Here’s my quick analysis on selling Amazon product via the Amazon’s Associate program.  If anyone has more experience with the Amazon Associate program, please comment.

You may want to read my previous post on Digital Storefronts For Artists.

The Amazon universe is huge.  If you want to give your fans a diverse and handpicked range of products to buy and get paid just for linking to those products on Amazon, then give the Amazon Associates program a try.  Here’s what you need to know:

You will need to invest four to eight hours into learning how it all works, and even more time hunting for products your fans would buy.

You will need to understand how widgets work and how to integrate them into your site or into your profile pages.

There are a ton of ways to display Amazon product and links.  If you are not a programmer and you want the Amazon Associates program to work for you, the only way that seems to make sense is to create what Amazon calls an “aStore”.

When you deploy an aStore your fans can hunt around Amazon without leaving your site.  This is important, because you only get paid for the EXACT things your fans find on your site.  

The other widgets that Amazon enables Associates to use amount to complete shots in the dark. 

You have to EXACTLY guess what your fans want or leave it up to Amazon to EXACTLY guess what your fans want. 

In either case, you don’t get paid unless the EXACT guess is correct; as once a fan leaves your site and goes to Amazon, you only get paid for the EXACT products you promoted. 

This may not be bad thing if the EXACT products are your CDs, your digital tracks and your merchandise, however if you plan to sell other things – using Amazon widgets is like deploying little slot machines that have bad odds.

The aStore is different.  The aStore creates a mini Amazon right on your site; fans can hunt around until they find something they want; they can fill a shopping cart; and then go to Amazon to complete the sale.  The aStore gives you the best opportunity to sell lots of things randomly.  

The scaled image below is an aStore for Unsprung that I quickly stocked with GPS navigation devices.  If you want to try my aStore click the image to load the actual store.

 
Here are some pointers on using an aStore:

• You need 530 pixels of width.  This may be problematic for some sites and profiles. 
• You really need to “add value” to your aStore.  Amazon is huge and it encompasses hundreds of thousands of products sold by other merchants, as well as products sold by Amazon.  One way to add value is to be a smart shopper for your fans.  You need to pick relevant products and organize them logically.
• You should also try to pick some products that are big-ticket items, as you get paid a percentage of each sale.  However, a product-mix that carries a wide range of prices seems like it would generate the best results.

The bottom line: If you have a lot of traffic, Amazon could be a great way to pick up some extra income.  There are easier and there are more complicated ways to integrate Amazon into your site.  However, the aStore seems like the easiest way to generate income using the Amazon Associates program.  

I am looking forward to being able to use Amazon’s “Product Cloud” widget (actual widget shown below) with my own aStore.  Right now, Amazon’s product cloud, filled with Amazon-selected products - is just another mini slot machine with bad odds.

I have been experimenting on Unsprung with simple ways for artists to generate extra income from merchandise sold by others; that artists don’t have to handle.

In other words, some other company does all the work for you!  In theory, you just push fan traffic to your website or profile page, recommend and display cool products and wait for the money to roll in.  

If you are getting a ton of fan traffic, digital storefronts could be a real moneymaker.  Setting up a web-based storefront up can be a chore, but unfortunately - in 2008 - digital storefronts may generate more revenue than your music.

In my opinion, today’s managers need to be able to setup digital affiliate programs and digital storefronts for their artists.  If your manager is allergic to the Internet, then make sure he’s finding the right people to help you.

My criteria for using and promoting digital storefronts and marketplaces are:
•    I don’t want to handle shipping or customer interaction.
•    I need to be able to feature my own merchandise.
•    I need to be able to choose the third-party products I sell.
•    The methods for displaying the products on my site have to be simple.
•    The merchandising widgets and interfaces have to be sleek.
•    It has to be economically worth it.
•    The storefront supplier has to be stable and trustworthy.
•    The storefront has to offer a range of relevant (to fans) products.
•    The storefront’s logo and branding has to be minimal or nonexistent.
•    The store or marketplace has to offer a variety of methods or widgets for merchandising products on my site.

If you are chaffing at plugging merchandise that’s NOT your own – that’s understandable.  Lots of artists don’t want to be overtly commercial.  Perhaps you can try (seriously) creating a link to a page called “Buy My Beer” or “Feed Me” or something that spells out to your fans what you are trying to accomplish – such as eating every week.

Music Met Capitalism 100 Years Ago
Music has been used as a tool to sell things forever.  Jazz clubs sold booze in the twenties; radio has been promoting advertisers and sponsors for eighty years; retailers pipe music into stores to create a better shopping experience; etc.  If you’re pissed off because people aren’t buying music then readjust.  

Now, today, this year, this decade – it’s the first time in history when ANY artist can easily become the entertainment, the radio and the store. 

In business this is called “vertical integration”.  The fact is: if you don’t vertically integrate and learn how to leverage your music to sell other things, you may have to go back to selling cars or insurance; so what’s the difference? 

Do what has been done for 100 years – use music to attract fans (consumers), or go back to selling things to customers (consumers) .

Record labels and music publishers have been making money by selling music to marketers for years; now’s your chance to do it independently.

Things will change for the better - but for now, you have to embrace the reality of the situation.