Another amazon affiliated marketing thread

Hey Wands,

I have experience with the Amazon Affiliate program, so I'll share with you the information that I have relating to your questions.

Niche Finding

When people are first starting out, they are going to pick a niche that they believe to be profitable. For instance, although the commission rate on electronics is lower than other Amazon product commission rates, the initial price (usually much higher than $150) is going to draw people into this niche.

For example, think about how many people are going to join the Amazon Affiliate program, and think to themselves, "I should blog about the TV niche. There's a lot of product variety, the price is way over $150. I'm bound to make a huge commission off of this niche in no time!!!"

As a standard consumer, how much do you really think they know about the Television market? Will they be able to discuss with me, without prior research, why I should pick Sony model ABC over Vizio model XYZ?

Based on the amount of competition present in the television niche, I'm sure that there are people who had no idea of the depth of television sales, and haven't tested each television individually, but still attempt to suggest one television over another in attempt to gain a commission.

I'm sure it isn't too uncommon for newcomers to be compelled to join a niche based off price alone, forgetting to consider the amount of competition, and the learning curve necessary to really be an authority on the subject.

To answer that question briefly, is it common? Yes.
Is it what's going to make you a ton of commissions off of Amazon products, however? Unlikely.

Getting a High Quality Review Article

Is it possible to go to elance and hire an Amazon review writer? Absolutely.

How good is this method to get a high quality review?
Well if you, as my employer, know that I have absolutely no experience with the product that I'm writing about, how high quality of a review am I realistically going to write? How am I supposed to gain the knowledge to speak about features of the product that aren't already listed on the Amazon item page? How will I contribute as a writer, anything new, that isn't already written in the product description or other customer reviews? The best that I'll ever be able to do is to compile all of the information from other reviews, in one comprehensive review.

The issue that comes up is the fact that often times, multiple reviews contradict one another. In the case with new products, there may not be any reviews at all. How can you make a true review, without experience with the product, or any unique information about the product? The answer is that you cannot easily write a review that benefits your visitor. I say easily because it's absolutely possible, if you know what you're doing. I believe that consumers can see right through a majority of the reviews that are just spewing the same information.

Now, I can think of a lot more reasons to have the product in your hands while you're writing a review, but I'll save that for a later day... Either way, getting a freelancer to write a good review depends on what your goals are when writing a review, the type of product, and what background information the writer has about the product and product category.

As for Promoting and Getting Traffic, when it comes to contextual ads, I have no experience, so I'll let someone else take that one on. Best of luck!

Not really.

What you have there is an abbreviated summary of one system for trying to earn money through Amazon's affiliate program, but it's a very out-of-date one and not a very good one. (It's also one that tends - in practice - to depend on the least-responsive type of traffic you can generate, so that's another problem with it.)

You've included some things there that you don't have to do ("review sites" are not a good plan at all, for Amazon, in 2014/5), and you've missed out all the important things on which affiliate sales actually depend.

I think you're probably about to set off in the wrong direction, there.

In contrast, this thread might help you (a lot!) if you give it a long, slow, careful read-through: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post6608638

I'll offer answers to your direct questions, anyway ...

Niches don't "sell for an amount of money" at all. Products do. Ideally, you need a niche which has a wide range of different products at a wide range of different prices.

Key concept: most of the long-term money in successful affiliate marketing comes from making sales (often at increasing prices) to subscribers who respect and trust you, and are increasingly willing to be guided by your recommendations because they trust and respect you. In successful affiliate marketing, the money is nearly all "trust-dependent" and "respect-dependent". It's very difficult to get far without that.

Yes. There are about as many service-providers for that service as customers for them.

It's generally dreadful, whether they've used the product of not. It's just completely missing the point of how affiliate sales income is successfully earned. It's very typical of what the 93%/95%/97% (depending on whose figures you believe) of affiliate marketers who fail, and don't earn anything, try to do. And of course there are reasons for that.

Yes, but probably not one person in a hundred who does that is going to get lucky with it, and there are reasons for that, too.

There are plenty of people here who can guide you on it, but ultimately it will be up to you to decide by whom you want to be guided.

As you'd expect, given that we're discussing a field of endeavor at which the great majority of people are unsuccessful, a lot of the information offered to you may not be very reliable, either.

I suggest starting with the thread I linked to above, in which you'll be able to read the observations, suggestions and comments of a few people whom I know to be successful in affiliate marketing. Please excuse my forthright opinion, but whoever gave you the information on which the little summary in your post above is based, personally I'd recommend that you keep away from advice like that, if you don't want to waste a lot of time without having any income to show for it.

Good luck!

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