The Hidden Power Of Amazon. Hands Down The Easiest Affiliate Marketing Around. A Blueprint For You

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Hello Warriors!

I have a video compiling so I figured I would take a break and write a nice little blueprint to Amazon affiliate marketing for you. I noticed a lot of people on this board not really sure how to make money with Amazon marketing, so I figured I would help out.

So let's get started shall we?

The problem a lot of newbies have with making money online is that they undoubtedly start out with CB like so many gurus suggest...

I was there myself.

The problem is, that Clickbank has hundreds of newbie affiliates joining everyday. It takes some real skill to be able to be successful with CB nowadays, so if you are new, I would highly recommend you resist the temptation that all of the Gurus out there have put in front of you.

Instead, I like to go for the easier jobs...And that is Amazon affiliate marketing selling physical products.

Let Me Explain to You Why Amazon Is So Awesome...

Simply put, Amazon IS the easiest way to make money online
  • There are literally 10s of thousands of products on Amazon.
  • I spent over 40 hours niche researching all of Amazon products and I still find new products to promote all the time.
  • People have no suspicion about buying a physical product like they do a digital ebook - therefor no need to go through the long pre-selling process.
  • Amazon is unsaturated(99% of the niches are still low competition)
  • People are addicted to Amazons sales process and end up spending more than they originally plan to. A $10 purchase can turn into a $100 purchase in a blink of an eye.
  • All you have to do is send traffic to Amazon to make a sale. For example, the other day I sold a $1500 playset and I dont have a single website that sells playsets. Someone just browsed through my link and decided they want to buy a playset at the time.
But Dan...I can make more money off digital product commissions!!

Yes, you can make more money selling higher commission goods like ebooks and what not. But the difference here is the amount of work you need to put in on those digital goods sites.

On all of my Amazon sites, I haven't touched them in over 6 months now and they still earn for my like they did from the beginning. In fact, last month was my highest earning month ever at $1,200 in commissions.

With digital product sites, you have to continually work on rankings, add content, add links, etc. just to keep the same level of income.

They are not as set and forget as Amazon sites can be.

And the reason for this is because there is virtually no competition in most of the Amazon niches.


The First Thing You Need to Do Is Find a Product to Promote

There are two types of products you should promote in a 90/10% fashion.
  • 90% high ticket items above $100. That gives you around $5 of commission per sale. A $300 item sale gives you about $20 in commission.
  • 10% low end products to inflate your commission percent. At the beginning of the month they drop you down to 4.00% commission, so its important to sell 20 items ASAP to get it up to 6.5%
So all you do is go through each category in Amazon until you find products that fit the following criteria(for high ticket items):
  • $100 or more
  • 10+ reviews(This is a really good indicator whether or not the product is popular and selling)
  • A star rating above 3 (no sense in promoting a crappy product)
  • Has 5 or more similar products to promote(this way we can create a whole website around one type of product)
Let Me Give You a List of Products NOT to Promote

One of the most common mistakes people make when starting out with Amazon is picking the wrong niches. EVERYBODY tries the following niches when they get into Amazon affiliate marketing:
  1. LCD TVs
  2. Digital Cameras/camcorders
  3. Luxury Watches
  4. Laptops
  5. Computers
  6. Cell phones like iphone, blackberrys, palms, etc.
  7. Any product that is easily purchasable at stores like Walmart, Target, etc. A niche like that is vacuum cleaners. Every store around has a vacuum cleaner department, so most of people buy at stores for this type of product than they do online.
The problem with these niches is everyone and their mother has a website on these items. These are the first things they think of that are high ticket items they can get a lot of commission.

What that means for you is MASSIVE competition...which is bad.

So try to find more obscure niches like:
  • Grills
  • Lawnmowers
  • Womens Boots
Confirm The Products Are Actually Getting Searched For

All you do is run the root product name through the google adwords keyword tool.

So if we have a grill called the coleman x50 gas grill(im making this name up), run the keyword 'coleman x50' and 'coleman x50 gas grill' through the keyword tool to see the search results.

If a product has about 4000+ searches each month, I will consider writing an article on it.

Once you find 1 product that fits, go back to Amazon and try and find at least 4 more related products that also have 4000+ searches. So for our gas grill example, we would go back and make sure there are 4 other popular gas grills.

Now Create Some Articles On These 5 Products

The easiest way to do this is to summarize what is already provided to you from Amazon. They give you practically all the info you need in 99% of the products out there.

I myself outsource all of my articles to www.textbroker.com.

They are perfect for this application.

I generally like have my articles in the 300 word range.

Whether you write the articles yourself or have someone else do it, you want to include the following information:
  • The Who - Who the item is for. For example, your gas grill would be for outdoor enthusiasts looking for a quick way to grill up meat patties for parties. When someone is searching for a product review, they want to make sure it's for them. So by addressing their situation, it helps confirm it for them(which means they are ready to buy and click your affiliate link)
  • The What - Basically this is the outstanding features of the product.
  • The Why -You are answering why they should buy the particular product compared to something similar. You would say something like 'this gas grill is one of the easiest to start because of its auto-start feature. Stop wasting half the day trying to get those other gas grills started'
Post the first article, and add the rest on drip feed(wordpress) so that they get posted automatically over a period of 2 months or more.

This helps keep your site active over periods of time which is great for search rankings.

A quick note about auto-generated blogs. For this method to really be effective, you need to use unique content for each article that you post. Im sure you could make some money with this method auto-blogging, but it wont be anywhere as near as successful.

A note on how to drive traffic to Amazon.com
I have found that simple text links within the body of your article convert the highest. I havent had much luck with image ads to be quite honest with you.

For a text link, I would do something like:

"If you want to buy this grill, I highly recommend you purchase online through Amazon at this link. It's currently on sale for 21% off only through Amazon.

Let Me Give You An Example Product Review

Here is a quick mock write up of an acceptable review.
Whether you are looking for a gift for that special grilling enthusiast, or just want it to for yourself to fulfill your own primal grilling urges, the Coleman x50 Gas Grill[affiliate link] is the perfect solution to the problem.

One of the best features of this grill is not the actual grill itself, but in the flavors of the meat it grills. Because it is an all gas grill, you never have to worry about your meat tasting like burnt charcoal. Instead, the only thing you will taste is the pure juiciness of perfectly grilled meat.

Let's take a look at some of the features:

  • Feature 1
  • Feature 2
  • Feature 3
  • Feature 4
  • Feature 5
  • Feature 6
  • If you are interested in buying the Coleman x50, you can get it cheap online through Amazon at this link here. They usually have it on sale there.
Compared to other gas grills in this price range, I really don't think you will find a better piece of grilling equipment. Considering that it comes with a set of grilling utensils with purchase, the deal is even sweeter!

Another outstanding trait this grill has over others is its one of the easiest to start because of its auto-start feature. Stop wasting half the day trying to get those other gas grills started

Let me show you some reviews from current owners:

Jim Bob,

I bought this grill and it really rocks. I will never buy another gas grill again........View the full review here: (insert link to persons review page on Amazon)

Sam J,

This grill is absolutely amazing. Nothing comes close.....View the full review here: (insert link to persons review page on Amazon)
Now Go Social Bookmark Your Main Domain

Once your first article is posted, you will want to go post it on some social bookmarking sites to help get your site indexed.

I like to use onlywire to speed up the process.

Next SLOWLY Build Links To Your Website and Internal Pages


A lot of people will tell you to build a ton of links all at once. I don't like this idea because I like to be extremely paranoid when it comes to search engines.

I BELIEVE that they can flag your site if it just starts and gets hundreds of links within the first month.

I like to build NO MORE than 1 to 2 links per week to my main domain and internal pages.

It's also important to rotate your anchor text as much as possible.

Here are the various linking sources I use:
  • Profile Packets
  • Social Bookmarks
  • Blog commenting
  • RSS feed submission
  • RSS feed to Ping.fm <- a nice way to get some backlinks automatically as each of your articles drip feed
  • Web 2.0 Articles <- just one unique article linked to an article on your site holds some really heave ranking power(just remember to bookmark your web 2.0 property to increase its ranking power and help get it indexed)
SLOW AND STEADY...SLOW AND STEADY...

Duplicate and Work On Products That Sell Well

I have learned that you are better off just focusing on one niche that you find profitable.

For awhile there I was making sites to 'explore' niches.

I left a lot of money on the table at first because I wasn't improving the sites that were working, nor was I duplicating those sites.

When you find a winner, STICK WITH IT AND DUPLICATE. Create another site on the same exact niche using unique articles and just repeat the entire process.

The same goes with individual products. You will find on your niche sites that 1 or 2 products sell better than the rest of them. It makes sense to work on these ones.

Focus your link building on it and work on conversion rates for that product.

It's about working smart.

Most Importantly....

Like all other affiliate marketing, the key is to stick with it. I can tell you right now that not all of your Amazon niche sites are going to work out for you.

I can also tell you that it's going to get REALLY boring making these Amazon sites after you build a couple. It's not fun...but it definitely works well, so stick with it and push through the boring times.

That's the basics behind Amazon.com affiliate marketing. There are a lot of other clever tricks you can do to boost your conversions and traffic, but I'll save those for another post.

I hope you all enjoyed my free little guide here.

Feel free to ask me any questions, I am more than willing to help!


Regards,
Daniel Brock
#affiliate #amazon #blueprint #easiest #hands #hidden #marketing #power
  • Profile picture of the author LegitIncomes
    Nice post....would make a great WSO
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    • Profile picture of the author MurphSmurf
      Awesome, thanks for sharing. I have never tried promoting Amazon but it seems like there would be much less competition for these types of affiliate sites.

      Do you do any kind of competition research?
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      • Profile picture of the author Heuristic
        Lots of great info there Daniel - Thanks for sharing!
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      • Profile picture of the author mdotwhite
        Are you using a special software to drip feed the articles? If so what software is it?
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        • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
          Originally Posted by mdotwhite View Post

          Are you using a special software to drip feed the articles? If so what software is it?
          It comes with Wordpress.

          Instead of clicking publish, click the link next to publish immediately. From there select your date and hit schedule.

          When the date comes around, it will auto-post it to your blog.

          tomw,

          No. You start out at 4% every month. Then after about 20 item sales you go to 6.50%.

          It doesnt matter if you or new or have been on there for years. Each month, everyone starts out at 4.00.

          MurphSmurf,

          I always register domain names for my properties because I want to own everything.

          You could use blogger if you want - I know a lot of people that do. I think Wordpress.com is getting stricter on affiliate sites if im not mistaken.

          But personally, I always register a domain name for whatever niche I enter into. Its only like $8 so its not a big deal especially if the site pays itself off within the first few weeks(which is easy to do).

          Regards,
          Daniel
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          • Profile picture of the author Mattk
            I had already made up my mind to let affiliate marketing go for now and focus on my own projects.

            Now, thanks to you, I'm thinking about affiliate sales again.

            Thanks a lot Daniel.
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            • Profile picture of the author AdvertSmartCom
              Banned
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              • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
                I'm happy to se such an overwhelming response to my post! Made the effort worth it for sure.

                Doiron,

                Yes, it carries over to any product they order from. I would say that nearly 50% of my monthly sales are attributed to products I haven't reviewed.

                IMAdam,

                When you build links, you want to do it so that you alternate the link text so that not all of your incoming links are labeled 'gas grill'. You would want to link with different captions like 'coleman grills', 'best gas grills', 'coleman x50'

                ----

                One thing I have been dying to try is get one of those bulk traffic sources and sending them straight to an Amazon page like an iphone or similar mass appeal item.

                I figure not many will buy the iphone, but a lot of people would be tempted just enough by opening up the Amazon site that they might end up purchasing something.
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            • Profile picture of the author ElMundodelExito
              Originally Posted by Mattk View Post

              I had already made up my mind to let affiliate marketing go for now and focus on my own projects.

              Now, thanks to you, I'm thinking about affiliate sales again.

              Thanks a lot Daniel.
              This is great but if you already made up you mind to focus on your own products you should stick to it.
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              • Profile picture of the author NMP
                Hi Daniel (Nice Name)

                I bought your Amazon Affiliate course. And also read your
                SEOB.. ebook. I been using this before. However they way
                you explain it, really no one can go wrong.

                You have done a lot of work especially for the niche ebook.

                Thanks for great info,

                Daniel
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                • Profile picture of the author Wakunahum
                  Amazon really is a pretty interesting affiliate program.

                  I put a cheap Amazon product on a page that already had some daily traffic just to see what might happen.

                  In the last two days I have had a $70 order and a $150 order.

                  The $70 order was a related product to the niche and came from only 8 visits to that page. The $150 order were books unrelated to the niche.
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          • Profile picture of the author MurphSmurf
            Do your sites need to rank on first page of Google for you to start seeing sales, or do they just kinda start earning on their own after a while regardless of rank?

            (sorry for all the questions but I must say, I'm intrigued! )
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            • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
              Tomw,

              In regards to the commission comment.

              Here is a screenshot from the day I sold that $1.5k item:



              Im pretty sure the $25 commission cap only applies to electronics.

              Regards,
              Daniel
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              • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
                Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

                Tomw,

                In regards to the commission comment.

                Here is a screenshot from the day I sold that $1.5k item:



                Im pretty sure the $25 commission cap only applies to electronics.

                Regards,
                Daniel
                I was under the impression that the commission cap was only the % you receive.

                For example when you increase your referral rate from 4% to 8% for everything else,
                it stays at 4% for electronics.

                I guess I will test some high priced stuff to see for myself.

                But yeah dude, this is some great info you freely shared with everyone. So thanks!!

                Jason
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                • Profile picture of the author sirtom
                  Hey man,

                  Awesome stuff here! I've sold books and such on Amazon, just recommendations from my blog, but this is a great model in and of itself..

                  And freely shared, too.. Good times bro!

                  -Tom
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                • Profile picture of the author powerslave
                  Very good post. Always been put off promoting Amazon due to the low commission, but may give it a shot after reading this
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                • Profile picture of the author pjsweeting
                  Daniel, or anyone who knows...

                  When creating an amazon associate account (yeah I'm that new - but diving into this full force) do you need to create a unique associates ID for each niche site? I ask because it appears that during the initial setup, the 'website profile' questionnaire looks to be targeted toward having only one site. Am I correct in assuming additional associate IDs and and website profiles can be added afterward as I create more niche sites?

                  Also did a bit of product / keyword research and feel "confident" in moving forward with my first site... would someone like to give their opinion on the following keyword stats? All fall in same product/niche...

                  KW 1
                  Exact Local Searches: 1600
                  Google Indexed Pages: 310
                  Allintitle: 1730
                  Allinurl: 770

                  KW 2
                  Searches: 6600
                  Pages: 122
                  Allintitle: 16,300
                  Allinurl: 9900

                  KW 3
                  Searches: 3600
                  Pages: 113
                  Allintitle: 82
                  Allinurl: 45


                  Thanks, Daniel, for putting this info together. I wasn't really excited to get started in clickbank... I'm enjoying this a lot more.
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                  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
                    Originally Posted by pjsweeting View Post

                    Daniel, or anyone who knows...

                    When creating an amazon associate account (yeah I'm that new - but diving into this full force) do you need to create a unique associates ID for each niche site? I ask because it appears that during the initial setup, the 'website profile' questionnaire looks to be targeted toward having only one site. Am I correct in assuming additional associate IDs and and website profiles can be added afterward as I create more niche sites?
                    The first ID you create becomes your "main ID", associated with your account. In addition, you can create up to 99 additional "Tracking IDs" for different websites or even different links if you choose to get that granular. All of the tracking IDs will be associated with your original associate ID.

                    You don't need to create a new associate account for each website.
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                  • Profile picture of the author lakerk
                    Originally Posted by pjsweeting View Post

                    Daniel, or anyone who knows...

                    KW 1
                    Exact Local Searches: 1600
                    Google Indexed Pages: 310
                    Allintitle: 1730
                    Allinurl: 770

                    KW 2
                    Searches: 6600
                    Pages: 122
                    Allintitle: 16,300
                    Allinurl: 9900

                    KW 3
                    Searches: 3600
                    Pages: 113
                    Allintitle: 82
                    Allinurl: 45
                    Super Noob questions, but I'd really appreciate it if someone could answer them.

                    What do these paremeters mean? And how can I find them?

                    And my second question is about niche websites. Do you all just have one hosting acount with multiple domains linking to one account? With subdomains on that account? I'm a little but confused on how that works.

                    For example
                    I have website1.com registered
                    If i was making a niche site for gasgrills, would I buy gasgrills.com and have it link to gasgrills.website1.com? Or.. what am I missing? THanks guys. Awesome post OP
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                    • Profile picture of the author pjsweeting
                      Lakerk,

                      These stats can be found by simply using the google adwords tool and google itself.

                      Searches: I use exact number of local monthly searches for the KW, found in adwords tool.
                      Pages: Type KW in quotes into google. (change search settings to 100 results/page.) On bottom of G results page click on highest number and google will show you the actual number of pages it finds relevant for your keyword. Will always be under 1000.
                      Allintitle: How many indexed pages have your KW in its title. Your competition.
                      Allinurl: How many indexed pages have your KW in its URL. Your competition.

                      This is only my method and how I've come to understand it. There are other ways of conducting keyword research.

                      gasgrills.com would be your main niche domain. I believe you would then create subdomains for products/reviews that are of the same niche.
                      gasgrills.com/product1
                      gasgrills.com/product2
                      gasgrills.com/product3

                      I am still learning this myself but I believe that is roughly how the site is set up. That particular question is answered more in depth earlier in this thread though by Daniel and some exp warriors..

                      Hope some of that helped
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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
        Originally Posted by MurphSmurf View Post

        Awesome, thanks for sharing. I have never tried promoting Amazon but it seems like there would be much less competition for these types of affiliate sites.

        Do you do any kind of competition research?
        Yes - what I'll do is just do a quick run through of the adwords keyword tool.

        If the green bar has a white portion greater than 25%, I'll consider the product.

        Very primitive way to go about it - but 90% of the time it actually works.

        What i'll do to be sure is run the product root name through google to see what kind of competition is out there.

        I never worry about the authority sites like Amazon or the product manufacture being ahead of me in the search rankings. By the time someone searches for this product, they have already been to amazon and have already been to the product creators website.

        Regards,
        Daniel
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    • Profile picture of the author ikepeace
      Thanks Dan, for revealing these tips. I will surely implement your teaching.
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  • Profile picture of the author tomw
    Nice post, Daniel. Really well done.

    Just a quick question...didn't Amazon drop it's rate to something like 4% and a maximum of £7 per item last autumn? Or is this just for electronic goods? I can't remember...but I do know it caused quite a stink in the affiliate world and many affiliates dropped them.

    Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author tomw
    Thanks for the reply, Daniel, but it was still bugging me because I can remember all the fuss. So to prove to myself I wasn't losing my marbles I checked it out:

    "Note about Caps:

    The referral fee payable on any Product under the Performance Fee Structure is limited to a maximum of £7.00 per Product, regardless of the Qualifying Revenues derived from the sale of any such item, except that Products offered for sale in the "Books," "DVD," or "Music" section of the Amazon.co.uk Site will not be subject to that £7.00 limit."

    I could remember all the talk of never again bothering to promote an Amazon product over around £175 because affiliates will not make any additional revenue on them.

    *And* they increased the 9% threshold to 30,000+ products per month!

    Tom
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    • Profile picture of the author adamv
      I had heard that the max. per item was $25 so it may be different depending on the country you're in. The same techniques can be applied to Commission Junction programs too. There are a lot of affiliate programs for physical products.
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    awesome post and great suggestions. i just started promoting amazon products and this post is very informative.

    thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author tomw
    Thanks for clearing that up. I've done some further research and it appears that Amazon.co.uk does indeed have a £7 cap on *all* products except books, dvds and music.

    So the take out, for those interested in following your excellent blueprint, is to only set up sites and sell through Amazon.COM in the US of A. Forget all about the UK site my fellow Brits.

    Thanks again, Daniel. You're doing some great work around here!

    Tom
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by tomw View Post

      Thanks for clearing that up. I've done some further research and it appears that Amazon.co.uk does indeed have a £7 cap on *all* products except books, dvds and music.

      So the take out, for those interested in following your excellent blueprint, is to only set up sites and sell through Amazon.COM in the US of A. Forget all about the UK site my fellow Brits.

      Thanks again, Daniel. You're doing some great work around here!

      Tom
      Oh wow!

      Tom, didn't realize they screwed you UK folks over there like that. But even still, $10 per sale isn't bad either...

      Mattk,
      Hah! I know how you feel. Try not to let me thread distract you too much from your ultimate goal!

      MurphSmurf,
      No. I have many pages on page 3, 4, and 5 that still get me sales. Obviously the closer to the top rankings the better you will be, but it's not necessary to make money with this particular method.

      People are nuts about finding reviews when they are ready to buy, so they will dive deeper than your average searcher will.

      adamv,
      Good point about CJ.

      This method would work with that as well - however I personally like to go with Amazon if possible. Reason is because their upsell process freaking rocksssss!
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      • Profile picture of the author adamv
        Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post



        Good point about CJ.

        This method would work with that as well - however I personally like to go with Amazon if possible. Reason is because their upsell process freaking rocksssss!
        I agree about the upsell process. I was initially a little turned off by the 4% commissions but the fact that someone could click a link for a $5 item and end up spending several hundred makes it a little easier to deal with. Also the fact that they offer free shipping on orders over $25 encourages people to spend more than just the $5 or $10 they may have intended to.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris-
        Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

        This method would work with that as well - however I personally like to go with Amazon if possible. Reason is because their upsell process freaking rocksssss!
        I thought I'd read that Amazon only gives you commission if the visitor buys from the exact first page you refer them to, so I had presumed that any upsell, or buying something different on a different page, etc. would not give any commission. I could be wrong Anyone know the real story on that?

        By the way, thanks for the post . . . I need to learn from what you do !


        Chris
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        • Profile picture of the author Chuck Underwood
          Originally Posted by Chris- View Post

          I thought I'd read that Amazon only gives you commission if the visitor buys from the exact first page you refer them to, so I had presumed that any upsell, or buying something different on a different page, etc. would not give any commission. I could be wrong Anyone know the real story on that?

          By the way, thanks for the post . . . I need to learn from what you do !


          Chris
          Chris,

          Last month I someone buy $200 worth of Bakugan toys through one of my Amazon Affiliate links. I DID receive approximately $12 worth of commissions for this purchase. So yes you do receive credit for sales if they buy from Amazon and were directed through one of your links.

          Chuck
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    • Profile picture of the author homejobcreator
      Originally Posted by tomw View Post

      Thanks for clearing that up. I've done some further research and it appears that Amazon.co.uk does indeed have a £7 cap on *all* products except books, dvds and music.

      So the take out, for those interested in following your excellent blueprint, is to only set up sites and sell through Amazon.COM in the US of A. Forget all about the UK site my fellow Brits.

      Thanks again, Daniel. You're doing some great work around here!

      Tom
      First, Daniel, thanks a lot for the info!

      And, tomw, how do I assure that I sell through Amazon.COM, when I do IM from Barcelona, Spain? Thanks, Di
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Excellent post, Daniel. Well written, easy to follow, and very helpful to anyone wanting to go down that path.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chuck Underwood
    Daniel,

    Awesome post. I appreciate the detail that you went into laying out your simple yet effective plan.

    Off to Amazon to start researching products.

    Chuck
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  • Profile picture of the author Buildingfutures
    Sounds like another project to add to my list of things to do! Thanks a lot Daniel! Gawsh!

    But seriously, very well thought out post, and its been bookmarked by me now so that I can come back and look at it whenever I need to. I like this set and forget strategy, especially with a blog like wordpress. Speaking of, I need to go work on my other blogs.

    Had no clue that is how the drip-feed worked with wordpress, thanks for clearing that up too!

    EXCELSIOR!

    -Sean
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  • Profile picture of the author Buildingfutures
    Here's an idea, just off the top of my head real quick.

    Purchase a domain name that can cover a whole bunch of products. Focus on one domain for now (You can definitely make more later), and make it a product review site.

    Review articles are so easy to write, that literally anyone can do them.

    You can make 10 a day, set them up to post one every 2-3 days, and let it go.

    MAKE 10 ARTICLES A DAY FOR A WEEK.

    Your blog will be set and ready to go for months then. 70 articles, one posted every 2-3 days will have content going into your site for at least 4 months.

    All you'd have to do then is ping the blog every time a new post goes up (you'll know when it is!) and slowly build links like Daniel explains.

    How's that for a set and forget model?

    -Sean
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    • Profile picture of the author Mattk
      Originally Posted by Buildingfutures View Post

      Purchase a domain name that can cover a whole bunch of products. Focus on one domain for now (You can definitely make more later), and make it a product review site.
      I've often thought of buying 1 or 2 catchy sounding general domains, then using subdomains as the keyword for the product.

      Would that work? I thought of this a while ago and planned to do it with PPC. I figured if your subdomain was a keyword and the landing page was nicely done, Google might even keep the quality score up.
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      • Profile picture of the author Buildingfutures
        Originally Posted by Mattk View Post

        I've often thought of buying 1 or 2 catchy sounding general domains, then using subdomains as the keyword for the product.

        Would that work? I thought of this a while ago and planned to do it with PPC. I figured if your subdomain was a keyword and the landing page was nicely done, Google might even keep the quality score up.
        You know what Matt? It certainly sounds like it could work (I haven't tried it myself, so I couldn't tell you one way or another) and I would suggest giving it a try and see what happens.

        Trial and error my friend! Never know until you try.

        Excelsior!

        -Sean
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      • Profile picture of the author zcx
        Originally Posted by Mattk View Post

        I've often thought of buying 1 or 2 catchy sounding general domains, then using subdomains as the keyword for the product.

        Would that work? I thought of this a while ago and planned to do it with PPC. I figured if your subdomain was a keyword and the landing page was nicely done, Google might even keep the quality score up.
        Mattk - I've tried it with subdirectories, and I think it works fine. The reason I say I think it works is that the sites I set up as subdirectories were based on really lame keywords and were kind of doomed to start with. And at the time my understanding of backlinking matched my expertise in keyword research ;-) so I only did real half-assed promotion on either one. Both of them made a brief appearance at the bottom of page one and then bounced around on pages 3 - 7 for months, though. The results were really mediocre, but given everything else that was wrong, the domain/subdirectory structure apparently didn't hurt. I think it was having the keyword in the subdirectory that got them to show up in the SERPs at all. I'm going to try it again soon with some Amazon products (and hopefully better keyword choices!).
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    • Profile picture of the author Marakatapolis
      Originally Posted by Buildingfutures View Post


      All you'd have to do then is ping the blog every time a new post goes up (you'll know when it is!) and slowly build links like Daniel explains.

      How's that for a set and forget model?

      -Sean
      WP already automatically pings itself when a new post is made. The new installs come with Ping-o-Matic already set in the ping list by default.
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  • Profile picture of the author kevinw1
    Great writeup Daniel - I too find that Amazon is very much worthwhile, especially at Xmas. My only disagreement would be here:

    Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

    "If you want to buy this grill, I highly recommend you purchase online through Amazon at this link. It's currently on sale for 21% off only through Amazon.
    Because Amazon changes its discounts on items all the time - sometimes several times a week - I prefer not to state any specific price or discount in the link. I don't want my customer hitting Amazon expecting a 21% discount and finding that it's now only 7%, and going off in a huff, nor do I want to be checking prices and updating links all the time. One good thing about the iFrame auto links you can get from Amazon is that they do auto-update all those details.

    It's amazing how many people don't realise that when they buy from Amazon through my link, they are buying through Amazon, not me! There's a good reason why the FTC now requires disclaimers.

    Kevin
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    • Profile picture of the author Buildingfutures
      Originally Posted by kevinw1 View Post


      It's amazing how many people don't realise that when they buy from Amazon through my link, they are buying through Amazon, not me! There's a good reason why the FTC now requires disclaimers.

      Kevin
      Wait, Kevin, does this mean as an affiliate with amazon we too must put these disclaimers in, or is it alright to leave them out in this case?

      Because I'd like to know if I need to add in an extra few lines to the articles I'm writing.

      -Sean
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    • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
      Originally Posted by kevinw1 View Post

      Because Amazon changes its discounts on items all the time - sometimes several times a week - I prefer not to state any specific price or discount in the link. I don't want my customer hitting Amazon expecting a 21% discount and finding that it's now only 7%, and going off in a huff, nor do I want to be checking prices and updating links all the time. One good thing about the iFrame auto links you can get from Amazon is that they do auto-update all those details.
      Kevin
      You are probably right about the price changes often, but maybe it would be worth noting sales, at least in the beginning, because that 20% off might attract an extra few clicks. It might be worth that extra $50-100 to check the sales prices on a few items, at least in the beginning when you first put it up.

      Just a thought
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  • Profile picture of the author Simo
    Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

    All you have to do is send traffic to Amazon to make a sale. For example, the other day I sold a $1500 playset and I dont have a single website that sells playsets. Someone just browsed through my link and decided they want to buy a playset at the time.
    Hey Dan - great post.

    I built a Amazon site a couple of months ago and one of the first sales landed me a $40 check. Someone purchased 4 garage door openers through my link for $1000 . That's a really great point you've made there. The browsers do buy, and you still get rewarded!

    cheers,

    Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
    Great post Daniel. That's the sort of thing you normally only get in the War Room.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
    Thanks for the comments everyone. Im glad you all liked my post so far.

    buildingfutures,


    That's a really good idea, infact I have a website myself for just that.

    The only problem is is that wordpress is not really suitable for a mass page product review website IMO.

    I also think an initial problem would be that you might not rank as well as some of the more niche versions do because it'll be a very broad website. Overtime after you get enough authority I think it will help, but for the initial run it could present a challenge.

    I'll let you know how the testing on that goes. It's up and running ATM and slowly adding content.

    Good addition though.

    As for the FTC question, it certainly wouldn't hurt to put a good old:

    "Income Disclaimer: By clicking and buying through one of the above links, you will help pay for countless hours spent writing, editing, and promoting this website."

    Im no lawyer or anything, so use that above advice at your own risk.
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    • Profile picture of the author Buildingfutures
      Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

      The only problem is is that wordpress is not really suitable for a mass page product review website IMO.

      -----
      As for the FTC question, it certainly wouldn't hurt to put a good old:

      "Income Disclaimer: By clicking and buying through one of the above links, you will help pay for countless hours spent writing, editing, and promoting this website."

      Im no lawyer or anything, so use that above advice at your own risk.
      Daniel,

      Thanks for the reply! As for creating a wide-range product review site, I opted out for a very targeted niche (4,800-35,000 searches depending on the exact keywords I use) but with some healthy competition on Google. Even found a neat 3 word targeted domain name. But its an untested kind of domain, so I'll keep everyone posted on how that goes.

      And I will take your advice at my own risk, and place something akin to that somewhere in each blog.

      -Sean
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Kohler
    I thought I was in the War Room. Great post!
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  • Profile picture of the author Diver's
    i have several niche site selling amazon product. promoting product that is smaller in price definitely works much easier. This is a great post Daniel.

    What you can also do is, find several forums related to that product 'niche' - grill forum/grill groups on facebook and then make your post with links. or just edit the link in your signature.

    'contribute and promote' - find Q&A and problems related to the grills in the forum, post a helping feedback with links. If you are helpful, this will work wonders.

    And usually in forum they have this WTB : Want To Buy section.. pm or contact the person personally, and send them the affiliate links.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by Diver's View Post

      i have several niche site selling amazon product. promoting product that is smaller in price definitely works much easier. This is a great post Daniel.

      What you can also do is, find several forums related to that product 'niche' - grill forum/grill groups on facebook and then make your post with links. or just edit the link in your signature.

      'contribute and promote' - find Q&A and problems related to the grills in the forum, post a helping feedback with links. If you are helpful, this will work wonders.

      And usually in forum they have this WTB : Want To Buy section.. pm or contact the person personally, and send them the affiliate links.
      You know, that's a pretty clever idea there.

      Not quite as hands off as I would want, but you could totally outsource that.

      Thanks for the tip, I will have to try that out!

      Chris-,

      I'm not exactly sure you get commission if they buy within 24 hours, or if they have to buy within the time they browse from your link to the sales pages.

      Whatever it is, it doesn't matter because the sales just keep rolling in.

      Gail_Curran,

      Unless your domain is super targeted towards a particular product niche, I would just register a new one.

      JohnMcCabe,

      Yes, RSS feed directories are great for getting a few backlinks to each one of your posts. Definitely worth doing as well as creating your twitterfeed/ping.fm accounts. great suggestion!

      CatherineMay,

      If you wanted to promote for example, the gas grill I used in my guide, you could register a domain name 'thebestoutdoorgasgrills.com'.

      Good enough.

      Regards,
      Daniel
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris-
        Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

        Chris-,

        I'm not exactly sure you get commission if they buy within 24 hours, or if they have to buy within the time they browse from your link to the sales pages.

        Whatever it is, it doesn't matter because the sales just keep rolling in.
        Good point

        thanks!

        Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author Oland
    Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

    Hello Warriors!
    I myself outsource all of my articles to www.textbroker.com.

    They are perfect for this application.

    I generally like have my articles in the 300 word range.

    Regards,
    Daniel Brock
    Thank you for sharing this it's appreciated.

    I have signed up with textbroker. I can see that they have different "quality levels" for their articles. What has been your experience regarding best value for money?
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    • Profile picture of the author chukwuma
      Banned
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Daniel, great job on the blueprint.

        I'd offer one small suggestion regarding getting links to your pages...

        The idea is to appear natural, right?

        Wouldn't it seem natural for someone launching a new site to immediately post it to a bunch of directories, post the RSS feed to a bunch of places, and maybe blast a news release to a bunch of news sites?

        To my mind, this would be similar to a new bricks and mortar store running a big "grand opening" promotion before settling down to more regular promotions.

        Once the new site passes that initial blitz of "easy bulk" promotion, then I wholeheartedly agree with your strategy of dripping links over time.
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      • Profile picture of the author ayaw
        WOW... What Great Post Daniel...

        I'm happy with Amazon too and make good income stream from it.
        This is probably the the best stuff I read in WarriorForum.

        This guide is really useful.

        all the best,
        ayaw

        Originally Posted by chukwuma View Post

        The problem i have with amazon affiliate is their low pay.
        No.. you're wrong... much marketers says this...
        They hate that amazon only pay 6% - 8% of commission. Other Networks may give high percentage commission, but the conversion is low compared to amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author JonMills
    Yep Amazon and Ebay are great ones
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    • Profile picture of the author CatherineMay
      Daniel,

      My question is about domain names. Do you choose a domain name based on a particular product, or on the niche? Aren't you infringing on the rights of the manufacturer if your domain name is too specific?

      Catherine
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Cole
        Originally Posted by CatherineMay View Post

        Daniel,

        My question is about domain names. Do you choose a domain name based on a particular product, or on the niche? Aren't you infringing on the rights of the manufacturer if your domain name is too specific?

        Catherine

        I'm Sorry i have only found this posting now!!

        My domain name included the words review & amazon. I had an A store set up and my links built to my site and then Amazon knocked me back!!

        Now i have a domain name i might have to use for Fishing or river trips alsong the Amazon river or something...

        Is there any was i can re direct traffic so i can utilise the keyword rich domian and not breach Amazons rules for affiliates.

        Great post by the way!!!

        Chris :-(
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  • Profile picture of the author Frodr
    Great business model daniel.. thanks alot.

    It shouldnt be hard to find niches without alot of competition. Amazon sells everything.

    I was staying away from amazon because of how low the commission was, but I didnt take into consideration all of the possible upsells.

    I also didnt know you could make money on products that you are not directly promoting through the use of cookies.

    Quick question.. how long do your cookies stay on someones computer?

    -Felix
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  • Profile picture of the author frieden70
    Brilliant post...

    Good work
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  • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
    Daniel,

    That was an excellent post. There is one more point you missed. You won't have any competition from us here in NC (unless we also have an out-of-state address too.

    I know you get quantity sales from the smaller stuff, do you also review them, or do you show them along with the big ticket items. i.e. for the gas grill, you review the grill and suggest the accessories, etc.?

    Buck
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by N4PGW View Post

      Daniel,

      That was an excellent post. There is one more point you missed. You won't have any competition from us here in NC (unless we also have an out-of-state address too.

      I know you get quantity sales from the smaller stuff, do you also review them, or do you show them along with the big ticket items. i.e. for the gas grill, you review the grill and suggest the accessories, etc.?

      Buck
      Hello,

      Yes I do that with a lot of my high ticket products - mix in some accessories is a nice way to juice up your commission percent.

      And yeah, it sucks about the NC thing. Im pretty sure all NC affiliates are screwed at the moment


      itsmeantor,

      What I mean by the bookmarking comment is, say you have like a squidoo page up related to gas grills.

      You would want to bookmark and link build that web 2.0 property so that it sends traffic and boosts up the search ranking of your main website.

      And sorry to anyone if I missed your question - this thread is getting a little busy so it's getting hard for me to keep track of all of the people who asked questions. If I missed your question, let me know and I will try my best to answer it.

      Thanks,
      Daniel
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      • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
        Hi all,
        Is anyone else having trouble finding some products with Amazon. I am using micro-niche Finder and I find that either the exact phrase count is too large (i.e.competition) or the SOC is high. Also if you find a product for example Casio CTK-3000 do you enter it into Google keywords tool or MNF as it is, or as Casio CTK 3000 or even Casio CTK3000? I seem to get different results with each one, and it's getting confusing. Please can anyone help, as I have been searching for the last two days trying to find a product to promote with no luck. it seems to me that either the competition is too strong, or I can't get enough searches for the keywords I am looking for.
        Regards
        Jeff
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        • Profile picture of the author nikolaaa
          Originally Posted by jsanderz View Post

          Hi all,
          Is anyone else having trouble finding some products with Amazon. I am using micro-niche Finder and I find that either the exact phrase count is too large (i.e.competition) or the SOC is high. Also if you find a product for example Casio CTK-3000 do you enter it into Google keywords tool or MNF as it is, or as Casio CTK 3000 or even Casio CTK3000? I seem to get different results with each one, and it's getting confusing. Please can anyone help, as I have been searching for the last two days trying to find a product to promote with no luck. it seems to me that either the competition is too strong, or I can't get enough searches for the keywords I am looking for.
          Regards
          Jeff
          Jeff,

          According to Amazon terms you can't use product names in URL.
          It's better to find general keyword like Portable Music Instruments.
          And then to make review of few products from Amazon store.

          Nikola
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          • Originally Posted by nikolaaa View Post

            Jeff,

            According to Amazon terms you can't use product names in URL.
            It's better to find general keyword like Portable Music Instruments.
            And then to make review of few products from Amazon store.

            Nikola
            You can use product names in your URL you just can't use them in the domain name.

            Although some folks do it, you are really asking for trouble down the road when the company comes calling and takes your hard earned site from you.

            It's best to stick to generic terms for domain names. I use Market Samurai and so what I look for in a domain name is generic highly searched terms.

            So if I were promoting mountain bikes, I would look at keywords that have atleast 100 searches per day and SOC of less than 10,000 to start. So you start to see things like mountain bike reviews, best mountain bikes, etc. Great domain names to start building a review site around.

            If I can't find anything in that range, then I bump up my SOC threshold to 15,000 and review again. I keep doing that until I get to 30,000.

            I will sometimes look beyond that, but most of the time I can find a great low competition keyword rich domain name that gets great traffic just by following those steps.

            -Brad
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  • Profile picture of the author Doiron
    I'm also curious about whether your affiliate status carries over on pages that the visitor clicks on after viewing your original recommended product. A couple of you have said that it does so I have to assume you're right.

    The only reason I wonder is that when I click on an Amazon link on one of my sites, my Amazon ID is clearly included in that page's URL. But when I click on another Amazon link on that page - like in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section, my ID isn't in that page's URL anymore.

    Any ideas on this?
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    • Profile picture of the author LegitIncomes
      Originally Posted by Doiron View Post

      I'm also curious about whether your affiliate status carries over on pages that the visitor clicks on after viewing your original recommended product. A couple of you have said that it does so I have to assume you're right.

      The only reason I wonder is that when I click on an Amazon link on one of my sites, my Amazon ID is clearly included in that page's URL. But when I click on another Amazon link on that page - like in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section, my ID isn't in that page's URL anymore.

      Any ideas on this?

      It's still there...I've had sales that were from products I was not linking to, so it has to be there. I don't know how long it stays, one day, a week, etc... I'm sure Amazon tells you all of this in their documentation, I've just been too lazy to look it up myself.
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      • Profile picture of the author ayaw
        Originally Posted by LegitIncomes View Post

        It's still there...I've had sales that were from products I was not linking to, so it has to be there. I don't know how long it stays, one day, a week, etc... I'm sure Amazon tells you all of this in their documentation, I've just been too lazy to look it up myself.
        Hi, The cookie will last for 24 hours

        all the best,
        ayaw
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  • Profile picture of the author eashe
    Awesome Post and information that you gave, most people Always usually do go to clickbank to start making money, and don't realize the other potential out there.

    Love the information that you have shared!!
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  • Profile picture of the author IMAdam
    Dan,

    Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

    It's also important to rotate your anchor text as much as possible.
    Can you elaborate on what you are referring to above?
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    • Profile picture of the author dobbs
      Thanks Daniel for all the suggestions. I have been an Amazon junkie for several years and am looking forward to using your help to become rich and famous through it.
      Dobbs
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    • Profile picture of the author Alminc
      Daniel,

      Is it better to choose performance based fee or a flat fee?

      Almin
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      No links :)
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by Alminc View Post

        Daniel,

        Is it better to choose performance based fee or a flat fee?

        Almin
        Unless you plan to focus on one of the commission-capped categories, always opt for performance based.

        The bottom tier is the same, but if you can generate a number of transactions, you can increase your commissions...
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        • Profile picture of the author bdawg56kg
          Do you submit your articles to article directories? How many articles approximately should you make for each product/niche? Thanks.

          Edit: Also, I am still not sure on how deal with competition. Some items have >4000 searches, but 180,000 competing pages. Is it still a good idea to promote these products?
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  • Profile picture of the author itcoll
    thanks so much Daniel.this is really awesome.And i like the part where you said that people buy a lot than they had actually intended to.that is very interesting and so true too.
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    • Profile picture of the author debra
      Daniel...

      Maybe you know this and can tell me.

      I'm looking for a wp plugin that will hyperlink keyword phrases that i choose to my pages(amazon niche store) and also have those same anchored hyperlinks show up in the rss feed.
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    • Profile picture of the author dezz26
      Hi guys, all though this is my first post here on the warrior, I have been marketing online since 1999, I was a veteran member of Stompernet from the very beginning. So to get started, anyone who thinks that Amazon Associates program is not profitable they are wrong, dead wrong, I have over 50 websites promoting amazon products and I do really well with them, I am not going to brag and give numbers about how much I make in a day but it is very lucrative. I do use the plugins Reviewazon and Amaniche in my wordpress blogs.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stefan H.
      Thanks a lot for the nice Info! This is going to help a lot since I just recieved an E-Mail from Amazon, that the will quit commissions for SEM (at least in germany), which actually was my only way to get money out of Amazon
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      • Profile picture of the author Si_P
        That sucks, I wander why Amazon is so fussy with different countries?
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    • Profile picture of the author DC Marketing
      Thank you Daniel,

      This is by far one of the best posts I have ever read!
      I will be looking forward to many more from you.

      This has taken up much of your time but I am sure has helped
      countless amounts of folks.

      I have bookmarked this page and will be starting
      to implement your useful information ASAP>

      Thanks again,
      Douglas J Gregory
      "The Transformation Marketer"
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  • Profile picture of the author jaiganeshv.com
    I thought this a WSO
    very neat information

    Thank you
    Jai
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      That's the sort of thing you normally only get in the War Room.
      Actually, this is the sort of thing we used to see quite often in this section.

      Good one, Daniel.


      kay
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnHuizinga
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        Actually, this is the sort of thing we used to see quite often in this section.

        Good one, Daniel.


        kay
        I noticed for a couple of months after the big push to get people to join the War Room started that this part of the forum became very quiet in terms of the number of experienced warriors offering value here, or even posting here at all.
        Some of them are still MIA in this section.
        The net effect of that was that the lunatics took over the asylum and I found my visits here becoming less and less frequent.
        But lately (the last couple of weeks give or take), there has been an increase in posts like this and the general level of discussion here has greatly improved again, IMHO.
        Sorry. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. I just had to get that off my chest and didn't see the point in starting a new thread about it here where we talk about making money.
        Perhaps it would be an appropriate thread in the off-topic forum but frankly I can't bring myself to spend any time there without running the risk of saying something that will get me banned.
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  • Profile picture of the author ebizman87
    Good info here..

    Some people are selling this kind of info but you're good enough to share it for FREE.I appreciate your contribution here.Hopefully for those who're BUYING or thinking to get "make money from AMAZON" products,this thread may cut down your expenses.
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  • Profile picture of the author dseisner
    Dude, awesome work. Thanks for the great insights. Gave me some great ideas I'm going to go out an implement soon.
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  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    Good job Daniel.

    One comment I would say to the guy who suggested multiple subdomains off a main domain is personally I've found sub domains to rank very poorly, now this is purely from my own perspective but it is across multiple domains and niches and on multiple hosting platforms , ranging from dedicated to shared.

    Although dedi hosting seemed to allow the sub domains to rank better, overall it was very poor, I didn't get a satisfactory results at all.

    Infact I got better results with:

    domainname.com/niche1
    domainname.com/niche2

    As I say, this is not proven beyond all doubt at all, just my own findings.

    You'll also find that spreading a domain thin across niches unless they have a common theme will make it harder and harder for you to rank, especially on a brand new domain name.

    This concept would work fine from trusted domains, yes you lack overall control but plenty of domains would allow this. If you're going down that route , simply go to Yahoo, Bing and Google (yes life exists outside of Google) , type in your keywords, find the sites that consistently list your niche top across all three and submit your content there.

    This is a big tip, there's no need for you to try and determine where you'll rank best, the Search Engines will tell you for free, I can often get a no 1-3 listing within 5 days for what some people would call a quite competitive phrase, I've made sales in less than 3 days.

    Overall I prefer Daniels method in the long run , in terms of control and longetivity but using trusted domains can achieve results faster in some niches.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by SimonHarrison View Post

      Although dedi hosting seemed to allow the sub domains to rank better, overall it was very poor, I didn't get a satisfactory results at all.

      In fact I got better results with:

      domainname.com/niche1
      domainname.com/niche2

      As I say, this is not proven beyond all doubt at all, just my own findings.

      You'll also find that spreading a domain thin across niches unless they have a common theme will make it harder and harder for you to rank, especially on a brand new domain name.
      This jibes with my experience as well.

      example.com/niche1 outdid niche1.example.com just about every time, especially if the various niches fit a general theme. For example:

      example.com/cookingchinese
      example.com/cookingitalian
      example.com/grillcooking

      is preferable to

      example.com/golfequipment
      example.com/knittingsupplies
      example.com/dogtraining

      In the first example, if you include content along with the reviews, it gives you the opportunity to link to various reviews from a variety of niche keywords. Say that one of the products you review is a set of chef's knives. You could logically link to that review from articles in all three niches in the first example.

      In the second example, the niches are so widely spread out that getting any synergy for the products would be extremely unlikely.
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      • Profile picture of the author Hanz
        This is a good thread. One other thing I would like to expand upon is the theory that you need your site to rank highly in Google in order to make money with Amazon(or any affiliate program). My main site is a keyword disaster and ranks at #405 for its keyword. But based on Analytics, the traffic comes from sites linked to mine. Obviously I could make much more if my site was in the top 2-3 pages of Google but regardless, it's a competitive field.
        Maybe what's most important when starting out with niche sites is to develop relationships and exchange links with other similar sites to yours before everything else. Try like hell to get backlinks to the best and biggest sites you can.
        I think it really works pretty well. Once you get 1 niche site up and running, get to work on the next one. And befriend as many good sites as you can.
        That's just my opinion. Others may disagree.
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      • Profile picture of the author CatherineMay
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        This jibes with my experience as well.

        example.com/niche1 outdid niche1.example.com just about every time, especially if the various niches fit a general theme. For example:

        example.com/cookingchinese
        example.com/cookingitalian
        example.com/grillcooking

        is preferable to

        example.com/golfequipment
        example.com/knittingsupplies
        example.com/dogtraining

        In the first example, if you include content along with the reviews, it gives you the opportunity to link to various reviews from a variety of niche keywords. Say that one of the products you review is a set of chef's knives. You could logically link to that review from articles in all three niches in the first example.

        In the second example, the niches are so widely spread out that getting any synergy for the products would be extremely unlikely.

        I'm really embarrased to reveal my ignorance, but can someone break this down and explain it all of this about domains and subdomains a little bit more for me?

        For instance, if I had a domain name of pearljewelry.com, and wanted separate pages for pearl earrings, pearl necklaces, etc., it would be better to have a separate domain name for these individual kinds of jewelry rather than pearljewelry.com/pearlearrings?

        Again, sorry for the newbie question.


        Catherine
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by CatherineMay View Post

          I'm really embarrased to reveal my ignorance, but can someone break this down and explain it all of this about domains and subdomains a little bit more for me?

          For instance, if I had a domain name of pearljewelry.com, and wanted separate pages for pearl earrings, pearl necklaces, etc., it would be better to have a separate domain name for these individual kinds of jewelry rather than pearljewelry.com/pearlearrings?

          Again, sorry for the newbie question.


          Catherine
          Catherine, please don't be embarassed. Ignorance is easily cured...

          Let's take sub-directories first.

          If you look at the structure of your website like a drawer in a filing cabinet. Rather than dumping all of your papers into the drawer in a heap, you put them into file folders, right? Then you put related papers into the proper folder, yes?

          Your website using sub-directories is the same way. The top level of your site is like the file drawer, and often your home page, about us, privacy, etc. pages are used so often, you just tuck them into the front of the drawer. Setting up a sub-directory is like labeling a file folder and sticking it in the drawer. In fact, if you go into cPanel on your web host, and go to the file manager, it shows you your site as a stack of related file folders. The individual web pages are the papers in those folders.

          So if you break down an address like pearljewelry.com/pearlearrings/gray.html you get:

          > Go to the "drawer" marked PearlJewelry.com
          > Find the folder marked PearlEarrings
          > Look at the sheet marked Gray.html

          Sub-domains look the same as a file structure, but web browsers and search engine spiders treat them differently. They provide a kind of shortcut, and tell the spiders to treat them as a separate site.

          Using the example above, you would go in and set up the sub-domain pearlearrings under your pearljewelry.com website. If I then typed pearlearrings.pearljewelry.com into my browser, it would take me to pearljewelry.com/pearlearrings.

          If it were me, I would stick to the sub-directories. Each sub-directory covers some type of pearl jewlry, and reinforces the idea that the main site is, indeed, about pearl jewelry. Which, in the long haul, should help you rank better for that keyword.

          Helps?
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          • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
            Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post


            If you look at the structure of your website like a drawer in a filing cabinet. Rather than dumping all of your papers into the drawer in a heap, you put them into file folders, right?
            LOL, you don't want to look in my filing cabinets and drawers.
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          • Profile picture of the author CatherineMay
            Yes, this helps a whole lot. Thanks so much.

            One more question...using the same example, if a man wanting to buy pearl earrings for his wife, typed in pearl earrings in google, wouldn't he first see a site whose domain was pearlearrings.com, rather than my site that would have pearlearrings as a subdomain? Unless my site was so great and had a lot more authority?

            Still learning....what a great forum!


            Catherine
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            • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
              Originally Posted by CatherineMay View Post

              if a man wanting to buy pearl earrings for his wife, typed in pearl earrings in google, wouldn't he first see a site whose domain was pearlearrings.com, rather than my site that would have pearlearrings as a subdomain? Unless my site was so great and had a lot more authority?
              He may be first, but as long as you can get anywhere on the first page, and particularly above the fold you are in a good spot.

              First page temporary results can be obtained with bookmarking - and a lot of times video if you keyword it right.

              Even if your site is not first page, it is totally possible to toss out a lure that leads back to your site from a web 2.0 property, etc.

              Keep in mind that google is not the only search engine.
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              • Profile picture of the author carlos123
                Originally Posted by avenuegirl View Post

                He may be first, but as long as you can get anywhere on the first page, and particularly above the fold you are in a good spot.
                I am somewhat ignorant about some things too like what the term "above the fold" means. What fold? I don't see no fold on my web page? LOL.

                Anybody care to enlighten me as to what this term means? I would appreciate it.

                Carlos
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                • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
                  Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

                  I am somewhat ignorant about some things too like what the term "above the fold" means. What fold? I don't see no fold on my web page? LOL.

                  Anybody care to enlighten me as to what this term means? I would appreciate it.

                  Carlos
                  Carlos, the term comes from the newspaper business. When you pick up a folded newspaper, what you see (roughly the top half) of the page is considered 'above the fold'.

                  The term has carried over to the online world to mean the portion of a web page you can see without having to scroll. The actual area online will vary with a person's monitor size and resolution if the browser window is maximised, and smaller yet if it isn't.
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            • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
              Originally Posted by CatherineMay View Post

              One more question...using the same example, if a man wanting to buy pearl earrings for his wife, typed in pearl earrings in google, wouldn't he first see a site whose domain was pearlearrings.com, rather than my site that would have pearlearrings as a subdomain? Unless my site was so great and had a lot more authority?
              Like I said, I'd skip the subdomains, i.e. pearlearrings.pearljewelry.com in favor of pearljewelry.com/pearlearrings .

              By using niched directories under the main keyword, you could easily build more authority than a smaller site with the keyword in the top level domain.

              You actually have more instances of related keywords: pearl, jewelry, earrings.

              And, like Jill said, even if the other guy beats you for the top spot, being on the first page is a good place to be. Just getting the ranking is only step one - you also have to get the click to make any sales.

              PS- Jill, bless your heart... It's been a long time since a pretty young girl has offered me a peek in her drawers...
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        • Profile picture of the author vicone
          A comment on something Daniel wrote:

          For a text link, I would do something like:

          "If you want to buy this grill, I highly recommend you purchase online through Amazon at this link. It's currently on sale for 21% off only through Amazon.
          I know that a lot of affiliate marketers will use the 'Buy Now" call to action but I find that I get better results - and a higher click through (CTR) to Amazon by treating my pages as pre-sell pages and letting Amazon close the sale.

          My call to action is thus aimed at achieving the click through and those visitors who are close to buying are encouraged to go to the Amazon page. As Amazon has high credibility and higher than average conversion, I focus my efforts on getting the visitor to them. As well, something like 50% of the sales I make through Amazon are not for the original product so, even if the visitor isn't totally sold on the product, if I can get them to Amazon the merchant can "do it's stuff" and introduce similar products and the option of searching further.

          So my call to action would be more along the lines of:

          "If you would like more information about the XYZ grill, get further details, customer comments and latest special price on this page at Amazon."

          Of course, there are also additional tactics which could be employed if I wanted to collect email addresses. A lot of Amazon affiliates don't collect contact details as they don't see what additional follow-up could be provided but I like to target specific demographics and if the affiliate has a good idea of the age, gender and interests of the visitor, they can be approached at different times with other products that may appeal.

          Ivan
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          • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
            Originally Posted by vicone View Post

            A comment on something Daniel wrote:

            My call to action is thus aimed at achieving the click through and those visitors who are close to buying are encouraged to go to the Amazon page. As Amazon has high credibility and higher than average conversion, I focus my efforts on getting the visitor to them. As well, something like 50% of the sales I make through Amazon are not for the original product so, even if the visitor isn't totally sold on the product, if I can get them to Amazon the merchant can "do it's stuff" and introduce similar products and the option of searching further.

            So my call to action would be more along the lines of:

            "If you would like more information about the XYZ grill, get further details, customer comments and latest special price on this page at Amazon."



            Ivan
            Ivan, that is a really great idea. I thought of doing it like that originally to just focus on driving traffic, but I was worried that if I didnt send the customers with a buy call to action, they wouldn't check the link out which would lead to some lost sales.

            I will definitely have to give this a shot. If Im not mistaken, your conversion rate will drop a little bit but you should get way more traffic which will give you more sales, correct?

            CatherineMay,

            I'm with John on this one.

            If you put your sites on sub domains of your main domain, each sub domain will have to go through its own proving grounds.

            If you put it all on the root domain as a sub directory, your TLD already has authority which will almost instantly pass down to your sub directories and sub pages.

            Definitely the better route to go IMO.

            And thanks for the comments everyone! Keep the questions coming
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            • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
              Here's an example from one of my old campaigns. The traffic source was Adwords ads run between Thanksgiving and Christmas two years ago.

              The page copy:

              Own the Complete Friends TV Series Today!

              "Give yourself- or someone you care about- hours of pleasure. Give them the gift of Friends...

              [Picture of box set here, text wrapped around pic] Not only does this complete Collector's Box Set feature all 236 episodes on 40 DVDs, but also a whole bunch of bonuses like trivia, bloopers and special features. Over 85 hours of pleasure in one handsome box.

              We won't tell anyone you got your Friends collection from Amazon.com and saved $114.99. We won't even tell them about the FREE DELIVERY right to your door. It will be our little secret...

              [Note: I would check this daily and edit as necessary - the price changed 3 or 4 times, as I recall.]

              Looking for all ten Friends seasons in one set? You really can't beat the unbelievable value provided by online giant Amazon.com-- Discover the very best prices on brand-new Friends TV Show DVDs, with FREE delivery to your door from the online name that you can trust. So click on the Friends box for more information and order yours today!

              [List of text links to all ten individual seasons]

              ===========

              The page converted at around 16%. 16 out of 100 clicked through and bought. Part of the reason was that they were targeted gift buyers, so they were looking for a deal on that specific item when they clicked through...

              I tried the campaign again last year (2008), but the results just weren't there. That's one reason I'm sharing this specific product - sorry...
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by SimonHarrison View Post

      Good job Daniel.

      One comment I would say to the guy who suggested multiple subdomains off a main domain is personally I've found sub domains to rank very poorly, now this is purely from my own perspective but it is across multiple domains and niches and on multiple hosting platforms , ranging from dedicated to shared.

      Although dedi hosting seemed to allow the sub domains to rank better, overall it was very poor, I didn't get a satisfactory results at all.

      Infact I got better results with:

      domainname.com/niche1
      domainname.com/niche2

      As I say, this is not proven beyond all doubt at all, just my own findings.

      You'll also find that spreading a domain thin across niches unless they have a common theme will make it harder and harder for you to rank, especially on a brand new domain name.
      I have come to the same conclusion as well.

      I think its because Google treats sub domains as separate brand new domain names unless you have a high authority site like Blogger. So its like starting from scratch by popping up a sub domain. Sub directories are a better bet because you can pass the main domain page rank on to your sub dirs.

      mpx305,

      Im not a fan of auto-generated content for this method. I have never formally tested it, but I am unique content fan. Its worth a try though...


      Barlowgirl & Marhelper,

      Chances are you arent searching the right brand. I have found that in certain niches, there are one or two brands that advertise way more than the rest. That advertising is where the search volume comes from.

      Low advertising = low search volume.

      Try some other brands.

      Trust me, there are tons and tons of viable niches out there in Amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Hitson
    Good post Dan,

    based on my success with my producing Amazon sites, you're spot on.

    Also, to anyone concerned about getting their sites ranked, DON'T worry about it. SEO traffic is slow. Focus on learning traffic generation and conversion methods. Google can't take that traffic from you. A lot of traffic is on forums, social network sites, etc...take it up a notch and match the demographics of the traffic source and match it up with the sort of products the demo likes and you'll sell A LOT of product.

    Your site can be on page 16, if you know how to send traffic to your offer and convert it, you'll be golden and can make more money than the person on page 1 that has no idea how to convert the traffic.

    I have 31 Amazon niche sites. It's Amazing to see those sales roll in. I'll be redoing several of my sites so I can tweak conversion rates.

    The best advice I can give anyone that wants to promote Amazon stuff is to use Dan's post and learn traffic generation and conversion methods......
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  • Profile picture of the author pizzatherapy
    This is a valuable post which outlines a surefire system with tons of information about making money with Amazon.

    While amazon is not my main income source, I do get a check from them every month.

    Here is a little trick I would like to add:

    I recommend using Site Stripe (this is an Amazon tool bar) as a way to create links on the fly. (It also allows you to make a quick post to twitter). You can find it as an option in Home>>Account settings.

    I also noticed that Blogger is totally integrated with Amazon. So you can easily create Amazon links on the fly inside a blogger blog.

    I've thanked you before and I'm thanking you again.

    Great information, Daniel.
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  • Profile picture of the author edyst3
    Hi Daniel, thanks for sharing your tips.

    Do you mean that we need a product review site? using static site or dynamic site(wordpress, etc) ?

    there are some amazon's script (which build amazon store such as wprobot, plugazon, etc) out there, do you think that those script works well ?

    Edy
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  • Profile picture of the author ne'er-do-well
    GREAT post Daniel; thanks so much for sharing these insights! And a big thanks to everyone else who has chimed in, too. It looks like a sure-fire (and no b.s.) way to earn some money fairly easily, even for newbies. You have all reconfirmed my belief in the value of the Warrior Forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author Khondoker
    Great Post Daniel
    You would have make WSO out of this. A month ago I started making Amazon affiliate product sites. Yet to make a sale. so I was running a little low until I stumbled your post. It surely boost my confidence
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  • Profile picture of the author LazyViking
    Wow - I've been working on Amazon sites for months and have made a bit of money, but clearly I was doing it all wrong! This is an awesome guide, thanks man!
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Gannon
    Most the money I make from my grill tools site, witch is amazon affiliate is from other things, people check out my website click threw then go buy something else totally different. Still some extra cash in my pocket though.
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    • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
      Originally Posted by Matt Gannon View Post

      Most the money I make from my grill tools site, witch is amazon affiliate is from other things, people check out my website click threw then go buy something else totally different. Still some extra cash in my pocket though.
      How do you get traffic ... I do not see that site ranking in the SERPS. It is all images from what I see?
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      • Profile picture of the author vicone
        I will definitely have to give this a shot. If Im not mistaken, your conversion rate will drop a little bit but you should get way more traffic which will give you more sales, correct?
        Those intending to buy will still buy. However, more of those not fully sold will also click through and many of those will buy, be interested in a similar product or even something different. The overall effect is MORE sales, even if the conversion % on the clicks to the original product appears to be lower.

        Amazon is well set up to close the sale and handle any upsells. Undecided buyers who click through to Amazon are also tempted by other options which they can check out and we get the credit for those sales.

        On our own websites, its easier to get an uncommitted (but interested) visitor to take action (click through) than to convince them to buy and then take action. This frees us to focus on the pre-sell - which we can do well - and let Amazon handle the sale - which it does well.

        Ivan
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      • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
        Originally Posted by Marhelper View Post

        How do you get traffic ... I do not see that site ranking in the SERPS. It is all images from what I see?
        I don't see this post in this thread,, you've got me confused as I was going to hit the site with Semrush which shows the rankings for any domain.
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        • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
          Originally Posted by Intrepreneur View Post

          I don't see this post in this thread,, you've got me confused as I was going to hit the site with Semrush which shows the rankings for any domain.
          It is in his sig
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  • Profile picture of the author remotedb
    This is probably the most useful such post I've never paid for. Well done and thank you so much!
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    • Profile picture of the author TheJedi
      Originally Posted by remotedb View Post

      This is probably the most useful such post I've never paid for. Well done and thank you so much!
      I couldn't agree with this statement more. I am completely blown away by all the knowledge being shared in this thread. And for FREE! Thanks to Dan, and everyone else, for sharing with us newbs.

      I have spent thousands of dollars over the last 5 years on supposed guru's products, only to have minimal results, at best. I have learned more in this one thread than all those other products put together. Thanks again.
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  • Profile picture of the author mpx305
    Great Stuff Daniel and thank you for sharing!

    I actually just did something like what you are talking about, but with an Associate-o-Matic (AOM) back-end where I display the niche product and all the related products. The AOM site only lists products, so I have to do the reviews from my own blog or web 2.0 properties.

    I am still a newb so I don't know if this will work as I don't know how well AOM sites rank in Google, but I figured it was worth a shot.

    Any insight is appreciated

    Mario
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    • Profile picture of the author Kym Lawn
      Thank You Daniel!!! You have given me the tool to be on my way to my first online profits
      cheers
      Kym
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    • Profile picture of the author Barlowgirl
      Hi Daniel,

      Thank you for your post.

      I've spent some hours now using your criteria [star rating, price, Google Adwords] to find niche products on amazon to market.. including sewing machines, baby strollers, kitchen equipment, mixers, electric scooters, tents, sports equipment, .... I still haven't found one yet - where am I going wrong?
      Any advice gratefully received.
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      • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
        Originally Posted by Barlowgirl View Post

        Hi Daniel,

        Thank you for your post.

        I've spent some hours now using your criteria [star rating, price, Google Adwords] to find niche products on amazon to market.. including sewing machines, baby strollers, kitchen equipment, mixers, electric scooters, tents, sports equipment, .... I still haven't found one yet - where am I going wrong?
        Any advice gratefully received.
        I am with you. I spent about 2 hours and nothing! I am using the root word like you said and with no luck ... should I be going to the brand name or general term?

        IE: A. 16102c3 Johnson Sewing Machines or

        B. Johnson Sewing Machines or

        C. Sewing machines?


        I have been going with B ... ?
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  • Profile picture of the author stitchlips
    Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

    Hello Warriors!

    If a product has about 4000+ searches each month, I will consider writing an article on it.
    Thanks for the great info. When you use the adwords tool are you using broad phrase or exact for match type?
    Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author lee stewart
    This is a great post full of great little nuggets, thanks for this

    best regards
    gary g
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  • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
    I've recently realized that Amazon sells pretty much everything. Regardless of your niche, you should be able to find a physical product that you can sell through it. I buy from Amazon ALL the time; even things I might find locally. That's because the process is so easy and I always get my product in a timely manner, delivered right to my house.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards View Post

      I've recently realized that Amazon sells pretty much everything. Regardless of your niche, you should be able to find a physical product that you can sell through it. I buy from Amazon ALL the time; even things I might find locally. That's because the process is so easy and I always get my product in a timely manner, delivered right to my house.
      They really do sell everything.

      I saw a $10k backhoe on there earlier today. It would be nice to wake up to 7% commission on that one lol.

      IMO, it's much more fun to have a package arrive at your door than it is to go to the store and buy the item your self.

      It's like a paid Christmas anytime you want


      stitchlips,

      broad as you can get all sorts of variations that you might not have found doing exact.

      vicone,

      that's a really good way to do it too. You could actually go Google Sniper style with this and target more of the broad terms as well. Might not convert as well, but you would still get sales for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author Pat Blank
    One thing I like about Amazon is that I don't have any trouble getting paid by them - after dealing with ebay/paypal, clickbank, adwords and so on and jumping through their hoops it's very nice. My experience, anyway.

    Also, remember that Amazon charges different prices to different people, so if you list a price, it may not be the same for someone else. When you put a price in your site, a simple "price may change" or something might help - maybe "price may change - it might be even lower" type of thing.

    Happy Amazoning!
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  • Profile picture of the author LazyViking
    Hey Dan-

    Thanks for all the awesome info in this thread.

    Quick question: what does the product you released at Thanksgiving have that this thread doesn't? Loved this thread and thinking about purchasing it, but I'd like to know what more to expect from it or whether to pass.

    Thanks man.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    Yes Daniel!!

    Amazon is AWESOME for affiliate marketing. There are endless products to promote.

    I do disagree with you a bit on the products you listed NOT to promote.

    In 3 days I sold over $3000 worth of a type of Digital SLR Camera with Paid Traffic.

    Only mistake I made was that I should have picked a higher priced camera instead
    of the one I did because I would have earned more for the traffic I sent.

    I also sent a sh*t load of traffic. See Screenshot Below:

    2010-01-16_1541

    As you see in the graph, the traffic went down because I killed one of my ad groups that was using up my daily ad spend in just a matter of hours so I can test other ad groups.

    Not to mention, my CPC was more than I wanted to spend, although I did manage to lower that as I dug deeper with my keyword research.

    I may have lost some money, but I learned a ton in the process about how to approach selling amazon products with PPC.

    But you can and I will turn a profit from selling digital cameras on amazon.

    However, playing in the obscure niches is the easiest way to guarantee your success.

    My wife is a "crunchy" "granola" milf who is into all that all-natural baby related stuff
    so I will use her knowledge to generate affilaite revenue in the hundreds of obscure niches you can find associated with that. (damn - I just gave another one away!!)

    One thing I also learned is to build a site around one product and focus on selling that one single product at first.

    Thanks Daniel and I hope this helps everyone else
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by jasondinner View Post

      Yes Daniel!!

      Amazon is AWESOME for affiliate marketing. There are endless products to promote.

      I do disagree with you a bit on the products you listed NOT to promote.

      In 3 days I sold over $3000 worth of a type of Digital SLR Camera with Paid Traffic.

      Only mistake I made was that I should have picked a higher priced camera instead
      of the one I did because I would have earned more for the traffic I sent.

      I also sent a sh*t load of traffic. See Screenshot Below:

      2010-01-16_1541

      As you see in the graph, the traffic went down because I killed one of my ad groups that was using up my daily ad spend in just a matter of hours so I can test other ad groups.

      Not to mention, my CPC was more than I wanted to spend, although I did manage to lower that as I dug deeper with my keyword research.

      I may have lost some money, but I learned a ton in the process about how to approach selling amazon products with PPC.

      But you can and I will turn a profit from selling digital cameras on amazon.

      However, playing in the obscure niches is the easiest way to guarantee your success.

      My wife is a "crunchy" "granola" milf who is into all that all-natural baby related stuff
      so I will use her knowledge to generate affilaite revenue in the hundreds of obscure niches you can find associated with that. (damn - I just gave another one away!!)

      One thing I also learned is to build a site around one product and focus on selling that one single product at first.

      Thanks Daniel and I hope this helps everyone else
      Jason, Very good point about the PPC.

      I should have made that clearer in my OP. My OP technique is all through search engine traffic, which I have found to be highly competitive in the Digital camera niche. PPC on the other hand, you might have a better shot at.

      That's the next thing I am working on - PPC marketing with Amazon.

      As for the Kindle, Im pretty sure thats in the electronic category but they might have dome something special for that since its their product. I guess they wanted a lot of affiliates to promote.

      Thanks for the tip!


      Terry Gorry,

      To answer your question, I would register a domain name like:
      thegasgrillreport.com and review every gas grill under the sun.

      While you won't be able to get the brand names in there, you still hit on the major keyword which is the most important.

      Regards,
      Dan Brock
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  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    Daniel,

    Is the Kindle considered electronics? Because I sold one of those indirectly (amazon IS really awesome like that) and got paid more than $25

    2010-01-16_1620

    Thanks In Advance
    Jason
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    Daniel, do you write a strict text only type review article or do you include images, etc.. any ideas here or sample sites you can think of from someone other than yourself?
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by Marhelper View Post

      Daniel, do you write a strict text only type review article or do you include images, etc.. any ideas here or sample sites you can think of from someone other than yourself?
      Marhelper,

      I like to use both text and images. So i'll normally just use the product image provided by Amazon(it's allowed).

      The pictures help keep things interesting.

      Regards,
      Daniel
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Carn
    Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

    On all of my Amazon sites, I haven't touched them in over 6 months now and they still earn for my like they did from the beginning. In fact, last month was my highest earning month ever at $1,200 in commissions.
    Great post Daniel, just a quick question, how many sites did it take you to make the $1,200 in commission?

    Thanks,
    Adam
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    Taking a break...
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by Adam Carn View Post

      Great post Daniel, just a quick question, how many sites did it take you to make the $1,200 in commission?

      Thanks,
      Adam
      Adam,

      I have 10 sites that earn for my constantly. I also have 3-4 dud sites that I made when I first started. Those duds were the digital cams, vacuum site, and software sites.


      Mike Viskovich,

      Let me see if I can clarify this better.

      Ok So, going back to our gas grill example.

      Let's say that there is 5 gas grills that I determined to be good sellers.

      Each gas grill is given an article and posted as a post in wordpress.

      The posts would be like this:

      www.yoursite.com/brand1-gas-grill-review/
      www.yoursite.com/brand2-gas-grill-review/
      www.yoursite.com/brand3-gas-grill-review/
      www.yoursite.com/brand4-gas-grill-review/
      www.yoursite.com/brand5-gas-grill-review/

      Makes more sense now?
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Viskovich
        Thanks Daniel,

        So each 'brandX-gas-grill-review' will have just the one article/posting?

        Thanks so much!
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        • Profile picture of the author Doug Pretorius
          Nice thread Daniel! Prior to reading your post I had made exactly 1 sale on Amazon. But now I'm inspired and this morning I built my first review site, posted my first review, and have just received my first visitor. I had no idea how fast social bookmarking gets a site indexed! (OK so my site itself doesn't show up in a google search, but it does show up on a google search through digg). That's even faster than running kijiji ads.

          So, so far I've done social bookmarking and some RSS submission. Could you give us a little more detail on the promotion you do?
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        • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
          Originally Posted by Mike Viskovich View Post

          Thanks Daniel,

          So each 'brandX-gas-grill-review' will have just the one article/posting?

          Thanks so much!
          Mike,

          I mean it really depends. Generally all products get at least one product review page.

          However, on occasions(if a particular product is performing well), you can do additional review pages.

          One thing I also like to do is pair the product that is selling well against a similar product and do a comparison style review like brand 1 grill vs brand 2 grill.

          The appeals to a different type of person.

          It really depends though...but generally one review article per product is good enough.

          33centsaday,

          I found that minor link building is enough to get a site in a decent placement for Amazon related keywords.

          However, I also outsource profile back linking which frees me up a lot.

          Here is another thing you can do.

          If you sell golf clubs for example, you can join a golf forum and comment there with your site in your signature. A nice way to get some targeted traffic as well as some high quality related back links.

          N4PGW,

          I like to have a keyword or two in the domain name. Something like outdoorgasgrillreport.com would be an idea for a gas grill site.

          Keep the questions coming!
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      • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
        Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

        First of all, It looks like you must be creating categories for each of the grills given that you have included the / at the end. If the last slash is a typo, then, yes, you will only have one article per item. If they have their own categories, it gives you the opportunity to review it again, but I am not sure that there is any merit in a second review.

        Anyway, I don't know what limit you have set, but just in case anyone isn't experienced in WP, the latest review will first show up over the top of the previous review and then eventually scroll off the first page as the limit is reached.

        Are the domain names related to the products?
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  • Profile picture of the author geoffcruz
    cool, another great post by dwrock, and the good thing about it is bloggers team up with amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Viskovich
    Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post


    Post the first article, and add the rest on drip feed(wordpress) so that they get posted automatically over a period of 2 months or more
    Firstly, Much kudos to you mate, what a great post

    I'm a little confused on the multiple article thing. I would assume each product will have it's own separate domain folder ie (www.product-type.com/brand) and each of these separate folders will have it's own wordpress type page. (please correct me if I've miss understood you here).

    If so, then are you suggesting we write multiple articles for each product and drip feed these to the said wordpress page in question? or are you saying to slowly add each of these separate 'folders' in a drip-fed fashion over a period of 2 months or more?

    If you write multiple articles for each product, how do you keep coming up with things to say?

    Sorry for all the questions,
    Thanks again,
    Your help is very much appreciated!

    -Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
    Hey Daniel,

    Great post!

    Was looking to getting into marketing amazon products simply because of the reduced competition compared to alot of digital products.

    Only thing that i was wondering is if there was any sort of wordpress plugins or whatever to make kinda autoblogs to promote whole categories in amazon?

    Mark Blaze
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Monty
      This is a great post and it's 100% true.

      It was just about two years ago that I was struggling to get by and started to get frustrated with finding ways to make a little extra money online.

      Now, I'm very close to making a living through Amazon.

      The best part is the cookie lasts 24 hours, so even if they don't buy right away, if they buy within 24 hours you get credit, even if they buy something else (or come back and buy more...THAT is the key).

      Now, please stop posting my entire business model. Thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author oscarkool
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author LegitIncomes
      Originally Posted by oscarkool View Post

      Nothing wrong with this method, but if you're trying to make only $1,200 per month, then I guess this will work for you. However, you can make way more money than that doing other stuff in affiliate marketing.
      Who said anything about stopping at $1,200 per month?

      Imagine having hundreds of sites setup like this, the potential is huge.
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      • Profile picture of the author carlos123
        Originally Posted by LegitIncomes View Post

        Who said anything about stopping at $1,200 per month?

        Imagine having hundreds of sites setup like this, the potential is huge.
        The one problem that I see with this approach is that the products which are popular today will become less so in time and perhaps even fall off entirely. So in a sense it would seem that one is building their Amazon affiliate empire on a somewhat erroding foundation with reference to it's long term stability as an income stream.

        I mean I can't say for sure...since I have never done Amazon anything but it would seem so.

        Any thoughts on this possible pitfall from anyone?

        Carlos
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        • Profile picture of the author adamv
          Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

          The one problem that I see with this approach is that the products which are popular today will become less so in time and perhaps even fall off entirely. So in a sense it would seem that one is building their Amazon affiliate empire on a somewhat erroding foundation with reference to it's long term stability as an income stream.

          I mean I can't say for sure...since I have never done Amazon anything but it would seem so.

          Any thoughts on this possible pitfall from anyone?

          Carlos
          Some niches will require more maintenance than others but it is also possible to rank for keywords that will endure and have a feed from an affiliate site that shows the most recent products related to your keywords.
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        • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
          Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

          The one problem that I see with this approach is that the products which are popular today will become less so in time and perhaps even fall off entirely. So in a sense it would seem that one is building their Amazon affiliate empire on a somewhat erroding foundation with reference to it's long term stability as an income stream.

          I mean I can't say for sure...since I have never done Amazon anything but it would seem so.

          Any thoughts on this possible pitfall from anyone?

          Carlos
          The only pitfall on this is the risk that Amazon may fail. The affiliate program was suddenly cut off in North Carolina because of the "Amazon Tax" that was passed which basically says that if a company pays affiliates to drive traffic to their sites, they must charge state sales tax.

          Diversification does not hurt, but chances are that for one to make money in IM, he/she should start with one program and work it out before starting another. If you want to start with Amazon.com, do so. When you are making money with it, set it on autopilot and start something else. Rinse and repeat.

          just my thots.
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    • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
      Originally Posted by oscarkool View Post

      Nothing wrong with this method, but if you're trying to make only $1,200 per month, then I guess this will work for you. However, you can make way more money than that doing other stuff in affiliate marketing.
      $1200/Month in basically residual income is nothing to sneeze about. It is a great start in IM. Sure there are other models, but they can be added as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author RebeccaL
    Sheesh Daniel, you've really given away all my secrets here!! Great thread!

    Amazon is a gold mine. It is such an obvious one that so many affiliate marketers overlook it!

    I gave up on Clickbank long ago. Amazon may pay small commissions, but as you said, their sales process is genius. You might promote a $40 item, but someone can end up spending $500 with your affiliate cookie embedded in their computer. When that happens enough times (and it happens more than you'd think), you realise the full potential of Amazon Associates.
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  • Profile picture of the author schofieldml
    Daniel,

    Thanks for the info. I have been playing around with Amazon for the past year or so on a few of my sites and have made some sales. Nothing to be really proud of but then again I haven't even really tried that much. I am even getting sales on products I didn't even promote because of the way Amazon sets their cookie. There are a few ideas in this post I haven't thought of and this post will help me refine my approach even further.

    I use text links within and at the end of the post, but also include the Image of the item in the article/ review linked back to the product on Amazon. I have gotten clicks from both. I try to give them many different chances to click.

    Thanks,

    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Nathan Denton
    Hey Daniel what a great post. You are sharing a lot of great info here, more so than some products I see selling out there for $67!! Thanks!!

    Are you using your amazon sites to make a full time income??
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    • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
      Hi Daniel,

      An inspiring post for sure!

      Question: I was looking at an early version of your WSO for No Skills Profits which is your Amazon model...In it you say to insert photos. Are you now saying you feel the sites do better without the photos and to use only text links?



      Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author Cornerstone
        Thanks for your post.
        The tidbit I like the most is the 90/10 rule. Selling the cheaper items to get the commision up is a light bulb moment.
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      • Profile picture of the author T.I.M.
        Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

        Hi Daniel,

        Question: I was looking at an early version of your WSO for No Skills Profits which is your Amazon model...In it you say to insert photos. Are you now saying you feel the sites do better without the photos and to use only text links?
        Thanks!
        He said earlier on this page to use pics as well, to mix it up, eye candy if you will. I would def make them pics clickable to product by all means.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

        Hi Daniel,

        An inspiring post for sure!

        Question: I was looking at an early version of your WSO for No Skills Profits which is your Amazon model...In it you say to insert photos. Are you now saying you feel the sites do better without the photos and to use only text links?



        Thanks!
        Back in the day, you could choose text links or the little box thing that had a thumbprint pic, title, price, etc. that you see all over. Using just the picture was a PITA, having to manipulate the html by hand.

        Now you have an option to use the actual product picture rather than the text link, with a live link to the item. Easy as pie. So I use both, and I have a handful of items that get more clicks on the picture than the text links...
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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
        Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

        Hi Daniel,

        An inspiring post for sure!

        Question: I was looking at an early version of your WSO for No Skills Profits which is your Amazon model...In it you say to insert photos. Are you now saying you feel the sites do better without the photos and to use only text links?



        Thanks!
        I like pictures just as much as text links. My point was to not skip out on the text links which a lot of people do.

        I also link an image of the product to Amazon as well - that helps with the CTR.

        But overall, I get the most clicks from my text links.

        oscarkool,

        My favorite comment on this thread so far! There is no rule that says you can only make as much money as I did. This method is completely scalable.

        RebeccaL,

        Sorry for giving away your secrets! I wanted to share the word of Amazon as no one seems to think too much of it here.

        I'm sure we got quite a bit of a head start though

        Nathan Denton,

        My last months income of $1200 represents maybe 1/10 of what I hope to make this month from all of my internet marketing activities combined.

        And to everyone I have replied to in this post, my apologies for not doing them individually - I wanted to make sure I didn't trash up my thread by adding to many individual comments.

        I think I have answered all of the questions so far - if I missed your question, let me know and I'll do the best I can to answer it.

        Keep 'em coming!
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  • Profile picture of the author rapidscc
    Hey man! You've got a good one here, and the sample review is a killer..
    I saved a copy.

    I think this will work well with a wordpress blog or a squidoo review page..
    I just recently finished watching about 10 hours of WordPress video from beginner to
    advanced..So this will be a good strategy to practice with my newly acquired WordPress skills.

    Rock on dude!
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  • Profile picture of the author babarapho
    Awesome post here. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author YanKirby
    Hey dan!

    I actually pressed the thanks button before going through your post in its entirety.

    Yes, im pretty much one of those people who "thought" amazon doesnt bring in as much income.

    This has been an eye opener for me.

    Just one question,

    Using the method you described above, how long dies it typically take for you to make the first sale on a brand new site?
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  • Profile picture of the author Colton
    Does OnlyWire play a big part in helping your site? Also do you have an account with every single bookmarking site that OnlyWire provides or just a few of them? Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author jrod014
    Daniel,

    Whats you advice when creating review style articles and the FTC?

    How do you go about this?

    It would really suck if I invested my time in this only to have the FTC shut down my site.
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  • Profile picture of the author usable_brand
    Great Stuff, Daniel. Thanks for the tips. I too recommend you do a more in-depth WSO.
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  • Profile picture of the author adam westrop
    Yeah, but what about the 1 day cookie period? You are surely missing out on some good comm going by...
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  • Profile picture of the author BelindaMooney
    Thanks for all the great info posted in this thread. I plan to try this out and have already started by buying a domain name to go with the keywords I researched.

    Belinda
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  • Profile picture of the author pcpupil
    @ Daniel,
    I sent ya a PM last week but maybe it didnt go through.Sent ya another one tonight.Just letting ya know.

    @PJ,
    Those are really good keyword combinations,i wouldnt hesitate for a minute going after them at all.Go for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author itsmeantor
    Banned
    Originally Posted by [LIST

    [*]RSS feed to Ping.fm <- a nice way to get some backlinks automatically as each of your articles drip feed[*]Web 2.0 Articles <- just one unique article linked to an article on your site holds some really heave ranking power(just remember to bookmark your web 2.0 property to increase its ranking power and help get it indexed)[/LIST]
    Hey daniel

    Would you explain this pls and does bookmarking web 2.0 properties means submitting the article urls to social bookmarking sites?

    Very nice post. Just love this forum. I am reading posts every day and feel more confidence.
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  • Profile picture of the author itsmeantor
    Banned
    recently as testing I managed to rank 1 in google for a amazon product keyword with 1300 exact search. But there was only 5 to 10 visitors a weak. I think its because the january search trend is low as people do less shopping.
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  • Profile picture of the author nikolaaa
    All you have to do is send traffic to Amazon to make a sale. For example, the other day I sold a $1500 playset and I dont have a single website that sells playsets. Someone just browsed through my link and decided they want to buy a playset at the time.
    Hi Daniel,

    As I know Amazon affiliate program is getting credits to you only when you send customer to product page and he pays for product you are promoting.

    Thanks,
    Nikola
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    • Profile picture of the author halfpoint
      I'm glad I read this thread.

      A few days ago I bought this Amazon Plugin WSO and 5 domains based on specific products.

      I've made a bit of money with Amazon but it's never been something I've focused on, so I'm excited to see how it all unfolds.

      This thread has definitely given me some extra motivation.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by itsmeantor View Post

        recently as testing I managed to rank 1 in google for a amazon product keyword with 1300 exact search. But there was only 5 to 10 visitors a weak. I think its because the january search trend is low as people do less shopping.
        Just getting a #1 ranking doesn't guarantee traffic. That's one of the dirty little secrets people hawking SEO don't tell you.

        On that same results page, you have at least 9 other listings plus up to 10 ads. You have to compete with those other options to get the click, along with competing with the back button, the next page arrow and with a refined search.

        That's one reason why title tags and description meta tags are still important. They have to draw the reader's attention and pique their curiosity enough to click through to your page.

        Try to get inside the viewer's mind. What are they really looking for when they enter the search you show up for at #1? Are they looking to buy a specific item? Price shopping? Still in learning mode? Whatever it is, craft your title and description to promise the answer to that question.

        Originally Posted by nikolaaa View Post

        Hi Daniel,

        As I know Amazon affiliate program is getting credits to you only when you send customer to product page and he pays for product you are promoting.

        Thanks,
        Nikola
        I'm not Daniel, but I can tell you that you are misinformed...

        > You don't have to send people only to a product page. You can link to product categories, search results, wish lists, many things and still get credit when someone buys.

        > They don't have to buy the specific product you are promoting. They could come through a link to a Model A widget, but buy a Model B. Or something totally different.

        > With the 24 hour cookie, they could even come back at a later time and buy something totally unrelated (like Daniel's play set) and as long as the cookie is active and intact (not overwritten with someone else's ID), you get credit.

        With the credibility Amazon has, along with their skill at increasing order sizes and seemingly limitless product offering, I'm amazed at how many people put the program down. But the greedy little devil sitting on my left shoulder sure hopes they keep doing it...
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        • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post


          That's one reason why title tags and description meta tags are still important. They have to draw the reader's attention and pique their curiosity enough to click through to your page.
          Truer words have never been spoken (well maybe). There is not enough focus on description as that is what leads the viewer to want to look further. That is something that I have been trying to work harder on.
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  • Profile picture of the author simbat
    Thank you for sharing these Great Ideas, I agree CB is saturated now but I found Amazon more difficult to deal with because of reviews writing for every product
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    • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
      Originally Posted by simbat View Post

      but I found Amazon more difficult to deal with because of reviews writing for every product
      Hint: Amazon already has the reviews pretty much written for you. Jiggle it about a bit, steal some customer feedback reviews and merge with the Amazon text and voila.
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  • Profile picture of the author Frodr
    This is such a great thread. This business model is a great way for anyone to get started in affiliate marketing.

    I just wanted to say that getting a good ranking in google is not the end all be all of this model.

    Focusing on driving traffic through other methods, in conjuction with or even with out the big G, could explode your profits by focusing on the higher end items available on amazon.

    For example, in the lcd tv niche.. if you cant rank well in the search engines, you could still drive tons of traffic through forums, classifieds, blog commenting, viral ebooks, etc. The possibilities are really endless..

    The key to generating targeted traffic would be to simply get your site in front of the type of consumer your looking for by hanging out where you customers hang out.

    Thats the creative part of marketing, figuring out how to get your message in front of your target market through different methods, apart from GOOGLE.

    -Felix
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    • Profile picture of the author Dillinger411
      There is a lot of information out there on Niche Marketing.

      I just ordered the program a couple of days ago and Daniel provides a no nonsense straightforward approach to getting started. I've already launched two websites and am now working on my third one. The back link building strategy can be a bit time consuming but IM is always going to require a little work.

      My favorite thing about Daniel's strategy is it revolves around FREE traffic generation techniques so the only out of pocket cost is the $10 a pop for domain registration.

      I highly recommend this course.
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  • Profile picture of the author LivingCovers
    How come no one has yet to mention the use of Amazon plugins
    to automate the product listings on your blog?

    Like the WPRobot or especially Reviewazon plugins? Don't tell me no one on
    this forum's using these plugins.
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  • Profile picture of the author nikolaaa
    Also in subdomains you can't use product names.
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  • Profile picture of the author sroysfsu
    These are great techniques in this post. I use a few of these techniques also and it has been working out very well.
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    • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
      Nikolaaa, nichewebstrategies
      According to Amazon terms you can't use product names in URL.
      It's better to find general keyword like Portable Music Instruments.
      And then to make review of few products from Amazon store.
      What I should have said is that I purchased Daniels Amazon affiliate course and he shows you how to find and promote Amazons products. Not product names in the URL. Sorry but I should have explained that earlier.
      The problem I'm having is finding products with high searches and low competition.
      Regards
      Jeff
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      • Profile picture of the author nikolaaa
        Originally Posted by jsanderz View Post

        Nikolaaa, nichewebstrategies


        What I should have said is that I purchased Daniels Amazon affiliate course and he shows you how to find and promote Amazons products. Not product names in the URL. Sorry but I should have explained that earlier.
        The problem I'm having is finding products with high searches and low competition.
        Regards
        Jeff
        My mistake - I wanted to say in Domain, not URL.

        I don't know what problem do you have find finding product but I find it very easy.
        It depends what is low competition for you.

        For me that is when on first page are two ore more sites with less then 40 backlinks...I also check PR of those backlinks and if there are a lot of high (above PR3), I check next keyword.

        I know how many links in what time and with what value I can get with my resources and techniques, so I just check is competition stronger then me.
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        • Profile picture of the author vicone
          I don't know what problem do you have find finding product but I find it very easy.
          It depends what is low competition for you.

          For me that is when on first page are two ore more sites with less then 40 backlinks...I also check PR of those backlinks and if there are a lot of high (above PR3), I check next keyword.
          Like Nicola, I find it very easy to find keywords although the competition I look for is for those keywords with fewer than 50 backlinks to get on the first page (using MicroNicheFinder). I'm not too concerned with how many competing pages there are. If the backlinking is thin for the first SERPs page, I'm confident I can knock them off and gain a place.

          Many competing web pages have strong competition with SOC, which refers to the pages which are Search Engine Optimized. As my pages will be also well optimized, I'm not too concerned about that. The real opposition lies with the backlinks.

          Many articles from article directories will appear on the front page of Google with fewer than 20 backlinks. I can get many more than that with a simple backlinking campaign.

          Sometimes using a paid tool like MNF makes it quicker and easier (than the free tools) to get the information required to make a decision about keywords.

          Ivan
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          • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
            Hi Nikolaaa and Vicone,
            I think the problem is that I was looking at the competition and SOC in micro niche Finder. As you have said Vicone not to be too concerned with the amount of competing pages or sites. And as you have both said the back links are more important. What I have noticed is that different applications give you different results for example in MNF the word "cash bank" has 9 backlinks, yet is SEO Spyglass has around 700.
            Regards
            Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author simpleonline1234
    I agree. Thanks
    Signature
    Check out deals
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  • Profile picture of the author lokodomain
    Im thinking your probably right everybody seems to be on the cb bandwagion. Quick question does that work the same for eBay as well?
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  • Profile picture of the author kline2010
    I learned something from you today.Thanks enlightens me a little about amazon
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  • Same old same old. Pick something, build something, then try and get traffic.

    This is NOT marketing.

    Full of contradictions.

    Do a poll about how many people make a full time living off of Amazon and their 24 hour cookie.

    This "method" is full of contradictions. Telling people not to target cameras and electronics is ridiculous. These are the very items people buy online. And great you sold a swing-set. Or did you?

    You didn't sell anything. Somebody bought something. Again this is not marketing. If it were you would know exactly why the person came and purchased the swing-set.

    The reason people don't make much money is because they have no plan and do not understand that marketing and sales are not the same thing.

    They make no effort to actually figure out the needs and wants of the customers. Then fill those needs and wants.

    Blah blah blah.. I'm ranting. But this kind of stuff is the exact reason why people never really break out to the point where they can sustain a full time income.
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    • Profile picture of the author pjsweeting
      Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ View Post

      Same old same old. Pick something, build something, then try and get traffic.

      This is NOT marketing.

      Full of contradictions.

      Do a poll about how many people make a full time living off of Amazon and their 24 hour cookie.

      This "method" is full of contradictions. Telling people not to target cameras and electronics is ridiculous. These are the very items people buy online. And great you sold a swing-set. Or did you?

      You didn't sell anything. Somebody bought something. Again this is not marketing. If it were you would know exactly why the person came and purchased the swing-set.

      The reason people don't make much money is because they have no plan and do not understand that marketing and sales are not the same thing.

      They make no effort to actually figure out the needs and wants of the customers. Then fill those needs and wants.

      Blah blah blah.. I'm ranting. But this kind of stuff is the exact reason why people never really break out to the point where they can sustain a full time income.

      Perhaps this is actually a great way for newcomers to familiarize themselves with IM and make some decent passive income doing it. Not everyone can immediately step out and make the big money you seem to be making.

      Think of this as a stepping stone for those people so that they can eventually reach the point where they can sustain a full time income. Discouraging people from stepping out and taking action because it is not your preferred method and they are not "real" marketers is not helpful.

      Don't despise small beginnings.
      And open up your mind.
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    • Profile picture of the author Wakunahum
      Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ View Post

      Same old same old. Pick something, build something, then try and get traffic.

      This is NOT marketing.

      ...
      Who cares what it's called as long as it's ethical, moral, and helps someone make money and free up their time.
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      • Profile picture of the author Rainmak3r
        A couple of years back I came across the infoproduct killer website which teaches more or less what Daniel is expounding on - selling physical products from Amazon, CJ, Linkshare etc.

        This IM product created such a buzz and, as you would have guessed it, the first few domains I purchased were

        LCD TVs (popular manufacturer name brand in the domain (yes I know... copyright etc))
        Cameras (popular SLR camera brand) (manufacturer in domain name (guilty as charged)
        Navigation system (I've been on Google's page one ever since) (um... need I say more?)
        Halloween theme toys site and one domain aimed at hot selling toys around Christmas.

        The TV site and Cameras site have been a constant nightmare... I was still new to keyword research at the time and bought the domain names based on flawed keyword research (The terms came out sizzling with my type of research back then).

        To make matters worse, I even purchased all variations of the domain names at the time to make sure I had exclusivity! (kewordrichdomain.com, keyword-richdomain.com, keyword-rich-domain.com, kewordrichdomain.net...etc)

        Oh my!

        I still own the domains (just the main domains and have discarded the variations) as testament to how foolish one can be when their egos are left to run unchecked!

        Needless to say, I've matured and the toys website has been a blessing in disguise.

        Not only do I sell toys for tots on it, but I've been able to create categories (it's a wp blog) for toys for guys (rc electrics, video games etc) women's accessories (boots, hair accessories and equipment) and gift ideas.

        My AWStates traffic graphs around Christmas were a pleasure to see!

        Being the curious creature that I am, I have since pasted adsense and cpa offers on the site, and I'm impressed with the results.

        As for regular posting to the site, I tend to look for inspiration at the bestsellers list from Amazon, and it's easy to include any of these items to the site, for everything on the bestsellers list falls under toys, (IMO) regardless of the niche they're targeting.

        The best method of promoting most of the individual posts for me has been social bookmarking, then bookmarking the backlinks!

        I usually don't have more than 20 backlinks to the money posts/pages, then I select from the 20 bookmarks about 6, and create about 50 bookmarks to each of those 6 links using automated software (SE Nuke, Linkdozer etc).

        There's a site with a .org extension with crap on it that's been consistently on number one in Google... and this has probably scarred me for life ( ) seeing as I've never been able to beat the site.

        The problem, as I soon discovered, was that Google was indexing this site for the same term but written differently...eg, hottest selling cookies in town (being my site) and hot cookies on sale (this funny site)!

        So, when users use the search phrase "hottest selling cookies in town", this funny site ranks #1, and mine around 4th!

        Never been able to figure out why, so I then created a post with "hot cookies on sale" as the title to counteract this phenomenon late last year.. and was ranking above the fold on page one within a couple of weeks for the post.

        What I really love about Amazon, and other writers alluded to this earlier, is the fact that users would click through my link, and end up purchasing something entirely different, and I still end up making bank!

        Lately, I seem to have discovered about 4 sites that seem to rank for almost any keyword you can think of that starts with "how to..."

        These same 4 sites have generic domain names but have super tight niche subdomains/directories like crazy, try searching for anything starting with "how to get rid of.." into Google, and note the top 5 domains that crop up.

        You really cannot go wrong with physical products, and Amazon sure helps make the process a little easier.
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        • Profile picture of the author affenpinscher
          Thanks Rainmak3r - good post.

          Also, unlike CJ, Linkshare and Clickbank, I've never felt Amazon's accounting of my
          commissions was incorrect. They direct deposit my earnings regularly and I never have a problem with them.

          As others noted, Amazon is excellent at converting so don't overlook the value of having some popular but low dollar items in the niche you're using.

          People go to Amazon for a low dollar item but add items to get the savings in shipping or no shipping threshold.
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          • Profile picture of the author NicheCowboy
            Originally Posted by affenpinscher View Post

            Thanks Rainmak3r - good post.

            Also, unlike CJ, Linkshare and Clickbank, I've never felt Amazon's accounting of my
            commissions was incorrect. They direct deposit my earnings regularly and I never have a problem with them.

            As others noted, Amazon is excellent at converting so don't overlook the value of having some popular but low dollar items in the niche you're using.

            People go to Amazon for a low dollar item but add items to get the savings in shipping or no shipping threshold.
            Don't forget, you want some low priced item sales to help get you to the higher commission levels. The more items you sell, the higher percentage you earn.

            Had a lady who bought a few dozen packages of clothes hangers through me on Amazon. Commission wasn't worth bragging about...but an easy way to get from 4% to 6.5%.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ View Post

      Same old same old. Pick something, build something, then try and get traffic.

      This is NOT marketing.

      Full of contradictions.

      Do a poll about how many people make a full time living off of Amazon and their 24 hour cookie.

      This "method" is full of contradictions. Telling people not to target cameras and electronics is ridiculous. These are the very items people buy online. And great you sold a swing-set. Or did you?

      You didn't sell anything. Somebody bought something. Again this is not marketing. If it were you would know exactly why the person came and purchased the swing-set.

      The reason people don't make much money is because they have no plan and do not understand that marketing and sales are not the same thing.

      They make no effort to actually figure out the needs and wants of the customers. Then fill those needs and wants.

      Blah blah blah.. I'm ranting. But this kind of stuff is the exact reason why people never really break out to the point where they can sustain a full time income.
      I'm sure there are plenty of full time Amazon affiliates out there.

      Marketing....sales....same difference.

      You can market $1000 worth of stuff, or you can sell $1000 worth of stuff.

      At the end of the day, it's all about the money you make.

      Who cares what you term it.

      This method is a perfect starting point for newbies or people struggling to make money.

      Teach someone how to 'market', and you are looking at years of practice, experience, and trial and error.

      It's a far better route to start out making some money doing some easier forms of AM, and then work your way up to the 'marketing' aspect of the business.

      It sounds like to me that you have been doing this stuff for a long time, and forgot how it is to be brand new to this business - especially today when a newbie can get eaten a live out there.

      As far as your comment on the digital cameras and TV sites, I challenge you to make a site in those niches and have it rank decently within the first 4 months without using existing resources.
      Signature
      Clickbank #1 Best Seller: The Deadbeat Super Affiliate.
      Click here to learn how to make money online in your bath robe and gym socks!
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      • Profile picture of the author Marakatapolis
        Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

        As far as your comment on the digital cameras and TV sites, I challenge you to make a site in those niches and have it rank decently within the first 4 months without using existing resources.

        Just to play devils advocate here, who cares about the first 4 months? If you want to rank high on Google it's a long term goal, especially for highly competitive niches, such as most electronics categories.

        Focus on ranking high for long tail keywords in the first 4 months, plan on ranking high for competitive keywords over the long term.

        At least, if you plan to rank without seriously gaming Big G.
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        • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
          Originally Posted by Marakatapolis View Post

          Just to play devils advocate here, who cares about the first 4 months? If you want to rank high on Google it's a long term goal, especially for highly competitive niches, such as most electronics categories.

          Focus on ranking high for long tail keywords in the first 4 months, plan on ranking high for competitive keywords over the long term.

          At least, if you plan to rank without seriously gaming Big G.
          My apologies for the delay - have been working like a fiend on my new project.

          I geared this post mostly to newbies who are having trouble getting cash flow.

          The problem is, if you are new and are skeptical that you can make money online, chances of someone like that being successful in a competitive niche like digital cameras or LCDTVs is slim to none.

          If the person goes without results in the first 2 months, most likely they will never try the method again - even if its just one niche they try.

          So by going for the easier niches that dont require months worth of authority building, you build confidence.
          Signature
          Clickbank #1 Best Seller: The Deadbeat Super Affiliate.
          Click here to learn how to make money online in your bath robe and gym socks!
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    • Profile picture of the author Bossman34
      Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ View Post

      Same old same old. Pick something, build something, then try and get traffic.

      This is NOT marketing.

      Full of contradictions.

      Do a poll about how many people make a full time living off of Amazon and their 24 hour cookie.

      This "method" is full of contradictions. Telling people not to target cameras and electronics is ridiculous. These are the very items people buy online. And great you sold a swing-set. Or did you?

      You didn't sell anything. Somebody bought something. Again this is not marketing. If it were you would know exactly why the person came and purchased the swing-set.

      The reason people don't make much money is because they have no plan and do not understand that marketing and sales are not the same thing.

      They make no effort to actually figure out the needs and wants of the customers. Then fill those needs and wants.

      Blah blah blah.. I'm ranting. But this kind of stuff is the exact reason why people never really break out to the point where they can sustain a full time income.
      Funny how you condemn his method, yet the Hubpages post on your blog is essentially the same thing. Write content, drive traffic, find and post/link to relevant affiliate offers.

      Marketing is all about putting targeted and relevant information in front of interested/potential buyers. Offering products or services to satisfy customer needs/wants in exchange for profit. This is exactly what we're doing here. Maybe this method doesn't necessarily build a long term relationship with the customer, but the customer gets what they want.

      Daniel, thanks for sharing your methods! I will definitely be adding this to my online marketing business!
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  • Profile picture of the author rdpayne
    Daniel,

    I think I'm right on track with what you figured out.

    ClickBank and other digital sales networks are, in my opinion, way over saturated.

    And my AdSense and Chitika earnings really took a nosedive starting 14 months ago.

    I added eBay and Amazon listings to my wedding sites to try and bolster my income, but haven't seen a lot of success yet.

    I then used George Brown's Google Sniper formula to build a German motorcycle helmet site just over a week ago with Amazon and eBay listings. But the buying season for motorcycle helmets doesn't hit high gear until March.

    I think I'll code a desktop app to troll through Amazon using your criteria and build a list of niches to scrutinize.
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    • Profile picture of the author halfpoint
      Originally Posted by rdpayne View Post

      I think I'll code a desktop app to troll through Amazon using your criteria and build a list of niches to scrutinize.
      I'd be very interested in this if you decide to sell it (or give it away for free )
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  • Profile picture of the author william l
    Thats the beauty of amazon, you can set up website with a store in no time flat. You are also right about being selective of the products to sell.
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    • Profile picture of the author carlos123
      I think I may shift from focusing on Adsense money making to Amazon affiliatizing. Have to think about it some more and see how easy finding untapped niches in Amazon really is.

      Does anyone know if California (where I presently live) tacks on sales tax for Amazon affiliate sales?

      A while back I read where Amazon was dropping affiliates in states that tack on sales tax.

      Also...regarding the testimonials do you all just rip them off the actual Amazon site? Do they/would they have a problem with that?

      How often does Amazon pay? Is it like Google in not paying till the end of the month following the month in which you earn your money or like Hostgator in not paying for till sometime in the third month?

      Lastly does anyone know if one can be an Amazon affiliate even if they move to Timbuktu (in my case it would be Chile, South America)?

      Any further input would be appreciated.

      Thanks.

      Carlos
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      • Profile picture of the author NicheCowboy
        Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

        I think I may shift from focusing on Adsense money making to Amazon affiliatizing. Have to think about it some more and see how easy finding untapped niches in Amazon really is.

        Does anyone know if California (where I presently live) tacks on sales tax for Amazon affiliate sales?

        A while back I read where Amazon was dropping affiliates in states that tack on sales tax.

        Also...regarding the testimonials do you all just rip them off the actual Amazon site? Do they/would they have a problem with that?

        How often does Amazon pay? Is it like Google in not paying till the end of the month following the month in which you earn your money or like Hostgator in not paying for till sometime in the third month?

        Lastly does anyone know if one can be an Amazon affiliate even if they move to Timbuktu (in my case it would be Chile, South America)?

        Any further input would be appreciated.

        Thanks.

        Carlos
        I think it was nc, ri, and hi. NY too...but because there were so many affiliates from NY, Amazon decided to collect those sales taxes.
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        • Profile picture of the author carlos123
          Thanks for the added input you all! Much appreciated.

          I just spent a half hour reading through the Amazon Affliliate terms of service and signed up. Remains to be seen if they will approve my site (a site I created to work with Adsense but which I will now shift over to be solely used with Amazon's Associate program).

          You know as a side note...I have grown more thankful for the Warrior Forum here through this sign up because one of the things I did was mozy on over to the Affiliate (I think they call them Associates) Forum and took a look see. And let me tell you...it's kinda like the blind all groping around trying to find the answers to each other's questions.

          Not entirely (because there are some very experienced Associates there) but to quite a degree.

          The Warrior Forum is 100 times better in terms of giving one the real scoop on how to make money through these types of things. Most of the forum newbies there don't have a clue.

          One other thing I will say for Amazon. They have always been 100% more responsive to me personally than anything I could possibly expect out of Google. Amazon comes across like they really care about you...at least as far as trying to answer your questions in a timely manner. I dealt with them before regarding their Payment Systems when I was trying to find an alternative to PayPal.

          Carlos
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris-
        Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

        I
        Lastly does anyone know if one can be an Amazon affiliate even if they move to Timbuktu (in my case it would be Chile, South America)?
        I know someone who is an Amazon affilliate from Thailand.


        chris-
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        • Profile picture of the author Chris-
          Squidoo???

          Someone else mentioned that they thought this approach should work using Squidoo lenses, and I was going to ask the same thing, so . . .

          instead of buying domains, how about testing products by using squidoo lenses, then if the particular product is doing well one can always add a site as well.

          Any opinions on the workability of that?

          Chris-
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          • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
            Originally Posted by Chris- View Post

            Squidoo???

            Someone else mentioned that they thought this approach should work using Squidoo lenses, and I was going to ask the same thing, so . . .

            instead of buying domains, how about testing products by using squidoo lenses, then if the particular product is doing well one can always add a site as well.

            Any opinions on the workability of that?

            Chris-
            I am not fimilar with the current rule set of Squidoo, if Im not mistaken they are seriously cracking down on affiliate oriented lenses - can someone correct me if Im wrong?

            However, I know there are a lot of people who take that approach and say it works for them, so by all means it's worth a shot.

            Me personally, I like to concentrate my efforts on my own websites, but it can certainly be done that way.

            I just think there is an extra level of risk involved by using someone else's property like that.

            Regards,
            Daniel
            Signature
            Clickbank #1 Best Seller: The Deadbeat Super Affiliate.
            Click here to learn how to make money online in your bath robe and gym socks!
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            • Profile picture of the author Chris-
              Originally Posted by Daniel Brock View Post

              I am not fimilar with the current rule set of Squidoo, if Im not mistaken they are seriously cracking down on affiliate oriented lenses - can someone correct me if Im wrong?

              However, I know there are a lot of people who take that approach and say it works for them, so by all means it's worth a shot.

              Me personally, I like to concentrate my efforts on my own websites, but it can certainly be done that way.

              I just think there is an extra level of risk involved by using someone else's property like that.

              Regards,
              Daniel
              Thanks very much for your reply.

              I'd be interested if anyone else has any comments on any problems with doing affiliate-based pages on Squidoo . . . it looked to me like the whole point of Squidoo was to allow people to easily do affilliate pages, but I'd be interested in comments on this. The only factor I am aware of, from a few months back, was that they were intending to limit the number of links to sites that they didn't know much about.

              Chris-
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  • Profile picture of the author Patrik
    I BELIEVE that they can flag your site if it just starts and gets hundreds of links within the first month.
    Thanks, that "could" possibly explain why a new site of mine suddenly dropped from page 3 to page 9.

    In addition I find your focus on amazon affiliate program very interesting. I have had the preconceived notion that advertising a physical product could be less productive, as you have longer shipping, and non-US traffic might just turn away. But perhaps that way of thinking has been entirely wrong.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lyn Woodring
    Does this mean that since I live in NC I can't become an affilate for any product? Or is it just Amazon?
    -Lyn

    "The only pitfall on this is the risk that Amazon may fail. The affiliate program was suddenly cut off in North Carolina because of the "Amazon Tax" that was passed which basically says that if a company pays affiliates to drive traffic to their sites, they must charge state sales tax."
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    • Profile picture of the author carlos123
      Originally Posted by Lyn Woodring View Post

      Does this mean that since I live in NC I can't become an affilate for any product? Or is it just Amazon?
      -Lyn
      It is my understanding Lyn, based on previous reading I have done about this, that certain states passed a law that taxed affiliate sales made through affiliates in that state.

      Some companies like Amazon decided that rather than pay the sales tax to the state on sales made through their affiliates there, they would just as soon pull the plug on all affiliates in that state.

      I don't blame Amazon one bit for what they did though that of course pulled the rug out from under affiliates in the affected States.

      That doesn't mean you can't make any affiliate sales for other companies in that State. Only that you cannot become an Amazon affiliate if you reside in that State.

      Carlos
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      • Profile picture of the author carlos123
        Okay I am confused....

        I have been looking through Amazon trying to find a good niche to possibly go into and just don't see all these hot niches just laying around for the taking.

        For example....I am looking at a set of products.

        Buckwheat Pancake Mix
        Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix
        Multi-Grain Buttermild Pancake Mix

        So here we have a possible Pancake Mix site right?

        I look up Pancake Mix in the Google Keyword Tool and it gets about 12,000 LSV searches per month. The ECPC doesn't matter for Amazon affiliate sales I guess (still trying to wheen myself off Adsense oriented keyword research LOL). The sites in the top ten doesn't matter as much since I can drive traffic through social bookmarking or articles without focusing entirely on search engine traffic and top ten positioning.

        So where does that leave me? Make a site about pancake mix?

        Should I make a site about Pancake Mixes and start putting that in my signature here LOL?

        Anybody?

        What criteria do you look for at Amazon? Do I just need to re-read this thread?

        Carlos
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        • Profile picture of the author carlos123
          Anybody know of a good Amazon affiliate site that I can study? Maybe one of your competitors? I got lots of Adsense sites that I can study but I don't have a single Amazon affiliate site.

          Anybody know of any tricks to finding them out?

          Carlos
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          • Profile picture of the author TheJedi
            [DELETED]
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            • Profile picture of the author carlos123
              Originally Posted by TheJedi View Post

              Unfortunately, I don't yet have enough posts to either post a link or send you a PM. If you can email me via my profile page, I would be happy to provide an example for you. Sorry I can't be of more help right now.
              Thanks Bradley. I will keep your offer in mind. Thinking about it some more I am not yet at the stage where I want to take the time to study Amazon affiliate sites. I am still trying to figure out where all these relatively open niches are.

              I've been looking all over Amazon and looking things up in the Google keyword tool and all I see for product after product is relatively tight competition in the top 10 at Google.

              Google product pictures, nextegg, more amazon pages, and others who are hard to overtake in the rankings. The top ten are filled with such sites. Hard for me to see the relatively untouched niches.

              Still looking and thinking about this...

              Carlos
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              • Profile picture of the author Craig McPherson
                Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

                I've been looking all over Amazon and looking things up in the Google keyword tool and all I see for product after product is relatively tight competition in the top 10 at Google.

                I found one just this morning that is ripe for the picking but decided against it.

                Do a search on Amazon for Doc Johnson

                Be warned they are adult products. Put them into Samurai to see the results
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              • Profile picture of the author halfpoint
                Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

                I've been looking all over Amazon and looking things up in the Google keyword tool and all I see for product after product is relatively tight competition in the top 10 at Google.
                Look deeper.

                I made 6 Amazon sites a couple of days ago and yesterday found 60-70 keywords to target that haven't got a huge amount of competition.
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                • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
                  Pat,
                  I'm a little confused, what is more important the amount of competing websites or the amount of backlinks?
                  I have found many great products to sell on Amazon with a great amount of searches but when I google the product keyword for the exact phrase using "" many have over 100,000 competing websites. I am new at this and confused.
                  Regards.
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                  • Profile picture of the author adamv
                    Originally Posted by jsanderz View Post

                    Pat,
                    I'm a little confused, what is more important the amount of competing websites or the amount of backlinks?
                    I have found many great products to sell on Amazon with a great amount of searches but when I google the product keyword for the exact phrase using "" many have over 100,000 competing websites. I am new at this and confused.
                    Regards.
                    The number of sites that come up when you search in quotes is a very weak indicator of the strength of competition. You'll want to consider a number of factors to determine the difficulty of ranking for any particular keywords. The PR of the site, the number of backlinks to the page, weather the page that is ranking has the keyword phrase in it's title and in the url.

                    You'll also want to use common sense and your own best judgment. If you are trying to rank for a health related term and the top 10 results are full of sites like web md, wikipedia, mayo clinic, etc. it will be more difficult to rank for than if the top 10 results for your keyword search brings up Web 2.0 sites and article directories.
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                  • Profile picture of the author halfpoint
                    Originally Posted by jsanderz View Post

                    Pat,
                    I'm a little confused, what is more important the amount of competing websites or the amount of backlinks?
                    I have found many great products to sell on Amazon with a great amount of searches but when I google the product keyword for the exact phrase using "" many have over 100,000 competing websites. I am new at this and confused.
                    Regards.
                    For the most part the amount of competing webpages is a useless number. I use it occasionally if I'm in a hurry but I generally don't.

                    Instead of focusing on how many pages are returned, instead focus on how optimized the top 10 sites are.

                    Look at their on page optimization;

                    - Do they have the keyword in the title?
                    - Do they have the keyword in the url?
                    - Do they have the keyword in their description?
                    - What is the page PR? (Doesn't really matter but it's good to know)

                    How many backlinks do they have? Are they valuable backlinks? Where are they coming from?

                    How old is the domain? Are most of the links pointing to the domain or to the actual web page that's ranking?

                    With all of that said, if I'm making a small 5-10 keyword site and I want specifically low competition keywords, I will just sort keywords by their competing pages. With these smaller sites I generally go after keywords that have less than 30k competing pages. (It's important to note that doing this is not an entirely accurate measure of competition, but as a general rule most keywords that fit into this category should be fairly easily attainable)

                    For the Amazon sites I made in the last week, I decided to go with the second option as they are small sites. So, here are the steps I took;

                    1. Create a list of "seed" keywords. For example, if I was creating a dog training site my seed keywords would be something like;

                    - dog training barking
                    - dog training biting
                    - dog potty training
                    - dog toilet training
                    - puppy training barking
                    - puppy training biting
                    - etc.

                    2. I would then open up Market Samurai (Keyword research part of it is free) and search for each of my seed keywords which would then return a big list of related keywords and sort them out so that the only ones left are the ones with <30,000 competing pages. I would then export the results of each into Microsoft Excel.

                    3. By this stage I would now have a huge list of keywords that all have less than 30k competing pages and I would also have the data of how many daily searches they receive. From here, in Excel, I would delete the duplicate keywords and sort them all by how many searches they get.

                    4. Once I have this list, I would then start searching for each keyword manually and looking at the top 10 results to see how well optimized they are as per what I said at the beginning of this post. (If you have the paid version of Market Samurai you can get all of this information a lot easier and quicker)

                    5. Now I'm going through the list and deleting the keywords I think will be too difficult to rank for and keeping the ones I think I will rank for. After I have a list of 10-15 (or how ever many you want) keywords that I am confident I can rank for fairly easily I then optimize my site around those keywords and get to work.

                    As I said, sorting the keywords based on less than 30k competing pages isn't going to be entirely accurate, however, it's a decent indication if you don't have a huge amount of time on your hands.

                    If I'm planning on creating a big site that I'm going to spend a heap of time on I will generally follow the above steps without deleting anything over 30k competing results. I will go through every keyword and check how well optimized they are.

                    I've found keywords before that have had in excess of 100k competing pages but the top spots weren't optimized well at all, so it goes to show that if you are sorting keywords based on the number of competing pages you're going to be disregarding some good keywords along the way.
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                    • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
                      Hi Adam and Pat,
                      Wow that was a fast reply from both of you thank you very much.
                      I purchased Daniels Amazon Course and he doesn't go into anything like that. Don't get me wrong I think the videos are very good, but he only covers searching for products with certain criteria and then doing a search with the google keyword tool. Nothing about what you two have wrote about.
                      Maybe I am missing something.
                      Many thanks.
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                    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
                      Carlos, it sounds like you're thinking like an Adsense guy again. I know, it's a hard habit to break...

                      Step back a minute and think about it. If you want to sell pancake mix, you need to find groups of people with an interest in making pancakes. You could do sites on

                      > making pancakes
                      > why specialty mixes are better than store brands
                      > making pancakes in big batches for fundraisers
                      > making pancakes for the "make you breakfast date" morning after
                      > what else can you think of?

                      You could also include links to related items like griddles, batter dispensers, spatulas, food processors, etc.

                      I look at things from either of two perspectives...

                      1. I already have a market I know something about, and I'm looking for things to offer them.

                      2. I find an item that trips my trigger, and I start thinking about who might be interested, why they might be interested, and how I can reach them.

                      You're spot-on about one thing, though. If you go past Google, you won't sail off the edge of the world...

                      Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

                      Okay I am confused....

                      I have been looking through Amazon trying to find a good niche to possibly go into and just don't see all these hot niches just laying around for the taking.

                      For example....I am looking at a set of products.

                      Buckwheat Pancake Mix
                      Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix
                      Multi-Grain Buttermild Pancake Mix

                      So here we have a possible Pancake Mix site right?

                      I look up Pancake Mix in the Google Keyword Tool and it gets about 12,000 LSV searches per month. The ECPC doesn't matter for Amazon affiliate sales I guess (still trying to wheen myself off Adsense oriented keyword research LOL). The sites in the top ten doesn't matter as much since I can drive traffic through social bookmarking or articles without focusing entirely on search engine traffic and top ten positioning.

                      So where does that leave me? Make a site about pancake mix?

                      Should I make a site about Pancake Mixes and start putting that in my signature here LOL?

                      Anybody?

                      What criteria do you look for at Amazon? Do I just need to re-read this thread?

                      Carlos
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        • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
          Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

          Okay I am confused....

          I have been looking through Amazon trying to find a good niche to possibly go into and just don't see all these hot niches just laying around for the taking.

          For example....I am looking at a set of products.

          Buckwheat Pancake Mix
          Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix
          Multi-Grain Buttermild Pancake Mix

          So here we have a possible Pancake Mix site right?

          I look up Pancake Mix in the Google Keyword Tool and it gets about 12,000 LSV searches per month. The ECPC doesn't matter for Amazon affiliate sales I guess (still trying to wheen myself off Adsense oriented keyword research LOL). The sites in the top ten doesn't matter as much since I can drive traffic through social bookmarking or articles without focusing entirely on search engine traffic and top ten positioning.

          So where does that leave me? Make a site about pancake mix?

          Should I make a site about Pancake Mixes and start putting that in my signature here LOL?

          Anybody?

          What criteria do you look for at Amazon? Do I just need to re-read this thread?

          Carlos
          The problem with those items is the price. I can't imagine pancake mix being more than like $10.

          But even still, that doesn't mean you can't turn it into a profitable website.

          As for advertising, you would focus on search engine traffic for this.

          You might also consider going to some food related forums and try to advertise your site via signature link there.
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        • Profile picture of the author RebeccaL
          Originally Posted by carlos123 View Post

          Okay I am confused....

          I have been looking through Amazon trying to find a good niche to possibly go into and just don't see all these hot niches just laying around for the taking.

          For example....I am looking at a set of products.

          Buckwheat Pancake Mix
          Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix
          Multi-Grain Buttermild Pancake Mix

          So here we have a possible Pancake Mix site right?

          I look up Pancake Mix in the Google Keyword Tool and it gets about 12,000 LSV searches per month. The ECPC doesn't matter for Amazon affiliate sales I guess (still trying to wheen myself off Adsense oriented keyword research LOL). The sites in the top ten doesn't matter as much since I can drive traffic through social bookmarking or articles without focusing entirely on search engine traffic and top ten positioning.

          So where does that leave me? Make a site about pancake mix?

          Should I make a site about Pancake Mixes and start putting that in my signature here LOL?

          Anybody?

          What criteria do you look for at Amazon? Do I just need to re-read this thread?

          Carlos
          Thats where thinking outside the box comes into play.
          Yes you can make a site about pancake mix, OR you can make a site about pancakes and how to make all sorts of pancakes. Thus the pancake mix product promotion will fit in just nicely.
          Personally I go for a mix of both types of sites (direct and indirect).
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  • Thanks for sharing this important information. It really works. I have been reading this post and I found it vey complete.
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  • Profile picture of the author bencarroll02
    Hey Dan, awesome post...

    I used to look into amazon alot, i made some good money promoting offers by creating a few web 2.0 properties like squidoo and having both physical products from amazon and digital products in there.

    Also noticed text links convert higher than images!

    Nice catch, the old still works! I love that.
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  • Profile picture of the author 7_8_shortcuts
    That's some great info on STRATEGY regardless if you monetize with Amazon or any other type of affiliate marketing or even AdSense.

    Tangible products are easier to sell online because the companies have already done all the promotion on TV, radio and magazines.

    You don't have to convince people that this is "legitimate" or something.

    Everyone knows iPods work... No need to convince them, you just give them the link to buy.
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  • Profile picture of the author lstoops
    LOL this is exactly what I do with my Amazon niche blogs. Even though Amazon has a low commission structure compared to digital items it seriously is super easy because people don't usually buy one thing at a time. So, if you have a targeted site to the product you are promoting you can realllly do well.
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  • Profile picture of the author RebeccaL
    Amazon is all about numbers. Almost every site I've set up with an Amazon auto posting plugin is making *some* money. Whether that be $2 a week or $10 a day. It's a numbers game and it's all about getting the cookie on to the users machine when they are in buying mode - yes its a 24 hour cookie but don't let that put you off!
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Keegan
    Great post Daniel, I've been thing about building some Amazon review sites for a while and your post has now convinced me.

    I've just spent all morning doing keyword research and have found 6 niches with over 1000 daily searches and less than 10,000 competing pages!

    Time to get some sites up...

    Cheers,
    Danny.
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  • Profile picture of the author Si_P
    Daniel, so how much do you typically earn per month from Amazon with your niche sites?
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by Si_P View Post

      Daniel, so how much do you typically earn per month from Amazon with your niche sites?
      My earners make roughly $100/m each.

      Some make a little less, some make more so they even out.
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      • Profile picture of the author krikkod
        Hi Daniel,

        I was wondering if i could get your thoughts or anyone else's in regards to plugins such as reviewazon, associate-o-matic and the like.

        What i'm looking for specifically is whether or not these plugins are worth utlising or is it just as effective to simply create your own pages, and use an embedded affiliate link within the links and images that point to amazon?

        Also one final question - is it better to use the single page per product method, or is the amazon astore a better option?
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        • Profile picture of the author showerhater
          hi guys,
          i am very inspired by your thread. In fact i am looking at godaddy right now, trying to register a domain name. there are so many options to choose from .com, .net, .info or the many others. Have you found that the ".xxx" makes a difference at all. The .info's are $0.89 a year. Is there a reason why i should not use .info when setting up an e-bay or amazon affiliate site?
          Thanks in advance for the help.

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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
        Originally Posted by Terry Gorry View Post

        Daniel,
        What proportion of your sites are earners?

        Thanks,
        Terry
        Terry,

        I have around 14-15 Amazon sites. About 10 of them are earners - the rest of them were duds that I made earlier on when I didn't understand what to target.

        krikkod,

        I personally have never used any auto-generated plugins or anything like that. I am testing one out right now that one of the Warriors here made because I have gotten quite a few questions about it. I will be sure to share my results once I have them in.

        fitz10,

        It's definitely a numbers game like Rebecca said. Some sites don't work out, some work OK, and some go absolutely 'gang busters' <- can't believe I used that phrase hahah.

        After some practice, you develop a sort of 2nd sense to identify the products you know will sell and the ones that won't.

        It's kind of hard to explain how to do that - so I'll let you guys experiment with that.
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        • Profile picture of the author trj
          Do your sites different IP's or do use use a blanket IP with a bunch of domains under like hostgator might offer. Does it matter?

          Thanks for bringing this plan to the forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    Daniel has some great points here and I encourage all newbies to check out what he's saying. I was so frustrated not making any sales affiliate marketing for Clickbank. I then started working a program somewhat similar to Daniel's and within my first week made over $1,000 (this was near Christmas). Honestly, out of the eight sites I made 2 had no sales, 4 had a few sales, and 2 converted at a rate of around 20% during the holiday season. Those two continue to make sales, although not at the rate they did at Christmas. I used a lot of social networking sites and a little pay per click (I spent next to nothing on this though, totally worth it). It can be done!

    Thanks for this really informative post Daniel.
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  • Profile picture of the author sts2k
    would this model work well if you sell your own physical products?
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by sts2k View Post

      would this model work well if you sell your own physical products?
      Yes, this will work with any physical product really.

      trj,

      Yes, I spread them out over multiple hosting accounts datacenters.

      It costs a little bit more money, but worth it IMO.

      jbsmith,

      I use a variety of themes. I tend to migrate towards the minimalist themes if possible. Less stuff to distract people.

      I also post my posts as wordpress posts, and not pages.

      Keith Choy,

      There is no 'wrong' niche - it's just that the ones I listed are more competitive and harder to make money off of early on. I have a strange feeling that a lot of newbies to Amazon.com marketing start digital camera and LCD TVs based on the price point, and don't realize what they are getting into.

      Good questions everyone! Keep them coming - I'm always happy to answer them.

      Regards,
      Daniel
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      • Profile picture of the author debra
        Thanks for the thread btw.

        What did you do initially and make routine to gain enough traffic to your site to see sales?

        and...

        How long did it take you (traffic generation) before you could say that it was self sustaining before building another one?
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        • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
          Originally Posted by debra View Post

          Thanks for the thread btw.

          What did you do initially and make routine to gain enough traffic to your site to see sales?

          and...

          How long did it take you (traffic generation) before you could say that it was self sustaining before building another one?
          Hello,

          The traffic comes from mainly search engines. I found that with some niches, a simple social bookmarking round on your main domain was enough to get it indexed and ranked high enough to start getting traffic. To really increase your traffic, some basic blog commenting and forum posting can go a long way with search rankings in some niches.

          It also depends on the niche that you are in to see some traffic returns. I remember a couple of my sites took a month and a half before they started seeing traffic, while others would get traffic within the first week.

          I have no idea what causes this - maybe it has to do with the niche.

          Regards,
          Dan Brock
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          • Profile picture of the author Elle Holder
            Hey Dan, thanks for this great thread.

            One quick question. Do you cloak any of your links or leave them as is?
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            • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
              Originally Posted by ElleJ View Post

              Hey Dan, thanks for this great thread.

              One quick question. Do you cloak any of your links or leave them as is?
              Hi.

              As of right now they are just plain old affiliate links. I plan to eventually go back and cloak them all however I've been quite lazy about that type of stuff lately.

              @Jason Perez O'Connor,

              I generally like to have multiple products per domain name.

              So with my gas grill example, I would be reviewing all of the gas grills that met the search criteria and placing the reviews all under one domain.

              I have seen people make an entire site devoted to one product and making pretty good money. Im sure that could work just as well if you find a super hot product to promote.

              @DaleSteyn,

              That's a good point. I have been thinking about adding ebay alternative links to my site underneath the article, but haven't had the time to mess around with that. Definitely on the list of things to do.

              @Dmitryguru,

              I outsource my article writing to textbroker.com so that I dont have to waste my time writing articles all day.

              While you can probably get better articles from a single outsourcer, the amount of energy and trial to find that person is not really worth the effort for this application.

              So textbroker.com is good enough for our purposes.

              Regards,
              Dan
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              • Profile picture of the author Warrior Markets
                Hi Daniel

                Just wanted to clear a few things up: am I right in my understanding:-

                - Find a product to promote (according to criteria you stated).
                - Find 4 more similar products.
                - Get domain name.
                - Set up Wordpress site based on 'category' of product (eg Grills)

                - Write articles. At the end of articles, link to Amazon.

                - Social bookmark articles.

                Question: with regards to writing articles, do you mean reviews only?
                Also, when you said "write articles.....and add the rest on drip feed(wordpress) so that they get posted automatically over a period of 2 months or more.", how many articles in total would that be?

                And seeing as we have 5 products, if we wrote 20 articles, would that be 4 articles (reviews?) per product?

                If so, how can we write 4 reviews of one product on one site? And if it isn't reviews, what types of articles do you suggest? Just normal made-for-Ezine type articles? Would that then entail the same keyword-research etc?

                Also, is that 5 products per domain/site?

                Additionally, another factor, when I've searched for appropriate products and then put search term (eg Coleman 50x grill), into Google, Amazon seems to be one of the top results! Are we competing against Amazon itself?


                I'm just confused, and appreciate that the answer is probably obvious. Just seeking some clarification.

                Thanks in advance
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                • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
                  Originally Posted by Warrior Markets View Post

                  Hi Daniel

                  Just wanted to clear a few things up: am I right in my understanding:-

                  - Find a product to promote (according to criteria you stated).
                  - Find 4 more similar products.
                  - Get domain name.
                  - Set up Wordpress site based on 'category' of product (eg Grills)

                  - Write articles. At the end of articles, link to Amazon.

                  - Social bookmark articles.

                  Question: with regards to writing articles, do you mean reviews only?
                  Also, when you said "write articles.....and add the rest on drip feed(wordpress) so that they get posted automatically over a period of 2 months or more.", how many articles in total would that be?

                  And seeing as we have 5 products, if we wrote 20 articles, would that be 4 articles (reviews?) per product?

                  If so, how can we write 4 reviews of one product on one site? And if it isn't reviews, what types of articles do you suggest? Just normal made-for-Ezine type articles? Would that then entail the same keyword-research etc?

                  Also, is that 5 products per domain/site?

                  Additionally, another factor, when I've searched for appropriate products and then put search term (eg Coleman 50x grill), into Google, Amazon seems to be one of the top results! Are we competing against Amazon itself?


                  I'm just confused, and appreciate that the answer is probably obvious. Just seeking some clarification.

                  Thanks in advance
                  Hey there!

                  Generally, you will write one review per product. You can expand that to two if you want to do comparisons.

                  So if you had a 20 page website, it would be reviewing 20 different products.

                  That's my personal preference.

                  I've seen it done differently though.

                  As for the search ranking question, don't worry about Amazon.com in the listing. I have never had a problem with it.

                  Regards,
                  Dan Brock
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    Great post Daniel - thanks.

    A question for you...

    1. What WP design do you use? Do you use a customized theme - and do you have a banner created custom for each Wordpress blog/review page that you create?

    2. Are each of the review pages you create Static pages in WP or dynamic blog posts?

    Thanks,
    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author JulioGarabot
    Daniel Thanks

    This post is making me move closer to Amazon.

    Julio
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    123 Happy
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  • Profile picture of the author brik2500
    Hey Dan, great article...would make a decent WSO.

    Thanks for sharing!
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  • Profile picture of the author mbarty2010
    Do you use a separate website or subdomain for every Amazon Affiliate program (USA/UK/Germany etc.) or just have one website for the USA market alone.
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  • Profile picture of the author Keith Choy
    hey Daniel,

    Great post. Although with Amazon in 2004, it didn't occur to me I choose the wrong niche. (deserve a knock on the head here)

    Thanks,
    Keith Choy
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  • When you mean related products, do you get separate domains for those?

    Like usually a grill has a make, your not going to put different makes on a domain name with the make of a certain grill?

    Or do you choose a keyword for grills to rank for, then on your seperate product pages do you attempt to rank for the exact model names?

    Or do you try both methods?

    Also for under product names in the google keyword tool, do you only look at the global search volumes?

    As the local search volume data is usually non existent for exact product names, yet under global search volume it can range between 1000-9000+

    Just wondering.

    Jay.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dmitryguru
    What I dont understand is what do you mean you outsource to textbroker?
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  • Textbroker is a service that writes articles for you. The best way of scaling your income when you can afford it is to have people on your team or at least build relationships with freelancers you 'KNOW' are good.

    As for my question, still waiting on the answer. I'm interested in knowing your method.

    Jay.
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  • Profile picture of the author lulu25
    Hi

    Thanks for the post. I have got so much info from here.
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  • Profile picture of the author cyberskyfox
    wow that is an awesome information you're sharing...i thought it was another sales page, but scrolled down and found no sales link..great to know not everyone is trying to sell something to everyone in here..thank you for an awesome post!
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  • Profile picture of the author Tomwood
    Amazon is great if only they would pay lifetime commissions they would been the greatest commission program ever.
    If Amazon would only make that one change I don't think I would bother with any other programs
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    • Profile picture of the author Mary Greene
      Thanks so much for sharing your latest Amazon affiliate experience and methods, Dan!

      Do you earn commission on Amazon Marketplace products, posted by other sellers on Amazon? Can we earn recurring commissions on Amazon subscription products? How long does it take to get paid your commissions?

      All the best,
      Mary Greene
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      Cheers,
      Mary Greene

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    • Profile picture of the author TheGraduate
      Originally Posted by Tomwood View Post

      Amazon is great if only they would pay lifetime commissions they would been the greatest commission program ever.
      If Amazon would only make that one change I don't think I would bother with any other programs
      "...if only they would pay lifetime commissions.."

      Can you elaborate on this? you kind of lost me there
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      amazing product coming soon!
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  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    This is most interesting Daniel
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    “Thinking is easy, Acting is difficult
    And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goethe”
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    • Profile picture of the author Davey T
      How do you promote Amazon products? Are we talking about amazon.com? Do they have an affiliate side that you go through? I understand the rest of it I just don't understand how to make the sales and get commissions for them. Thanks...
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      • Profile picture of the author Hanz
        Originally Posted by Davey T View Post

        How do you promote Amazon products? Are we talking about amazon.com? Do they have an affiliate side that you go through? I understand the rest of it I just don't understand how to make the sales and get commissions for them. Thanks...
        Davey, Amazon is one of the biggest online marketplaces on the internet. They have an affiliate program. So to explain it simply, it works like this:

        -You have a site on Superman.
        -You put an Amazon product link of a Superman coffee mug on the right sidebar of your site.
        -Somebody comes to your site looking for stuff on Superman and sees your Amazon ad on your sidebar and click on the ad.
        -They purchase the Superman coffee mug and Amazon gives you 4% commission.
        -You just made yourself a sale. That's how it all works.
        -Your challenge is to make a site that gets a lot of traffic and hence, a lot of people clicking on your Amazon ads and buying items so you can make more commissions.
        So you go to Amazon, sign up to their Amazon Associates program, and they will give you an id and all sorts of stuff which you can toss on your site such as widgets, banners, product links, etc.
        Get people to click on those links ON YOUR SITE and hopefully convert, and let Amazon do the rest. Simple stuff eh?
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