Amazon Affiliates - Are You Seriously Making Money?

[waken]

I really got to ask this...
I recently promoting Amazon after seeing quite a number of success stories here...

But, when I checked my account.. I was wondering do you guys really make money with Amazon?

I mean, serious money as an affiliate?
Is that possible?

Hm... I think I would better stick with other networks.
The share is way to small...

[Biggy Fat]

Dan Brock and Sara Young (my two Amazon "mentors" so to speak) are making a killing with Amazon. I'm on my way too, I made $80 last month (nine sales) and I hope to bump that up this month. Got another site on the pipeline which I'm confident in.

Yeah, I know, Amazon's commission is crappy, but it's all about volume with them (and it's a lot easier to convert).

[PaulaC]

We make on average around $10,000 a month on Amazon products. It is very doable.

The commission rate starts at 4% but goes up to 8.25% if you sell enough products.

The secret to doing well with Amazon products is to:

1. Choose products over $150 and those getting good reviews.
2. Write exceptionally good product reviews.
3. Use text links not widgets when referring readers to Amazon.

[rajuthan]

Originally Posted by PaulaC

1. Choose products over $150 and those getting good reviews.

Important!!

[waken]

Originally Posted by PaulaC

We make on average around $10,000 a month on Amazon products.

My God! Is that the sales amount or the commission?

Originally Posted by Biggy Fat

Yeah, I know, Amazon's commission is crappy, but it's all about volume with them (and it's a lot easier to convert).

Ok..thanks..

Originally Posted by rajuthan

$9 commision to sell an Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (7th Generation) NEWEST MODEL ?

lol fail at trying to hide the item

Wow! That's amazing!

[TimG]

I recently started incorporating Amazon into my income generation efforts after reading some of Dan Brock's stuff and seeing several threads in this forum where other people were enjoying fantastic success as an Amazon affiliate.

I have a few sites that I have been testing different things on to include using text links instead of widgets and my conversion percentage is slowly climbing. Also, I'm focused on selling a ton of small items in order to increase my affiliate percentage so that I can receive a bigger payout for more expensive items.

Everything seems to be working because I've made more from Amazon this quarter then I have from all of my previous quarters combined.

The key as PaulaC pointed out is to find the right product and write high quality reviews. This isn't like adsense where if you have a garbage article on your site the visitor clicks an adsense ad to leave. The high quality content combined with Amazon's reputation is what is creating the sale from what I can tell on my sites.

Tim

[Samuel Baker]

Amazon is something I am looking to get into further down the line and judging from what the above Warriors have stated that the potential is there for great earnings and return.

Will be definitely looking into some of the Amazon Affiliate resources posted around this forum when the time comes.

Stick to it!

[Emily Meeks]

It has to be said: you're asking the wrong question.

Are others seriously making money with Amazon? I think you know the answer to that one already. What you SHOULD be asking instead is, "How are you seriously making money?"

It's not a matter of possibility, but technique. If others are making money and you're not, you're apparently doing something that they're not. Don't waste your energy on whether or not you *can* do something - I'll just say, "I don't know, can you?" If you ask me HOW to do something, though, that's a different story...

[actionplanbiz]

i just started with amazon kind of.. got a few niche sites. but not a whole lot of cash coming in. but its completely relying on SEO and i didnt really like that fact so i toned the amazon sites down a bit and started focusing on other methods.

[Ofthemix]

Originally Posted by PaulaC

We make on average around $10,000 a month on Amazon products. It is very doable.

The commission rate starts at 4% but goes up to 8.25% if you sell enough products.

The secret to doing well with Amazon products is to:

1. Choose products over $150 and those getting good reviews.
2. Write exceptionally good product reviews.
3. Use text links not widgets when referring readers to Amazon.

What do you think about Amazon plugins like ReviewAZON and WPRobot Amazon Autoposter? Just curious.

I'm doing some testing right now between a site using text links only and one using one of the above mentioned plugins.

Also, about how many amazon promoting sites do you have to pull in that massive amount of commission sales? And are they predominantly niche sites or authority sites?

[blue_gurl]

being an Amazon affilitate is just like being a sales rep.
write good content to convince your customers to buy.

they are also right about selling items over $150

[webmasteruk]

I feel like I am posting the same post but spinning it in a different way. A weird sort of deja vu.

Main thing number 1 something that I preech about CONTENT!

Now a lot of people say reviews but if you know something that others dont then that will be killer content and a help to the internet.

Not only a help to the internet but a help to your organic traffic and possible comissions!

One more tip. If you treat your site as king you will be king. All good content goes on your site or blog. Forget article directories for good backlinks! Content and design of your site and how people feel on your site is the main way of getting good posture on search engines.

Thats my opinion.

A few ideas there

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by PaulaC

We make on average around $10,000 a month on Amazon products. It is very doable.

I was already an Amazon affiliate and I was making sales every month but nothing significant. Then I read a post on PaulaC's blog. (She doesn't know she was my inspiration - well, now she does!

So, I found a niche, put up a product review site mid-April, and started writing.

I made my first sale a few weeks later.

I'm no expert, I'm always testing and learning but I'll share what I've done in case it helps anyone:

For May, I had 1624 unique visitors, 311 of whom clicked over to Amazon. I had 10 sales that totaled $1366 in revenue. I was at the 6.5% payout rate (due to my other sites) so those sales earned almost $89 in commissions.

I have 41 posts on the site (WordPress) - 24 are product reviews and 17 are "informational" to the niche (what certain product terms mean and why they're important, how to get the best deal, what to look for in "x products", etc.). My thought was that the informational posts would help the site stand apart from others targeting the niche who are just using Amazon product listings as their posts.

Traffic continues to climb and most of the traffic comes from "product name" searches and "product name review" searches. Here are some things that seem to be helping:

1. I hand write each review - no content taken verbatim from Amazon except a couple of comments from their consumer reviews.
2. When I mention the Amazon consumer reviews, I suggest the visitor can "read more here: (affiliate text link to Amazon review page)".
3. I started by writing reviews on the bestsellers on Amazon for this group of products. There are probably a couple of hundred different versions of this product on Amazon.
4. Unintentionally, I chose a niche for which the products' instruction manuals are readily available online. I started actually reading the manuals which allows the reviews to include more information than is found in the Amazon product listing or on any other site that is simply using the Amazon information. Things like included accessories, ways to use the product, information about how it compares to competitive products. This allows for more content in general and more long-tailed traffic.
5. Visited the manufacturers' sites for additional information.
6. Promoted the site with bookmarking, a handful of articles, a network of Squidoo lenses, and a Hubpage.
7. Titled each post with "Full Product Name Review".
8. Linked images, text links and Amazon reviewers comments to Amazon.
9. Included a "check the price" button in the post.
10. Used WP-Table Reloaded to build a Comparison page of all the products for which a review has been done that can be sorted by critical product features, ratings, and price and which can also be filtered by any data in the columns. The product name in the table links to my review page. The price data in the table links to Amazon.
11. Created a standard format that I use for each review so they are uniform in case the visitor goes from one review to another. This way, all the same information is in the same order. (There's probably a faster way to do this but I just copied all the necessary HTML formatting for my post layout into a draft post. When I go to write a review, I copy the HTML from the draft into a new post and then I just have to paste in my review text, insert images, and links.)

This niche is not something I'm an expert in and it took me some time to research it and become familiar with the critical features of the products. At first, it took me hours to do a comprehensive review but now that I've done bunches of them, they're much easier and faster to write.

My domain is a hyphenated, exact keyword match .com for a phrase that indicated people who would be shopping for these products. The keyword has 8100 exact searches a month in Google's Keyword tool. While I've optimized for that keyword phrase, it is really the specific product names that are bringing in the traffic so keyword research doesn't take up a lot of time. Find a product, write a review.

I'm currently towards the bottom of the 1st page of Google for my keyword phrase, having passed the non-hyphenated .com and .net. Interested to see if searches for the keyword itself will bring sales or if it will continue to be the product name searches.

(This is why I don't post too often - once I start writing it all tumbles out into a long, wordy bunch of blather! Regardless - a huge thanks to PaulaC and Daniel Brock for all the sharing they've done on this topic.)

[PaulaC]

Originally Posted by waken

My God! Is that the sales amount or the commission?

That's the commission.

[Daniel Brock]

Amazon IMO is not going to make you rich...There are definitely some people in this forum that make a full time living off Amazon because they have sites that are highly ranked, but if you are making absolutely no money what so ever, Amazon is the perfect place to start.

- A perfect way to make your first $1,000/m online.

Everyone is so focused on all the products out there that are like 'watch me make $100,000 promoting products through clickbank'

Well I hate to break it to you, anything on clickbank these days is extremely competitive. Can anyone make money with clickbank? Sure. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't take skill and experience.

(In fact, I'm now building an authority site that primarily promotes a CB product, with a physical product to promote on the back end)

All I can say is stop looking at this as 'oh this product will make me $100,000, so I'm going to buy that'

If you can't make money online, or don't have the experience, forget about making $100,000.

Make your first $1000/m then go from there.

I honestly believe promoting physical products is the best way to get started making money online. While everyone else is focused on clickbank, and most likely failing, you can make a good bit of money every month promoting those unknown physical products that no one ever thinks about.

Just my 2 cents.

- Dan Brock

[PaulaC]

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

What do you think about Amazon plugins like ReviewAZON and WPRobot Amazon Autoposter? Just curious.

I'm doing some testing right now between a site using text links only and one using one of the above mentioned plugins.

Also, about how many amazon promoting sites do you have to pull in that massive amount of commission sales? And are they predominantly niche sites or authority sites?

We use Amazon plugins for some of our product reviews but we prefer to change the content. No point copying over the same content from Amazon. It just doesn't work. You really need to be writing your own review.

You only need a few product reviews to make that sort of money. Most people assume we have hundreds of reviews, and we do, but really a good majority of that income comes from maybe 10 or so reviews.

We have niche sites but the niche is not the important thing - the product is. You just have to choose the right products in Amazon.

[dean_holland]

The original question it has to be said is a bit of a silly one - Is anyone making serious money as an amazon affiliate ?

Errr... What do you think?

So you've been promoting their stuff for what a month or so and this makes you think because you havent hit the 'Big Bucks' that no one is ?

Don't think for one minute I'm attacking you here man in any sense, I just thought if I wrote it that way you might see how crazy your question now looks

I'm not either for 1 second going to pretend I can advise you on this, I make about $5 a month off a few products on a niche site I have from months ago that I've never touched since.

I do however have a friend that makes upwards of $45,000 per month from Amazon

I've seen it with my own eyes... So cool

Good luck with it

Dean

[Ofthemix]

Originally Posted by PaulaC

We use Amazon plugins for some of our product reviews but we prefer to change the content. No point copying over the same content from Amazon. It just doesn't work. You really need to be writing your own review.

I agree that writing all of your own reviews is just about the only way to succeed. I usually copy and paste the Amazon review into a word document and then write my own review based on that and Amazon customer reviews so that they're at least 250 words long. I take out all of the duplicate stuff that you normally see in Amazon reviews, like how they list some stuff in the actual paragraph explaining the item and then the same stuff in the bullet points. And I will typically list the negatives (if there are any) along with the positives, in case my readers don't read the post comments, so that they can make better informed buying decisions. It might cost me a sale of two, but at least my readers know that my site is honest, and hopefully that builds some sort of trust.

[PaulaC]

Originally Posted by Ofthemix

I agree that writing all of your own reviews is just about the only way to succeed. I usually copy and paste the Amazon review into a word document and then write my own review based on that and Amazon customer reviews so that they're at least 250 words long. I take out all of the duplicate stuff that you normally see in Amazon reviews, like how they list some stuff in the actual paragraph explaining the item and then the same stuff in the bullet points. And I will typically list the negatives (if there are any) along with the positives, in case my readers don't read the post comments, so that they can make better informed buying decisions. It might cost me a sale of two, but at least my readers know that my site is honest, and hopefully that builds some sort of trust.

I would try and make those reviews even longer if you can. Our best reviews are over 1000 words. They seem to convert so much better than the short reviews we have.

[TimG]

Originally Posted by Daniel Brock

Amazon IMO is not going to make you rich...There are definitely some people in this forum that make a full time living off Amazon because they have sites that are highly ranked, but if you are making absolutely no money what so ever, Amazon is the perfect place to start.

- A perfect way to make your first $1,000/m online.

Everyone is so focused on all the products out there that are like 'watch me make $100,000 promoting products through clickbank'

Well I hate to break it to you, anything on clickbank these days is extremely competitive. Can anyone make money with clickbank? Sure. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't take skill and experience.

(In fact, I'm now building an authority site that primarily promotes a CB product, with a physical product to promote on the back end)

All I can say is stop looking at this as 'oh this product will make me $100,000, so I'm going to buy that'

If you can't make money online, or don't have the experience, forget about making $100,000.

Make your first $1000/m then go from there.

I honestly believe promoting physical products is the best way to get started making money online. While everyone else is focused on clickbank, and most likely failing, you can make a good bit of money every month promoting those unknown physical products that no one ever thinks about.

Just my 2 cents.

- Dan Brock

Dan,
Having enjoyed some success with other monetization models I started seriously looking at Amazon after one of your threads. Next I purchased one of your WSOs and between that and some other threads in this forum I started making more from Amazon then I previously had for the last year.

Wanted to say thanks for that!!

Also, what I am finding is that if the product is one that folks need they will almost always purchase it. The combination of a desperate requirement and keyword phrase searches actually makes the traffic generation part easy. Amazon is taking care of the conversion part for me.

When done correctly this is almost as easy as making money with Adsense but the payouts are much better even with the low commission rates.

Tim

[sickbaomei]

Hi Paulac,
your result is impressive. Do you manually post articles reviews on wordpress blogs or do you use some popular WP amazon plugins like reviewazon,amaniche,wpzon..etc ?

THanks for sharing your secrets
Chris

Originally Posted by PaulaC

We make on average around $10,000 a month on Amazon products. It is very doable.

The commission rate starts at 4% but goes up to 8.25% if you sell enough products.

The secret to doing well with Amazon products is to:

1. Choose products over $150 and those getting good reviews.
2. Write exceptionally good product reviews.
3. Use text links not widgets when referring readers to Amazon.

[TimG]

I was checking my stats this morning and realized that I have made more from Amazon.com in the last 8 days then I made in April and May combined. This has me extrmely excited because I've really started working Amazon and the positive results are nice to see.

Tim

[hkactivity.com]

I agree that that we should look at promoting items with a price of over $150 but I think it would also be a good idea to start off with lower priced items in the beginning in order to boost your referral rate.

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by TimG

I was checking my stats this morning and realized that I have made more from Amazon.com in the last 8 days then I made in April and May combined. This has me extremely excited because I've really started working Amazon and the positive results are nice to see.

Tim

Tim, Congrats! So much more rewarding when there's MONEY at the end of all that writing and hard work. Appreciate the update, too. Can never get too many "look, it's working!" kinds of posts. Very motivating!

I went back and checked mine, too. Here's a breakdown of my Amazon commissions for the last several months:

March - Conversion rate: 2.41% 40 items shipped $ 41.66 earned
April - Conversion rate: 3.15% 47 items shipped $ 39.07 earned
May - Conversion rate: 4.46% 75 items shipped $175.38 earned

June 1st-8th - Conversion rate: 5.65% 39 items shipped, $99.73 earned

One week and a day into June and I'm already at more than 50% of May's commissions and also more than March and April combined.

The site I built to focus on Amazon and product reviews was started mid-April and didn't see it's first sale until May. The impact to May was obviously significant.

Notice how the conversion rate went up, too? This is because my previous attempts at Amazon sales came from sites that were focused on "how to" type niches where I forced in Amazon product links in hopes of a sale vs. the latest site which is very product focused and targeted at people who are actively shopping for these products.

As I described in my earlier post, May included $90 from the single, latest website (the Amazon focused site) which means I had about $80 in commissions from my other sites - still an increase over March and April. This means my other sites saw an increase in commissions, too, just at lower dollar amounts. I can chalk that up to having focused on adding more content more rapidly to my other sites. (Again, credit to PaulaC's blog post about how she and Wanda wrote their tails off to put out more content on a daily basis. Inspired me to spend more time writing and less time refreshing stat pages.)

Another tip: As several posters have mentioned, targeting products that retail for over $150 helps boost commissions. Keep in mind that some products have a single retail price of less than $150 but are often bought in multiples. Lawn chairs and towels are examples of these types of products. Rarely does anyone buy just one lawn chair or one towel. Products where several items are usually bought at one time and combined can total over $150 are great, too, AND boost your sale quantity at the same time.

[TimG]

Erica,
Those are fantastic results. Right now I am targeting low priced items and building a series of sites (heck one is in my signature below - the prevent fleas website) so that I can build my affiliate commission percentage then I will start to target higher ticket items.

Based on your commissions it looks as if you are already doing that or targeting the items bought in multiples such as the towels or lawn chairs - great tip by the way

I'd love to trade some information via PM or email if you ever get a chance. I have something else also that I want to run by you.

Respectfully,
Tim

[Craig McPherson]

Originally Posted by TimG

I was checking my stats this morning and realized that I have made more from Amazon.com in the last 8 days then I made in April and May combined. This has me extrmely excited because I've really started working Amazon and the positive results are nice to see.

Tim

Way to go Tim. I look forward to more posts.

Craig

[tyroneshum]

I haven't made much money from Amazon yet and have always "had" bucks from my membership programs and also other affiliate programs from my business partners and ventures. With Amazon, I think there's a lot of work to take first and then eventually you'll see the results coming -- although not the fast process you expected.

[TimG]

Originally Posted by Craig McPherson

Way to go Tim. I look forward to more posts.

Craig

Thanks Craig - I appreciate that...I'm just starting to crack the Amazon affiliate shell but from what I can tell the rewards are looking real juicy -

I'll have more to post on this money making strategy.

Respectfully,
Tim

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by TimG

Erica,
Those are fantastic results. Right now I am targeting low priced items and building a series of sites (heck one is in my signature below - the prevent fleas website) so that I can build my affiliate commission percentage then I will start to target higher ticket items.

Based on your commissions it looks as if you are already doing that or targeting the items bought in multiples such as the towels or lawn chairs - great tip by the way

I'd love to trade some information via PM or email if you ever get a chance. I have something else also that I want to run by you.

Respectfully,
Tim

Saw your flea example from the other thread - in fact, that made the whole "need" based products vs. "want" based products click for me. Might partially explain that really strong conversion rate you have there.

PM sent.

Thanks!

[TimG]

Originally Posted by Sojourn

Saw your flea example from the other thread - in fact, that made the whole "need" based products vs. "want" based products click for me. Might partially explain that really strong conversion rate you have there.

PM sent.

Thanks!

Yes - that site and a few other sites I have built around "needs" are really starting to get hot with traffic and more importantly conversions. The sites are quick and easy to make and the traffic is targeted when it arrives and once I send it to Amazon it is converting extremely well.

I just responded back to your PM -

Respectfully,
Tim

[yianni]

in terms of amazon,

how have people found using their endless program with regards to making money as an associate

is the strategy different?

[TimG]

Originally Posted by Craig McPherson

Way to go Tim. I look forward to more posts.

Craig

Craig,
There is some additional info regarding Amazon in this thread also: Writing Amazon Product Reviews That Convert

Respectfully,
Tim

[Craig McPherson]

Originally Posted by TimG

Craig,
There is some additional info regarding Amazon in this thread also: Writing Amazon Product Reviews That Convert

Respectfully,
Tim

Many thanks Tim,

I have just been on a bookmarking frenzy and will check both threads often.

As an aside, I have to agree on picking items that can be bought in multiples.
I sell a fair bit of body butter on Amazon and three outta four people always buy the multi packs of different scents.

[DrGUID]

I've sold a few items, but it's still small money.

As everyone else says, the key is to start off marketing small items so you get your commission rate up. Electrical items are good for this. Also don't bother with books and DVDs because if someone is buying these they usually go direct to Amazon - concentrate on stuff people don't know where it's best to buy from.

And I don't agree with the other poster that Clickbank is done to death - I found a small software product with low gravity but it converts like crazy! There are great Clickbank products if you have a good old rummage around the Marketplace.

[traceye]

Um yes.

In the past two years (or thereabouts) I've made ...



I've been keeping a blog of my results (which I started November 2008) over at: Info Product Killer Review - Real Results!

It was using the techniques from IPK, but you will probably still find some good info there if you ignore the affiliate links.

And yes all the results I've posted on my blog are legit.

Tracey

[LK]

What do you do when it appears that not a lot of people are searching for a certain product name?

Like, I was looking for products to promote on Amazon yesterday and found some that looked rather good in a niche that I have interest in. However, when I checked the search volume (in google's keyword tool) for the individual product names, it just came up with "not enough data".
Would you still go for the product (I'm pretty sure it's converting well on amazon) or would you find something else where you can get an actual figure in terms of search volume?

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by LK

What do you do when it appears that not a lot of people are searching for a certain product name?

Like, I was looking for products to promote on Amazon yesterday and found some that looked rather good in a niche that I have interest in. However, when I checked the search volume (in google's keyword tool) for the individual product names, it just came up with "not enough data".
Would you still go for the product (I'm pretty sure it's converting well on amazon) or would you find something else where you can get an actual figure in terms of search volume?

LK - That's a good question. I went back just now to check the Google Keyword tool volume to see the exact match search volume for the specific product names that are bringing the bulk of the traffic to my site and those product names either have really low search volume (less than 50) or show No Data.

So, in my case anyway, No Data or low search volume did not equal zero traffic. For example, there's one model for which I'm getting 5 visitors a day, my review page for that model is #5 in Google, and yet the Google keyword tool showed no exact search volume for that model.

I'd make sure it's something that has a decent number of reviews on Amazon and also check other forums in that niche, if any exist. Are people talking about the product? Asking others about how it works? Then there's probably a need for a good, quality review somewhere.

You said something I think is key: a niche in which you have interest. If you are interested in the niche and use that in your writing, it sincerely helps. Gives you perspective, allows you to relate better to your visitors, and gives you an advantage over someone who may have chosen that niche for its monetary value but has no interest or experience in the niche itself.

If you, having an interest in the niche, think a review site could be valuable then I'd say give it a shot!

[JimmyS]

Originally Posted by PaulaC

We make on average around $10,000 a month on Amazon products.

How many products do you do? Just asking......

[JasonC.biz]

This is great info, and I have a question for you who are doing well with Amazon.

How focused are your sites?

What I mean is; looking at one of your sites, do you focus on:

1) A single product (like IPK), such as "Model LCDTV004337"
2) A narrow niche such as "LCD TVs"
3) A broader niche such as "TVs"
4) A general niche such as "Home Entertainment"

I do have IPK, and the thought of building a bunch of sites based on individual products seems more difficult to generate content. So, I'm guessing that #2 or #3 above make more sense. Or, does it work to just build one fairly large site in a general niche (#4 above) with reviews on several products.

With a large, somewhat general site (like Home Entertainment), you could have reviews on TVs, DVD/Blu Ray players, sound systems, etc. Or, does a site that large dilute the effort and make it too difficult to rank?

Thanks,
Jason

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by JasonC.biz

How focused are your sites?

What I mean is; looking at one of your sites, do you focus on:

1) A single product (like IPK), such as "Model LCDTV004337"
2) A narrow niche such as "LCD TVs"
3) A broader niche such as "TVs"
4) A general niche such as "Home Entertainment"

I do have IPK, and the thought of building a bunch of sites based on individual products seems more difficult to generate content. So, I'm guessing that #2 or #3 above make more sense. Or, does it work to just build one fairly large site in a general niche (#4 above) with reviews on several products.

With a large, somewhat general site (like Home Entertainment), you could have reviews on TVs, DVD/Blu Ray players, sound systems, etc. Or, does a site that large dilute the effort and make it too difficult to rank?

Thanks,
Jason

In my giant sample of one (I used to work with an analyst who would be rolling his eyes about now - "a sample of one?!?"), the site is more like your #2.

I have Squidoo lenses that focus on one specific product like Model #123 and they do okay (low traffic but decent conversions) but using that approach for my own site would just mean lots of mini sites and I would find that difficult to manage.

Here were my other reasons for going with #2:

• If I went with an individual product name and used it in my domain, would I run into any trouble with the manufacturer? I didn't want to take that chance.

• I find that if I get a site going with a decent amount of content and a consistent posting schedule, new posts get indexed pretty fast (sometimes in minutes) and rank pretty easily on the 1st page for low comp phrases. So, if a new product enters the market in my niche, I have a built-in method for tapping into the traffic for that product through my existing site asap vs. having to create a new site, waiting for it to get indexed and doing additional promotional work for just that one new site.

• Let's say I did have a site on just Model #123 and I included information that was new to the visitor. "Oh, I didn't know Model #123 didn't include blue widgets. I don't want that one now." Maybe I've at least converted them to Amazon so they can find one with blue widgets OR they could be off searching in Google for a model with blue widgets and I've lost them. If you have a site all about LCD TVs and they don't like something about the one that brought them to your site, you have a chance at converting them on another product if you have written about other models in that niche (and if you've set up navigation so that they could easily find another model to look at).

Those are my "theories", anyway. I'd like to be able to track my traffic to that level - did the visitor arrive looking at one product but buy a different one?

I'd also love to know from PaulaC or Dan Brock if they've seen any negative impact from having too many options. Did visitors just get confused by all of the choices and leave the decision for another day?

I think options #3 and #4 are also viable but may take longer for results based on the competitiveness of a broad niche. With the right planning and domain choice you could even start out focusing on a narrow niche like #2 with the intention of expanding the site to include the more broad range of topics down the road. Fully nail down one segment of the market before trying to bite off the whole thing.

My thoughts, anyway.

[Neil V]

Just a quick tip if you are looking for hot products to promote.

Go directly to Alexa the Web Information Company

Alexa gives you the hot searches for the day and focus on popular products.

Every now and again you will find top amazon products in the top 100 searches for the day

Take these products create a hub page and promote them

This will get a ton of traffic and sales fast and the trends usually lasts for a few months

You need to make sure though you check alexa every day for 2-3 minutes to uncover these golden nuggets

I have created a quick video. if you would like a copy let me know and i will try to post it here.

[Memex]

worked there for some time and not a lot of earnings

[inter123]

Soon or later Amazon will become saturated.

Already see the effects now. Sometimes when searching on google I see two or three websites already promoting a product which is great for Amazon.

When it comes to commission, with the competition there is less chance. I am not sure if its a viable long term strategy.

[Ryan D]

This is taking a slightly different spin on selling through Amazon.

I was actually kinda amazed at the volume of sales you can get if you offer a product on Amazon. I am experienced in e-commerce, so I kinda know how to approach suppliers and whatnot. But I realize others might not want to get into it, but if you DID then there is a great opportunity.

As a rest, I tried to drill down into smaller categories and sort through products that appeared to be a little higher margin AND were top 1000 sellers in that particular category. E.g. No books or whatever, but real actual usable products.

This is the part that takes work, but it pays off for people that are willing to do a bit more work. You need to get a list of 5 or 10 of these products and find the distributors, get the wholesale price, and find out if they dropship. This takes a bit of work, but becomes easier once you get started.

After that, you want to offer the product for the lowest price, even if you lose a few bucks on it. Selling more, delivering quicker, and getting feedback puts you as the "preferred seller" for that product. So when they click through the product, they go straight to you instead of a list of other vendors. It also serves another purpose, it puts you in a better position to get a discount through the supplier for the volume you might be doing.

I picked 2 products in a particular category and did this for the month of April. In May, I raised my price slightly and things picked up.

For product A, I made a profit of $765 after all shipping, amazon, product fees.

For product B, I made a profit of $ 490 after all fees.

The downside to this, is that you're kind of making money off volume as opposed to a lot per product. I would never do this personally unless I was just starting out OR I had someone I could pass this off to. In my case, I have someone that does this whole thing for me.

Might be worth checking out.

[monitorit]

Do you set up individual sites for your product reviews or do you review through articles and squidoo etc.

[faridaziz]

Hi,

I'm not into Amazon actually, but reading this thread I was curious
and login to my Amazon associate area.

Surprise, surprise...

I had 8 sales this week!

The clicks came from some of my niche websites.

As I'm running many niche websites with Amazon widgets
on them, I think I will try to optimize them and write some reviews...

Cheers,
Farid

[TimG]

Originally Posted by LK

What do you do when it appears that not a lot of people are searching for a certain product name?

Like, I was looking for products to promote on Amazon yesterday and found some that looked rather good in a niche that I have interest in. However, when I checked the search volume (in google's keyword tool) for the individual product names, it just came up with "not enough data".
Would you still go for the product (I'm pretty sure it's converting well on amazon) or would you find something else where you can get an actual figure in terms of search volume?

I would venture to guess that if it is on Amazon someone is buying it so there is a market, small though it may be.

Have you checked to see if any articles have been submitted for the product/niche on Ezinearticles.com? If some show up then you can assume someone is captializing on the product.

Respectfully,
Tim

[TimG]

Originally Posted by JasonC.biz

This is great info, and I have a question for you who are doing well with Amazon.

How focused are your sites?

What I mean is; looking at one of your sites, do you focus on:

1) A single product (like IPK), such as "Model LCDTV004337"
2) A narrow niche such as "LCD TVs"
3) A broader niche such as "TVs"
4) A general niche such as "Home Entertainment"

I do have IPK, and the thought of building a bunch of sites based on individual products seems more difficult to generate content. So, I'm guessing that #2 or #3 above make more sense. Or, does it work to just build one fairly large site in a general niche (#4 above) with reviews on several products.

With a large, somewhat general site (like Home Entertainment), you could have reviews on TVs, DVD/Blu Ray players, sound systems, etc. Or, does a site that large dilute the effort and make it too difficult to rank?

Thanks,
Jason

I'm building my sites on a broad "needs" based niche then adding pages to it that focus on spcific products for that niche. however, I will be building additional sites that I refer to as Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) which are built around a specific product.

Those FOBs are then linked back to the product page on my broad website adding more link juice and relevancy in the eyes of the search engines.

Tim

[JasonC.biz]

Thanks Erica and Tim - that all makes sense and is in line with my thoughts.

Jason

[TimG]

Originally Posted by Neil V

Just a quick tip if you are looking for hot products to promote.

Go directly to Alexa the Web Information Company

Alexa gives you the hot searches for the day and focus on popular products.

Every now and again you will find top amazon products in the top 100 searches for the day

Take these products create a hub page and promote them

This will get a ton of traffic and sales fast and the trends usually lasts for a few months

You need to make sure though you check alexa every day for 2-3 minutes to uncover these golden nuggets

I have created a quick video. if you would like a copy let me know and i will try to post it here.

Neil,
Good tip and I visited your blog today - you have some good information on profiting from Amazon on your site and clearly know your stuff....you've been holding back brother...lol

Respectfully,
Tim