Three keys to an affiliate program at your author Web site

Self-published authors know they can benefit from having a Web site. It's free publicity for your book. But did you know that adding affiliate links to your Web site will enable you to bring in more cash, without any extra effort?

A good affiliate program provides these benefits to your author or book Web site:

-- Extra cash for no additional work or costs.

-- Side income from customers who buy additional items with yours

-- Added perceived value in your site's content and service

I'll give a practical example of how this has worked on my Web site. A few weeks ago, I published this book review on a book directly related to my site's topic. My honest appraisal of the book was solid content for my audience. They understood I read it carefully along with competing books, and could assess its value to them.

In my article text, the book's title contains a hyperlink to Amazon.com containing my affiliate code. (Amazon calls this its "Associates Program" but everybody else on the Internet calls them "affiliate" programs.) When my readers follow the link to the book on Amazon and purchase one, I receive a referral fee from Amazon. The exact percentage varies from around 5 percent to 8 percent, depending on exactly how the customer did the transaction. In any case, in the three weeks since my review was posted, eight readers have purchased copies of the book, resulting in commissions of $6.23. And a couple of folks have purchased an additional book at the same time, resulting in a couple of additional commission dollars, for a total of some $8.50.

Of course $8.50 isn't earth-shattering. But the point is, it's additional income generated during the normal course of my business, with no extra effort or distractions. And as long as I leave my book review posted on my Web site, it will continue generating income, so long as people read it and then purchase the book.

No doubt these affiliate programs are good deals for the Web site owner, as well as for retailers like Amazon. The participating Web site sends Amazon qualified customers, and in turn Amazon splits part of its profit.

If you're a fan of Barnes & Noble, they operate a similar affiliate program, and I use links to it from my site as well.

This example, a book review, involved a bit of creative work. But there are other examples that require less time and effort. For example, let's imagine that you have an Amazon Listmania list including a dozen books related to your book's content. On Amazon's site, your list pops up as free advertising for people searching and browsing around in your book's topic area. In your list, you recommend top-quality books in the topic area (along with your own, of course!).

On your Web site, however, the Listmania list can help you in a slightly different way. You might display a series of thumbnail images of the book covers down the side margin of your site. You set up your site to take readers who click on the book covers to a book description on your site, or directly to Amazon's product page.

In addition to linking to specific books on Amazon's site, you can use other referral techniques as well. If you wish, you can also display Amazon banner ads supplied by its Associates program. This strategy enables new sites without big traffic to attract real, paying banner ads. You'll also be able to insert a search box on your site, enabling you to collect referral fees from readers who make a purchase after using your search box.

When a reader follows your link to Amazon, a 24-hour session is begun, and you may receive commissions for purchases they make during that session. In most cases you'll get around 5 percent, so if someone purchases a $20 book, your referral fee is about $1.

For more information on the Amazon program, see http://www.amazon.com/associates. There you'll find instructions for joining the program and the code you'll need to insert on your Web pages. And, if you need more advice about the Amazon Associates program, see their discussion board. Also, the book Amazon Hacks contains an extensive section on using the Amazon Associates program on your site.

For book authors, Amazon's affiliate program is a solid choice for three reasons:

-- It's one of the oldest, best-performing and most reputable affiliate programs on the Internet. When you're putting your reputation on the line, you want to use a good affiliate program.

-- It's particularly effective for referral sales of media products such as books, audiobooks, and videos. Anyone accustomed to purchasing merchandise online is familiar with Amazon.