An aStore you say what is that? Well to put it simply and aStore enables you to create (for free) your own online shopping facility through the Amazon affiliate product and it really is that simple.

So how easy is it to create and setup one up?

Firstly you need to sign up to be an Amazon Associate.

When you are ‘in’ either by using your exisiting Amazon login or a new account you will then have a variety of tools you can use, be it tweet links, book code to embed into your blog or news post. In this case though we are talking about the aStore link in the top tab menu, click on this and you will start on the process of building your aStore.

With the tool you can create category pages, shop pages and then choose which items will be seen on your account and which won’t feature.

Then choose the sidebar widget which will help prospective customers actually find stuff in your store.

Finally you will get an aStore URL which will be the link from your website to your store, this wil contain your unique store ID so any sales you will get the commision.

It really is that easy, a couple of stores i have created are below;

Online Marketing Books

WesternRunner aStore

So there you are, simple and easy to build and tailor as you want, and it enables you to sell product without holding the items or handling the monies, and then gets my vote.

Resources

Amazon Affiliate Income, Make Money Click Here!

Amazon Associates sign up (UK)

Now a new Kindle is launched at the end of this month and according to Ammazon the all new Kindle is smaller, lighter, faster and with 50% better contrast than the one it replaces. With a weight less than 250 grams and a battery charge that apparently lasts for a month with wi-fi turned off and a capacity for upto 3,500 books you’re going ot have to be a serious reader to ‘run it out’ for sure.

And now Amazon.co.uk have confirmed that for the first time the NEW Kindle will be available in the UK and will launch on August 27. The new Kindle will be available as 3G or Wi-Fi and start at just £109 for the wi-fi version.

As with all ereaders the importance is what you can read on them, on the Kindle store you have a choice of over 400,000 books with over 1 million free book. As for UK bestsellers well 87 of 100 of the Nielsen bestsellers are available, so you really are spoilt for choice. I understand it will also offer digital versions of leading newspaper and magazines.

The new UK e-book store will run on Amazon.co.uk, and include 400,000 books including titles by a wide range of writers including Stephenie Meyer, John Grisham, Stephen King and Stieg Larsson – author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – who yesterday became the first writer to sell 1m ebooks through Amazon. It will also offer digital versions of newspapers and magazines.

The new Kindle is going to be on my Christmas list for sure, will it be on yours?

To give a great example of financial returns in 2009 Ryanair had ancillary revenue of €598 million, compared to a total revenue of €2,942 million. You only need to look at their website to see how important this is to the business model, on the screen capture (below) you can see both paid adverts and ‘affiliate’ links. The paid adverts will be simply that – a company paying for its advert to be shown on the Ryanair website – and dont be surprised by this British Airways have also been carrying Jaguar Car adverts for quite a while now. The affiliate links however will see Ryanair getting a commision on items sold, be it car hire or hotel bookings.

So how does this work for your business? Make no doubt this isnt a one size fits all for sure, I have listed 3 different types of business and ancillary income you ‘may’ wish to consider.

Small B&B – maps, guide book links of the area – Amazon is great for this, you’ve booked your stay now read more before you come. Also holiday insurance is applicable for all overnight stay websites….

Checkout my online shop for WesternRunner – built for free using Amazon

Car Repairs/Mechanic – motorsport books, motoring clothing, historical prints/artwork, maps – again all from Amazon.

Checkout my online shop for WesternRunner – built for free using Amazon

Estate Agents – links for insurance (you’d make commission), maps of the area – amazon again, possibly hotels and B&B’s if people are coming a distance, restaurants and eateries, bascially thinks that your clietns probably do already BUT you have an opportunity to make some ancillary revenue from.

Do bear in mind that a customers wants the product they are buying to work before they will go onto trust a company for buying any other services. Then a huge part of making this ancillary offering work is to involve your own staff in designing, developing and delivering the offerings. This measn getting your staff on board with what you offer in house and what you offer only through your website. There is nothing that will destory your well intention efforts faster in this area if your own staff are not aware what additional services your businesses is offering.

See also Amazon Associates, affiliate marketing made easy

What many people aren’t aware of is their Associate program that actually lets a website owner ‘tap into’ the Amazon success and promotes the products from Amazon on their website. The site is really simple to use and has such a wide variety of products you can’t fail to find something to link to, everything from Jewellery to CD’s even music downloads.

Product box and text links

Text links one their own.

There are also great tools for integrating into your site, from simple product links to full blown stores, yes you can create your own store, take a look at these two.

My Blog Store

WesternRunner online store

I personally use Amazon a lot I find it easy and simple, a good reporting tool and although it doesn’t make huge amount of money it does provide a small and useful ancillary income.

Amazon Associates advantages:
• there is a huge choice of products to choose from
• reliable payment system
• options for different payment types for both you and the customer
• I find it very easy to use
• a massive variety of linking tools
• Amazon are a well regarded brand and trusted by consumers

Amazon Associates disadvantages:
• only quarterly payments (many other programs are monthly such as Adsense)
• commissions can be lower than some other programs (although they have an incentive/bonus program that increases the % when you sell certain targets)
• some of their buttons and link methods can look a bit dated

I have written previously about eBay selling here

My thoughts on eBay for 2010 here
(*source Interbrand http://www.interbrand.com)

Now Susan Boyle has broken records with her album as the fastest selling UK debut album of all time selling over 400,000 copies and its currently #1 in the Amazon music chart – that is some success i am sure you’ll agree.

Michael Sharp, the deputy chief executive at Debenhams, said:
“A strong presence on the web is essential for any modern-day retailer. Our use of Amazon and eBay, as well as Debenhams.com, opens the door to millions of new customers.”

eBay outlet can be found here

Amazon.co.uk outlet can be found here

This at a single stroke for them opens them a door to plenty of new customers and puts them in direct competition with others who sell Debenhams stuff on these two sites, what’s the bet that with their buying power they got a great deal, it’s interesting to see on eBay they are already a top rated seller – no starting from 1 for them!

Also and more importantly I think this gives eBay and Amazon a very important tick in that box – if Debenhams sells on these sites why aren’t we?