[updated 2021] I’ve been consistently making a full-time income — $70,000++ — for years.
The punchline is that I made over $10,000 in about 6 months from my first Amazon Associate Site.
And I’ve been working online, full-time for three years. I got laid off in 2015 from my project management job and haven’t looked back.
It hasn’t been easy or fast, but it’s awesome to realize you can work on your own terms. If anyone tells you it’s easy, they’re selling you something — B.S.
I think the Amazon Associate program is the best way to get started online.
I can give a quick update on some of my recent earnings because you’re here to learn about how much you can make with this affiliate program.
Get all my Templates & Systems Here.
In 2017, one of my niche sites pulled in over $70,000.
To illustrate how fast your revenue can grow, that same site was making just $100 per month in January of 2016:
Most of the growth can be attributed to the Keyword Golden Ratio, a data driven way to find great keywords.
Get my personal KGR calculator sheet here.
What about Project Go White Hat?
I sold a site with a business partner in mid 2017 for $235,000. It’s a crazy amount of money for a pretty simple affiliate site that had about 120 posts on it.
I talk all about the details in the blog series called Project Go White Hat. Check the whole series here.
And for your reference, we not only sold the site but while we were working on it, the site was making well over five figures per month.
I started working on the site in September 2016 and we were able to grow the income a LOT— From about $10,000 per month to $14k, then to $19k, then to $32k. It was insane.
By the way, the huge earnings increase from $10,000 in September 2016 to December 2016 was due to adding a lot of KGR content and improving existing content.
Get all the content templates I used here.
A lot of things have changed since 2014 so be sure to look at the updated Niche Site Process Framework and Roadmap after you read the post below. Here’s what’s covered:
- Select a Niche or Market
- Build Out the Framework
- Develop a Content Management Plan
- Plan Your Niche Site SEO
- Execute an Outreach & Promotion Campaign
- Execute an Email Marketing Campaign (if desired)
- Continue Growing the Niche Site (if desired)
- Frequently Asked Questions about Niche Sites
- Aged Site Case Study: Done-For-You, Ready Made Site [in progress]
Yep, I’m pleased with the outcome on this project.
This has been an unbelievable ride so far. The initial goal that I set was to create a website that made $300 per month on a consistent basis within 4 – 6 months.
Get all my Templates & Systems Here.
The site beat that mark after just two and a half months. After that period, the earnings have been unpredictable in a very good way. (Looking for more inspiration: Here are examples of Amazon Affiliate Sites with traffic data…)
Exceeding Expectations
I made over $10,000 in 2013 from a single Amazon Affiliate web site. I purchased the domain name on July 14, 2013 and immediately started writing. (Read about how to build an Amazon Affiliate Website here.)
The first 6 weeks were very slow but things took off after that, with a peak of over $6,000 in December.
The table below shows the earnings by month from August through December. (This is not a cumulative total – that table will be shown later.)
As I mentioned, the site was started back in July so it did take some time to get started.
There were several weeks of writing content. I spent even more time building links.
You can see that the first month with any earnings was August and those sales occurred at the very end of the month. It was only $20 but it was just like everyone says – the first earnings are very important. It shows that the concept works and the meager earnings at least show that you should keep persevering.
Report for period from July 14 – Dec 31, 2013
September was a great month since it signified that I reached my goal of $300 per month earlier than expected.
In addition, the earnings were much higher than I thought they would be. I think I was trying to lower my expectations at the beginning of the project to keep from being disappointed.
However, it is a bit difficult to estimate how profitable a niche site will be since each niche is different.
Critical Information About the Niche and Keywords
I picked a great keyword. Actually, it was my extremely supportive wife that first thought of the keyword. After some keyword research, I thought the niche was worth a try.
The primary keyword I was targeting has between 5,000 – 6,000 exact match searches per month on average. There are an additional 20 or so long tail secondary keywords that bring the aggregate total to around 11,000 – 12,000 exact match searches. I didn’t even realize how strong the long tail keywords were for this niche until much later.
Google trends reveals that my primary keyword has a steady search volume through most of the year – steady until October. In October people start searching for the primary keyword more often, and the growth continues until December. The increase is about 20 – 30%. That is significant.
Update: I don’t use Long Tail Pro anymore and favor tools like Keyword Keg and Keywords Everywhere.
At the time of the keyword research, I used the Google keyword planner for my keyword research. It does the job, even though it is slow for intensive keyword research. For the Long Tail Pro users,, I think the Keyword Competitiveness (the “KC”) number was about 32 – 34 back in July for the primary keyword. The KC is higher the last time I checked about 34 – 36. (I do use Long Tail Pro now. I highly recommend it since it’s the standard tool for keyword research. Click here for a free trial via this affiliate link.)
More Data – Items Shipped and Earnings per Item
The statistics here are very interesting. We can see that the number of items ship have a similar growth curve to the earnings. The number of items shipped is important since Amazon has different commission tiers for the number of items sold and shipped. The other cool part is the volume of products that people order after visiting my web site.
Report for period from July 14 – Dec 31, 2013
The earnings per item give us some insight into the average cost of the items. The niche I am in provides a wide range of price points.
Hitting the higher % tiers require that you sell more items.
There are $10 items to $310 items that do the same job. The one thing to note is that each of the months has a different commission tier.
Report for period from July 14 – Dec 31, 2013
Google Rankings and a Few Notes on Link Building
The website started getting a little bit of long tail traffic in August. That improved in September significantly and by the last week of September, the site appeared at the bottom of the first page.
By early October the website was ranked in the top 3 for the primary keyword and number 1 for a couple of the long tail secondary keywords.
The website was at number 1 for the primary keyword by mid-October.
The ranking seems to be stable at this point.
The link building was a critical step. It was time-consuming. I followed the standard plan you see in several other blogs (like Niche Pursuits) with tiered linking structures.
In general, you could categorize the links as social profiles, web 2.0 free blogs, and article directories. I also purchased a few fiverr gigs to point to the first tier of links, not the niche site (the money site).
If you have specific questions about link building, ask in the comments below. I will most likely write a post about link building since this topic is often very popular.
Passive Income?
Yes. If you’re wondering if this is passive income, the answer is “yes.”
I haven’t added a new article since mid October. I have three written and ready to post but I thought it would be an interesting experiment to stop adding content. I do get about 1-2 comments per week from visitors that ask questions about products. That takes about 15 minutes per week. I have added a few links since October but only about one link every two weeks.
I will probably go ahead and publish the three other posts that are drafted in the next few weeks. In addition, I have vendors contacting me to review their products. I expect they will be happy to link to the site once I post a review.
Traffic Statistics, Cumulative Earnings, and Cumulative Items Shipped
These stats speak for themselves pretty well. There is growth, fast growth, coming from nothing back in July, 2013.
Traffic Statistics from July to December 2013 for the Amazon Affiliate Site
Cumulative Earnings from July to December 2013 for the Amazon Affiliate Site
Cumulative Items Shipped from July to December 2013 for the Amazon Affiliate Site
Read more about Amazon Affiliate Sites
- How Much Do Niche Sites Earn with Amazon Associates?
- Can you make Full-Time Income with Amazon?
- How many posts do I need before I launch my niche site?
- Amazon Affiliate websites.
- How often should I post content for my site?
- How long should the content be on affiliate sites?
- Is it ok to publish multiple posts at once?
- Do you use other affiliate programs?
- Do you use Amazon images?
- Where should I put affiliate links?
- Do you cloak Amazon affiliate links?
- What is the Amazon Associate Disclosure that I should use?
- Do you use sidebars on your site?
- The Amazon Associate Report looks wrong or hasn’t been updated — what gives?
Great post! This is definitely the most successful niche site I’ve ever seen so far.
I’ve a few questions for you Doug…
-Did you write any guest post for other blogs?
-Did you submit your site to general high PR web directories?
-How many pages of content do you have on your site so far?
Congrats again, I guess you and your wife were so proud when you hit 6k in a month! 🙂
Hey Roberto – Good to hear from you! Thanks…we’re pretty happy about the December stats.
-Did you write any guest post for other blogs?
I didn’t write any guest posts but I did network a bit. I think I have 2 links from solid domains for related niches.
-Did you submit your site to general high PR web directories?
Yes – I submitted to two web directories. I opted for a couple of the paid submissions but each of fees were ~ $20. That’s a reasonable investment.
-How many pages of content do you have on your site so far?
I have about 30 pages total. There are about 4-5 non-review articles that are simply authoritative, fact based or instructional in nature.
Hope that helps!
Doug
Hey Roberto – Good to hear from you! Thanks…we’re pretty happy about the December stats.
-Did you write any guest post for other blogs?
I didn’t write any guest posts but I did network a bit. I think I have 2 links from solid domains for related niches.
-Did you submit your site to general high PR web directories?
Yes – I submitted to two web directories. I opted for a couple of the paid submissions but each of fees were ~ $20. That’s a reasonable investment.
-How many pages of content do you have on your site so far?
I have about 30 pages total. There are about 4-5 non-review articles that are simply authoritative, fact based or instructional in nature.
Hope that helps!
Doug
Hi Doug, can you recommend which web directories to submit to? And what is their policy? Do they refund if they reject your site? Thanks
Hey Voon, The policy depends on the company so I won’t comment specifically. For recommendations, search for Web Directories on this page:
http://www.quicksprout.com/the-advanced-guide-to-link-building-chapter-12/
Great! Very impressed with your niche site! Can i ask some question?
-Do you have and use PBN for your niche site?
-Do you use some subscribe high PR service like auto pilot v 2.0 of Source Wave?
-Beside Fiverr, do you outsource seo or just do by yourself?
Maybe my english skill is not good but i think you can understand 😀
Congrats, and have more success in future!
Hey Mina – Thank you!
-Do you have and use PBN for your niche site?
This niche site has about 3 backlinks from the mini private blog network (PBN) that I was trying to start. It ended up being too much work at the time so the put the project on the shelf. However, I’m starting to work on the PBN again for future projects. So, I think the summary is that a PBN was not utilized for ranking this niche site that generated the $10k in 2013.
-Do you use some subscribe high PR service like auto pilot v 2.0 of Source Wave?
No.
-Beside Fiverr, do you outsource seo or just do by yourself?
I just use fiverr. I will most likely start using a service like The Hoth moving forward to start my new projects. It will cut down on the time I spend creating the Web 2.0 blogs, articles, etc… I hope a combo of fiverr, plus the Hoth, plus some PBN links will take care of the link building needs. I have used automated software for backlinking – Ultimate Demon – but it is only used for links in the lower tiers. The backlinks from Ultimate Demon would never point to a money site.
Thanks Mina. Let me know if you have more questions.
Hey Mina – Thank you!
-Do you have and use PBN for your niche site?
This niche site has about 3 backlinks from the mini private blog network (PBN) that I was trying to start. It ended up being too much work at the time so the put the project on the shelf. However, I’m starting to work on the PBN again for future projects. So, I think the summary is that a PBN was not utilized for ranking this niche site that generated the $10k in 2013.
-Do you use some subscribe high PR service like auto pilot v 2.0 of Source Wave?
No.
-Beside Fiverr, do you outsource seo or just do by yourself?
I just use fiverr. I will most likely start using a service like The Hoth moving forward to start my new projects. It will cut down on the time I spend creating the Web 2.0 blogs, articles, etc… I hope a combo of fiverr, plus the Hoth, plus some PBN links will take care of the link building needs. I have used automated software for backlinking – Ultimate Demon – but it is only used for links in the lower tiers. The backlinks from Ultimate Demon would never point to a money site.
Thanks Mina. Let me know if you have more questions.
Regarding to using Hoth, which package do you plan to use? Will all those web 2.0 point to your money site directly?
I will probably get the cheapest package initially just to get a wide range of links when I launch a new site.
However, I may build a few web 2.0s manually and then point the HOTH at those sites.
I’m currently testing the $200 package pointing directly to a money site. It’s risky but it provides a great learning opportunity. 🙂
That would be awesome to see a post on how the HOTH package directly pointing at your money site affected rankings!
Hey Nathan – I agree! I need to let the site sit for a couple weeks…but overall I’m happy with the HOTH. They delivered as expected, on time, and the report is concise & detailed.
Have you used any HOTH packages or any other link building services?
Awesome that’s good to hear. I haven’t used any link building services. I just created my first Amazon aff site this month, so I’m trying to decide what my game plan should be for links.
Hey Doug, I’ve been looking at using a Hoth package (on a niche site to experiment) would you recommend? Did it help your site out much?
Hi Kate – I do recommend the Hoth. I checked out the $200 package – “HOTH Results.”
A couple weeks after that one of my secondary keyword hit #1…that’s the keyword that I targeted from the HOTH. The report they provide is great and they even provide the login for the Web 2.0 Blogs. So you can add more content later or alter the anchor text as needed.
The disclaimer is that I was also doing my normal link building around the same time. At the least, the HOTH provide some nice diversity in the backlink profile.
Let me know if you decide to go with it. If you do, it would be appreciated if you used my affiliate link. 🙂
Thanks for that Doug. Yes I plan to use it alongside a couple of expired domains I have got. Sure, I’ll use your aff link 🙂
Doug,
1. May i know if your web 2.0 free blogs have 5 to 10 blog posts before you link to your money site?
2. Are these web 2.0 blogs have blog titles that are related to your niche? or they are like personal blogs with some of the content pages has keyword links to your money site ?
Hi John Paul –
The web 2.0 blogs have 3 – 5 articles or more in some cases…
2. Some titles are related and some are not…Some do look like personal blogs.
Variation is the key for me.
Nope I haven’t used any services as of yet. I’m just getting into the “making money online” thing. I’ve been reading SPI and Nichepursuits for awhile now, and have decided to take the leap this year. I created my first site(Amazon Aff) in January. I’ve only added content so far and will be easing into linkbuilding soon.
Nice overview of how to site moved and what to do. Gives us a good idea of what a general time frame could be. Hope you have time for a few questions.
1. From your experience, which types of the common link building methods (web 2.0, commenting, article directory, etc.) do you find is more effective?
2. If you don’t mind, how many links (in total, using the common methods) would you estimate is needed to get some sort of good ranking?
Hey Winston – Thanks for the questions.
1. I think the effectiveness depends on the niche. It is a tough question to answer. It is best to use each of the methods and if you can segment out when you do each of the linking methods you might be able to get a clue about which methods work best for your niche. I will add that blog comments do add a very positive component – more diversity in the linking domains. Sure, they are no follow backlinks but there might not be a better way to get links from hundreds of different domains.
2. That’s another tough question. It depends on the authority of the domains that are linking. If you have strong domains linking to your site or page, then maybe 10 links will do. You did mention if the links were the ‘common methods’ and for that I would say once you get 50 – 75 backlinks you should see some positive movement. Don’t discount the need for aging a domain…I think 60 – 90 days is the timeframe to get sites to rank on the front page.
Hope that helps!
Thanks, Winston, let me know if you have other questions.
Congrats!!
What kinds of fiverr gigs? It’s hard to find the good ones there, lots of spam.
Hey James – thanks!
I only use the highly rated gigs. I like SEO Nuke based gigs and guest posts. Again, I don’t point those links to my money site – only the Tier 1 links, like web 2.0 blogs, articles, etc…
Have you had success with fiverr gigs? Any issues?
Thanks!
Hey James – thanks!
I only use the highly rated gigs. I like SEO Nuke based gigs and guest posts. Again, I don’t point those links to my money site – only the Tier 1 links, like web 2.0 blogs, articles, etc…
Have you had success with fiverr gigs? Any issues?
Thanks!
Hey Doug,
That is an incredible success story! Your December earnings are fantastic. It will be interesting to see what your earnings are for Q1.
Do you use a table comparison on your homepage (as Spencer did)?
I can’t wait to see how you do with your next site! Well done.
Hey Kate – Good to hear from you! Thank you.
Yes, there is a table but it is set up a little differently than Spencer’s site. In addition, I have some other comparison tables on individual pages. I got the ideas for good comparisons from the manufacturers web site.
Hey Doug great stufF! I have just started my own niche sites and am hoping to replicate even a fraction of your success. Are you considering selling the site? Was this your first build and you just hit it out of the park, or you’ve done this before? How was competition for the niche? Was there something about the keyword that you also really liked aside from the hard numbers ?
Hey Dave – Thanks!
I plan on keeping the site for now. The earnings have been very good but I don’t have a gauge of what the average earnings will be over time.
I have a couple other sites that were flops – monetized with Adsense. One of four Adsense sites does make about $0.50 – $1 per day.
The site featured as the success story is my first Amazon site.
The Keyword Competitiveness number from Long Tail Pro was in the low 30s and I think it is closer to the mid 30s these days.
I have some familiarity in the niche so I was able to create most of the content on my own.
Hey Doug,
Have a few other questions if you don’t mind:
1. You’ve mentioned social profiles. I think I know what you mean but am not sure. Are these social network profiles like FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc or do these include forum profile or some other things?
2. How do you go about looking for expired domains for your PBN? I’ve tried Jon Haver’s system but the searching part takes quite a bit of time with not too much to show. I think I’ve tried doing it like for a couple of hours all I found was 2 or 3 domains that had PA of around mid 20s or so. Nothing great.Wondering if you’ve found a more efficient way.
Thanks again.
Hey Winston. Sure, ask away. 🙂
1. For the social profiles, you have it right and add g+ to the list.
2. Previously, I was looking though expireddomains.net and got a couple of okay domains. As you know, it’s really time consuming and that’s even before you start building out the domains. The efficient way to find domains is to purchase Jon’s service to find domains for you. I just purchased a domain that Jon found for me and I plan on building another niche site there.
http://authoritywebsiteincome.com/custom-list/ if you go that route, the 5 pack is most economical. Tell Jon I sent you. 🙂
Hope that helps, Winston!
Inspiring post doug!
I just wanted to ask you a question.
Do web 2.0’s still work in boosting rankings?
Also do you blast the web 2.0’s ?
and finally does the website have enough authority to rank on first page for long tail keywords?
Hey Ahmed – Thanks!
Yes, I believe web 2.0s still work. I’ve had some conversations with people that are having similar or more success than me with their sites and they also like the web 2.0 blogs.
Yes, I do blast the Web 2.0s…
Yes, the site does have enough authority to rank for many long tail keywords.
Hey Doug – I wondered if or when you were going to reveal more details about this niche site. Thanks for putting together this post. Always good to put at ease inquiring minds.
My only question is… do you think you can replicate this site with a totally different niche? You didn’t just “get lucky” with this niche, did you? Are you confident you can build another site with similar success now that you have done it with this one?
Looking forward to reports on your next niche site (whenever or whatever that may be).
Hey Matt – Great questions!
>> Will you reveal more details?
No. 🙂 We can see that the risk is significant when revealing money sites…like Spencer Haws survival knife site getting hit with negative SEO. There are very smart people out there interested in finding these money sites.
>> Can replicate this site with a totally different niche?
Yes, definitely, or at least I hope so. I have another site ranking above the fold on the first page for a secondary keyword and on the second page for the primary keyword. It will take a little time to get the site ranking #1 but I am confident that it can be done.
>> Did you “get lucky” with this site?
I have definitely thought about that. My wife asks that question, too. 🙂 No, I don’t think I would call it luck. Even if it was luck, I’m okay with that.
>> Can build another site with similar success …?
Yes. I am working on a new site right now – content is on the way. It’s a more competitive niche, more potential, and I plan to position the site to grow.
Overall all, we should be able to get confirmation in about 2-3 months if the first site was a fluke in any way. 🙂
Thanks for the questions, Matt!
Doug, don’t reveal the keyword and the url for sure.
I’d just interested in what kind of product niche.. like Kitchen Gadget, outdoor activities, or fitness equipment?
Based on what you mentioned in the blog, I assume it’s something that people buy during Christmas Shopping Seasons more.. but it’s a nice one under demand.
Sounds KC 3x is a good index. Thanks!
Kent – It’s a home/outdoor item. It makes a good gift but is not used seasonally…
Doug,
how about the price range for each product ?
The range is from $5 – $500+. The average is about $100.
Do you have email list, Google+ site page, and Facebook Fans Page? I’m scaling 1 of my site as an Authority one, so I don’t rely on Google much as I used to.
There is no email list…It is more of a site where people research then immediately buy. I could set up lead magnet free gift and build a list but I don’t think the effort is worth it.
There is a g+ and facebook page but there is no engagement. It’s not a very share-able, social product. 🙂
Hi Doug, What is the conversion rate of your niche site. I mean out of every 100 visitors to your blog how many people actually go on to buy a product.
Hey Karun – I think if I am doing the math right, about 0.72 visitors buy out of 100.
The thing to note is that I do not have very good analytics for this kind of tracking. 🙁 I didn’t set them up initially since it wasn’t a priority. This should be about the right ballpark figure though.
Do you have any conversion data for any of your sites?
Hi Doug
Congratulations for your amazing success! 🙂
I admire your genuine replies to your readers.
Maybe you could further reveal/explain…
1. Total number of comparison charts and blog posts
3. Total number of hours invested (since day one)
4. Was that a brand new domain which you registered or expired (with age and high authority/page rank)
5. Would such an expired domain bring faster results and make a sizable difference into your ranks/earnings?
6. Do you also have AdSense on the site
7. How does your traffic stats look like from month one to Jan 2014
8. Do you track with Google or Clicky for analytics
Best wishes!
John
http://healthywealthyaffiliate.com/
Hey John, Thanks! I’ll do my best to answer your questions…some of the answers will be my best guess.
1. There are about 2 – 5 comparison charts through the site. There are about 30 posts consisting of mostly reviews. There are some general articles too. I’ve moved things around and updated charts/tables over time.
3. (“2” was skipped) This is a guess but it’s probably been about 100 hours. The bulk was early on in the first 6 weeks and I’ve spent some extra time analyzing the dip in ranking earlier this year. Again, this is an estimate and I’m probably in the right magnitude but could be way off.
4. It was a brand new domain.
5. I don’t know…However, I am trying that right now. I think it can help but it may not make the rankings come sooner. I have a feeling that it can help but I don’t have first hand knowledge. If you have any insight, I would love to hear about it.
6. I added adsense in later since the traffic was so plentiful…it was a good idea! It didn’t hurt the Amazon sales at all.
7. I don’t have the data handy. It went roughly from 0 in August to over 1000 visitors per day in December.
8. I’ve been using Google for analytics.
Doug,
May i know if the product you are reviewing had something to do with personal care ? or men health problem ?
It’s not related to those topics specifically.
Doug,
If its too much to ask, ill understand, but is your niche site is one of those standard www dot best___ dot org domains or EMD niche sites? or you try something really different ..
again ill understand if you keep it to yourself ..
Doug,
just want to know if the product sells more on December? like it can be a gift product? and then the sales slow down on Jan or the rest of the year ?
Generally, that is the case…It’s not specifically a gift but the overall trend for searches is seasonal.
Doug,
If its too much to ask, ill understand, but is your niche site is one of those standard www dot best___ dot org domains or EMD niche sites? or you try something really different ..
again ill understand if you keep it to yourself ..
Hi John, It’s something like that but not exactly…
Doug,
Your niche site has exact match of 5,400 search per month
but are you planning to create another niche site for the 12,100 exact match keyword which is also in related in your product?
If you rank in this 12,100 exact match i believe your earnings will grow more but i guess its better for you to create another niche site for it.. this keyword don’t have the word “best” in it .. but its related to your niche already..
also if you may delete that single word there .. i guess people wont find your site …. a friendly advice …
Hi John, I’m confused about your comments and details. Can you rephrase the questions?
To answer your question…I’m not planning on starting another site for anything that has 12,100 exact match searches in the near term.
Doug,
I hope this graph helps a little ..
Thanks.
For anyone else, this chart illustrates the anchor text of the backlink profile. It is out of context for this post but it is good to have the exact match anchor text under 5% for the keywords that you want to rank for.
Doug,
also maybe you can try not to link to amazon for the exact keyword that you are also try to rank in Google… since your link will be counted as vote ..
you think so ?
Hi John, I don’t have any links like you describe. But that seems like reasonable advice… However, I doubt the one link would have a major impact on the Amazon ranking.
Hey Doug,
Im most interested in the link building you used. Could you roughly break it down for me and everyone in sections and roughly how many properties/links you made for each field?
Example and from my understanding:
Tier 1:
PBN x3
Web 2.0s x5-10 properties?
Social Links x3?
Article Directories x2
Blog comments x100
Tier 2:
5 Fiverr gigs @ articles directory and web 2.0s?
Is that the just of it?
Hey Alex – Great questions. That is generally right…
Here are a couple amendments:
More like 5 article directories
I did register at about 3 web directories
And, just a note about the Tier 2… some of those gigs were 2-4 tiers themselves. Think SeNuke or similar type gigs that point to the web 2.0s.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the concise, interesting article Doug.
I’m just wondering how the most recent google update – which targets people with aggressive link building – has affected your ranking for this affiliate site.
Thanks again.
Hi – there was a rankings dip in Jan and Feb. I think the one in Jan was related to an update. I think the one in Feb was more from links disappearing for one reason or another.
It’s something like that. I can reveal that since there are so many niche sites out there like that already. 🙂
hahaha i believe i just made a stupid question right there hahaa …
Hi Doug,
Wow, what a wealth of information you provide your readers!
I’m interested in learning about your philosophy for starting Amazon affiliate sites.
If you’re converting b/w .5 and 1% of visitors (which isn’t bad), wouldn’t you be better off selling affiliate products through a marketplace like Clickbank, where commissions are upwards of 50%?
I would imagine a high converting landing page, coupled with superb copywriting, would get you converting at least in the 3-5% range. I’m a copywriter and I pull these numbers from my experience, but I’m not too privy on the niche site building (yet) so I might be missing something.
Maybe it’s difficult to find the exact products to link to that fit your keywords appropriately?
Have you experimented with other models? I’m very curious.
Anyway, I think I speak for most of us who frequent your site when I say you’re an inspiration and an incredible resource. Please keep at it! Talk soon.
Hey Rob – Good questions. And, thanks a bunch for the nice compliments!
Why not sell affiliate products (a la Clickbank)?
That’s an option but that’s actually really limiting in many ways. It all depends on what you’re trying to market and sell.
I haven’t experimented very much with other monetization methods…just Adsense on a small scale. There are plenty of other ways to monetize and other opportunities.
For me, I find it most effective to focus on one method at a time. The Amazon sites are working well for now.
That said, if I had a bigger authority type site, I might consider working directly with a manufacturer or distributor as an affiliate. Depending on the situation, a drop shipping arrangement might be good.
You’re really only limited by your imagination, your network, and your ability to tolerate risk. 🙂
Really nice article. I liked the Critical Information About the Niche and Keywords.Thanks for shareing.
hi, I like your blog very much, Congrats on your success, I hope I am not late, did you write the articles yourself, or outresource?
I wrote most of them myself and now I outsource much more of the writing.
Really nice post, thanks for sharing
Hi my name is Stephen Pastore. I am a 22 year old aspiring entrepreneur. Im gunna try and be as brief as possible. So basically I just want to know what kind of money I can expect to make from an import/export business? I know this a very vague and general question that doesnt really have an answer but lets assume im an extremely hard worker thats gunna work 24/7 and things work out really well and lets assume that ill spend atleast 5-7 years on this business but more likely 8-10. Could i ever expect to make 5-10 million in a lump sum for myself after tax (not company revenue)? The other question is if the answer to that question is no, would you say that since i have very little contacts/ideas/experience and just dont know where to start, is it a good idea to consider an amazon import business as a good way to gain that valuable experience/contacts and ideas im looking for that will EVENTUALLY LEAD me to a big opportunity where I would be able to build a very big business like for example something that produces around 50 million in sales or gets acquired for 50 million etc? like basically would an amazon import business be a great teaching tool/gateway or a springboard to move on and graduate onto a much bigger opportunity? I understand i sound just like and ignorant naive money hungry kid that doesnt know his ass from his elbow but if you could help me out with these concerns id appreciate it greatly and I understand completely this is hard question to answer but anything helps. Thank you.
Hey Steve, thanks for checking out the post. So I have no first hand info/data on this but I’ll tell you what I think.
So basically I just want to know what kind of money I can expect to make from an import/export business?
It’s pretty much unlimited.
Could i ever expect to make 5-10 million in a lump sum for myself after tax (not company revenue)?
Yes, a person could do that.
The other question is if the answer to that question is no, would you say that since i have very little contacts/ideas/experience and just dont know where to start, is it a good idea to consider an amazon import business as a good way to gain that valuable experience/contacts and ideas im looking for that will EVENTUALLY LEAD me to a big opportunity where I would be able to build a very big business like for example something that produces around 50 million in sales or gets acquired for 50 million etc?
I’d say you need to start somewhere else, not an amazon import business. Do you have a lot of capital to get started? Do you have much business experience? If not, you should go work for an importing business so you can learn about the business. Do that for a few years so you can learn with someone else’s money & business.
Good luck
Hello Doug,
For a newby guy that wants to create his first niche site to make money with Amazon Affiliate program…How much time & money do you thing as average could take for a site to start getting results $$$. I understand that it takes time, effort,work and investment but having all that in place…could you give an estimate?
Thanks
Hi Doug,
If you can, please give me some feedback on my site. It seems it’s stuck in the rankings.
Thanks
Great tips for starting Amazon affiliate sites. I’m planning on deploying one this year – and will use some of the tips outlined here to build the site – and make it useful, helpful and profitable.
Try now it’s getting so hard after my experience I needed to go off affiliate it’s still making some bucks.
But competition is INSANE! It takes 2x more time.
Hi Doug, I just started using amazon affiliate few days ago. I’ve got well over 100clicks but I’m yet to earn anything. Does it take long for my earning dashboard to be updated?
It should update in a day or less.
Hi Doug! Great amazon earnings and great post! Was an interesting read. I have a question. Can I use a screenshot from this post as a reference to show people that earning with amazon affiliates is real and can bring a lot of earnings? Let me know please. Thanks.
Stan, thanks for checking it out!
Where would you use it? I suggest just send them to this post and also my YouTube channel.
Thx for answering. I will use it on a high traffic website and I will mention that Doug Cunnington earned this amount with his website. Will mentioning your name be enough? I guess interested people will google and check your site and channel. I guess I cant link directly 🙁 What do you think?
Thanks Doug for sharing all this stuff you are everywhere on my facebook, in gmail i am trying to learn everything from your experiments.
Thanks, Rose, glad to have you in the community!
Hello, Wow. It is so helpful all the info you provide. I am going to read all of your posts. My question:
– Are you registered only in Amazon for US, or for span, Italy…. As well?
Thanks.
I’m in other countries when it makes sense.
Hey Doug – I wondered if or when you were going to reveal more details about this niche site. Thanks for putting together this post. Always good to put at ease inquiring minds.
My only question is… do you think you can replicate this site with a totally different niche? You didn’t just “get lucky” with this niche, did you? Are you confident you can build another site with similar success now that you have done it with this one?
Looking forward to reports on your next niche site (whenever or whatever that may be).
Thanks! I removed your URL to keep your site private.
I don’t have any other details on this site. You can replicate this — yes. Check out Project Go White Hat for example.
Also, check out my student’s success stories. It’s even more important to be able to teach people versus me doing it again and again. 🙂
Great article
Hey Doug,
Thank you for sharing this informative article. I am also doing a little Amazon affiliate on my website and the content I have written, link building activities that I have done are all quality and in good numbers. But still I am not getting enough results. Sometimes I get good clicks but no conversion.
What can I do so that I can be better in it?
Really great achievement. This article inspire me.
Quite the impressive earnings, Doug. Amazon is a beast to work with, especially during the holidays. And many people don’t realize how easy it is to generate sales with it targeting even the smallest phrases. The commission rate isn’t awesome, but the volume isn’t hard to get if your content is great.
After 2 years of building websites, my Amazon income is less than $10 per month.
I think you are lying, or what did I do wrong?
Hi John, I’m not sure what you’re doing wrong but there are probably a few things. And even if I am personally lying, what about all the success stories and other people? Do you think everyone is lying?
Anyway, you should probably get back to the basics and review your keyword and topic research and quality of the content.
If you make $10 per month, then you have figured something out. If you can make $10 per month, why not $50, or $500, or $5,000?
Is the KGR formula still working today (December 2021)?
Yes. Check the recent success stories on YouTube. Better yet, try it yourself.