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Key Change That Got you from Low Earnings to $1000/month Adsense/Amazon/Affiliate?

by Builder154
32 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'd like to have a thread here where people who make at least $1000 a month not selling their own products but on affiliate link commissions including Amazon or on Adsense answer this question.

Of course discussion is fine, but I'm really hoping to get answers from those who have actually done it, not just those speculating or theorizing.

If you at some point were struggling and making only a few bucks a month or even maybe $50 or 100 a month at this stuff and then managed to up that to $1000 or more a month, what changed? What did you learn or implement that made that leap for you?
#$1 or month #adsense #affiliate marketing #amazon #change #earnings #key #low
  • Profile picture of the author Ettienne
    Yeah, my key moves:
    1. Forget about Amazon (ridiculous commissions)
    2. Forget about Adsense (rather convert traffic than send it away for 5 or 10 cents)
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    • Profile picture of the author Builder154
      Originally Posted by Ettienne View Post

      Yeah, my key moves:
      1. Forget about Amazon (ridiculous commissions)
      2. Forget about Adsense (rather convert traffic than send it away for 5 or 10 cents)
      Ok but what did you replace them with that got you to $1000/month?
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    • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
      Originally Posted by Ettienne View Post

      Yeah, my key moves:
      1. Forget about Amazon (ridiculous commissions)
      2. Forget about Adsense (rather convert traffic than send it away for 5 or 10 cents)
      You must have been doing something wrong. In the case of Amazon, conversion rates more than make up for the 6%-8% commissions. In the case of AdSense, if you were only making $0.05 - $0.10 per click, you were targeting the wrong keywords and niches.
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    • Profile picture of the author joetheseo
      Originally Posted by Ettienne View Post

      Yeah, my key moves:
      1. Forget about Amazon (ridiculous commissions)
      2. Forget about Adsense (rather convert traffic than send it away for 5 or 10 cents)
      Best advice right here... $1000/month is child's play when you slice out $20, $40+ commissions from Clickbank or CPA offers.
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      • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
        Originally Posted by joetheseo View Post

        Best advice right here... $1000/month is child's play when you slice out $20, $40+ commissions from Clickbank or CPA offers.
        There are many of us that would beg to differ.
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      • Profile picture of the author Builder154
        Originally Posted by joetheseo View Post

        Best advice right here... $1000/month is child's play when you slice out $20, $40+ commissions from Clickbank or CPA offers.
        This is interesting because I've gotten conflicting advice.

        For example, on one site I promote a product where it is sold on Amazon and also the manufacturer has their own affiliate program. The direct affiliate program pays higher. But with Amazon you get credit for ANY sales on your cookie.

        I started this thread to ask about that situation and over there the advice was almost 100% to use Amazon over the direct CPA because of the commissions on all items on your cookie for a while after the click through

        http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ufacturer.html
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    • Profile picture of the author Ashera
      Originally Posted by Ettienne View Post

      Yeah, my key moves:
      1. Forget about Amazon (ridiculous commissions)
      2. Forget about Adsense (rather convert traffic than send it away for 5 or 10 cents)
      What's this nonsense?

      I make over 20k a month using Amazon affiliates... commissions are excellent on higher end products ($80+) and referral rate goes up as you sell more. To top it off return rate is almost nonexistent if you know what you are doing.
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      If you don't change direction, you'll end up where you're going.
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      • Profile picture of the author Builder154
        Originally Posted by Ashera View Post

        What's this nonsense?

        I make over 20k a month using Amazon affiliates... commissions are excellent on higher end products ($80+) and referral rate goes up as you sell more. To top it off return rate is almost nonexistent if you know what you are doing.
        Ashera,

        Your thread is one that inspired me a lot. Do you ever do any coaching on building Amazon sites or anything like that working with someone?
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
    I do exceptionally well with Amazon (4 figures per month). I started doing well when I stopped spending my days chasing high-competition keywords with endless backlinking.
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    • Profile picture of the author Builder154
      Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

      I do exceptionally well with Amazon (4 figures per month). I started doing well when I stopped spending my days chasing high-competition keywords with endless backlinking.
      So you are going for keywords with very low competition? Mostly product based keywords? What kind of exact match search volumes? Thanks for the reply.
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
    I don't worry about search volumes. I very rarely, if ever, even look at keyword tools. I focus on products that I know can rank for.
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    • Profile picture of the author Builder154
      Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

      I don't worry about search volumes. I very rarely, if ever, even look at keyword tools. I focus on products that I know can rank for.
      Interesting. So do you have sites that get very low traffic, like 20 or 30 visitors a month, but still make you money?
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
    Hello no. Most of my sites get that many visitors per day with the larger ones getting exponentially more than that.
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    • Profile picture of the author Builder154
      Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

      Hello no. Most of my sites get that many visitors per day with the larger ones getting exponentially more than that.
      How do you know your sites will get that much traffic if you never worry about search volume? Are you just going after specific products you know are popular and trying to rank for searches directly for that product by name?

      Also do you run into trouble with the issue of using or not using trademarks in your domains or anything like that?

      Thanks for the answers. It really helps getting advice from people who are really making some money at this.
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      • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
        Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

        How do you know your sites will get that much traffic if you never worry about search volume? Are you just going after specific products you know are popular and trying to rank for searches directly for that product by name?

        Also do you run into trouble with the issue of using or not using trademarks in your domains or anything like that?

        Thanks for the answers. It really helps getting advice from people who are really making some money at this.
        I do lots of experimentation with different niches so I have a pretty good feel for what people are searching for and what will rank easily. I don't even necessarily worry about what's popular, although I target popular items when I know I can rank.

        EMDs and trademarked domain names are not part of my toolkit. Spending money on a bunch of EMDs is a waste of time (and money) and I'm not interested in getting cease-and-desists from corporations over a spammy website.
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        • Profile picture of the author Builder154
          Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

          Spending money on a bunch of EMDs is a waste of time (and money)
          How does getting EMD's cost any more time or money than any other domain? Or do you mean you just promote many products on one site rather than make separate sites for each?

          I wouldn't make a separate site with an EMD for every product. But I'd get an EMD for each general market for the main keyword I'm targeting, no?
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          • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
            Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

            How does getting EMD's cost any more time or money than any other domain? Or do you mean you just promote many products on one site rather than make separate sites for each?

            I wouldn't make a separate site with an EMD for every product. But I'd get an EMD for each general market for the main keyword I'm targeting, no?
            I don't use EMDs at all. I own maybe 10 active websites in various niches. When you look at the heavy hitters (the "real" sites on the interwebs), how many of them are sites like 4-slicetoasterreviews.org or green-electric-scooters-with-silver-trim.info?

            I build brandable domains and promote products within general niches.
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            • Profile picture of the author Builder154
              Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

              I don't use EMDs at all. I own maybe 10 active websites in various niches. When you look at the heavy hitters (the "real" sites on the interwebs), how many of them are sites like 4-slicetoasterreviews.org or green-electric-scooters-with-silver-trim.info?

              I build brandable domains and promote products within general niches.
              I just look at them as two different strategies. If your goal is to have 100 of those tiny sites, they don't need to be heavy hitters. If your goal is to have heavy hitters, you probably want less sites so you don't spread your energy too thin. I've seen people who are doing well using both methods.

              Thanks again, I'm going to check out some of your tutorials later.
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      • Profile picture of the author jwmann2
        As long as you're targeting the correct audience for your niche, have great content and are ranking for your targeted keywords, more traffic always means more income. No matter which platform you're using, whether it be Adsense, Amazon, Commission Junction, Shareasale.
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  • Profile picture of the author Masterminding
    I'd like to add my two cents here. Here are multiple key changes I had to go through before I "got it" and started to generate an income of $4680 a month (and counting):

    1) Forget what's urgent, focus on what's important.
    The moment growing your business equals extinguishing fires (handling emergency situations), then you're really not growing your business anymore. You're making sure it survives. To be able to focus on what's important (what's to come instead of what's up now), you need to have a plan A, B, and C for everything. I'm not kidding. Literally make a continuity of business plan in which you put every possible worst case scenario, potential solutions, and then go ahead and implement as many of the solutions you can implement. That way, when the sh*t hits the fan? You can look at your plan and see what to do + there's a good chance it's already been done.

    2) Forget what everyone else says about what works, because you're different.
    No two markets are the same. I applied some copywriting advice that worked amazingly well in one market... and I got a sh*t storm of complaints in another market. Moral of the story: there is no "be all, end all" technique that works in every market. You have to find your own way. That means you need to learn how to fail and learn from failing. The way I see it? The more you fail, the faster you learn, and thus the better you'll get. Have fun failing. I know I do.

    3) Forget quick techniques, please. There is no get rich quick. Never was either. If you want success, then you have to make a system out of EVERYTHING.
    You think you write good articles for your site? BS. You don't until you turn article writing into a system that has a checklist you can go over to ensure every single freaking article is as good as the last one. Then make a system for email marketing, for social media, for your sales funnel. Like I said: everything. The more consistent you are? The easier things will get. Tip: the easier it becomes to outsource them too.
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    • Profile picture of the author Builder154
      Originally Posted by Masterminding View Post

      I'd like to add my two cents here. Here are multiple key changes I had to go through before I "got it" and started to generate an income of $4680 a month (and counting):
      Great advice and I agree on everything you said. The thing that's hardest though is knowing what to put on that checklist for each thing like what needs to be in your copy and so on. Let's say you write articles and they fail to convert. And as you say what works for someone else may not work for you. So you can't just copy them. So how do you even know what to try to figure out what works? Are you just basically trying random things?
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      • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
        Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

        Great advice and I agree on everything you said. The thing that's hardest though is knowing what to put on that checklist for each thing like what needs to be in your copy and so on. Let's say you write articles and they fail to convert. And as you say what works for someone else may not work for you. So you can't just copy them. So how do you even know what to try to figure out what works? Are you just basically trying random things?
        It all comes down to experimentation and testing. I think the reason some folks are so successful is because they are not afraid to fail. Many who are not successful are afraid to try anything new "because it might not work".

        I'm not afraid to try new things and fail. It's how you learn.
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        • Profile picture of the author Builder154
          Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

          It all comes down to experimentation and testing. I think the reason some folks are so successful is because they are not afraid to fail. Many who are not successful are afraid to try anything new "because it might not work".

          I'm not afraid to try new things and fail. It's how you learn.
          I agree but the thing is to test something you have to at least know it exists. The hard part for newbies and even intermediates is we don't even have a big stockpile of things to test because we just don't even know about so many things that might be worth testing.
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          • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
            Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

            I agree but the thing is to test something you have to at least know it exists. The hard part for newbies and even intermediates is we don't even have a big stockpile of things to test because we just don't even know about so many things that might be worth testing.
            Fair enough. I feel that's the only time you should be looking at what others do and emulating them. With all the experience I have, I'm always paying attention to what others do just to get the creative juices flowing.

            The best thing for a newbie is to settle on a niche that he is familiar with, determine how to monetize it, then follow that plan. Asking questions along the way on a forum like this should help fill in the knowledge gaps.
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      • Profile picture of the author Masterminding
        Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

        Great advice and I agree on everything you said. The thing that's hardest though is knowing what to put on that checklist for each thing like what needs to be in your copy and so on. Let's say you write articles and they fail to convert. And as you say what works for someone else may not work for you. So you can't just copy them. So how do you even know what to try to figure out what works? Are you just basically trying random things?
        Good question. I must admit that, at first, it felt like complete randomness. Somewhat like the mystery of why things in nature seem completely random, you know? But then I thought about the numbers game. It goes a little something like this:

        The average conversion for the market I'm in is 1%. That means that if my page is mediocre and performs on par with one of a competitor, that I need 100 visitors to get 1 sale. If I want to know if version A or B of this page works better, then I need two things: enough sales so there's a winner and enough traffic to make those sales happen.

        At that point I create an hypothesis: if I change P it will improve the page. A good outcome is: A many sales (or X % improvements). A mediocre outcome is B many sales (or Y % improvements) and a bad outcome is bla bla.

        That way I clearly define when a test does what I want it to do AND when I need to stop testing. Because let me tell you: split testing is NOT like the gurus tell you is like. I've spent a year waiting for version A to win from a version B because they were so close. I've survived tons of crappy tests that never got a winner, simply because I myself did not define a good, mediocre, and bad outcome.

        Anyways, back to the numbers game: I think 10 sales (a 10% improvement) is a good outcome. Mediocre outcome: 9 sales (no improvement). Bad outcome: less than 9 sales. Then guess what? Result: you could need around 1800 people to visit a page before you have a result, because 9 sales at a conversion rate of 1% times two versions = 1800.

        That's what gives you a good idea of what you need to accomplish in terms of traffic generation (SEO is best in my opinion).

        Long story short: it may seem random, but you need to let all your decisions be driven by data (objective info) instead of opinions (subjective info). If you don't have enough data then it means you don't have enough traffic. So, you need a system to get traffic.

        Once you get the system to get traffic you get the system to improve sale beyond the current point, then the system to retain customers, etc. Systemizing the sales funnel means starting at the beginning: traffic.

        In terms of which copy to improve: wrong question when thinking about systemizing traffic. Better question: which keywords are most likely to generate conversions (which ones have a buying intent) and should I thus rank for... to get the traffic I need... to do the testing of the copy I need to do... so I know what to do with my copy hahah

        See? A process!
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        • Profile picture of the author Builder154
          Originally Posted by Masterminding View Post

          Good question. I must admit that, at first, it felt like complete randomness. Somewhat like the mystery of why things in nature seem completely random, you know? But then I thought about the numbers game. It goes a little something like this:
          Again total agreement.

          But still the devil is in the details. Before you can test A vs. B you have to know that a B is possible. The hardest part is knowing what you could be doing differently so you can test it.

          Also I'm very interested in tools to help with split testing. So any advice on that would be great. If you wanted it could be a new thread.
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          • Profile picture of the author Masterminding
            Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

            Again total agreement.

            But still the devil is in the details. Before you can test A vs. B you have to know that a B is possible. The hardest part is knowing what you could be doing differently so you can test it.

            Also I'm very interested in tools to help with split testing. So any advice on that would be great. If you wanted it could be a new thread.
            Agreed, although one must not fill into the trap of NOT trying any possibilities because there are so many possibilities, you know?

            As for split testing tools: completely depends on what kind of site you're running. WordPress? Or more traditional like HTML, php or whatever?

            Shoot me a private message some time. Would be cool to talk to a likeminded soul we can talk about split testing too
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            “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared” – Sun Tzu

            Check out the Motriz Marketing blog for a funny yet informative, brutally honest look at the IM world in general and SEO in particular.

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          • Profile picture of the author Masterminding
            Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

            Again total agreement.

            But still the devil is in the details. Before you can test A vs. B you have to know that a B is possible. The hardest part is knowing what you could be doing differently so you can test it.

            Also I'm very interested in tools to help with split testing. So any advice on that would be great. If you wanted it could be a new thread.
            Thanks for the PM! I can't send PM's back yet because I don't have 50 posts yet (my bad, I know!). So, let me reply in here: are you already split testing via WP? If so, then I'm curious: you've probably had problems with getting Google Website Optimizer to work, right? I know I did when I tried to split test via WP! There are solutions for it though
            Signature

            “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared” – Sun Tzu

            Check out the Motriz Marketing blog for a funny yet informative, brutally honest look at the IM world in general and SEO in particular.

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  • Profile picture of the author Jay F
    What an awesome thread. Thank you for starting it and thanks for all the responses.

    I'm in the position of trying to figure out the same thing. In March, I exceeded $100 and this month I will definitely crack $300, maybe even $400, just with Amazon commissions.

    My traffic stands at about 350 uniques a day. I average about 2-4 sign-ups to my list each day. Here is what I plan to do in the next couple of weeks to try and drive to that $1000 mark in the next couple of months:

    1) Keep up with SEM, that is my primary source of traffic right now.

    2) Test layouts of the links to Amazon. I put links at the top and bottom, I'm still playing around seeing where it works best.

    3) Test out putting pricing on the page. Right now I just say click to buy from Amazon.

    4) Test out aStore from Amazon. I figure this couldn't hurt. I'll create a top level tab and call it my store.

    5) Continue building my list. But, I will not try to sell anything in the newsletter. I want to wait until I get to 500 or even 1000 subs before I try to sell to them. Right now I'm not even at 100 subs yet.

    6) Add more product reviews. After all, it is a product review site I built.

    7) Figure out my social media strategy. Right now I'm not doing anything other than posting to twitter and facebook when I have a new post. I don't have anyone following me or any likes.

    Completing these items, I think I can get to $1000 / month in 2-3 months.

    Any suggestions would be appreciated.

    btw - I only have this one site I am focused on right now. Hopefully, I can expand in the future.
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    I'm working on some new things. So, nothing to promote just yet.

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    • Profile picture of the author Builder154
      Originally Posted by Jay F View Post

      What an awesome thread. Thank you for starting it and thanks for all the responses.
      Hey Jay F.,

      That sounds pretty good for just starting out.

      A few questions:

      What are your main SEM/traffic generation methods?

      Do you actually try out all the products you review? Do you feel you need to personally know they work well? Or are you just reading info on the web about them and then aggregating it on your site?

      What content are you sending to your newsletter list to keep the newsletter going?
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      • Profile picture of the author Jay F
        Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

        What are your main SEM/traffic generation methods?
        Right now, everything is Google traffic via SEO. I have someone on oDesk I pay them to do 5-10 hours a week to build backlinks. I also spend a lot of time optimizing onpage SEO. This is why I mention I really need to start learning about Facebook.


        Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

        Do you actually try out all the products you review? Do you feel you need to personally know they work well? Or are you just reading info on the web about them and then aggregating it on your site?
        I outsourced writing the reviews. So, I don't personally own everything. However, I have tried almost all of them so I can answer questions or correct the reviews. I'm in the recreational sports niche, so I spend a lot of time at Big 5, Sport Authority, Sport Chalet and REI checking things out.



        Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

        What content are you sending to your newsletter list to keep the newsletter going?
        I'm new at the newsletter and have only sent 1 so far. I'm not promoting any products yet. I read somewhere else on WF that I should spend the first several newsletters just building trust with my readers. So I provide links back to my site, links to other sites I like and write an article just for the newsletter.
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        I'm working on some new things. So, nothing to promote just yet.

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  • Profile picture of the author aquarious44
    Ashera,
    It is encouraging that you are making a nice living from Amazon. It is motivation to keep pursuing the dream to make a living online.
    Thanks for the encouragement.
    Mel
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