posts in it, then use it as your website. Just about every affiliate network is going to as you for a website, so might as well get one up now.

    Jackie

  • 28 Melvin Cole // Dec 7, 2009 at 10:31 am

    Jackie I a afraid that I am a complete newby.

    I have never set up or contributed to a blog. I think you are suggesting I just set up a blog on something I am interested in, not my campaign to have a website. Is that right?

    Also if I set up a blog I assume it creates a website am I then responsible for responding frequently or what.

    Can you just give me a basic run through.

  • 29 Gary Materra // Jan 30, 2010 at 1:01 am

    Hi Andrea/Jackie,
    My product is physical, and like some of the others above I don’t have a lens or any other site yet. I haven’t a clue about a blog. If the payout is about the same for using Squidoo’s Amazon account, how about if I just skip this step and go that way? Later on when I have a site of some kind or know how to put one up, I can create my own Amazon account. Will this work?

  • 30 Jackie and Andrea // Jan 30, 2010 at 7:26 am

    Hi Gary -

    Yep that’s fine.

    Andrea

  • 31 Sharyn Mathieson // Feb 5, 2010 at 9:38 pm

    Hi Jackie and Andrea,
    I am doing what you asked and joining up at Amazon but they want website details. What do I do as I don’t yet have a website?

    Thanks a bunch girls
    Sharyn

  • 32 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 5, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    you can create a free blog at blogger. Amazon and blogger are now hooked up so you can easily get an amazon affiliate account through your blogger account. This post on my blog will show you more of the process if you need further instruction.

    http://internetmarketingformommies.com/blogger-and-amazon-easy-peezy-now/

    Jackie

  • 33 Sharyn Mathieson // Feb 6, 2010 at 1:01 am

    Hi Jackie,
    Thanks for getting back to me so soon. After I left the comment I read the other comments, I should have done that first and then I would have found the answer to my question. Anyway just another quick question. If I create a free blog, should it be related to my 1st. campaign that I am creating? Thanks sooooo much for all your help, you guy’s do such a great job.

    Sharyn

  • 34 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 6, 2010 at 11:59 am

    I’d say try to do it for topic that includes your first campaign but isn’t exactly like it.

    ex. if you’re first campaign is about a vacuum cleaner you might make your blog about organization or home stuff ~ that way you can also create posts for future lenses that fall into the topic area.

    Jackie

  • 35 Sharyn Mathieson // Feb 6, 2010 at 9:12 pm

    Thanks Jackie,
    I just have another question for this subject. With this new blog do I maintain it, eg. post daily or at least weekly and then ping it, or do I just set it up so that I can get an Amazon ID?

    Thanks for all your help
    Sharyn

  • 36 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 6, 2010 at 10:28 pm

    There will be more information on what to do with your blogger blog in future lessons. For right now just use it to get your Amazon acct set up.

    Jackie

  • 37 Sharyn Mathieson // Feb 7, 2010 at 6:59 pm

    Hi Girl’s,

    I am still in the process of setting up my Amazon ID. They want to know how many visitors I get per month. Well I’ve only just set this up so what do I do? Do I tell a little white lie? The smallest number is less than 500 or next is 501 to 5,000. What to do???? They also wanted to know how I will be building links. I just put other for that as I was not sure what to put. It’s really terrible when you are so unsure of what you are doing. Anyway thanks for all your help.

    Sharyn

  • 38 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 7, 2010 at 7:51 pm

    Hi Sharyn -

    I don’t think Amazon cares whether you have a ton of traffic. But they will want to know that you’re not planning on spamming - I think I recall they also don’t credit for sales coming straight from Twitter.

    So your answer for the traffic can be the low one - but for the marketing … you’re doing SEO (search engine optimization) which is what OWM is.

    Andrea

  • 39 Gary Materra // Feb 13, 2010 at 4:57 pm

    Hi Andrea/Jackie,

    I’m setting up the Amazon associate with a Blogger blog I’ve created and done a few posts on. Amazon is asking questions I don’t know how to answer, like how else will I monetize the site and how do I usually create links. It’s asking what kind of site it is, for what kind of audience, and what kinds of products the website will be promoting. Well I intend to promote all kinds of products, but it doesn’t really offer that drop down option. I’ve never created a link, etc. Suggestions?

  • 40 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 13, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    Ok I went in and looked. I’d probably say other affiliate programs as the secondary thing. Choose amazon as the primary option.

    I’d probably choose cms for building link type ~ which is content management system or other.

    As far as products ~ just pick one or two that relate to the site name you’re applying with.

    driving traffic is going to be SEO

    that should do it.

    Jackie

  • 41 Gary Materra // Feb 14, 2010 at 11:06 pm

    Thanks Jackie! I want you to know that I submitted my Amazon Associate application on Saturday and received acceptance notification on Sunday morning (today)! In the description I said I was just starting out and for now focusing on x products. I had already created 3 posts on blogspot.com blog on those products. My comment that I’m just starting out I was hoping would make them not surprised to find no links or anything other than the bare posts, and I guess it was ok! For the life of me I can’t figure out how to get an Amazon link into the posts, but I’ll work on that later. I really appreciate your help!
    –Gary

  • 42 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 15, 2010 at 9:22 am

    Hi Gary,

    Congrats on getting approved. Just remember the blogger blog is not so much to link to Amazon products ~ it’s purpose is to give you backlinks to your lenses. :) Chances are this site will get little to no traffic, so don’t worry too much about monetizing it.

    This post might help clarify the ” purpose” part:

    http://internetmarketingformommies.com/do-you-know-the-purpose-of-what-youre-doing/

    If you really want to monetize the blogger blog this post might help you:

    http://internetmarketingformommies.com/blogger-and-amazon-easy-peezy-now/

    Jackie

  • 43 Jim Denison // May 8, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    I just wrote my first article at Ezine about my first physical product. Usually, when I promote something from Clickbank, I put a link to Squidoo and also forward a .info domain directly to my affiliate page. With the physical product at Amazon, can we link directly to the Amazon page with our link, or is just the one link to Squidoo allowed?

    Thanks,

    Jim

  • 44 Jackie and Andrea // May 8, 2010 at 4:19 pm

    You’ll have to get a domain name and redirect the affiliate link to amazon just like you would with Clickbank.

    Jackie

  • 45 Jim Denison // May 22, 2010 at 3:12 pm

    Hi again Jackie,

    So, if I get a domain name and link it directly to Amazon, Ezinearticle won’t have a problem with that? such as “Boeing 727 cutouts” as text, which leads to ……..makebetterpaperairplanes.info, which leads back to a paper cutouts book at Amazon.com?

    Now, I’m somewhat confused, hope you’re not!

    Jim

  • 46 Jackie and Andrea // May 22, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    That should work. As long as you use the link makebetterairplanes.info as the link in your resource box you should be fine. :) Not sure that’s the best use of money ~ but… you could just link to the lens. :) That’s what I would do. I wouldn’t spend the extra money on a top level domain just to link to Amazon ~ send people to your lens, let it do the work.

    Jackie

  • 47 Gary Materra // May 23, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    I’m a little confused by your answer to Jim above, isn’t creating a top level domain forward the whole point of your lesson 16, to enable you to link directly to the sales page AND to your lens? Thanks!

  • 48 Valarie Miller-Corl // Aug 18, 2010 at 9:08 am

    OK, snag here. I want to use Amazon Associates but I live in one of the states that they no longer allow accounts for. Now what? I would like to promote products like TV’s, Kindle and such

  • 49 Jackie and Andrea // Aug 18, 2010 at 9:36 am

    Hi Valerie -

    You might want to join Commission Junction - http://www.cj.com

    Another option is to search on google keyword+”affiliate program”

    Should bring back some options.

    Andrea

  • 50 Jim Denison // Oct 17, 2010 at 11:51 am

    Hi, I must have missed this somewhere. When I put in my link to Amazon into the Squidoo lens, it comes up and says hello, …my name. How do we hide that to the customer and how do we know we will get paid?

    Thanks,

    Jim

  • 51 Jackie and Andrea // Oct 17, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    Hi Jim,

    I can’t really answer your question because I’m not sure exactly what you’re referring to. Can you more specifically tell me what’s going on and I’ll do my best.

    Jackie

  • 52 Jim Denison // Oct 17, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    WOW!! That was fast!! This is my Squidoo site: http://www.squidoo.com/NikonDigitalSLRCameraReview, when you click on My Favorite Link, notice it says …Hello, Jim Denison. I don’t think I want a particular customer to see that, do I?

  • 53 Jackie and Andrea // Oct 17, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    Gotcha! That will not show up for them. That shows up because you are logged into Amazon. When I clicked the link it said “Hi Jackie”. :)

    Did you follow the outline for keyword research for this lens? That’s a pretty competitive topic you got going on there. :)

    You did make the links through the grey stripe or your associates account correct? Make sure when you click through you to amazon you can still see your amazon id in the link in the address bar.

    Jackie

  • 54 Jim Denison // Oct 17, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    That’s a good comment!! That seems to be my biggest problem! I have about 25 pages out there, plus blogs and and I’ve made a whopping $100 so far. Any research suggestions? Thanks for the quick replies!!

  • 55 Jackie and Andrea // Oct 17, 2010 at 2:48 pm

    Lesson 6 covers the method to identify competition PotPieGirl teaches in OWM. You can learn a little more about how I do it here: http://www.squidoochristmascash.com/category/research/competition/

    Keyword research ~ identifying search volume and level of competition is key to success in niche marketing.

    Jackie