Most people starting out will want to select a “shared” service provider – meaning that you will be renting a portion of a computer server for your website(s) but will be sharing the server with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of other websites. Shared hosting is fine for most starter websites. But if you should be fortunate enough to experience big-time traffic growth, you will want to upgrade to a “dedicated” server environment. This will provide visitors with more rapid page loads and generally better service.

Keep in mind too that with a little bit of work you can always change hosting companies (or, easier yet, upgrade service levels with the same host). So, starting with an inexpensive, bare bones hosting service isn’t necessarily a bad idea if you’re testing the waters and aren’t sure of how much time and effort you’ll be able to commit to your Amazon Store.

We’ve had personal experience with the following two hosting companies:

Of the two, Hostgator has better technical support and generally seems to be more reliable and hassle-free. However, 1and1 often has very good specials (even free hosting for extended periods) which can allow you to set up a site at little or now cost.

Another benefit of 1and1 is that they offer very inexpensive domain purchase and registry.  Domain names are typically available for  $6.99 per year and are often discounted (for some categories) to $2.99 or even lower.  For the beginner, being able to purchase and register a domain name and have it set up all with one hosting company is a big time saver.

There are thousands of hosting choices available to you and it wouldn’t be hard to get overwhelmed and frustrated just trying to find the hosting service that “best” meet your needs. Don’t let this happen.

For the small investment involved (and given the fact that you can always change later), it just isn’t worth spending an inordinate amount of time on this decision. Get an account set up at a recommended hosting service, then get on to the fun stuff: setting up your own niche Amazon store!

We can honestly recommend either of the services noted above; better yet, if you have a trusted personal acquaintance who knows their way around the web, ask them for their hosting recommendation.

Amazon Compensation Options

How big a piece? Amazon referral fees are again based on volume (number of transactions) and range from 4% to 20% depending on product category and volume. Amazon offers associates two basic compensation options:

Classic Fee Structure – Flat 4% referral fees for any and all products sold. Referral fees for certain items like computers are capped.

Performance Fee Structure – Under the Performance Fee Structure, referral rates range from 4% to 10%, and are based on the total number of shipped items from both Amazon and third-party sellers. The same rate will apply equally to both Amazon and third-party items and will apply to all referred items shipped during the month. Here’s a referral rate schedule from Amazon that shows the rates current as of November 2007:

When all is said and done, the Performance Fee Structure is the most sensible choice simply because the the lowest referral rate you can earn is equal to the standard Classic referral rate. When you sign up to become an Amazon associate, you are automatically enrolled in the Performance Fee plan.

Amazon Marketing Options

Amazon provides associates with a wide range of options to market the Amazon inventory. At the most basic level, website owners can put a single basic text link (embedded with their associate code) on their site to market a specific product they feel is relevant/useful to their visitors. At the other extreme, website owners devote their entire website to selling Amazon products in a certain specialized “niche” stores.

It is also possible to sell Amazon products without even having your own website. This is done by placing Amazon links (or “widgets”) on self-created social web pages like Squidoo or Facebook. We’ll talk more about this low-cost option in a later post.

The Amazon associate marketing options available can be summarized as follows:

Links/Banners/Widgets – These options are generally geared for websites that are not totally devoted to Amazon sales. For example if you have a website about coin collecting, you might want to target select books or products to display:

aStore – With this marketing option you create a personalized professional online Amazon store hosted on Amazon servers. aStores can be embedded within or linked to from your website. aStores give you many options to customize the look and feel of your store without programming skills or knowledge. Click this link for more information and examples of aStores.

Amazon Store Scripts – Amazon allows 3rd party programmers to develop web scripts that access product data via the Amazon Associates Web Service. Web site owners use these 3rd party scripts to create self-standing storefronts with the back-end power of Amazon. Visitors to these stores often do not even know they are dealing with Amazon.Amazon store scripts are the primary focus of this website.

So, if you are ready to become an Amazon associate, consider which of the marketing options you want to pursue (you can do all three of course!) and follow this link to sign up.