I have heard that people made their entire income from direct linking arbitrage to Amazon using the Associates (affiliate) program.  I will probably always regret not tossing the dice and just trying it.  For those of you who don’t know what this is (was), here is a brief example (from something I myself did in real life):

1) Find a search term that leads to a good assortment of products on Amazon.  The timelier the better, so there won’t be any competition.  The last time I did this (yes, its been a while) was when the movie Borat came out.  It was a huge hit.  I saw it coming because I was a longtime fan of Da Ali G show on HBO.  Hmmmm… that got me to thinking.  A quick search confirmed that Amazon had all of his shows available on DVD.

2) Search Google and see if there is an ad pointing to Amazon.com.  You don’t have to give up if there is, but it might make the clicks more expensive (Google will only show one ad from each root domain, so you’ll be bidding against other direct affiliate marketers doing the same thing to be on top).

3) Setup an Adwords account.  OK, if you are reading this blog and don’t already have your own Adwords account, that’s a little weird.  Its easy, just do it.  Write a spectacular ad (in the little space you have to do so) that will attract attention from lower position banking on the strength of the Amazon brand name that you get to use as your display URL.  Choose appropriate keywords for the products on the landing page you picked (Ali G season 3, etc).

4) Watch what comes in versus what goes out and adjust your bids to maximize profit.  As long as you picked a good product, and wrote a good ad, the traffic will convert at a predictable rate.  

Voila!  That’s it.  Or, at least it was until Amazon pulled the plug.  Now, you’ll have to find a different way to position yourself as a useless middleman for a few cents profit here and there.  

Good thing is there are ways.  There will always be ways.