Using Amazon aStores for Surplus Domains
Yesterday's post 10 Ways To Benefit From Your Surplus Domains elicited a few comments. One of my readers pointed out that an Amazon aStore — which I've previously discussed — is yet another way to monetize an idle domain. Let's walk through the steps.
Join the Associates Program
First, of course, you need to be a member of the Amazon Associates program. Once you are, go to associates.amazon.com and log into your account.
Create a Tracking ID
Affiliate commissions are tracked using a tracking ID. Each account has a primary tracking ID that's based on the email address you used to join Amazon Associates. Unlike AdSense, which limits you to just a single publisher ID per account, Associates lets you create multiple tracking IDs. You'll need to create a separate tracking ID for each aStore you create — luckily, this makes it easy to track which domains are making you money and which ones aren't.
To create a tracking ID, click Your Account at the top of your Associates account home page, select Manage your tracking IDs and then Add Tracking ID. The tracking ID I'll be using is spanishlanguageshop-20. You'll see why shortly.
Create the aStore
Once you've created the tracking ID, click the aStore link on the left side of the page to get to the aStore section of your account. Currently I have just one aStore:
Click Add an aStore and assign the tracking ID you want associated with the aStore:
As you can see, you can also create a new tracking ID from here.
The next few pages is where you'll create your aStore by selecting products to display in the store. I won't go through all the steps here, it's pretty easy to do and there's help available if you get stuck. Just remember that you can go back and forth between the pages of the aStore configuration to fine-tune things. And you can preview what your store looks like at any time.
My store is going to be based around spanish language learning materials.
Get the Framing Code
The last step in the aStore creation is the Get Link step. You want to choose the framset option as shown here:
Don't bother saving the HTML, just note the URL used in the frame. The URL for my Spanish shop is:
http://astore.amazon.com/spanishlanguageshop-20
The reason we're using the frameset option is that frames work best for this kind of situation because they'll scroll naturally — it won't look like we've framed it at all, in fact. Inline frames, as used in The HDTV Shoppe, require you to specify a fixed height, which you can only guess at.
Prepare the Home Page
Now you're ready to create the HTML for your site. I've made it really simple for you, just cut and paste the following bit of HTML into your favorite text or HTML editor:
<html>
<head>
<title>Learn to Speak Spanish from the Spanish Language Shop</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
<meta name="description"
content="Find the best Spanish language resources on Amazon.com">
<meta name="keywords"
content="spanish,learn spanish,spanish course,speak spanish">
</head>
<frameset border="0" frameborder="0" marginleft="0" margintop="0"
marginright="0" marginbottom="0" rows="100%,*">
<frame src="http://astore.amazon.com/spanishlanguageshop-20”
scrolling=”auto” frameborder=”no” border=”0″ noresize>
<frame topmargin=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ scrolling=”no”
marginheight=”0″ frameborder=”no” border=”0″ noresize>
<noframes>
<body><h1>Learn to Speak Spanish</h1>
<p>Learning a new language may seem daunting,
but there are many great <b>Spanish language learning resources</b>
available. Software-based Spanish lessons provide the ultimate
interactive learning environment. Or you can listen to an audio
course on CD. Or learn Spanish by watching specially-designed
videos on DVD. Or you can read one of the many fine books on
the intricacies of the Spanish language. Whatever you choice,
you can be sure to find it at the <b>Spanish Language Shop</b>,
an <b>Amazon Associate</b> site.
</p>
</body>
</noframes>
</frameset>
</html>
Save the file as “index.html”. This will be your home page. You'll need to customize it, of course, to suit your own aStore. Start by replacing the URL I've highlighted with the URL for your own aStore. Then modify the <title> and the other parts of the page appropriately.
Notice that I've used a <noframes> tag to enclose a very simple HTML page with keyword-rich content related to the Spanish language teaching resources. This content is mostly for the benefit of any search engines that crawl the domain. Good content here will help your site rank more highly.
Deploy Your Site
That's pretty much it. At this point all you need to do is make sure your domain is being hosted somewhere (if you're looking for cheap hosting, try a ResellerZoom reseller account, which lets you host up to 50 domains for only $4.95 a month, or Servage, with unlimited domains for $6.45 a month) and then upload your modified index.html file to the site. Your aStore is now active!
You can see my aStore in action at SpanishLanguageShop.com. You can create and host a store like this in about 15 minutes — the hard part is selecting the right Amazon products and categories to display in the aStore.
Of course, if there's no traffic going to the site then you won't make any money. And it helps if you can promote some of the higher-priced products that Amazon sells (like software — that's why I put it first in the category list). And not every domain will have a suitable set of Amazon products available. So this solution won't work for everyone.
But if you have a bit of type-in traffic going to a domain that isn't doing anything for you, why not give an aStore a shot at monetizing the traffic, especially if you've already tried AdSense and not been pleased with the results.
Sponsored Link: For a complete set of AdSense best practices, read Uncommon AdSense.
Eric Giguere is the author of Uncommon AdSense and the award-nominated (that just means it lost!) blog Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense.
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