Clickbank is yesterday. Today, Amazon can be a great and easy way to make money online. The commissions are lower, but you can make it up by finding high-priced items to sell in volume.
Why Amazon?
The public doesn't have as much trouble buying physical products as they do digital. You won't have the long and complex pre-sell activity you need for most digital products.
On top of that, people who find you through your Amazon niche site will often go on browsing the store, earning you more commissions on things you never intended on selling!
With digital product sites you have to keep updating and building links to keep them earning. Amazon sites can work for you for months or even years without a bit of upkeep. You can really "set it and forget it!"
The reason for this is that there are so many Amazon niches that are not saturated like every single thing in Clickbank is.
Find Your Niche
Finding that untapped niche is the key, and it's not hard to find! There are literally tens of thousands of products on Amazon. All you have to do is browse the categories within Amazon and find a suitable niche. Here are some guidelines:
You're looking for a nice mix of related products in a single niche. Ninety percent should be products over $100 with the remaining 10 percent low-priced items. The reason for this is that there is a monthly threshold that must be met in order to get to higher commission levels. You can do this quickly with low-priced items making your bigger-ticket items more profitable later in the month.
Products should have at least three stars and ten user reviews. This assures the product is popular and of a decent quality.
Avoid products that can be found easily at the local Wal-Mart. Stay away from your first impulses, like HD televisions, cell phones and computers. These areas are already saturated and you'll find it hard to break in.
Confirm that the product has over 4000 searches per month on Google. Take a look at the amount of competition; too, as too much may ruin your chances of making money online.
Create Your Site
Once you've found a nice assortment of products, you'll start a blog. Obtain a good domain name with your primary keyword in it. Set up your blog on your hosting account and find a good theme.
Now write an article on each product you've identified. You can do this yourself or hire it out at someplace like textbroker.com. Each article should contain:
- Who could use the product - The main features - Why to buy the product - Simple text links within the article to the Amazon product under your affiliate ID
Drip feed these articles over a few weeks. Promote them with slowly-built links. Although beyond the scope of this article, search for other article marketing and link-building tips.
An Amazon niche site can be making money online over time. You can make even more money if you keep creating more and more link backs and add more products as they enter the niche.