Anyone have a successful Amazon affiliate website?

[Shane]

I would love to hear what you've learned and check out your websites!

I'm about to open my first pure affiliate site and am hoping to skip as many problems as possible. Thanks!

 

[JuniperPark]

I set up 5 very nice ones, using the setup someone here was selling at about $100/ea.

After about 2 years they earn about $1/month each, but then haven't bought any advertising for them.

 

[Shane]

I'm looking for something more than that. I've created a few Adsense sites that make at least $10 per month with no marketing. I typically spend under $100 per site to see that revenue.

I want to turn this one into a 1,000-2,000 a month website that requires no marketing. I've definitely found the niche, know the subject and have started building the website.. but now I need to learn the best practices as quickly as possible.

 

[Fabbstar]

Key for getting an affiliate site ranked = spend time on each product page. The content doesn't have to be unqiue, very little product content is unique these days, but make sure there is lots of it. If importing from Amazon directly, change url strings so they don't match amazon's exactly, change page titles so they don't match exactly, and make sure you save images to your own server.

Do the usual seo and make sure each product page has reviews, to bolster the content. If your site has 50% more content than that of your competitors then this is a good thing, regardless of unique content. If you can, pull product info from different sources to help ranking further.

After this, add two new products or articles each week, and update social channels.

All of the above has helped to keep my site ranked PR5 and up since it's launch 6 months ago.

Good luck!

 

[Shane]

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for.

Have you done any direct linking to Amazon product pages?

From what I understand..profiting with Amazon is all about pushing as much traffic through your referral link as possible. Would you agree?

 

[Fabbstar]

No worries, it took me a while to get there and of course nothing is future-proof in affiliate marketing but so far so good.

I could certainly attempt to push more traffic to amazon, via blog articles, email marketing etc. but currently I just send visitors over via a 'buy now' button on the product page.

The Amazon 90 day (I think it's 90 day) cookie then becomes your best friend, as a sale within this time frame becomes yours (except for certain products). If you have a good niche, good traffic and products under $200 then sales should gradually convert. The most successful affiliates focus on cheap products, as they tend to convert far better and the more they sell, the higher thier referral rate (up to 10%). I've made the mistake of selling high end goods, which people tend to shop around for, and end up buying from specialists. My strategy is to gain more traffic, provide lots of information, see visits return and then gradually move away from the affiliate structure. But for low-end goods it's definitely the way to go!!

 

[Shane]

Sounds like a solid strategy. I just set up a choke point. Give them 99% of the information for free but the 1% that you really need lies just past the click.