$4,000.00+ Passive Amazon Income - Never Give Up!
Posted 10-26-2011 at 10:27 AM by Ellen C Braun
I've been in IM since 2005. I built up a huge list of 60,000+ satisfied subscribers in 2005-7.
I paid the mortgage, the private school tuition for our 3 kids, and much more with the money I earned from that list.
But... I started to realize that I was pretty much tied to my list, and if I stopped working for a few weeks, my income would go down. I wanted something passive, where the money would come in month after month even if I took a couple of weeks off of work.
I came across Paula & Wanda of affiliateblogonline.com and decided that Amazon affiliate marketing was the IM business model that would suit my lifestyle best, and I started focusing on it a few months ago. Below are my screenshots, and below that are tips to help you succeed in you IM business:
Tips:
1) Never Give Up.
If I can do this as a busy mother of 3 rambunctious sons, as a woman with Crohn's Disease, you can too! There's no magic here, keep reading:
2) Trash the junk reviews.
Very few people who are researching $100+ products online are idiots. Don't treat them as such. High quality product reviews are key.
3) Get out of the "I just need them to click to Amazon" mindset.
It's not just about getting your visitors to click to amazon; it's about getting them to trust your page enough to keep reading that they will THEN click to Amazon. Visitors who come across a low-quality page don't click to Amazon, they just click the BACK BUTTON.
4) Your competition is your friend.
Reverse engineer your competitors' sites and see what you can do better. 99% of the time it's easy to see how you can do better with just a quick glance. Better navigation, better copy, better layout, etc.
5) Google is your friend.
All updates and changes to Google's algorithm point to a better user experience for searchers. Create pages that people will love, backlink them, and Google will love your pages too.
6) Don't settle for just stock photos from the manufacturer.
If you don't own the item you are reviewing, go to a local store, take pictures of your item from different angles, and use your unique pictures within your product review.
7) Use captions on all your photos.
People read captions, even the people who skim through pages. Outline benefits within the captions.
Example: You can see the red bar in this widget in the photo on the right that stabilizes this widget so you never need to worry about it tipping over, which can be a problem in cheaper models.
8) Do lots of guest blogging.
It's easy, free, and one of the most powerful methods of getting quality backlinks and targeted traffic to your site. Set up a schedule for guest blogging a few mornings a week, and do everything else after you've gotten this out of the way.
9) Call the manufacturers of the products to be prepared:
Ask them which models will be discontinued soon.
Ask them how many more years they plan to produce the ABC widget.
Ask them about the names and dates of new releases - and get ahead of the pack by creating and optimizing pages for products that will be released in the near future!
10) Search this forum for Sojourn and buy every WSO that Erica Stone has created.
No kidding here: this marketer knows her stuff and is generous with sharing her wisdom.
11) Be sure your time is spent doing REVENUE PRODUCING ACTIVITIES.
Not Facebooking. Not Twittering. Not Foruming.
Rather: Creating quality reviews & driving traffic to those reviews.
12) Don't guess.
If you must take a guess, test your best guess against your second-best guess on another web page. Don't randomly guess what will work.
13) Use separate tracking ID's for different parts of your page.
This way you can determine where users are most likely to click through to Amazon and make those links more prominent.
14) Never use Amazon's widgets.
I can't be clearer about this. They just convert very poorly. They look like banners from 1997.
15) Make your page user friendly and easy on the eyes.
Long blocks of text are boring on a screen. Only printed books have endless paragraphs - not web pages. Use bullet points. Use charts. Use images. Use h2 headings. Break up long paragraphs into several smaller ones.
16) Write comparison articles.
If someone is researching Widget 546, they are probably interested in researching the very similar Widget 547. These articles get traffic from serious buyers rather than serial researchers.
17) Turn cons into pros.
Most products have some cons; don't gloss over them. Tell them why the con can be an advantage.
Example: The Widget 389 is very heavy, so you won't be able to move it up or downstairs easily. On the other hand it's solid weight is what makes it so stable, unlike the cheaper models that tend to tip over and pose a safety concern.
I paid the mortgage, the private school tuition for our 3 kids, and much more with the money I earned from that list.
But... I started to realize that I was pretty much tied to my list, and if I stopped working for a few weeks, my income would go down. I wanted something passive, where the money would come in month after month even if I took a couple of weeks off of work.
I came across Paula & Wanda of affiliateblogonline.com and decided that Amazon affiliate marketing was the IM business model that would suit my lifestyle best, and I started focusing on it a few months ago. Below are my screenshots, and below that are tips to help you succeed in you IM business:
Tips:
1) Never Give Up.
If I can do this as a busy mother of 3 rambunctious sons, as a woman with Crohn's Disease, you can too! There's no magic here, keep reading:
2) Trash the junk reviews.
Very few people who are researching $100+ products online are idiots. Don't treat them as such. High quality product reviews are key.
3) Get out of the "I just need them to click to Amazon" mindset.
It's not just about getting your visitors to click to amazon; it's about getting them to trust your page enough to keep reading that they will THEN click to Amazon. Visitors who come across a low-quality page don't click to Amazon, they just click the BACK BUTTON.
4) Your competition is your friend.
Reverse engineer your competitors' sites and see what you can do better. 99% of the time it's easy to see how you can do better with just a quick glance. Better navigation, better copy, better layout, etc.
5) Google is your friend.
All updates and changes to Google's algorithm point to a better user experience for searchers. Create pages that people will love, backlink them, and Google will love your pages too.
6) Don't settle for just stock photos from the manufacturer.
If you don't own the item you are reviewing, go to a local store, take pictures of your item from different angles, and use your unique pictures within your product review.
7) Use captions on all your photos.
People read captions, even the people who skim through pages. Outline benefits within the captions.
Example: You can see the red bar in this widget in the photo on the right that stabilizes this widget so you never need to worry about it tipping over, which can be a problem in cheaper models.
8) Do lots of guest blogging.
It's easy, free, and one of the most powerful methods of getting quality backlinks and targeted traffic to your site. Set up a schedule for guest blogging a few mornings a week, and do everything else after you've gotten this out of the way.
9) Call the manufacturers of the products to be prepared:
Ask them which models will be discontinued soon.
Ask them how many more years they plan to produce the ABC widget.
Ask them about the names and dates of new releases - and get ahead of the pack by creating and optimizing pages for products that will be released in the near future!
10) Search this forum for Sojourn and buy every WSO that Erica Stone has created.
No kidding here: this marketer knows her stuff and is generous with sharing her wisdom.
11) Be sure your time is spent doing REVENUE PRODUCING ACTIVITIES.
Not Facebooking. Not Twittering. Not Foruming.
Rather: Creating quality reviews & driving traffic to those reviews.
12) Don't guess.
If you must take a guess, test your best guess against your second-best guess on another web page. Don't randomly guess what will work.
13) Use separate tracking ID's for different parts of your page.
This way you can determine where users are most likely to click through to Amazon and make those links more prominent.
14) Never use Amazon's widgets.
I can't be clearer about this. They just convert very poorly. They look like banners from 1997.
15) Make your page user friendly and easy on the eyes.
Long blocks of text are boring on a screen. Only printed books have endless paragraphs - not web pages. Use bullet points. Use charts. Use images. Use h2 headings. Break up long paragraphs into several smaller ones.
16) Write comparison articles.
If someone is researching Widget 546, they are probably interested in researching the very similar Widget 547. These articles get traffic from serious buyers rather than serial researchers.
17) Turn cons into pros.
Most products have some cons; don't gloss over them. Tell them why the con can be an advantage.
Example: The Widget 389 is very heavy, so you won't be able to move it up or downstairs easily. On the other hand it's solid weight is what makes it so stable, unlike the cheaper models that tend to tip over and pose a safety concern.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Thank you for a brilliant article! I'm printing this out and putting it into my notebook of business tips to review regularly.
I winced when I read a few of your points. I'm definitely guilty of them, even at my review sites.
Everything in this article is pure gold.
Thank you, thank you!Posted 10-27-2011 at 11:24 AM by eibhlin
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The backlinking is the part I struggle with. I purchased Erica's book. Great so far. I assume guest blogging is not Ezine? I'm not sure how to find blogs that will allow keywords as the anchor text.Posted 10-30-2011 at 06:18 AM by Latsyrc 
