however my conversion rate has dropped from 3% to 0.1% which is rather low. especially considering that the blog has grown in size and people reading it.

I only had sporadic sales for the longest time until I started several blogs, one of which became somewhat popular when I started participating in discussion boards that were related to the blog’s theme, and improved the presentation of books on my writing site. In the last few months, my book sales have gone up considerably.

There’s no one magic formula for making Amazon pay, but there are a few things that can help. First is lots of hits — out of a thousand or so visitors, only one might buy something. Second, the standard Amazon ads and product links are the least effective way of generating sales. Most Associates find more success if they “hand sell” the books — for example, in the context of a popular blog, include book review posts with your Amazon link to the book. On my writing site, I have articles on writing, and in the side column I show covers of books related to the article with a line or two describing them and including the Amazon link, in a “if you want to know more” spirit. Those have been pretty successful. On discussion boards, if someone asks for a book or product recommendation, and I can recommend a suitable book or product, I use an Amazon link.

If you haven’t checked them out yet, visit the discussion boards on the Amazon Affiliate site. You can get more ideas there. Just watch out for the trolls. There are a handful of nasty ones that roam those boards.