Amazon Affiliate Marketers Are Cashing In

Amazon affiliate marketers make a lot of money from selling other people’s products. For most affiliate marketers, Amazon represents just one stream of income. This can be a very large flow of income, but for many it is just trickle of income that consistently comes in each month.

Over the years, Amazon affiliate marketers have earned a great deal of income from this one source. Many built their whole online business around this, but recent changes in SEO and the habits of many consumers has created an entirely different environment than it was a few years ago.

Micro-Niche Websites Are Out

Many of the early Amazon affiliate marketers, including myself, created micro-niche sites that focused on one specific niche subject or one single product. Our focused approach was loved by the consumer and it made us marketers large sums of money. I enjoyed those early years as a successful niche marketer.

At that time, Google loved micro-niche sites, so it sent a lot of traffic to these simple websites. It was easy to rank them. The Amazon affiliate marketers made a lot of money in a short amount of time.  Unfortunately for us marketers, Google began to see many of these niche sites as spam and, even as scams, that could hurt the consumer which many of the sites did. With that change, Google began to rank sites differently so now they wanted sites with lots of quality content that helped the consumer with buying decisions.

Needless to say, this change negatively affected a lot of Amazon affiliate marketers and forced a lot of web-based businesses to shut down or completely overhaul their business model. No rankings meant they were no longer profitable. This change began to separate the real marketers from the pretenders who did not know what to do.

Amazon Affiliate Marketers Are Still Making Money Today

So the question that many people ask me and other marketing professionals is, “Can Amazon affiliate marketers still make good money today selling other people’s products?”

Without hesitation, I can tell you the answer is, “YES!”

Things are definitely different now, but I am going to share with you some of the ways successful Amazon affiliate marketers are cashing big checks today. Since the start of the pandemic, many consumers have changed what they buy online and how they buy. This represents an excellent opportunity if you know to market to these consumers.

Many people who lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 virus have discovered that there are other ways to make a living rather than working as an under-appreciated employee making a small hourly wage or salary. They wanted their freedom from the daily 9-to-5 grind and the ability to make a lot more money.

Affiliate marketing, with Amazon or other companies, can help people live their entrepreneurial dream. Amazon affiliate marketing has become one of the top choices for people wanting to move from their traditional occupations.

Before jumping into the deep end of the pool to discuss how to make money as an Amazon affiliate marketer, I want to be totally honest with you. Some websites paint this glorified picture of these Amazon affiliates living the rich and famous lifestyle with high-speed cars, fancy homes and beautiful men and women partying, but you won’t get that from me.  Simply put, that is not a realistic possibility for 99% of the Amazon affiliate marketers. If you want to make a decent living or have a nice second income, then I will show you how it can be done by people who are willing to put in the time and effort to grow their business the right way.

Throw Out The Old, Bring In The New

So to get started, I want to throw out some old notions about things that used to work very well, like micro-niche sites. Today, a niche site is extremely hard to make profitable. It requires a lot more marketing and promotion. It is very risky, at best.  Google hates tiny websites. Primarily, because most tiny websites are nothing but spam and scam.

For this one reason, it’s nearly impossible to rank a low-content website. The original concept of micro niche sites was to bring in a large amount of traffic to promote just one or two affiliate products. That concept is nearly dead unless you’re willing to put in a lot of time, effort and money into other marketing methods.

Today, it’s important to focus on broader niches. If you’re going to put so much effort into promotion, you might as well have a lot more related products that you can potentially sell.

Review Sites Are Virtually Dead

There is another category of website that is dying almost as fast as the tiny niche site; the review site. Review sites used to work very well for Amazon affiliate marketers. Today they don’t rank well in Google. Let’s face it, most people just go to Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, or some other major retailer to find reviews.

Consumers online are more savvy than ever. They know that the average “review site” is nothing more than a thinly-veiled affiliate site. Some review sites still work, but it’s much harder than it was a few years ago. You can no longer easily rank these sites. They require a lot more promotion and content than ever. And because people don’t trust them like they once did, they just aren’t very profitable.

The good news is I can show you a better way.

The way I am going to show you does NOT involve:

• Creating low-content affiliate sites with virtually no original content
• Registering dozens of domains (or more)
• Spamming Google and other search engines
• Focusing on individual products or very small niches
• Intense keyword research
• Paid Facebook or PPC advertising

None of these are needed. This new method is actually easier and more fun than methods from the past. It requires less financial investment than the old micro-niche method because you only need one domain, or maybe a a few more, but certainly not hundreds of domains.

Your Best Option Today To Make Money On Amazon 

Your focus will be on a broader niche, while still attracting Google traffic and getting traffic from other sources. In fact, your will get more traffic from Google because this is the method Google prefers. Google loves sending traffic to real websites filled with high-quality content that answers the questions that Google searchers are looking for each day.

I am talking about authoritative blog that talks about a very specific topic, but offers a lot of unique helpful advice then guides the reader to some quality products and services that will help them. That is where Amazon affiliate marketers are making bank every single day.

Let’s say you wanted to start an authoritative blog about hiking and camping. Assuming you know a lot about this topic, you could literally write dozens, if not hundreds of blog posts about the different gear a hiker and/or camper would need. Things like, tents, backpacks, lighting, cooking gear and so much more.  As you are writing these educational and informative posts, you could recommend the gear that you use and provide links to that gear on Amazon. When someone clicks on your link and buys from Amazon, you get paid a commission.

It is that simple! Now it will require a lot of work to get your blog set up and posts written, but you do the work one time and get paid many times over and over again as Google and other sources send you ready-to-buy customers.

Amazon Affiliate Marketers Program Perfect For Newbies

Now I want to  talk about why the Amazon Associate program is a good place to begin. First, Amazon is without a doubt one of the best newbie-friendly affiliates out there.

Here are a few of the reasons I think you should work with Amazon:

• Easy to get started with and begin to earn commissions.

There is no fee to apply for the Amazon Associates program. All you have to do is apply to the program. Before starting the application process, you need to have a website. After choosing a niche, building a website that has potential for growth, you can apply for the program.

• The cost is really low to begin a blog that will sell Amazon products.

As I shared previously, Amazon doesn’t charge any application fees for their program. You will need to invest in a domain, web hosting and a few other minimally priced services for your website to advertise products you want to sell on Amazon. For a domain, you have to pay once ($10-$15 per year) and for hosting, it costs around $3-$40+ per month (based on the package and hosting company). If you are not comfortable building your own website, then you will need to hire a developer who’ll develop your website. This will cost you approximately $100-$250. Yeah, you can spend more and develop a hyper-functional website upfront, but that is not needed in the beginning. I would advise you to start with a minimal website, and scale up later depending on your blog’s performance and requirements.

• Amazon is an established company that is trusted by most consumers.

As an Amazon affiliate marketer, you will be partnered with the largest eCommerce site in the world. It will never be hard to promote Amazon. You can find almost any category of product which we use in our daily lives.

• Earn commissions with Amazon Associates program quickly.

You can make money with any physical niche. From home decor to baby products, food supplement to entertainment items — everything is available on Amazon. Choosing one of the categories from there can be profitable it it’s well-researched.

Other Things You Need To Know About The Amazon Associates Program

While the Amazon Associates is an outstanding program, there are some other things you need to know about this program.

• Not easy to win with the intense competition. The competition can be very high, but you can make your place as an Amazon affiliate marketer. The key as a blogger and internet marketer is to build enticing content so that you get more people engaged and you are building long-term trust with them.
• It is hard for beginners so you must be persistent in your efforts. Anyone can start with Amazon Associates, so everybody tries it, but many fall off very quickly. Be tenacious and find your niche, then out think, out work and out hustle your competition.
• Lower commission rate than many other affiliate programs. Amazon pays a small commission rate, but the volume of business can more than make up for the lower commission.

So how much can you make as a Amazon Affiliate Marketer?

In reality, there is no simple answer. Some Amazon affiliate marketers make $10,000+ per month, while others make only a few dollars each month. And others make nothing!

Let’s talk about how the ones making several thousand dollars per month do it. It all begins with high-quality traffic.  The more people who frequent your website and, possibly, sign up on your email list the more sales you are likely to make each month.

Capture Email Addresses To Put More Cash In Your Pocket

Successful Amazon affiliate marketers find creative ways to capture the email address of their site’s visitors so they can build a stronger, more trusting relationship with their readers. Through this trust, your recommendations to buy certain products will lead to more sales immediately, but just as importantly, later when you recommend other related products too.

You see, the income varies in a wide range of possibilities. The niche you choose will have the most significant impact  in the total calculation. If it’s highly competitive and you’re just starting off then it would be difficult to compete with other seasoned websites.

If your keywords don’t get enough searches then that means there are fewer potentials sales for you to make. After niche analysis, the thing comes next is the average Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) position. A slight change in that  place can cause a severe gain or loss.

Based on the ranking, the Click Through rate (CTR) will be vary dramatically. And remember, everyone who clicks on your link and comes to your site will not click your affiliate links. And, those who do click on your affiliate links might not buy anything.

Good Quality Traffic Is A Must

As I mentioned above, you can make from a few dollars to $10,000+ as an Amazon affiliate marketer, but you won’t make a dime if your site has poor traffic. The good news is you can earn more if there’s a large number of visitors coming to your blog. With multiple successful websites, the income can be pushed even higher. The very successful Amazon affiliate marketers have many websites in different niches so they can win big in non-competing areas.

Another vital player is a good practice of SEO. Regardless of your niche, target audience, and goals, you must know how to implement the best SEO. Both the on-page as well as off-site optimization is required. I promise you, if Google doesn’t love your site then users won’t find it. Keeping safe from any penalty and boosting user engagement, start taking care of the site now.

Have you considered the user intent of your target keywords? If users are looking for information and your site is ready for that then the sales would be expectedly lower. Otherwise, you have to work with the buyer traffic and buyer keyword. You must need to rank for those buyer-focused keywords.

Finally, Amazon’s commission structure is a key factor in your total earnings. Amazon’s likely to pay up to 10% based on various categories. Hence, if your site covers high-paying-commission products then you may expect a bigger income. And, whatever someone buys within 24 hours after clicking your affiliate links, you’ll get a commission for all of them (even if you don’t promote those products).

Successful Amazon Affiliate Marketers Learn From Their Mistakes 

Here is what I recommend when building your niche affiliate blog. You want to create something unique and maybe, a little on the crazy side. You don’t need or want to do what other successful people are doing. Instead, build your blog to reflect your own style with content, site design, and other features.

Now it’s time to take some action. Lots of action to start getting you noticed on Google and other search engines.  Whatever you want to accomplish as an Amazon affiliate marketer, take massive action to make it happen right away. 

Don’t fear making mistakes. Most people learn best while they are making mistakes. Start now!  I want you to make lots of mistakes and then learn from each one of them. Use what you learn after each mistake to propel yourself forward the next time and soon you can be cashing some big Amazon and other affiliate commission checks.