How to Effectively Use and Add Amazon Affiliate Links to Your WordPress Website

If you have ever wanted to start a a blog or website that is monetized by the Amazon Associates program, then I have a few tips that may help you get started.

Or if you currently have a site where you are wondering how to use Amazon affiliate links most effectively or the process of inserting your links using WordPress, I have a few ideas that will make you more money.

I started my online journey with Google Adsense, and that is where I've made a lot of my money in order to quit my job. However, after conducting a few niche site projects, and starting a few other sites on my own, I've learned how to use Amazon affiliate links quite well over the years. In fact over the past couple of months, I've learned some things that I never knew before, and wanted to share.

Making money through affiliate marketing in general can be quite profitable.  Promoting Amazon products is perhaps one of the easiest affiliate programs to join and tends to have a great conversion rate because everyone is familiar with buying from Amazon.  This can result in higher affiliate commissions for you.

There is nothing more frustrating that having a problem and not being able to find an answer; so, hopefully this post can answer a few basic questions in regards to making money with the Amazon associate program as I teach you how to use amazon affiliate links.

How to Insert and Add Amazon Links

There are a couple of different ways that you can insert Amazon affiliate links on your WordPress or other affiliate sites. First, you can use different options provided directly by Amazon.  You can do this with any theme you've picked and some WordPress themes have more ready to use interfaces to allow direct linking from amazon more readily.

Here's a quick summary of the steps needed to get affiliate links directly from Amazon:

1. Login to your Amazon Associate Account.
2. Find the products you want to promote on Amazon and click the option you want to use in the Amazon Associates site stripe at the top of page.
3. Copy the code for the link from the Amazon popup window.
4. Paste this link in your blog post, on social media, or other location on your site where you want to promote products.

Here's a bit more in-depth description of how to get your Amazon affiliate links, with images to guide you of course.

If you are logged into your Amazon associates account, you can just visit ANY page on Amazon.com and click the most appropriate option for you in the Amazon Associates SiteStripe at the op of the page.  This will give you an affiliate link for that exact page. Here's what it looks like:

As you can see, you can click either Text, Image, Text + Image, or Custom Native Shopping Ads. Finally, you can also share directly on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the Facebook or Twitter icons. 

I typically will just select the “Text” option and then highlight just the link code itself (as shown in the image below).  Then I can use this affiliate link anywhere I want on my site (with an image, my own anchor text, on social media, or anywhere else I chose).  However, you can explore the various link options to determine what works best for you.

All you have to do is copy that link from Amazon, insert it into your website, and you'll start earning commissions whenever people buy products on Amazon through that link.

However, it's important to note that you have the correct Store ID and tracking ID selected.  Just be aware that whatever tracking id you select is where the commissions will show up on your earnings report from Amazon.

Another pro tip is to decide if you want to use a short link or the full link (as shown in the image above).  I would recommend using the full link if you EVER think you will sell your website.  I have purchased and sold a couple of Amazon affiliate websites, and it's MUCH easier to find and replace (using a WordPress plugin) the old Amazon tracking id and replace with the new one when the full link is used.  (The short link doesn't show your tracking id, so it's impossible to find).

Custom Options

You can also click the “Custom” link and get an embed code that includes the price, image, description, and buy button.  This makes your links more obvious, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your blog post or site that you are using it on.

You can also use several other options that are provided by Amazon directly for creating affiliate links such as inserting banners, product links, and much more.  For my own niche sites, I don't typically use any of these other options. See the image below for a few options:

However, you should probably explore these options in your Amazon associates account to determine which type of affiliate links are the best for you to use. 

Now that I've covered what Amazon has to offer, I want to share a couple of other tools that can assist in using Amazon affiliate links on your website.

Using the EasyAzon Plugin to Insert Links

Another option for how to use Amazon affiliate links on your site is to use a WordPress plugin (if using WordPress).  For many of my niche sites, I am using the EasyAzon Pro Plugin.

The EasyAzon plugin makes it very quick and simple to insert Amazon affiliate links without ever having to leave your WordPress dashboard.  So, rather than going over to Amazon.com to find your product and then copy and paste the link, you can have the plugin do it directly for you within WordPress post or page.

Here's an image of the EasyAzon plugin in action:

So, this is located directly below where you create a post in your WordPress text editor.  All you have to do is type in your search query (mine is “tom brown tracker knife” above), then hit search.  This will pull back all the Amazon results using the Amazon Product Advertising API, as you can see in the image. Using the product advertising API from Amazon ensures that you stay compliant when using images, prices, and other product details.

Then simply select whether you want a text link, image link, info block, or call to action.

I went ahead and selected a “Text Link”, and here is what I get:

In the link text box, you can change your anchor text to whatever you want.  You can see that I made it, “Click Here for Pricing, Reviews, and More…”.  Then simply clicking “Insert Shortcode” and your Amazon affiliate link is all set!

I like having a custom anchor text because it can increase clicks, which can then lead to more sales.

Other EasyAzon Settings

To first get started with EasyAzon, you will need to input your basic affiliate details.  Once you input your Amazon Associate affiliate tag, you can select whether to cloak all links, open links in a new window, make affiliate links “No Follow” and more.  Here are the options you can select:

How to More Clicks and Sales from Your International Traffic

You will notice at the bottom of the image above that you can, “Enable Link Localization”.  What this does is detect what country the user is from that clicked your affiliate link and direct them to the correct Amazon country page.  In order to get paid when a user from the UK purchases on Amazon.co.uk for example, you MUST be approved to the Amazon.co.uk program; which is different than the Amazon.com program.

In other words, you need to apply and be approved for each of the countries for this function to work.  Well, it sounded like a lot of time and effort to apply to multiple countries; so I just figured I'd stick with the US only when I first started creating niche sites.

However, I was contacted by one of my readers who told me that it only takes a few minutes to apply to each of these programs, and that it could increase my income by over 15%!  To be honest, the only reason I hadn't applied to the other country affiliate programs was because I thought it would be too time consuming.

I was definitely wrong about that!

I've now applied to Canada, UK, and others. I now use the EasyAzon plugin to automatically localize the Amazon results for each person that clicks my affiliate links and I can see that I was missing out on sales from this international traffic. 

I mention this in case there is anyone out there just get started with the Amazon Associates program.  This is a simple tactic that could definitely increase your overall earnings.

Watch a Full Demo of the EasyAzon Plugin Here

Genius Links

Another great tool to help you monetize traffic coming from all over the world is Geniuslink.  Genius is a SaaS based tool that can work with their WordPress plugin or any other type of website.

Genius also acts as a URL shortener, which is how they can track all of your link clicks, where visitors are coming from, and more.  Here's what the dashboard looks like in my account:

I use Genius links on a few of my niche sites and have never had any issues.  When I look at where my traffic is coming from, you can see that people from 165 countries have clicked on my Amazon affiliate links.  So, even though I've applied to the largest Amazon countries, I'm likely still missing out on a little bit of commission each month.

Amazon OneLink

Another option to localize your links is through a relatively new option directly through Amazon called, OneLink.  Amazon OneLink does the same thing as the EasyAzon Pro Plugin and GeniusLink; it takes international traffic clicking on your affiliate links and sends them to the appropriate Amazon country (i.e. Amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, etc).

To set up Amazon OneLink, just follow the directions that can be found in your Amazon associates account as shown in the image below:

Where and How to Use Amazon Affiliate Links

Now that you know step by step how to get your Amazon affiliate links, you may still have some questions about exactly where or how to use Amazon affiliate links.  Here's some of my favorite places to use my Amazon product links:

1. In your blog posts as text links.  This might include your WordPress blog, but could also be Tumblr blog, Blogger, Medium Blog, Weebly Blog, or any other blogging platform.  The concept of inserting your Amazon text links is essentially the same on each platform.
2. In your in-depth “buying guides” that review Amazon products. You can see some great examples of effective use of Amazon links and in-depth buying guides at theWireCutter.com.
3. In your WordPress sidebar to highlight a special offer or favorite product.
4. Use Amazon native ads or banners strategically placed within your content.  Consider used the Ad Inserter WordPress plugin to have the same Amazon native ad show up at the end of each of your blog posts for example.
5. In product comparison tables.  I recently did an in-depth tutorial of how to create product comparison charts that you might find useful.  Or if you are looking for a great software tool that automatically creates great looking Amazon product comparison tables for you, consider the software I created TableLabs.com.
6. On Social Media; including Facebook posts, Instagram Posts, and Twitter posts.  As mentioned earlier, Amazon has no problem with you posting affiliate links on Facebook and Twitter.  In fact, they have the Facebook and Twitter linking tool built right into the Associate SiteStripe.  However, I've found that my own experiments with posting links on social media haven't worked that well.
7. YouTube.  If you are building a following and review products, it's a no brainer to add an affiliate link in your video description.  You could even mention a pretty link or other short link in your video that people could type into their browsers.
8. Store pages.  You can create a “store” page on your website and create your own product listings that are all just your affiliate links.  Fresh Store Builder is a tool that makes this SUPER easy and turns out great looking pages.

Pretty Links

If you want to create your own custom affiliate link you can use a free WordPress plugin called Pretty Link.  This plugin simply makes really long links short (it's a link shortener).  I use Pretty Links all the time.  For example, http://ift.tt/2qw0swv, is now my Amazon affiliate link. (Goes to the earmuffs page I was taking screenshots of earlier in this post).

In Conclusion

If you are getting started using the Amazon Assoicates program, hopefully some of these tips I've shared about how to use Amazon affiliate links will be useful to you.  Amazon provides lots of different options for inserting links into your site that can be quite helpful. 

However, you can also use tools like EasyAzon, GeniusLink, or even Table Labs to help you effectively add links to your site. These plugins and tools allow me to get things done a little bit quicker and provides some advanced options that I may not be able to accomplish otherwise.

Do you have any questions about using the Amazon affiliate program?  I'd love to hear your comments or questions below.

The post How to Effectively Use and Add Amazon Affiliate Links to Your WordPress Website appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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How to Write Instagram Captions That Drive Engagement

Staying active on social media is absolutely necessary if you want your business to be successful.

This statement holds true for small, local mom-and-pop stores as well as national chains and global ecommerce sites.

Even if you’re not selling a tangible product and just run a blog or something similar, you need to have a social media presence.

But having social media profiles and properly managing them are two different things.

Did you know about 80% of social media browsing takes place on mobile devices?

That’s one of the reasons why you need to focus on your Instagram strategy.

Plus, look at the rapid growth it’s had over the last several years:

The popularity of this platform can’t be ignored.

Businesses are recognizing this trend and acting accordingly.

In fact, over 70% of companies in the United States had an Instagram profile in 2017.

That number has skyrocketed from 48.8% in 2016.

If you are one of these businesses, I’m sure you’re taking advantage of everything Instagram has to offer.

You post photos daily.

You’re always adding videos to your story.

You may even go live once in a while too.

But how are these actions engaging your followers?

Taking and posting the perfect picture can grab someone’s attention, but your captions will give them a sense of direction.

It’s important you write actionable Instagram captions.

If you need help writing your captions, you’ve come to the right place.

I’ll tell you everything you need to know about writing captions that drive engagement.

Let everyone know where you are with location tags

I’ll start by telling you something that does not need to be in your caption.

When it comes to the location of the photos, do tell your followers where the photo was taken.

But here’s the catch: you don’t need to put that in your caption.

That’s a waste of valuable space.

I see people make this mistake all the time.

Instead, tag the location of the photo.

Here’s an example.

Rather than saying, “Here we are at the United Center,” the Jordan brand geo-tags the location of the photo instead.

Now they can put other information in their caption.

They used this post to promote a new product launch.

But that message could have been lost in the shuffle if they wrote their location in the caption.

Another reason why you should tag the location is because it will appear with all the other photos and videos tagged at that location.

The posts with the most likes and comments will show up as “Top Posts” on that location’s page.

It’s a great way for people who might not follow you to see your posts as well.

If the Jordan brand included their location in a caption, it wouldn’t be exposed to such a wide audience.

Plus, location tagging drives engagement, which is our ultimate goal.

Keep your location out of the caption, and tag it instead.

That’s a much better engagement strategy.

Don’t write the first thing that comes to your mind

You took 20 different pictures of the same subject from different angles and with different lighting.

Then you spent time finding the best one, adding a filter or two, changing the exposure, brightness, and saturation, and playing around with all the other editing tools.

But then you write your caption in 10 seconds because you want to post it right away.

That’s a mistake.

You should take just as long, if not longer, to write your Instagram caption for that photo.

Think about all the other written content you’re putting out on the Internet, like your blog, for example.

You write a draft and then you edit it.

Maybe you edit it a second or even a third time before adding the post to your website.

Apply that same concept to your Instagram captions.

Write drafts—and several of them.

Take your time. The photo isn’t going anywhere and neither are your followers.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should take all week or a month to write these couple of lines of text.

But you need to put some thought into it. Concentrate on your captions as much as you focus on taking the photo and editing it.

Writing drafts can also help you make sure you don’t have spelling errors or make any other blunders.

While Instagram allows you to edit your caption after it’s posted, by the time you realize there is a mistake, thousands of followers could have already seen it.

Those are careless mistakes.

You don’t want people to think you don’t care.

Put the most important information first

If you’re writing a longer caption, don’t be clever trying to ease into it with a creative introduction.

Instead, lead with your most important message.

Be direct.

Instagram allows you to have 2200 characters in your caption, but that doesn’t mean your followers will see it all. Well, at least not right away.

Longer captions get cut off.

The example above shows the caption before and after the user hits “more.”

And this caption isn’t even that long.

While in general, I think shorter captions are more effective, I don’t want to discourage you from writing longer ones.

Just make sure your most important content isn’t at the end.

Not everyone will click on the “more” button to see the whole thing.

Keep in mind, users are just scrolling down their newsfeeds glancing at photos.

They probably don’t care enough about your caption to read the whole thing.

So at least try to hook them in with the first couple of lines to give them a reason to keep reading.

Find ways to encourage comments

You want each post to have lots of engagement.

One of the ways to do this is by getting people to comment on your pictures.

Users can talk in the comments with each other or reply directly to you.

Another way to get more comments is by replying to users and driving a discussion.

For this method to be successful, however, you have to get people talking in the first place.

End your caption with a question to invite comments from your followers.

If you don’t ask them something, they may not have a reason to write anything.

Another way to get comments is by encouraging your followers to tag their friends in photos.

Here’s an example from MVMT Watches:

This post received nearly 900 comments in less than five days.

Clearly, this is an effective strategy.

Drive traffic to your website

If you have an ecommerce store, the ultimate goal of your Instagram page should be to get more sales from your followers.

To get people to make a purchase, you have to get them to your website first since purchases can’t be made directly from the Instagram platform.

You should also be tracking where your website traffic is coming from.

Create a unique URL with a tracking code to see the number of referrals from your Instagram page.

That will help you gauge how successful this strategy is.

It’s always important to measure results, so establish a benchmark to improve upon.

Add that unique link to your Instagram bio.

Then, you can use your caption to refer your followers to the link.

Here’s an example from H&M to show you what I’m talking about:

This photo shows some specific clothing items they’re selling.

If people are interested in buying one of these items, they can click on a link in the bio that brings them directly to the item.

That way they don’t have to key in the website URL first and then search for the item.

It’s too many steps that can turn them away and reduce the chances of a sale.

Here’s what that link looks like in the H&M bio:

This makes it really easy for customers to shop, leading to more sales.

Run a contest

Nothing gets people excited like the opportunity to get something free.

You can use contests as a way to promote your brand on Instagram.

This strategy will definitely drive engagement if you can write a great caption.

First, let’s review the three different types of giveaways:

• contest
• sweepstakes
• lottery

When the participants have to do something that requires some sort of effort or skill to win a prize, it’s considered a contest. The winner is determined by judges or a vote.

If you’re selecting a winner at random, it’s called a sweepstakes.

A lottery would mean that people would have to buy a raffle ticket or something like that to enter.

But I wouldn’t recommend doing this, especially because certain state and federal laws prohibit these types of giveaways.

Your best bet is running a contest. That’s one of my favorite ways to keep your followers engaged.

Their effort will determine whether they win or not.

Here’s a great example of a strong caption promoting a contest run by Starbucks:

It’s a successful campaign strategy because it encourages user-generated content.

Here’s how it works.

Starbucks invites their customers to design a cup.

Then the customers have to post a picture of their cups on Instagram with the hashtag #WhiteCupContest.

Think about your brand and your current contest.

If you own a coffee shop, there are only so many pictures of coffee and pastries you can post.

Your followers will get bored with that real quick.

That’s why your captions have to be engaging.

Try running a contest the next time you post a picture on Instagram.

Here’s a contest example from Mint:

You can use this caption as a template for your own contest, using your own information: name, hashtag, prize, and deadline.

Use hashtags

We’ve discussed hashtags a few times already, but they are important enough to mention on their own.

You want to include hashtags in your captions.

For the same reason, we tagged location.

Your post will appear on a page with all the other images with the same hashtag.

You’ll expose your brand to a wider audience.

I’d recommend putting hashtags at the end of your caption.

As we saw earlier, long captions can get cut off.

But your hashtag doesn’t have to be visible to be effective.

It will group your picture with all the other posts with that hashtag.

If you’re not sure which hashtag to use, start typing and Instagram will suggest the most popular ones.

Pick the one with the most posts.

This will give you the greatest user engagement.

While you want to include hashtags, use them sparingly.

Going overboard with them could look like spam, and it’s not appealing to your followers.

Make sure your hashtags are relevant.

Don’t just use trending hashtags as a way to get exposure if they have nothing to do with your post or brand.

Again, this will make people think you’re spamming them, which is counterproductive to your engagement strategy.

Conclusion

Don’t overlook the importance of writing a good Instagram caption.

You spend lots of time selecting and editing a photo. Make sure you’re putting just as much effort into the caption.

Write several drafts before deciding on the best.

While you want to let users know where you are, that doesn’t mean it should be part of your caption. It’s a waste of space. Use location tagging instead.

Long captions will get cut off, so write the most important information at the beginning.

Encourage user comments by asking a question or telling your followers to tag their friends.

Drive traffic to your website through a link in your bio. Mention the link in your captions.

This will help you get more sales if you have an ecommerce site.

Promote a contest or giveaway in your captions too.

Add hashtags as well, but use them sparingly.

If you follow these tips, you’ll get more engagement on all your Instagram posts.

Which caption strategy has been the most successful for your company’s Instagram profile?

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The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Product Comparison Chart for Your Niche Site

One of the most common questions that I get from readers is, “How do you create an Amazon product comparison chart for a niche site?”  I've mentioned several times on the blog here that I used TablePress, a free WordPress plugin, but I think I need to give a better answer!

Actually, I know how much I appreciate it when someone has written a detailed blog post for a process that I am hoping to learn, so I hope to accomplish that today about product comparison tables.

Before I jump into the nuts and bolts of how to create a product comparison chart, I want to review WHY you would want a comparison table on your blog or website.

When people are searching online to buy something, they want information and they want to be able to compare different options.  The easiest way to compare the pros and cons of different products for many people is to have a list of all the top products along with prices, reviews, features, and more right in front of them on one page.

So, if you can provide all the detailed information for the user, they are much more likely to do their analysis and make their buying decision through your website (meaning you would get an affiliate commission from Amazon).  A shopping comparison chart is priceless in this process; and as a result it can convert browsers into buyers very well.

While some themes like these here offered by Thrive actually have table comparison software built in, most WordPress themes don't offer this feature.

Update!  Since writing this article, I've created my own software tool to make creating product comparison charts.  You can see my software tool, Table Labs, right here. 

Here's an image of the comparison table on my survival knife site, that I created as a public niche site example.  I'm going to show you step by step how to create a table like this using the free plugin called TablePress:

Find Top Products

Before you can create the best possible comparison table for your niche site, you need to put in the research and make sure you REALLY are selecting the best products.  I cannot over-emphasize this step; you truly do need to do your research and select the best products to review.  People are smart, and will eventually know if you are not recommending the best products.  So, do your research!

Amazon.com is a great place to review potential products.  Not only can you see just about everything that is available in your market, but reading reviews can give you a great sense of what customers actually think.  Yes, ideally you will have purchased and used the product.  But I don't think its realistic to own all 10 or 20 brands in a niche.

When I created my survival knife niche website, there is no way I could have purchased all 50 knives and compared them first hand.  But by doing research on Amazon, reading the survival knife forums, and other websites, you can quickly pick up the products that customers truly value.

You need to do this research for your own niche.

In a nutshell, select the products with the highest ratings on Amazon, are most talked about on forums in your niche, and have been highly reviewed by other bloggers/websites.  If you can find the 10 to 15 top products to compare, you will have really helped the end consumer in their buying decision!

Find Features to Compare

Once you have done your research to find what PRODUCTS to compare, you should already have a good idea of what FEATURES to compare.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer and think about what features are most important to consider. Two options that you should almost always have in your chart are price and ratings.  People always want to know how much something costs and how well it has been rated by others.

In addition, you should be able to find a couple of other features to compare as well.  For example, in my survival knife comparison chart, I also have columns for: Overall Length, Blade Length, Weight, and Blade Material.

On Perrin's niche site for safety razors,  he has Price, Ratings, Size, and Type (along with Name and Picture).  Here's an example of his Amazon product comparison table below:

Using TablePress to Create Charts

So, now that you know what information you want in your chart, you need to actually start creating it!

I am going to review 2 different plugins that I'm aware of that will allow you to create these comparison charts for free.

The first plugin is called TablePress.  This is the plugin that I used on my survival knife website.  You can download it here.

I wish I could say there was a way to automatically create the chart with all your desired information, but in reality it needs to be manually input.  So, here's a look at the back-end of the TablePress plugin with my survival knife comparison chart:

Update: If you don't want to manually input information like you do with TablePress, I created a software tool that now pulls everything in automatically!  Check out Table Labs right here.

Overall, here's the steps needed to create an Amazon product comparison chart using the TablePress WordPress Plugin:

1. Gather all the data you need from Amazon or other websites and input directly into TablePress or in a spreadsheet.
2. Make sure you manually insert your affiliate links or use EasyAzon to assist in affiliate link creation (or other tools).
3. If you collected all your information in a spreadsheet, you then need to save it as a CSV and upload it to TablePress.
4. You can reorder the columns or rows using the drag and drop features in TablePress
5. You can also change how the chart looks with a few options in TablePress

Overall, it's a very manual process, but it's not overly complicated.

Then if You Select an Individual Chart:

Click to Enlarge

Using TablePress, you can either input the data directly in WordPress, as shown in the screenshot; OR you can input all the data in a spreadsheet, then upload that CSV file into WordPress.  Using a CSV file is actually what I did for my survival knife site.

See this image of the spreadsheet I created before uploading it to Table Press (yes, I had to input all that information manually):

Now as you can imagine, the most important part of creating the chart is getting the links correct (column A above).  Your affiliate links is where you make your money, so you want to make sure they work properly to send people to Amazon.  I'm going to cover that in-depth below.

However, for my survival knife site, you can see that I used EasyAzon for the links in my chart. (Special $20 off page for EasyAzon).  Perrin for his site, actually used links directly from Amazon.  I'll show you how to do both.

And again, here's what the TablePress chart looks like.  (You can actually change colors and format it quite differently using the TablePress options):

How to Use WebSimon Tables to Create a Chart

The other free plugin that you can use to create comparison tables is Websimon Tables (Updated as of 2017, this plugin is no longer maintained).  This is the WordPress plugin that Perrin used for his site, aPennyShaved.com.

The process is actually exactly the same.  You can either input the data directly into WordPress, or you can input it into a spreadsheet, then upload the CSV.  Here's what the Websimon Tables Plugin looks like on Perrin's site:

Select and Edit an Individual Table:

Customize Layout and Style:

Notice that there are pre-made “skins” to easily customize look and feel of table.

Overall, both table plugins work great.  Websimon has more built in options to make the tables look nicer compared to TablePress.  In addition, Websimon will auto-size your images to all be the same size.  So, if you input a link to a really large image, no worries, Websimon will size it for you.

The downside of Websimon tables is that you can't sort the table.  With TablePress you can, and users often state that they love that about my table on my survival knife site.

With TablePress, you can customize the colors, etc, but its not as easy – and Websimon appears to look more professional “out of the box”.

How to Create the Links Using EasyAzon

Now, I'm finally going to get to the “tough” part.  If you've been playing around with websites and html for a while, you can probably figure it out on your own.  But if you just want to see how I did it, that's what this is all about!

There is no magic button in these plugins that allow you to insert your Amazon affiliate link or insert an image with all the link options you want.  You have to build the link manually.  However, EasyAzon does make things a bit easier in my opinion.

Update: I built a software tool that automatically creates the affiliate links and charts for you.  It's a big time saver.  Check our my software tool call Table Labs right here.

I am going to show you how to create the first column in this table:

So, in a nutshell the links are made of 3 parts:

1. The affiliate link

2. The text

3. The image

So, let me show you what the link looks like for the highlighted column above, and then dissect it, so you can create your own.  Here's the link:

Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Campanion Fixed Blade Knife<br /><img src=”http://ift.tt/2CUP1AQ;

• So, the entire row is just 1 affiliate link because its all between: (One big link)
• Then you can see the text immediately following the opening is the visible text on the site: Ka-Bar Becker BK2 Campanion Fixed Blade Knife
• The final part is the image.  Everything between the <img src:” “</img> tags, is the image source.

To create the EasyAzon affiliate links, I went to any blog post, and found the product I wanted, and created the link temporarily in that post.  I then just copied and pasted the link in my table.  Then repeated for all the products in the table.

So here's the steps using EasyAzon:

After selecting “Text Link”, then you get your link:

Now find the image you want.  I get mine directly from Amazon, and don't even download them to my WordPress.  I researched quite a bit to find out if it's okay (legally) to use Amazon images on your site.  The best I could find, seemed to agree that's it okay, since you are sending traffic to Amazon sellers and trying to increase their business.

You are an affiliate of theirs, trying to promote their products.  But if you want to do your own research, I highly encourage you to do so.

Update: Since writing this article, I've since changed my mind about using Amazon images.  I would strongly encourage you to use the Amazon API to pull in your images.  I know when you are just starting out this might be difficult and so you may just be willing to accept the risk.  But technically, according to Amazon you are not supposed to use their images unless you get them through the Amazon API.

There are some WordPress plugins that can help with this, including EasyAzon.  Or you can check out Table Labs, my software tool which not only pulls in the images and price using the Amazon API, but streamlines the entire chart creation process.

To get the image link on Amazon, just search for your product, then right click and view the image on the search results page:

The copy the Image URL:

Then finally just add whatever Text you want, and you have built your link.  Now just do that for every product in your table!

Yep, its time consuming, but the few hours you will spend building your table, will make your site more useful than most niche sites out there.

How to Create the Links Using Amazon Directly

I like using EasyAzon for a couple of reasons.

1. You don't ever have to leave WordPress

2. If I ever want to change how users interact with my affiliate links, I can do it without actually changing any of the links.  This is not true when you create links directly in Amazon Associates.

In other words, if I want to have a pop-up when users hover over the images in my table, or make my links no-follow, or cloak my links, or other options; I can do that directly in the EasyAzon management panel, without ever touching my links.

However, you can create the links directly from Amazon Associates, you don't need to have EasyAzon.  This is what Perrin did.  So, lets take a look at what the code looks like for this first column in his chart:

<a href=”http://ift.tt/2CTd7w9 width=”100px” src=”http://ift.tt/2E7DCxl; /></a>.

The second column (Name) is a second affiliate link:

<a href=”http://ift.tt/2CW6byp Long Handled Chrome Safety Razor</a>

Amazon Associaties gives you this link, just edit it down to what you need:

Then you need to once again search Amazon to find the image that you want.  Perrin got his images directly from the Amazon product pages, so they are larger than the ones I used; but Websimon auto-sized them to fit nicely in the table.

Once you have the image URL you want, just combine it with the affiliate link you created, and insert the code into your table.  Rinse and repeat for all products!

Again, the only real downside of getting your links directly from Amazon, is that if you decide to change how your links act, you would need to go back and edit each individually.  This is not the case with EasyAzon.

Chris Guthrie, the owner of EasyAzon, has agreed to give my readers a special $20 discount on EasyAzon that you can get anywhere else right now.

Go Here to See the Special $20 Discount Page for EasyAzon. (Yes, its an affiliate link.  It's a product I use).

 

How to Automatically Create Product Comparison Charts Using Table Labs

Since originally writing this article a couple of years ago, I've made my own software tool called Table Labs that makes creating Amazon product comparison charts much easier and faster.  In fact, what usually would take 2 to 3 hours (or more) with TablePress using the process I just demonstrated, now only takes about 5 minutes or so.

To demonstrate, here's a video that shows just how easy it is to use Table Labs:

When you get started using Table Labs, you simply link up to the Amazon API and then the software does all the heavy lifting for you.  So, if I wanted to create a chart comparing my favorite business books, here's the steps I would take using Table Labs.

Step 1: Search for the product I want to select in Table Labs

Step 2: Click the + Symbol to Add the Products I want to my chart

I selected a few books that I like, notice that the titles, images, price, and my affiliate links are automatically pulled in…I didn't do anything manually to get this data to show up like that!

Step 3: Rearrange Columns and Rows using drag and drop, and make a “top pick”.

Step 4: Select a professionally designed theme OR use a color picker to make a custom looking table

Step 5: Embed the Table code on your site and start earning money!

Your chart is now created and you simply copy and paste a small snippet of code on your website.  The code works on WordPress, regular html, PHP, or any other type of website builder out there.

Here's a screenshot of how to insert the embed code on WordPress:

Below is the chart I just created using Table Labs!  You can see how it looks and works with my affiliate links inserted.  This took less than 5 minutes to create.

You can also completely change the look of the tables with just a few clicks and you don't have to re-insert embed code, it will update automatically.

Overall, I spent a few years creating product comparison charts manually using Table Press or other plugins because they are free.  They still work and there is nothing wrong with using them.  However, I found that tables convert so well that I wanted to create more and more.  That's why I created Table Labs.

If you want to see more details about Table Labs and some of the additional features that I didn't mention here, go to TableLabs.com.

Overall and Your Thoughts

Overall, I hope that the great detail provided here on how to create your very own comparison table for your niche site is helpful!  When creating a niche site, I think it is important to create as much value as possible to the end user, and one way to to do that is to create a well-researched table of the top products in your chosen niche.

Now, I'm sure there are many other ways that you can create a comparison table, and if you find a better way that works for you, that would be great!  However, this is the process that I have used on my survival knife site and many other niche sites.

I know that many of you have already been implementing this same table strategy, as I've seen your niche sites popping up as I do research…I'm in awe actually of how many niche site creators are out there reading..thank you!  But for those of you that haven't jumped into creating tables, this should be the only post you need to get started.

I would love to hear your thoughts!  If you have any input that you would like to add to the process, please let us know.  I look forward to the discussion below.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Product Comparison Chart for Your Niche Site appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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How to Develop a Customer Persona That Improves Conversion Rates

Customers are the lifeline and driving force of your business.

Without them, you wouldn’t exist.

That’s why you need to spend the time and use various resources to develop a better understanding of your customers’ thinking.

The idea is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes—their minds, really.

You want to figure out their perception of your company.

Creating an accurate customer persona can help you accomplish this.

It will help you learn about their habits, behaviors, and interests.

That way, you’ll be able to market to them accordingly.

Customer personas can help you get more money from your existing customers and even help you acquire new customers.

You’ll be able to keep your customers engaged.

Ultimately, this will improve conversion rates.

If you’ve never created a customer persona before, it can sound a little intimidating.

Don’t worry—it’s not as difficult as you might think.

I’ve created the ultimate guide for developing customer personas that can help you improve your conversion rates in a dramatic way.

Here’s what you need to know.

Customer personas are not the same as a target market

One of the first steps to starting a business involves identifying your target market.

This should be done before you officially launch to make sure people will be interested in your brand, products, or services.

But target markets are not the same thing as your customer personas although they will have some similarities.

Here’s an example of what it takes to identify your target audience:

This is a logical place to start, especially if you’re a new business.

Even if your company has been operating for quite some time, it doesn’t hurt to go back to the drawing board.

Re-evaluate your target market if you’re struggling with conversions.

You need to have a firm grasp of this topic before you can develop a customer persona.

Demographics are a key component of your target market.

I’m talking about factors like:

• geographic location
• age
• sex
• religion
• marital status
• income

All of these play a role in determining your company’s target audience.

But your customer persona is going to break that down even further.

While your target audience encompasses the elements that show what different groups of people have in common, the customer persona looks for differentiating factors.

What makes each person within a certain demographic unique?

Just because two people of the same gender and same age live in a specific city doesn’t mean they have similar interests.

One may be the perfect customer for your company, while the other would be a waste of time and money to focus your marketing efforts on.

Relate the customer persona to your brand

Ultimately, you want this marketing profile to be related to your company.

For example, if your company sells cars and you don’t have any information that relates to the customer’s driving needs, you’re approaching this the wrong way.

You have to ask yourself,

“Who wants and needs the product I’m selling?”

To illustrate my point, here’s a perfect example of someone who needs to buy an SUV:

There’s a ton of information on this marketing profile such as the customer’s name, age, and race.

You also learn he has two kids and enjoys playing hockey.

These factors impact his need for an SUV.

Since Kyle has children, he can’t buy a coupe. Plus, safety is important to a family man.

Since SUVs are larger, he might feel safer driving his kids in a full-size vehicle.

The fact that he plays hockey means he needs room in his car for big, heavy, and bulky equipment, so an SUV makes the most sense.

But now I want you to notice the specific information I emphasized in this customer persona.

These points are related directly to what Kyle is looking for when he’s shopping for a vehicle.

You want to make this information as specific as possible.

This is what differentiates one customer from another.

It shows the number of miles he drives to work each day, which is why fuel economy is important to him.

The profile also includes some recreational activities he uses his car for such as family vacations, coaching, and driving his kids to and from their sporting events.

Can you see how this persona can be drastically different from that of another 42-year-old male who lives in the same area but doesn’t use his car for any outdoor activities?

The key here is you always need to relate the persona back to what you’re selling. Otherwise, the information won’t be as helpful.

Start with the basics, and be specific

The first step to developing a persona should be the person’s name and age.

Refer to your target market for this.

Let’s say your brand appeals to men in their early 40s. If he’s 42 years old in 2017, that would mean he was born in 1975.

These are the top 15 baby names from that year in the United States:

Based on this information, we can refer to this customer persona as Michael.

Next, determine where he lives.

While geographic location such as state, city, or region from your target market is a good start, you want to break this down even further.

Does Michael own property or does he pay rent?

If he’s a homeowner, is he in a condo complex or a single family home?

Does he rent an apartment or a house?

What are his monthly mortgage or rent payments?

Notice that we started with some broad facts but slowly came to more specific information.

That’s how you need to approach this.

From here, you can begin to come up with more information about Michael’s personality based on his living situation.

For example, you could say he owns his house because he’s raising a family and doesn’t plan on going anywhere.

Alternatively, you could write that Michael pays rent because he’s single and doesn’t want to commit to one area for long periods of time.

Just make sure you’re relating this persona back to your brand.

Let’s say your brand sells expensive furniture. You wouldn’t be marketing to a renter who moves to a new city every year or so.

You’d focus on the man who owns his home and plans to live there for the next 30 years.

Include information about their career and income

Assuming your customer has a full-time job, their career is an important part of who they are.

They’re spending at least 40 hours a week at this job, so it’s a huge part of their life.

Think about how much of your schedule revolves around your profession. I’m willing to bet it factors into many of your decisions.

Here’s another example that includes this information:

Look at how much detailed information about his career this customer persona has.

They even related his top objectives and biggest fears to his job.

All of this is important for creating an accurate marketing profile.

Furthermore, while a person’s job may impact their happiness, schedule, and mindset, it also is directly related to their spending habits.

That’s essential to your goal of improving your conversion rates.

The more money someone makes, the more money they spend.

Take a look at the differences in average annual spending for high- and low-income homes:

Higher income homes spend more money annually in every category on this list.

In some instances, the differences in the amounts are drastic.

When you’re developing a customer persona, make sure the hypothetical person you’re creating can afford your product.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say they make $45,000 per year after taxes.

They spend $14,000 annually on housing and $7,000 on transportation.

The essentials, such as their insurance and food, cost $12,000 in total.

This leaves them with an extra $1,000 per month of disposable income to spend on everything else.

Can they really afford the $450 pair of headphones your company is selling?

Probably not.

In this case, you’ll need to develop a customer persona with a higher paying job.

Find out how their interests and behaviors impact their consumption habits

This part is going to help you reach your customers when it comes to your marketing efforts, which we’ll discuss shortly.

For example, what do they use to determine the credibility of a company?

Refer back to the first customer persona we analyzed earlier: Kyle, the prospective SUV buyer.

He actively uses social media but doesn’t post anything.

Instead, he uses it as a research tool to read reviews.

You’ll also want to include information about their hobbies, likes, and dislikes.

What is this person good at?

Are there certain things they can’t do?

For example, depending on your industry, it might be valuable to know whether or not this person can cook or whether they tend to eat out.

If they eat out, you can also assume they don’t have as much of a disposable income since they are spending more money on food even if they have a higher salary.

How does this person buy their products?

Are they an impulse buyer? Or do they take time to research their options and compare different brands?

Use this information to improve your marketing content.

Apply your customer personas to your marketing strategies

Now that you’ve developed an accurate and detailed customer persona, it’s time for you to use it to improve your conversion rates.

Let’s say you are getting plenty of traffic to a particular landing page, but not many visitors follow through with your call-to-action.

You may want to re-evaluate the source of that landing page and the message that entices customers to convert based on the persona.

For example, your customer persona may be a 20-year-old female who goes to college in New York City and has a part-time job paying $20,000 per year.

Based on this persona, it’s safe to say she has an active Facebook profile.

You should be trying to improve your marketing efforts so that she gets brought to your landing page through some kind of Facebook campaign.

Now let’s get to her buying behavior, which we just discussed.

If she’s an impulse buyer, you can use scarcity tactics to get her to make a purchase:

• Sale ends tomorrow
• Only three tickets left at this price
• Sign up before midnight and get 25% off your first purchase

Marketing campaigns like this can get her to buy something.

Conclusion

Customer personas are not the same as a target market—although you need to have a clear target audience to help you come up with an accurate persona.

The persona will include much more detail about your customer.

That’s because two people with similar demographics aren’t necessarily going to shop the same way. You want to focus your efforts on the ones who fit your persona.

Your customer persona needs to be relevant to your brand and whatever you’re selling.

Start with basic information like their name and age.

Then get more specific with their job, income, location, and living situation.

Find out how their interests, hobbies, lifestyle, and personal life impact their buying behavior.

Use this information to improve your current marketing campaigns.

Now you can target people based on specific factors to improve your conversion rates.

Don’t stop after your first customer persona.

Make as many as possible so you can come up with different ways to appeal to specific types of customers.

What information will you include in your customer personas to increase conversions on your website?

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