secrets of amazon affiliate marketing?

12 years ago

- conversion rates on amazon are great
- my best websites have been the ones where i know a LOT about the product range and can write with passion
- always, always, always offer value and dont try to usher the user to amazon with loads of links and buttons, they will smell a rat
- your goal is very achievable
- don't go the microsite route of developing dozens - instead concentrate on a handful of genuinely good websites that you can be proud of

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Dustin Wright 12 years ago

Originally Posted by matt5409

"...- don't go the microsite route..."

What is a "microsite"?

Thanks.
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bmcgoff

12 years ago

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helterskelter

12 years ago

Hey Brock - do you know what WordPress template was used for that Car Seat Review site? Like the layout.

Will check out your site - info may be there.

Thanks!

Thanks
1 reply

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DynoMutt

12 years ago

Originally Posted by helterskelter

Hey Brock - do you know what WordPress template was used for that Car Seat Review site? Like the layout.

Will check out your site - info may be there.

Thanks!

I know your question wasn't directed at me, but that theme is called ProReview theme.

If you want to know if a website is using a wordpress theme, right-click on the site and go to "View Source."

Then do a Ctrl + F search for "wp." If it is made with wordpress, you should be able to find wp-content/themes/name_of_theme

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bmcgoff

12 years ago

Originally Posted by DynoMutt

I know your question wasn't directed at me, but that theme is called ProReview theme.

If you want to know if a website is using a wordpress theme, right-click on the site and go to "View Source."

Then do a Ctrl + F search for "wp." If it is made with wordpress, you should be able to find wp-content/themes/name_of_theme

Yup. The WordPress Review Theme (by Colleen) is also solid.

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SlowlyMan 12 years ago

One thing that has not been mentioned yet is reinvestment in a site. Lets say a site is bringing in $500/month in commissions. How much do you need to reinvest in the site to keep it at a top spot in the SERPS.

If your goal is $500 NET and reinvestment is 25% you would need to actually gross $625 in commissions.

Obviously Every niche would be different, but I'm curious what is a good average.
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dotgirish

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bmcgoff

Welcome to the Amazon game. It's a good place to start. Here are some responses to your questions:

- Yes, you can achieve 300/month in a year. In fact, I would shoot for 750-1000.
- This is something most people won't reveal. You have to do the research for yourself. That said, try to avoid high competition like weight loss, Forex, etc., as they are hard for new guys to break into. Instead, focus on hobby related things and products that solve problems (like car seats or smoke detectors, for example).
- I started by buying Jan Roos' Physical Affiliate Course. It shows you how to build Amazon review sites and rank them. Check out my blog (in my sig) for an in depth review of this course.
- As an example (this is NOT my site) check out Car Seat Reviews
- I don't pay for PPC ads, but I pay someone to do SEO for me (about $400/month)
- You need as many visitors as possible. Using an average conversion rate of 2-5% you can do the math on how much traffic you need to hit your goals. Again, there's a great post on my Amazon Affiliates Blog explaining how to calculate this
- Buy one (not a bunch, just one) course, like Jan Roos' course, and put you head down and focus on that and that only. Build about 3 or 4 sites and spend all the rest of your energy ranking them well in the SERPs. Weed out the earners and the losers, rinse and repeat. You'll be at $500/month in no time.

Good luck and feel free to PM or check out my site!

-Brock

Would like to know two things here

Whether you outsource the content writing part, if so any pointers ?

Which is the best wordpress template for amazon review sites

Thanks
2 replies

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cooler1

12 years ago

Originally Posted by dotgirish

Would like to know two things here

Whether you outsource the content writing part, if so any pointers ?

Which is the best wordpress template for amazon review sites

It depends on your circumstances. If you have the budget, but you don't have much time then outsource the writing. If your funds are tight and you have time, then do it yourself. The good thing about doing it yourself is that you don't have to clear up any grammar errors, etc.. that outsourcers make. If you do go the outsourcing route then the Warrior for hire section is a good place because then you don't have to pay a project fee like you do on sites such as Freelancer.

There is no best template. Its best to choose one which doesn't look cluttered. Two recommend ones are the ProReview theme and Flexibility theme.

Thanks

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bmcgoff

12 years ago

Originally Posted by dotgirish

Would like to know two things here

Whether you outsource the content writing part, if so any pointers ?

Which is the best wordpress template for amazon review sites

I outsource most writing, unless I know about or happen to like the products in a given niche. My only tip would be to find great Warriors For Hire and test a few of them out. Don't skimp on review articles...a good one should cost you $10-20, and this is totally worth it. You can use your $5 articles for other stuff, like directory submission, Web 2.0 and spinning.

The best themes are ProReview and WordPress Review Theme.

Thanks

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spen

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bmcgoff

Welcome to the Amazon game. It's a good place to start. Here are some responses to your questions:

- As an example (this is NOT my site) check out Car Seat Reviews
- I don't pay for PPC ads, but I pay someone to do SEO for me (about $400/month)

-Brock

Car Seat Reviews has 3K blacklinks, How to get the blacklinks?
Keyword "car seat reviews" is high competition. isn't it?
thanks

Thanks
1 reply

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bmcgoff 12 years ago

Originally Posted by spen

Car Seat Reviews has 3K blacklinks, How to get the blacklinks?
Keyword "car seat reviews" is high competition. isn't it?
thanks

That's not my site, so I don't know how they got those back links. But don't worry about the number of back links a site has. You usually don't need that many. The important thing is that they are varied and high quality. If you want thousands, you can pay someone to do this for you, but you really only need slightly more and slightly better ones than your competition.
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Dustin Wright

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bmcgoff

"...Buy one (not a bunch, just one) course, like Jan Roos' course, and put you head down and focus on that and that only. Build about 3 or 4 sites and spend all the rest of your energy ranking them well in the SERPs. Weed out the earners and the losers, rinse and repeat. You'll be at $500/month in no time...."

I just bought "Proven Income Method" a couple of weeks ago and I think it's pretty good. Seems like reasonable stuff. I have nothing to compare it to though. I am seeing a few things that make me question some of his methods, but, on the whole, seems like good advice.

This forum is as valuable. People here, as you can see are very responsive and supportive. I actually bought Jan's product from what I've read here and found on YouTube (will PM you the link).

Thanks
1 reply

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bmcgoff

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Dustin Wright

I just bought "Proven Income Method" a couple of weeks ago and I think it's pretty good. Seems like reasonable stuff. I have nothing to compare it to though. I am seeing a few things that make me question some of his methods, but, on the whole, seems like good advice.

This forum is as valuable. People here, as you can see are very responsive and supportive. I actually bought Jan's product from what I've read here and found on YouTube (will PM you the link).

Yeah, I mean you have to customize your method and improvise since things change so quickly, but the Proven Income Method is a great start.

Thanks

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MacMiller

12 years ago

Make sure you focus on products that sell, not necessarily products that have a high price point!

Thanks
1 reply

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bmcgoff

12 years ago

Originally Posted by MacMiller

Make sure you focus on products that sell, not necessarily products that have a high price point!

Very true... some products just don't sell online. People want to hold/test them before buying, so they go to the store. Before choosing a niche, ask yourself, "Would I buy this from Amazon?".

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danr62

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bmcgoff

Very true... some products just don't sell online. People want to hold/test them before buying, so they go to the store. Before choosing a niche, ask yourself, "Would I buy this from Amazon?".

This is definitely true. I have a website that reviews products that cost anywhere from $1000 to $5000 and generally need to be installed by a pro. This site is the one that get's the most traffic of all my sites and has a low bounce rate.

This month I had something like 2000 page views and did not sell any of the products I promote (I do sell a few random products though). I think this is due to 2 main reasons:

Most of the traffic comes from the site's main keyword which is fairly broad. I really need to rank up the individual product reviews so that I get more people searching for a model number.
Even if I do start to get traffic for the model number keywords I imagine the conversions will be pretty low because people would probably rather purchase something like this from a store that provides installation services.

That being said, the site does make me money with adsense, so at least it's not a total loss.

For another site I'm working on, my focus will to be to only add a few reviews, spend some time trying to rank those, then slowly adding/ranking more reviews over time. My goal is to get most of my traffic from specific model number keywords rather than the main keyword for better conversions.

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MikeTucker

12 years ago

You realize you have to sell about $8,000 per month for them to give you a whole $300/mo?

There are some people making great money with Amazon, and it certainly is easy to get sales. Personally, it still seems like way too much work for me to accept what amounts to far less than minimum wage.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you not to do it, if it's what you really want and you are really going to commit to it. And those people who make real money from it, that is great for them.

But I see a lot of people on the forum who get really excited about it and come up with all of these plans, and a week later they are trying to find something else.

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matt5409

12 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeTucker

You realize you have to sell about $8,000 per month for them to give you a whole $300/mo?

There are some people making great money with Amazon, and it certainly is easy to get sales. Personally, it still seems like way too much work for me to accept what amounts to far less than minimum wage.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you not to do it, if it's what you really want and you are really going to commit to it. And those people who make real money from it, that is great for them.

But I see a lot of people on the forum who get really excited about it and come up with all of these plans, and a week later they are trying to find something else.

I really cannot see how anybody could knock amazon for their commissions...

they give you commission on EVERYTHING the user buys
they sell everything
YOU don't have to worry about holding stock, fulfillment, customer queries etc
YOU get to piggy-back off a household brand name that everybody trusts

And considering their commissions start at circa 5% up to 10%, I don't think anybody is a position to complain.

I mean you *could* try to promote some crappy Clickbank product which hardly sells, and when it does, gets refunded

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Torreylee

12 years ago

Originally Posted by matt5409

I really cannot see how anybody could knock amazon for their commissions...

they give you commission on EVERYTHING the user buys
they sell everything
YOU don't have to worry about holding stock, fulfillment, customer queries etc
YOU get to piggy-back off a household brand name that everybody trusts

And considering their commissions start at circa 5% up to 10%, I don't think anybody is a position to complain.

I mean you *could* try to promote some crappy Clickbank product which hardly sells, and when it does, gets refunded

Yeah, Amazon may pay less, but they simply sell. The trust and authority they have and even lend to your site is so valuable. They pay on time and they are trying to eat all of your hard earned sales like CB.

I do understand people wanting a bigger piece of the pie though. And there are great alternatives out there.

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danr62

12 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeTucker

You realize you have to sell about $8,000 per month for them to give you a whole $300/mo?

Even at the lowest commission rate, it's only about $7500 worth of products. If you bump it up to the next level by only making 7 sales you only need to sell $5000 worth of products.

Let's break this down a bit further. Lets say that on average, the products you review cost about $150. To reach $300 a month you would have to sell about 34 $150 products per month. This would actually push your commission rate up to 6.5%, and your total comission would be somewhere around $330 (assuming that the average cost of all the products sold was $150).

Let's say that the OP builds a site that reviews 20 such products and works at getting rankings for all 20 reviews for various targeted keywords.
Each review would have to sell about 2 products of the item reviewed per month.

Writing 20 reviews and getting them ranked high enough to draw in the traffic neccessary to make those sales by the end of 2012 is something that is very much within reach for the OP as long as they stay focused and don't go around chasing shiny objects like so many of us do (myself included).

What I just described is basically my own plan of action for the site I'm working on now. Write a few reviews, get them some rankings, then write a few more reviews and repeat. I hope to turn it into my first $1000 per month site using this strategy.

There are some people making great money with Amazon, and it certainly is easy to get sales. Personally, it still seems like way too much work for me to accept what amounts to far less than minimum wage.

That's the beauty of the internet though. Invest a lot of effort in a site on the front end to earn passive income off of it. Then take what you've learned and the money you've earned to build more sites, more quickly.

But I see a lot of people on the forum who get really excited about it and come up with all of these plans, and a week later they are trying to find something else.

That is not unique to Amazon niche marketing. People jump from one method to the next all the time regardless of what the method is. Clickbank, article marketing, adsense, CPA, jump jump jump.

It doesn't matter which method someone chooses so long as they stay focused and give thier best effort to figuring out how to make that particular method work for them.

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MikeTucker

12 years ago

Originally Posted by matt5409

I really cannot see how anybody could knock amazon for their commissions...

they give you commission on EVERYTHING the user buys
they sell everything
YOU don't have to worry about holding stock, fulfillment, customer queries etc
YOU get to piggy-back off a household brand name that everybody trusts

And considering their commissions start at circa 5% up to 10%, I don't think anybody is a position to complain.

I mean you *could* try to promote some crappy Clickbank product which hardly sells, and when it does, gets refunded

If they still give commission on everything the person buys (for 365 days right?) that sure is nice of them, and I don't know of any other Affilliate program that does that.
Being able to let Amazon and the Sellers handle all of the backend work is quite nice as well.
I don't really need to "piggy-back" off a brand name but it is nice to know that the option is there for those who need it.

The deal breaker (for me personally) is the low commission. 10%?? So when I sell $10,000 worth of merchandise, they are nice enough to give me a whole $1,000?

I understand they have expenses, and there are thousands upon thousands-- perhaps millions-- of salespeople in jobs around the world who accept 10% commissions. I did use the word "personally" in my post to establish that I personally would never be able to accept such a low rate...

And, in the most important part of my post, I went on to encourage the OP and anyone else who is going to actually commit to it and stick to it.

(...I do actually use Amazon and Clickbank from time to time, rarely... and never have a problem with anyone requesting a refund anyway

)

Originally Posted by danr62

Even at the lowest commission rate, it's only about $7500 worth of products. If you bump it up to the next level by only making 7 sales you only need to sell $5000 worth of products.

What I just described is basically my own plan of action for the site I'm working on now.

It doesn't matter which method someone chooses so long as they stay focused and give thier best effort to figuring out how to make that particular method work for them.

Thanks for correcting my math. It's not my strongest skill... Still, selling $5,000 worth of merchandise for them so that they will give me a whole $300... That math just does not make sense for me.

I would be interested how that plan works out for you. Keep me updated.

I really feel like your last paragraph was the most important one, and I like to think readers will see that was my point... (I just happened to have tailored it for Amazon because that is what the thread is about.) There are no shortage of posts about people who get really excited about a method, tell us their master plan, and come back a while later still broke and unhappy that they didn't realize it was going to be so much work.

Here, allow me to adjust my post so that the message isn't confused:

Originally Posted by MikeTucker

You realize you have to sell several thousand dollars worth of merchandise per month for them to give you the $300/mo that you want?

There are some people making great money with Amazon, and it certainly is easy to get sales. Personally, it still seems like way too much work for me to accept what amounts to far less than minimum wage.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you not to do it, if it's what you really want and you are really going to commit to it. And those people who make real money from it, that is great for them.

But I see a lot of people on the forum who get really excited about it and come up with all of these plans, and a week later they are trying to find something else.

...This should clarify the confusion.

Thanks
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MatthewNeer 12 years ago

One really powerful way to sell Amazon stuff is through YouTube.

I have a few videos up there that have hundreds of thousands of views. One of my best performers (conversion wise) is a video that sells the Alchemist (book) converts at about 3-5%, makes about 20 sales a week or so.

People also tend to buy a bunch of other stuff on Amazon once they buy that book.

Maybe you could do video reviews or make cool viral videos about products and make sales that way. Probably something no one is doing much of.
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JSProjects

12 years ago

Some people tend to look down @ Amazon because of their low commissions. But the great thing about Amazon is that it converts at a ridiculous rate. Especially if you're going after JUST buyer keywords. These people are ready to buy. They just need that extra little push.

The earnings per sale may not be enormous, but the high conversion rate tends to make up for it. (As long as you're not promoting $5 products.)

$300 a month is not too hard if you're willing to do some initial work. Once you've got a system down you can start duplicating it across multiple products.

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JSProjects

12 years ago

Yeah, Amazon is something that requires a pretty fair initial (time) investment but pays off well in the long run. A lot of people quit after a week or so since it can be pretty tedious and take awhile to see results.

When I first started working with Amazon I was all hyped up and ready to go. But after not seeing any results for a few weeks I lost interest. What brought my interest level back up was logging into my account after not doing so for about a month and seeing a handful of sales. Some of them totally unrelated to what I was marketing. That gave me the motivation to keep going.

I'm still not a big player by any means. But one of my "2012 goals" is to really ramp up my Amazon projects.

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Mr. Ken Russell

12 years ago

Originally Posted by JSProjects

Yeah, Amazon is something that requires a pretty fair initial (time) investment but pays off well in the long run. A lot of people quit after a week or so since it can be pretty tedious and take awhile to see results.

When I first started working with Amazon I was all hyped up and ready to go. But after not seeing any results for a few weeks I lost interest. What brought my interest level back up was logging into my account after not doing so for about a month and seeing a handful of sales. Some of them totally unrelated to what I was marketing. That gave me the motivation to keep going.

I'm still not a big player by any means. But one of my "2012 goals" is to really ramp up my Amazon projects.

This guy speaks the truth. That's exactly the same story with me and Amazon. A few months after building my first site and logging in to see multiple sales for a product that wasn't even reviewed on my website. After that, motivation and hope hit me and I've never looked back since.

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dukestravels1972

12 years ago

Hi guys. Some excellent info here. I have a question about finding a product to promote. How do you guys choose it? I know how to narrow down niches, but how do you know what will sell? Do you go by number of reviews? For example I see a low keyword product with 35 reviews. Is this high? Or, is there a "number of sales" option in A,azons search that I'm missing? Cheers.

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sooner918

12 years ago

Originally Posted by dukestravels1972

Hi guys. Some excellent info here. I have a question about finding a product to promote. How do you guys choose it? I know how to narrow down niches, but how do you know what will sell? Do you go by number of reviews? For example I see a low keyword product with 35 reviews. Is this high? Or, is there a "number of sales" option in A,azons search that I'm missing? Cheers.

Practice makes perfect! Number of reviews is where I start,plus I research the specific product's keyword traffic on Google keyword research tool (check the box next to exact!!!!),the number of verified buyers in the review section,and researching the niche's category under "hot sellers",etc..

Also keep in mind that often the higher the dollar amount of the physical product,often the less number of reviews you will find for that product.

I find if my sites target "buyer oriented keywords" and provide good content,they seem to consistently make sales.

Each site is a "net in the water" so to speak;and once they have clicked through your link to Amazon,chances are REALLY GOOD they will find something they need and buy it.
And let's not forget low return rates!
I love Amazon,and so does my bank account...heck my wife loves me more since I have become an Amazon affiliate!

Just kidding....but it's nice money!
Happy Holidays!

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hamzidosh

12 years ago

Learning alot from this thread!
Thanks everyone!

My question is does anyone have a process map for ranking websites?
I have a site thats a month old bt can't seem to get it anywhere on d SERPs!
I need help pls

Thanks

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Ashlindz

12 years ago

This is a very helpful thread I think I might grab a book or two to figure out the best method for getting amazon sales.

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rileyb 12 years ago

I think this will help you:

How To Build Thin Sites
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Big Al

12 years ago

I really cannot see how anybody could knock amazon for their commissions...
they give you commission on EVERYTHING the user buys
they sell everything
YOU don't have to worry about holding stock, fulfillment, customer queries etc
YOU get to piggy-back off a household brand name that everybody trusts
And considering their commissions start at circa 5% up to 10%, I don't think anybody is a position to complain.

I mean you *could* try to promote some crappy Clickbank product which hardly sells, and when it does, gets refunded

I take a product model focused route because I find it easier to make money quicker with smaller, more focused sites. I also make larger sites focused around a product type (ie. same product but lots of brands and lots of different models) which take more time and effort.

What I hadn't considered, but is worth trying, is turning a larger site into something more like a store. There are lots of specialized stores you can easily replicate with an Amazon sites. And where there is a real, offline specialized store -- there is definitely a market for an Amazon site.

I can think of Running Shops, Joke Shops, Kitchen shops, Tie Shops and so on. You can start with the gear you already and review it. Perfect if you're a runner, triathlete, swimmer etc etc.

I know it sounds obvious but most of my larger, more authoritive sites are still very tight and there is more room to become an authority and build value with something that resembles a store - IMHO.

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bmcgoff

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Big Al

I take a product model focused route because I find it easier to make money quicker with smaller, more focused sites. I also make larger sites focused around a product type (ie. same product but lots of brands and lots of different models) which take more time and effort.

What I hadn't considered, but is worth trying, is turning a larger site into something more like a store. There are lots of specialized stores you can easily replicate with an Amazon sites. And where there is a real, offline specialized store -- there is definitely a market for an Amazon site.

I can think of Running Shops, Joke Shops, Kitchen shops, Tie Shops and so on. You can start with the gear you already and review it. Perfect if you're a runner, triathlete, swimmer etc etc.

I know it sounds obvious but most of my larger, more authoritive sites are still very tight and there is more room to become an authority and build value with something that resembles a store - IMHO.

What about converting an Amazon review site to a drop shipping site, once it's ranking well and getting traffic? Does anyone do this?

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jbsmith

12 years ago

Having been running various online businesses for over 10 years now including my own product sites, licensed products, affiliate products and ad-revenue sites, my advice may be a little different than some others here, but please understand this is based on BIG picture of having many online businesses.

My advice is:

1. Pick niches based on a combination of something you are itnerested/passionate about and that you can monetize. In fact, all of our successful online businesses have Started with a niche we are passionate about, then we figured out how to monetize (some with Amazon, some via licensing deals, others with our own info product, etc...)

For example, which do you think will bring you the most money in the medium term...a content-rich website around a specific niche within music (guitar blog, a jazz musician forum, a content-rich site focused on drummers) that you then monetize in various ways including: a paid classified ad page, Amazon products closely matching your target niche, reselling an affiliate "how-to" instructional course related to your niche, etc... VERSUS a thin 10-20 article site that is focused on just Amazon products like you will learn from most Amazon marketing courses.

More than ever before SEO and people coming from social networks are looking for authority type sites rather than just review or thin content sites.

Believe me, pick a niche that you have passion for, commit to 30-days of activity, figure out how best to monetize and you will have built yourself a foundation for a very powerful, limitless business - think BIG

Jeff

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tim413 12 years ago

Hi All,

I have been doing Amazon sites for the past 6 months. Maybe, if you know what you'r doing, you can 300 dollars on one site in one month, but I personally don't see it happening.

The biggest challenge is targeted traffic.

Tim
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Ehsan_am

12 years ago

Originally Posted by jbsmith

Having been running various online businesses for over 10 years now including my own product sites, licensed products, affiliate products and ad-revenue sites, my advice may be a little different than some others here, but please understand this is based on BIG picture of having many online businesses.

My advice is:

1. Pick niches based on a combination of something you are itnerested/passionate about and that you can monetize. In fact, all of our successful online businesses have Started with a niche we are passionate about, then we figured out how to monetize (some with Amazon, some via licensing deals, others with our own info product, etc...)

For example, which do you think will bring you the most money in the medium term...a content-rich website around a specific niche within music (guitar blog, a jazz musician forum, a content-rich site focused on drummers) that you then monetize in various ways including: a paid classified ad page, Amazon products closely matching your target niche, reselling an affiliate "how-to" instructional course related to your niche, etc... VERSUS a thin 10-20 article site that is focused on just Amazon products like you will learn from most Amazon marketing courses.

More than ever before SEO and people coming from social networks are looking for authority type sites rather than just review or thin content sites.

Believe me, pick a niche that you have passion for, commit to 30-days of activity, figure out how best to monetize and you will have built yourself a foundation for a very powerful, limitless business - think BIG

Jeff

I think this is excellent advice. I have over 10 5-10 page amazon reviews websites and many of them got hit by Google probabaly just because they were thin affiliate sites.

When you build a large authority website you won't need to worry about that.
Many people will argue that having one or two large websites is going to problematic if you happen to get hit by Google. However you need to understand that a large, quality website is much more easier to promote with other means of traffic genretaion like social media or guest blog posting.

Thanks
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Mr. Ken Russell 12 years ago

Is anyone getting a lower conversion rate with Amazon this month?

My sales have dropped.
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dagama

12 years ago

An interesting thread, but quite depressing in one sense - no one is talking about making serious money, in the multi-thousands of dollars a month that the vendors of some Amazon instructional courses hold out as bait to buyers.

Is that all pie in the sky?

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Mantasmo 12 years ago

Originally Posted by dagama

Is that all pie in the sky?

No.

1. Rank for good keywords.
2. Offer good info/reviews.
3. Enjoy 20%+ conversion rates.

Easy.
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DoubleOhDave

12 years ago

How do I add a 'Thanks' ?

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cooler1 12 years ago

Originally Posted by DoubleOhDave

How do I add a 'Thanks' ?

I think you need at least 5 posts, then the Thanks button appear next to Quick Reply.
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tim413

12 years ago

bnetwork,

How do you rank on page one of Google in 30 day?

Tim

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shap 12 years ago

I have one very small niche site I added amazon affiliate to the homepage. Last month it converted 31.03%. The profit from that was very little due to the audience size, but there is definitely something to be said about a conversion rate like that...

I buy everything possible I can off amazon first personally so can easily see why conversion rates would be great.

I would agree, pick your favorite (profitable) hobby that has a large enough audience and blog away. Put your time in the "right" keywords and backlinks.
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Mantasmo

12 years ago

Originally Posted by tim413

bnetwork,

How do you rank on page one of Google in 30 day?

Tim

It's impossible to guarantee page 1 rankings in a month (or any other time frame as such), but what I normally do is this:

1. Start with a press release on launch.
2. Week 2 or 3 blast a few thousands social bookmarks to the site. Wait a few days. At this point I'm usually on page one already.
3. Drip feed 10-20 high PR blog post links (2-3 a day). These are normally from PR5+ sites.

That's usually enough to take #1-#3 for medium competition keywords (6000-12000 exact searches). Think medical niches, supplements, etc. But there's obviously no guarantee with this stuff. ALL of my sites rank in the top 3 eventually. Sometimes it takes 2-3 months though.

Oh and build high quality websites. Good luck!

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cooler1

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bnetwork

It's impossible to guarantee page 1 rankings in a month (or any other time frame as such), but what I normally do is this:

1. Start with a press release on launch.
2. Week 2 or 3 blast a few thousands social bookmarks to the site. Wait a few days. At this point I'm usually on page one already.
3. Drip feed 10-20 high PR blog post links (2-3 a day). These are normally from PR5+ sites.

That's usually enough to take #1-#3 for medium competition keywords (6000-12000 exact searches). Think medical niches, supplements, etc. But there's obviously no guarantee with this stuff. ALL of my sites rank in the top 3 eventually. Sometimes it takes 2-3 months though.

Oh and build high quality websites. Good luck!

Do you submit to paid press release sites or free ones?

Thanks
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Mantasmo 12 years ago

Originally Posted by cooler1

Do you submit to paid press release sites or free ones?

Paid. Much better results than free services. You also need a good writer to put a newsworthy article together.
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tim413

12 years ago

Thanks bnetwork and Webpromotion for sharing!!! I have been struggling with getting traffic, so your advice is very helpful!!!

Tim

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Mantasmo

12 years ago

Originally Posted by tim413

Thanks bnetwork and Webpromotion for sharing!!! I have been struggling with getting traffic, so your advice is very helpful!!!

Tim

No problem. A couple other things:

1. Don't forget to build high quality sites. This is very important. On average I have 2000+ words of content on the homepage + at least another 5-6 pages (500-2000 words each).

Make the layout simple and easy to navigate. Add content tables if needed (especially on long pages).

2. All of my ads are either in content (Amazon or affiliate links) or towards the bottom of the page (Adsense). People read high quality posts/articles and my bottom of page CTR is really good.

3. Have FB like/share buttons visible at the top of every page. One of my more recent sites already has over 560 FB likes. Yes people will "like" your site if you provide value.

4. Focus. Get one site ranking and earning at first. Learn what works.

Good luck.

edit: if you only have around $400 to invest then follow what I outlined in the above posts and monetize with Adsense. Get one site to $150+ per month and wait until PR updates. Track rankings and visitors all the time (for proof). List it on Flippa - you should be able to get around $2000-$3000 for a site like that (especially if you get real FB likes regularly and get to PR3+). Reinvest the profits. It works, because I've done it.

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SlowlyMan

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bnetwork

No problem. A couple other things:

1. Don't forget to build high quality sites. This is very important. On average I have 2000+ words of content on the homepage + at least another 5-6 pages (500-2000 words each).

Make the layout simple and easy to navigate. Add content tables if needed (especially on long pages).

2. All of my ads are either in content (Amazon or affiliate links) or towards the bottom of the page (Adsense). People read high quality posts/articles and my bottom of page CTR is really good.

3. Have FB like/share buttons visible at the top of every page. One of my more recent sites already has over 560 FB likes. Yes people will "like" your site if you provide value.

4. Focus. Get one site ranking and earning at first. Learn what works.

Good luck.

edit: if you only have around $400 to invest then follow what I outlined in the above posts and monetize with Adsense. Get one site to $150+ per month and wait until PR updates. Track rankings and visitors all the time (for proof). List it on Flippa - you should be able to get around $2000-$3000 for a site like that (especially if you get real FB likes regularly and get to PR3+). Reinvest the profits. It works, because I've done it.

Do you have a particular plugin that works well for this. I've tried a few but haven't gotten the look I want.

Thanks
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Mantasmo

12 years ago

Originally Posted by SlowlyMan

Do you have a particular plugin that works well for this. I've tried a few but haven't gotten the look I want.

Nope, no plugin. I just hard code mine into the themes. Same problem - couldn't find one I liked, tried them all.

Same goes for content tables and related posts. I hard code mine into the pages/theme files/articles/whatever (depending on the theme). There just aren't any good WP plugins for this kind of thing. (hey another WSO idea!)

To those who PMed me today - apparently I don't have enough posts to send/answer messages.

Thanks
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danny11 12 years ago

You always see people trying to sell $100 plus items

personally I find selling complimentary products that are useless without buying other products are better - since they tend to buy 5-6 items instead of just the 1 (because its expensive)

next you see people selling amazon sites for $150 - but to be honest making them myself for $10 - tend to sell better.

lastly you got to stop Google from searching your plugins etc so they don't catch onto you trying to juice up your site - otherwise you get de-indexed.

As far as the commission being low - well you know what I'd rather know that I was getting paid and only earning 7% - than promote these CPA Companies that steal your money or shave you to death .. Amazon pays and will be around for the long term.

Good Luck
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redstanford

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bnetwork

Nope, no plugin. I just hard code mine into the themes. Same problem - couldn't find one I liked, tried them all.

Same goes for content tables and related posts. I hard code mine into the pages/theme files/articles/whatever (depending on the theme). There just aren't any good WP plugins for this kind of thing. (hey another WSO idea!)

To those who PMed me today - apparently I don't have enough posts to send/answer messages.

pardon my ignorance but do you need to create a facebook page in order to add a "like" button on your site?

Thanks

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Mantasmo

12 years ago

Oh and I forgot about blog comments. Get 20 or so high PR blog comments (PR 4+). Pay someone or do this yourself. This combined with my previous post will get you easy PR 3/4 next PR update (good if you want to flip the site).

Now someone go make a WSO using this info.

Thanks

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Webpromotion

12 years ago

I normally do not disclose this but I will help you out a bit.

- Is that achievable?
Yes, most definitely. $300 a month is a very conservative number.

- What niche worked the best for you?
Do not go in too deep, make sure you have other items connected to your niche. Believe it or not, I did good with products not in the over $1000 category. People think that if the commission is big, then you will make good money. The problem is that not a lot of people are buying these expensive items, well , at least not the people going to my sites. Maybe I have cheapskate traffic.

- How did you started affiliate marketing?
I actually started with clickbank, but failed. I made almost $200 on clickbank... then nothing... till this day... that is all I have made with clickbank.

- Can you show me some examples of affiliate websites?
No disrespect but of course not. Showing you my sites will just motivate you to copy them. And it's just not fair that I busted my azz testing and learning what works and what did not work, so that you can now just come and copy a successful way. Come on, have some respect for my work.

- Do you pay for advertisements? how much is your budget?
Yes, I buy traffic for my site. I do media buys also.
I am a traffic dealer, so I get to try all sorts of traffic on my sites.
I spend like $30 a day total for all sites on one account.

- How many visitors do you have on average? and what is your conversion rate? Visitors are like 1200 to all sites on one account and conversions vary.
Sometimes 3% and all the way up to 20%.
For some reason during the holidays I got more hits, more money but the conversions rates was lower.
Guess people were doing a lot more looking than buying.

- What strategy worked for you and what didn't?
Buying traffic worked for me. Building sites worked for me.
Sitting around waiting for someone to put out a WSO that is going to help me make it .....did not work for me.

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redstanford

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Webpromotion

I normally do not disclose this but I will help you out a bit.

- Is that achievable?
Yes, most definitely. $300 a month is a very conservative number.

- What niche worked the best for you?
Do not go in too deep, make sure you have other items connected to your niche. Believe it or not, I did good with products not in the over $1000 category. People think that if the commission is big, then you will make good money. The problem is that not a lot of people are buying these expensive items, well , at least not the people going to my sites. Maybe I have cheapskate traffic.

- How did you started affiliate marketing?
I actually started with clickbank, but failed. I made almost $200 on clickbank... then nothing... till this day... that is all I have made with clickbank.

- Can you show me some examples of affiliate websites?
No disrespect but of course not. Showing you my sites will just motivate you to copy them. And it's just not fair that I busted my azz testing and learning what works and what did not work, so that you can now just come and copy a successful way. Come on, have some respect for my work.

- Do you pay for advertisements? how much is your budget?
Yes, I buy traffic for my site. I do media buys also.
I am a traffic dealer, so I get to try all sorts of traffic on my sites.
I spend like $30 a day total for all sites on one account.

- How many visitors do you have on average? and what is your conversion rate? Visitors are like 1200 to all sites on one account and conversions vary.
Sometimes 3% and all the way up to 20%.
For some reason during the holidays I got more hits, more money but the conversions rates was lower.
Guess people were doing a lot more looking than buying.

- What strategy worked for you and what didn't?
Buying traffic worked for me. Building sites worked for me.
Sitting around waiting for someone to put out a WSO that is going to help me make it .....did not work for me.

can i ask from who do you buy your traffic. right now i'm only getting seo traffic (bout 150 per day) but all traffic buys i've tried in the past, ya know the $2 for 500 visitors kind, only gets hits but 100% bounce rate and half a second on site.

can you recommend a good traffic service?

Thanks
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Webpromotion

12 years ago

Originally Posted by redstanford

can i ask from who do you buy your traffic. right now i'm only getting seo traffic (bout 150 per day) but all traffic buys i've tried in the past, ya know the $2 for 500 visitors kind, only gets hits but 100% bounce rate and half a second on site.

can you recommend a good traffic service?

I am a traffic dealer. I buy and sell that kind of traffic to large corporations.
Its very expensive, but it converts.
I do not normally sell it to individuals.
and even then you have to know what you are doing.

Thanks

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redstanford

12 years ago

i see some people recommending ProReviewTheme.

have they fixed their customer support issues? i had that theme 2 months ago and uploading images and some other tech issues took a great deal of time to get fixed.

i ended up dropping that theme because i hated asking customer support to help me with every aspect of my theme.

i may look into it though if you guys think it's worth it

Thanks

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DesignYourOwnGift

Banned 12 years ago

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Dustin Wright 12 years ago

Originally Posted by DesignYourOwnGift

"...For the general products, the competition is too big...."

I must respectfully disagree! I have been a computer "IT" consultant for nearly 5 years after leaving the corporate world. I sell something businesses NEED. I nearly have to screw a pistol in the ear of the CFO to get them to buy. It's like insurance, but they have no legal requirement to buy service such as mine. This is why the Amazon marketing appeals to me so much. It shifts the paradigm to sell what people WANT vs what they need and want will win 100% of the time! I describe it this way, people have money every day of the week for beer and smokes, but blood preasure medicine will wait until payday next Tuesday.

Online shopping is nearly the dominate method people use to buy and with the saturation of the smartphone it WILL be very soon. Amazon IS the KING right now. Why not ride it's coat-tails?

I've spent the last five years trying to "educate" my prospective client base why they need and should buy what I offer. They don't care. I'm tired of that fight. Now, I'm going to per Jan Roos's "Proven Income Method" put up review sites for what people WANT. I know how to see what people are buying, so I KNOW what people want. I don't have to convince them, I don't have to educate them on why the should buy, I simply give them what they want and Amazon does the rest.

Brilliant!
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MikeTucker

12 years ago

Major sites are like department stores. A "microsite" is like the boutique that knows it can't compete directly with Macy's, so instead it opens a small shop next door which specializes in doing just a few things better than Macy's does.

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Dustin Wright

12 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeTucker

Major sites are like department stores. A "microsite" is like the boutique that knows it can't compete directly with Macy's, so instead it opens a small shop next door which specializes in doing just a few things better than Macy's does.

Thanks! Would I be correct that the car seat example earlier in the thread would be an example of a "microsite"?

Are the "review" sites Jan (and I'm sure others) advocate "microsites"?

Thanks again for the clarification, I'm a bit fuzzy on this.

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Aha moment

12 years ago

well... that's very achievable I think, $300 per month.. . . with lower product price to sell, you can reach that ... wish you all the best this year, dude

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JeremiahSay

12 years ago

If do not want to go through the trouble of creating and maintaining your own website/blog then a great place for you to start is PR7 Squidoo. I've just started out with squidoo so far and have created 4 lenses. I'm still trying to make it a habit to create at least a lens each day so by end of 2012, I would have at least 300 lenses promoting amazon as an affiliate.

I believe by then $1,000/= passive income is not a big deal.

1 thing great about amazon is for instance, I'm promoting books and my customer end up buying totally something different - Audio CD for example .. I'll still received the full commission.. That's incredible!

Squidoo is a great place for newbie like us to begin with.. It's FREE, Google love squidoo so squidoo content has a super high chance to get indexed faster (so we don't have to go through the trouble to backlink or do some funny stuff just to get google to index our website content etc).

Hope this help, May God bless you,
Jeremiah

P.S. I have 4 lenses in my squidoo account so far - in case if you like to take a look at some example: Reviews on Robert T. Kiyosaki's books

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bikramksingh

12 years ago

My answers are in red

Originally Posted by iThinkhard

I am starting at amazon affiliate marketing and I need few ressources and mentoring. my first goal is 300$ per month by end 2012.

- Is that achievable?
Yes

- What niche worked the best for you?
It depends on which niche you have command over, and
where your writing stands out

- How did you started affiliate marketing?
from my blog

- Can you show me some examples of affiliate websites?
Oops, I can't

- Do you pay for advertisments? how much is your budget?
NO. Free traffic is all I use

- How many visitors do you have on average? and what is your conversion rate?
haven't checked it for days

- What strategy worked for you and what didn't?
:p

I understand that many of you may think twice before revealing their "secrets" publicly, but please share as much as you can

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Mantasmo 12 years ago

Originally Posted by redstanford

pardon my ignorance but do you need to create a facebook page in order to add a "like" button on your site?

Nope, just grab the button code from FB and you're good to go. You can customize it here: Like Button - Facebook Developers
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chrislangley

12 years ago

I think picking a niche where you enjoy and can talk about the product all day is a first step, some have claimed building many amazon sites is the key to earning, while others have focused on the quality of a few sites

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SlowlyMan

12 years ago

I know plenty of folks have made money with Jan Roos's program, but it has been out for a while.

Has it become dated? Is it still effective post Panda?

Thanks
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Mantasmo

12 years ago

Originally Posted by SlowlyMan

I know plenty of folks have made money with Jan Roos's program, but it has been out for a while.

Has it become dated? Is it still effective post Panda?

I've never heard of Jan Roos, but here's the thing...

The basics haven't changed in years. Seriously. It's always been about building high quality websites and ranking them for decent keywords. Sure some people made money with MFA farms and Amazon farms, but if you are in this long term then you should really be building for the long term.

If you are new to this then it might be a good idea to pick up an e-course from a reputable seller here or w/e, but once you are done reading - get to work. By the time you've built your first site you'll have learned more than... you get my point.

I've built hundreds of sites. Maybe even thousands (counting client sites of course) and most of the things I did when starting out turned out to be complete flops. But look - it's cheap. And it's a learning experience. Enjoy it.

There really are no secrets to this, no system and no method. Most of the ebooks are sold by people who only have 2-3 Amazon or Adsense sites. They make $30 in a month and decide that if they had 200+ sites they'd be rich. So they write an ebook. That's one way to make money...

Overall, I'd say that Adsense is better if you're just starting out and have limited funds. With around $500 you can build a very good, high traffic, high ranking website. Give it a couple months and you should be making $100-$300/month with that site. Then flip it for $2000-$3000 profit and reinvest into 5 more such sites. It's that simple.

That is how it works. There is no "system". If all you're willing to spend is $50/site and then another $200+ on random courses - you are going to fail. You'll be sitting on a ton of ebooks and a bunch of $20/month sites 12 months from now reading the same threads over and over again. Break the cycle and take control of your life.

There is no secret formula. Suck it up and get to work. Be patient, keep your day job and don't lose hope. Do work. Everything else is just mental masturbation.

Here's a possible scenario for you guys:

Month 1: invest $400 or so into 1 site.
Month 3: sell the site for $2000 ($1300 profit). Reinvest into 3 more sites.
Month 6: sell 3 sites for $2000 each ($3900 profit). Reinvest into 10 sites.
Month 9: you should have 10 sites making around $100/month each. Now you can either sell them or keep them. Or a little bit of both.

^this is the only way to make this work if you're on a limited budget. It's possible. It's not going to replace your day job for at least a couple of years. Now go do it.

I got so carried away with this...

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redstanford

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bnetwork

I've never heard of Jan Roos, but here's the thing...

The basics haven't changed in years. Seriously. It's always been about building high quality websites and ranking them for decent keywords. Sure some people made money with MFA farms and Amazon farms, but if you are in this long term then you should really be building for the long term.

If you are new to this then it might be a good idea to pick up an e-course from a reputable seller here or w/e, but once you are done reading - get to work. By the time you've built your first site you'll have learned more than... you get my point.

I've built hundreds of sites. Maybe even thousands (counting client sites of course) and most of the things I did when starting out turned out to be complete flops. But look - it's cheap. And it's a learning experience. Enjoy it.

There really are no secrets to this, no system and no method. Most of the ebooks are sold by people who only have 2-3 Amazon or Adsense sites. They make $30 in a month and decide that if they had 200+ sites they'd be rich. So they write an ebook. That's one way to make money...

Overall, I'd say that Adsense is better if you're just starting out and have limited funds. With around $500 you can build a very good, high traffic, high ranking website. Give it a couple months and you should be making $100-$300/month with that site. Then flip it for $2000-$3000 profit and reinvest into 5 more such sites. It's that simple.

That is how it works. There is no "system". If all you're willing to spend is $50/site and then another $200+ on random courses - you are going to fail. You'll be sitting on a ton of ebooks and a bunch of $20/month sites 12 months from now reading the same threads over and over again. Break the cycle and take control of your life.

There is no secret formula. Suck it up and get to work. Be patient, keep your day job and don't lose hope. Do work. Everything else is just mental masturbation.

Here's a possible scenario for you guys:

Month 1: invest $400 or so into 1 site.
Month 3: sell the site for $2000 ($1300 profit). Reinvest into 3 more sites.
Month 6: sell 3 sites for $2000 each ($3900 profit). Reinvest into 10 sites.
Month 9: you should have 10 sites making around $100/month each. Now you can either sell them or keep them. Or a little bit of both.

^this is the only way to make this work if you're on a limited budget. It's possible. It's not going to replace your day job for at least a couple of years. Now go do it.

I got so carried away with this...

i must be paying too much. invest $400 in one site and your golden?

i've been paying my seo guy $200/month for the past 6 months. i wish $400 alone would be enough for a top page ranking.

Thanks
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Mantasmo

12 years ago

Originally Posted by redstanford

i must be paying too much. invest $400 in one site and your golden?

i've been paying my seo guy $200/month for the past 6 months. i wish $400 alone would be enough for a top page ranking.

It depends on the site/keywords, but yes, you're probably paying way too much.

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redstanford

12 years ago

ok tell me who you are outsourcing your seo work to.

i'm on page 1 right now for a lot of keywords but it costed me probably 1,400+ to achieve it

my guy is from India

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Mantasmo

12 years ago

Originally Posted by redstanford

ok tell me who you are outsourcing your seo work to.

i'm on page 1 right now for a lot of keywords but it costed me probably 1,400+ to achieve it

my guy is from India

I don't share my link sources, sorry.

It obviously depends on keywords. What I was talking about above is a simple $100/month Adsense site. If you are going after $300+ niches/keywords it's going to cost you more (unless you get lucky).

I believe if you're paying $200/month then the site is making more than $200/month and you're in the money. It's all relative.

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SlowlyMan

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bnetwork

I've never heard of Jan Roos, but here's the thing...

The basics haven't changed in years. Seriously. It's always been about building high quality websites and ranking them for decent keywords. Sure some people made money with MFA farms and Amazon farms, but if you are in this long term then you should really be building for the long term.

If you are new to this then it might be a good idea to pick up an e-course from a reputable seller here or w/e, but once you are done reading - get to work. By the time you've built your first site you'll have learned more than... you get my point.

I've built hundreds of sites. Maybe even thousands (counting client sites of course) and most of the things I did when starting out turned out to be complete flops. But look - it's cheap. And it's a learning experience. Enjoy it.

There really are no secrets to this, no system and no method. Most of the ebooks are sold by people who only have 2-3 Amazon or Adsense sites. They make $30 in a month and decide that if they had 200+ sites they'd be rich. So they write an ebook. That's one way to make money...

Overall, I'd say that Adsense is better if you're just starting out and have limited funds. With around $500 you can build a very good, high traffic, high ranking website. Give it a couple months and you should be making $100-$300/month with that site. Then flip it for $2000-$3000 profit and reinvest into 5 more such sites. It's that simple.

That is how it works. There is no "system". If all you're willing to spend is $50/site and then another $200+ on random courses - you are going to fail. You'll be sitting on a ton of ebooks and a bunch of $20/month sites 12 months from now reading the same threads over and over again. Break the cycle and take control of your life.

There is no secret formula. Suck it up and get to work. Be patient, keep your day job and don't lose hope. Do work. Everything else is just mental masturbation.

Here's a possible scenario for you guys:

Month 1: invest $400 or so into 1 site.
Month 3: sell the site for $2000 ($1300 profit). Reinvest into 3 more sites.
Month 6: sell 3 sites for $2000 each ($3900 profit). Reinvest into 10 sites.
Month 9: you should have 10 sites making around $100/month each. Now you can either sell them or keep them. Or a little bit of both.

^this is the only way to make this work if you're on a limited budget. It's possible. It's not going to replace your day job for at least a couple of years. Now go do it.

I got so carried away with this...

"mental masturbation." That made my morning right there.

Seriously, this is the first time I have read a post where any body suggests spending real money on a campaign.

It's usually - Use this free tool, get this free theme, use adwords (for free), do your own back linking (free). Autopilot, push button, c##p.

This is the most motivating post I've read on Warriors. I'm sitting here spending money on my sites and thinking I'm must be doing something wrong if all these people are making money without investing anything.

Thanks, I'm feeling pretty good about my strategy now. Of course I'll hit a road block tomorrow and get frustrated again. but hey, today is a good day. thanks

Thanks

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askandreceive 12 years ago

Originally Posted by SlowlyMan

I know plenty of folks have made money with Jan Roos's program, but it has been out for a while.

Has it become dated? Is it still effective post Panda?

I wondered the same, but if you have Jan Roos's program, check out the theme he uses...then find any product on amazon and see if you see any of them ranking on the first page with that theme.

It's been a while since I read Jan's material, but on the first page I get this website which looks like the one Jan's uses on his course.
So i guess the sites still work....

ps. damn, couldn't post a link as i don't have enough posts, but the site is:
www dot juicerreviews dot com
That site looks like the one use in Jan's course, but i could be wrong as I'm going by memory.
- Thanks
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bmcgoff 12 years ago

Originally Posted by SlowlyMan

I know plenty of folks have made money with Jan Roos's program, but it has been out for a while.

Has it become dated? Is it still effective post Panda?

It works the same as it always has, but you're off page SEO tactics need to change with the environment. You need more social/video/etc. these days.
- Thanks
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raquelsmith

12 years ago

Hello Guys, happy new year to all!! I'm planning for online marketing and the secrets of amazon affiliate marketing too?

Thanks

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Mantasmo

12 years ago

No problem.

A couple more things (not necessary, but nice):

1. I prefer getclicky over Google Analytics. Check them out (paid but pretty cheap).
2. Use clicktale.com when optimizing your sites (ad placement, etc). They have a free account that should be enough to get you started.
3. I track all sites/kw rankings with serpfox.com (there are many others, but these guys are cheap and accurate).

Thanks

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Gaz Cooper

12 years ago

Originally Posted by iThinkhard

I am starting at amazon affiliate marketing and I need few ressources and mentoring. my first goal is 300$ per month by end 2012.

- Is that achievable?
- What niche worked the best for you?
- How did you started affiliate marketing?
- Can you show me some examples of affiliate websites?
- Do you pay for advertisments? how much is your budget?
- How many visitors do you have on average? and what is your conversion rate?
- What strategy worked for you and what didn't?

I understand that many of you may think twice before revealing their "secrets" publicly, but please share as much as you can

$300 is very very realistic in fact you should be doing more than that if you focus and take consistent action on your sites.

Niches, there are just so many, and the key to choosing your niche, is to choose something you have a real interest and passion in, this will make it much easier and enjoyable to work on your site. (of course you can do other stuff but its proven if you have passion in the subject it will shine through)

Making money on Amazon is not rocket science and basically anyone can put a basic course together as the outline is the same, HOWEVER courses quickly can become outdated and the key is to find one that is constantly updated, and is always evolving as things are changing.

You also need a good support network as you will have questions and unfortunately support is lacking in many of the courses available and waiting on an answer for a simple problem for 2 days can be VERY frustrating to say the least.

I still believe in Sniper sites but the main focus should be Authority sites, which can be built into a really lucrative income over time, especially if you have a passion for the subject matter. I also believe gaining access to the product can really take your review sites from great to Brilliant.

The key is to get started, focus, and take daily consistent action and you will very quickly exceed your goals, the problem is people don't take the consistent action that is required to become a successful Amazon affiliate.

Good Luck

Kickin it on Amazon

Gaz Cooper
Amz Training Academy

Thanks
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Riki Oh

12 years ago

Originally Posted by GazCooperOnline

I still believe in Sniper sites but the main focus should be Authority sites, which can be built into a really lucrative income over time, especially if you have a passion for the subject matter. I also believe gaining access to the product can really take your review sites from great to Brilliant.

-How would you define the two; by number of pages in the site, or by search volume or both? What sort of search volumes and pages do you aim for when building an authority site?

Thanks.

Thanks

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mikem1962

12 years ago

I have seen people go to other affiliate companies because the commissions were higher than amazon, but made zero sales until after they switched to amazon. The botton line is people trust amazon.

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PatrickBrianONeill

12 years ago

iThinkHard,

What I have found is that there are no secrets!

Amazon is so well-respected, I just tell people on my Amazon review sites that I am sending them to Amazon for the top-rated products reviewed by customers just like them, and Amazon does the rest.

Amazon is sooooo goooooood at closing the sale, I all the time find people buying random things I do not represent in niches I don't represent.

The key here is in the numbers.

Build a site a day, or one a week, then forget about it and track sales and visitors.

As you see some sites get more traffic and sales, spend more time on those, and keep repeating.

But the key is just to get them to Amazon.

Heck, I have even used Amazon links on Twitter and made straight-through sales.

Patrick

Thanks

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awj888

12 years ago

well its totally possible to earn good money on amazon,
you can go about it different ways but what we found the best method was to concentrate on a few larger sites as apose to single product websites. This is because when you do SEO you are most likly targeting very long tail keywords. so lets say you have a nice wordpress blog with about 300 posts about amazon products, if you had those on 300 websites you would be taking so much extra time promoting each one via SEO
however if you put those 300 (related!) products into 1 domain then all the SEo you do on the primary domain will send down link juice to the other posts getting them to rank better for long tail keywords. then ofcourse you can choose a few good converting products and then do SEo on the individual pages - that way they will also see more traffic by themselves. Ive noticed that from 100 uniques a day this can be anywhrere from 2-10sales and none of the traffic come to the homepage it all comes from the posts.

try building about 3 sites, some will work some wont, but work hard on promotion for a bout a month, this should kick start your sales very fast. Every amazon site i have built earns comissions (even if its only $20) after about 3-4 weeks from the date the domain is purchased. Obviously not serious money, but as this number increased each month a target of 300-1000 a month from 1 site is very achieveable if you leave enough time to develop the content and traffic.
just remember SEO goes a really long way and is a long term solution - dont think that because you just made a great amazon product site that you will be making sales the next day - and dont forget to make sure you index you websites very well!

Thanks

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bmcgoff

12 years ago

How did you get into traffic selling? That seems like an interesting business model...

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zonkow

12 years ago

All the Amazon affiliate sites I have seen so far include only product reviews, not informative articles.
Does having a lot of product reviews make a site an authority site?
Doesn't a website need informative articles to be authority?

Thanks
1 reply

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myob

12 years ago

What you don't really see is how these "authority" sites are actually being promoted. Writing articles can effectively make you an authority in your niche, and powerfully underscores well-researched product reviews. Driving traffic from such sources authoritatively positions product reviews far above even top ranking in the search engines, resulting in conversion rates well into double digits.

Thanks
1 reply

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MikeTucker

12 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

What you don't really see is how these "authority" sites are actually being promoted. Writing articles can effectively make you an authority in your niche, and powerfully underscores well-researched product reviews. Driving traffic from such sources authoritatively positions product reviews far above even top ranking in the search engines, resulting in conversion rates well into double digits.

What are you saying here, Paul? That getting backlinks and getting listed first in Google is the same as naming my company AAA 123 A Locksmith to get listed first in the Yellow Pages? (And that the lead is about the same quality?)

On the other hand, having a good article published in high quality, well-read magazines, where people will actually read it and allow it to influence the way they think before they ever see the price or sales page/sales link, you think that creates a better lead?

What a mind-boggling concept!

Oh, no, wait a minute... That's how Jeff Bezoes made Amazon a household name, isn't it?
Oh, and that's how Google itself became an "authority", too!
Almost makes sense...

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myob 12 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeTucker

What a mind-boggling concept!

This method actually has been working far longer than that method, and still keeps kicking that in the ass.
- Thanks
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mickmccrory

12 years ago

Paid traffic is a good way to get immediate traffic. Using the bing $25 coupon to start a campaign can't hurt, and facebook ads credits $50 are found online in some places to help start seeing some movement to your site.

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kea55

12 years ago

great thread. This is some reallly great advice.

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sandy christine1

12 years ago

Hi.
I often get asked how I pick a profitable niche market, and what keywords I choose. These are of course very good questions indeed.
So in this post I thought it might be helpful to share an example of a market and product that I came across, which I don't have time to build a site in, but maybe one of you will.
I should also add that this style of affiliate site is for Amazon affiliate marketing, which is very easy to get accepted into, all you need is a website!so,
Good Luck!

Thanks

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marco005

11 years ago

Hi,

great informacional stuff.
Is that right; A micro site with lets say 5 or 10 pages but content rich, also each page
have 500 words of content and a 800-1000 words of content homepage, is more valuable, ranks and convert better than a thin content site with 20,30 or more pages who has only 120 or 200 words of content on it???

Show me the article/ product review writer who can write product reviews that brings 20-30% conversions for an acceptable price, can anybody recommend me here some serious product review writer and press release writer?

best wishes
marco005

Thanks

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warrioradam

11 years ago

bump for future reading.

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BarryOnline

11 years ago

Is that achievable?

Absolutely, your goal is VERY achievable! It's great that you have set yourself a goal, it makes you accountable, gives you focus and drivers you forward.

What niche worked the best for you?

Niche/product selection is one of the biggest stumbling blocks when starting out. It's not just about the "niche" itself, it's about how you market to that niche that determines success.

How did you started affiliate marketing?

Best way to get started with affiliate marketing is to lean from people who are already successfully doing it. There are a few good courses out there that will be able to answer most of your questions and get you started. Use the Warrior forum search function to read posts about affiliate marketing and make sure to APPLY WHAT YOU LEARN.

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kevinmartinjr

11 years ago

As with any affiliate program, backlinking in the right places is always key

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javari

11 years ago

There is some talk about microsites in this tread. But isn't Google coming down on them since the last updates? I understand that you're now to make authority sites with lots of content.

BTW, there was a great tip about getting just one course and sticking with that. I can tell you from experience that it's very easy to get "information overload" which results in doing nothing. So that tip is probably one of the best you can get :-)

Thanks

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wolfmmiii

11 years ago

- Is that achievable?
Absolutely. I earn SIGNIFICANTLY more than this as an Amazon affiliate.

- What niche worked the best for you?
I target multiple niches. Almost any niche can be profitable.

- How did you started affiliate marketing?
I've been doing IM for over 15 years. I started with eBay and progressed to where I am today.

- Can you show me some examples of affiliate websites?
One of my demo sites: My Tool Review Blog › Log In
username: demouser
password: password

- Do you pay for advertisments? how much is your budget?
Very rarely. My review sites typically rank quickly and highly.

- How many visitors do you have on average? and what is your conversion rate?
Traffic varies by niche as does conversion rate.

- What strategy worked for you and what didn't?
I target low competition products and do very, very well.

Thanks

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