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Newbies! Start with Amazon Affiliates, here's why

by Jaryl
11 replies
Hi there!

Just a while ago I was new to Internet Marketing, and it was so easy to get lost with all the options out there. There's CPA, Adsense, Clickbank, Offline Marketing, offering writing/SEO/design services freelance, and many more. The internet is literally a whole new world of opportunities, so much that it may even feel daunting.

It took me a while to make my first sale online, because I was shifting from method to method, looking for the best one.

Guess how I made my first sale?

That's right - Amazon affiliates. I'm still good money from it, even though I have diversified my income quite a bit.

Here's why I think Amazon affiliates is the right place to start for a newbie:

It's much harder doing affiliate marketing for digital products (Clickbank, for example) because people are usually more apprehensive about buying a digital product over a physical product.

With this apprehension in mind, people often go the extra mile with new techniques and skills, amongst them: building "high-converting" squeeze pages, dabbling in SEO and pay-per-click advertising, learning to write good copy, and it can get quite daunting - a newbie might just feel lost at times.

This is not to say that these skills are useless, however, they certainly are! The aforementioned skills are extremely important, but for a newbie it would be wise to start off one step at a time.

That's why Amazon affiliates is great: you learn to do keyword research, SEO, and you learn to write reviews to gently persuade visitors to buy. That's manageable for beginners, don't you think? You get to learn some VERY important basics! Start with Amazon, then as you get better at your skills of persuasion you can learn to write good copy for Clickbank/product creation.

Most people get burned out not making their first dollar month after month. For some people, it can take a loong time before they first start earning, and many will get disheartened and give up. In my opinion, it doesn't get much easier than Amazon affiliates. Earning your first dollar that much quicker can be excellent motivation.

I hope this helped!

Godspeed, newbies.
#affiliates #amazon #newbies #start
  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    Great post. Good luck to your business and keep up the good work. I only hope Amazon will not turn like ebay someday. I am not promoting any amazon product after I sold my amazon authority site earlier this year due to some financial problem but I have some kindle ebooks on sale adding some $ to my amazon account
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    • Profile picture of the author Jaryl
      Thank you! I'm glad someone can testify to the potential of Amazon affiliates.

      Pity you had to sell the site though, an Amazon site I created more than a year ago still gives me passive income without me putting any work into it. I hope you'll build a new one someday!

      All the best!
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  • Profile picture of the author TheMacMan
    Yes I started doing amazon as I saw these huge benifits that can be reaped with as little as 2 hours work a day. I started seeing results within 2 months, and it boosted my confidence. I'm now thinking about reviewing clickbank products for higher profits.. I dont know we'll see.
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  • Profile picture of the author magiclint
    May I ask, is the best way to make money through Amazon via a review blog?
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    • Profile picture of the author cooler1
      Originally Posted by magiclint View Post

      May I ask, is the best way to make money through Amazon via a review blog?
      No it isn't. The big earners are using methods such as article syndication and offline deals to drive traffic. The review site method is what all the WSOs and Amazon courses tout so everyone follows like sheep then gets burnt when Big G make there next dreaded update.
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    • Profile picture of the author SlfMastery
      To "Jaryl" (OP):
      Amazon has that trust factor already which make people buy. Plus, you get a commission for ANY item you buy at Amazon.com which improves your chances of making money.

      Catching them when they are in the buying mood, i.e. Christmas, Valentines, Halloween, etc. will make it easy to make sales.

      One of my products are converting 12%. A newbie should start with their personal story/experience on how a product helped them. That is effective copy...naturally.

      Charlie
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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    Although clickbank products offers higher affiliate commission than amazon, it is getting harder and harder to sell digital products. Amazon products especially household products are becoming more and more popular. People tend to buy physical products easily than digital..
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  • Profile picture of the author retsced
    Okay, I will be the one to go against the grain here. Personally I think writing reviews to sell physical products on amazon is the worst approach to creating an online business. If your goal is to just make money online then great, go ahead, but if you actually have aspirations of creating a long lasting business then I suggest you stay away from this outdated model. Sure you will make a few sales here and there but where i come from, making a few sales on amazon each month is bloody useless, especially with the very low commissions.

    All of the folk that start out this way NEVER understand the potential of creating an asset like an email list. How many review sites have you seen online promoting Amazon products that have an opt-in form on them? very few. Another thing, how many of these review sites are focused around a passion? very few again. This used to be a great model and yes, it can be a good start if you want to make quick cash, but that's not what I cam online for. I came online to create a business.

    You would have to put in just as much work to sell a lot of Amazon products than you would to create a squeeze page where you collect email addresses and then market your clickbank products. The fact is, and what a lot of people don't get, is that people jump around from site to site before they make a buying decision. An email list is essential to build that initial relationship and make sales over and over again.

    If you are going to go down the Amazon promotion route then at least start to build an email list as oon as possible. This model worked well years ago and continues to work well for experienced marketers, but if you are just starting out, do you honestly believe selling Amazon products at 6% commissions is the best approach to making good income online? Not a bloody chance.

    My recommendation is to sell membership packages and high ticket products and services. I used to sell "strollers" on Amazon and they were priced at $300, I made something like $12 a sale... what a f*****g joke. I now make one sale of a service and get $1000 commission with far less work, and people still think the Amazon model is a great place to start. It's not.

    Another thing, most people taking this route end up with review sites everywhere selling many different products, when Google changes their algo, they're on here complaining about them wondering where to go or what to do next. Again, does this sound like a good business model for a newbie? Absolutely not. Experienced marketers can make good income from Amazon, but they will NEVER create substantial income from it, so why waste time in the beginning? Why not learn everything about promoting high ticket items, membership packages and then throw in a few little affiliate sales here and there.
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    • Profile picture of the author pdrs
      Originally Posted by retsced View Post

      Okay, I will be the one to go against the grain here. Personally I think writing reviews to sell physical products on amazon is the worst approach to creating an online business. If your goal is to just make money online then great, go ahead, but if you actually have aspirations of creating a long lasting business then I suggest you stay away from this outdated model. Sure you will make a few sales here and there but where i come from, making a few sales on amazon each month is bloody useless, especially with the very low commissions.

      All of the folk that start out this way NEVER understand the potential of creating an asset like an email list. How many review sites have you seen online promoting Amazon products that have an opt-in form on them? very few. Another thing, how many of these review sites are focused around a passion? very few again. This used to be a great model and yes, it can be a good start if you want to make quick cash, but that's not what I cam online for. I came online to create a business.

      You would have to put in just as much work to sell a lot of Amazon products than you would to create a squeeze page where you collect email addresses and then market your clickbank products. The fact is, and what a lot of people don't get, is that people jump around from site to site before they make a buying decision. An email list is essential to build that initial relationship and make sales over and over again.

      If you are going to go down the Amazon promotion route then at least start to build an email list as oon as possible. This model worked well years ago and continues to work well for experienced marketers, but if you are just starting out, do you honestly believe selling Amazon products at 6% commissions is the best approach to making good income online? Not a bloody chance.

      My recommendation is to sell membership packages and high ticket products and services. I used to sell "strollers" on Amazon and they were priced at $300, I made something like $12 a sale... what a f*****g joke. I now make one sale of a service and get $1000 commission with far less work, and people still think the Amazon model is a great place to start. It's not.

      Another thing, most people taking this route end up with review sites everywhere selling many different products, when Google changes their algo, they're on here complaining about them wondering where to go or what to do next. Again, does this sound like a good business model for a newbie? Absolutely not. Experienced marketers can make good income from Amazon, but they will NEVER create substantial income from it, so why waste time in the beginning? Why not learn everything about promoting high ticket items, membership packages and then throw in a few little affiliate sales here and there.
      I agree with basically everything you're saying here. I hopped on the Amazon/Google train for a couple years and when it was working good it was fun but it was more than usually a lot of chasing rankings and not providing much value to anyone.

      Finally Google just stepped up and stomped me completely.

      You can still use them of course for promoting physical products but I would highly recommend against the micro-niche/mini-site whatever you want to call it model.

      Build an authority site, preferably geared around a hobby or something where people are consistently spending money buying new things. Offer great information about the hobby, build your traffic with facebook/twitter/forums/guestposting and then you won't be limited to Google or to Amazon.

      You can make money then buy using all sorts of different avenues.
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  • Profile picture of the author Walter Parrish
    I think it's more psychological than anything, they feel a connection like their part of something big. it's the same as taking a major star and having them promote a product, or naming the products after the star.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jaryl
    I can't completely disagree with all the above points - all very valid.

    However, I still think Amazon affiliates has the lowest "barrier to entry" out of all the other methods of making an income online - a substantial income is definitely possible - but it is pretty much the hardest to fail at. It's a good starting point in your journey to making an good income online - you pick up many skills along the way.

    That's why I mentioned the part about how many newbies may be discouraged by making an income online if they were to try their hand at more difficult methods.

    If want to go long, long term with Amazon affiliates - you NEED to build an authority site in a niche, promoting Amazon products first, then moving on to cross-sell other relevant (digital) products and build an email list (yes, we can't leave that one out!)
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