Setup a new amazon affiliate website

Yup. It's very easy to go to Amazon and get a list of their top selling products. It's also very easy to choose a category of products then sort them by "Average Customer Review" to find the "best" ones in that category. Which is why I don't recommend doing either of those things.

Think about it: if it's easy for you to do these things, it's also easy for your customers to do these things. So what's the value you're providing that customers can't already get themselves on Amazon.com directly? Reviews? Well, they can get those too on Amazon.com (and most of them are more genuine, more trusted and probably better written than anything we'll ever write.) A product comparison matrix? Amazon often has those too -- and frankly they aren't very helpful anyway.

So again, what value are you providing your customers using these approaches? My guess: none at all.

This isn't to say that Amazon Affiliate sites don't work. But you don't start a business from the monetization method. You wouldn't, for instance, build a business based solely on your desire to take the American Express card, would you?

Instead, I recommend starting with the customer. What do they want? What's missing in their lives? What sort of information is hard for them to get that you can provide and present in a really helpful way? What are the sorts of great products that don't appear on any top 10 lists that you can present to your customers and they'll go crazy for? Those are the types of products you want.

So my advice, don't start an Amazon Affiliate site. Start a business. And as with any business, think about who your customers are, what they need and how you can give it to them. And if Amazon's affiliate program fits into that business, great. And if not, that's OK too. In my experience Amazon works well for us -- but I have no doubt that we could find the same products on any number of different affiliate programs, through drop shipping or by doing our own fulfillment. In other words, the value we create isn't dependent on Amazon, but we use Amazon because it's a great way to monetize the value that we create.about who your customers are, what they need and how you can give it to them.