Want to know what do you need to make an extra $8,885 per month with Amazon Affiliate Sites? Keep reading…
About a year ago I started a private group with some friends from a Google+ group that was being managed by Larry Deane, the owner of SideIncomeBlogging. This idea was a proposal from my part to build a private group where we could talk openly about our websites, rankings and things that worked back in the day, including PBNs and more, and initially I meant it to be like a niche challenge focused on building Amazon/Adsense sites.
Of course, what we want is many times far away from what we end up doing, and this was no exception. We started the group with around 15 members but then it was reduced to 10 members after 2 months where we realized some of them weren’t really interested in participating.
We kicked them out.
Some of them didn’t even post 1 single tie in 2 months, while the rest of us were pretty active and we were talking about anything related to SEO and niche sites, including PBNs, ranking tools, monetization methods, Amazon accounts, designs and more. This group alone is worth a lot because is my first go-to when I have a question around the niche site world.
The Power of Mastermind
Anyway, the reason I’m telling you this is because I want to highlight the power of networking. Many people hate it because they think they can work from home and have no connection with the outside world.
Well, you can…
But you’re missing big if you think you don’t have anything to learn from others. A Mastermind is a great way to have people “around” you doing similar stuff and helping each other emotionally and practically is a great way to keep sanity and learn faster while making some great connections.
This has lead me to meet and stay close to many people in the industry like:
- Larry and Matthew who earn around 1-2k per month
- Kent, Aaron and Hieu who all earn $50-200 per day with Amazon
- Chris Lee who earns more than 10k per month with Adsense
- Zach and Robert Halpern, who are working and earning 5-10k per month with Amazon sites.
Meet Zach
Zach Gray is my special invitee today, and he started working on Amazon Affiliate Sites around a year ago. It all started when he bought a website from Flippa and looks like there’s nothing that could stop him to make a great living with the Amazon Associates program.
I contacted him and decided to make him a small interview to know how he’s developed this business so fast and what’s working at this moment.
Zach is kind of a low profile guy. What I mean by this is that he had no blog or anything else going on besides his niche sites, which means he was focused on building his empire instead of trying to market himself. That’s good but because he’s having great results I recommended him to open a blog to document his journey.
Anyway, let me quickly explain how’s this going to work.
- Bold text means it’s a question. Hey Zach, what’s up?
- Classic Text means Zach is answering the question: Hey Servando, what’s up?
- Italic means I’m adding comments to his answers: Look, I’m a comment!
Easy, right? Let’s get started with the interview 😉
1. Well, aside from the little introduction, could you tell us a bit more about yourself? What do you do?
My name is Zach Gray. I am currently living in Kansas City but plan on moving to Belize by the end of the year. I used to be a security salesmen but with the help of the company that employed me I am now working full time as the COO of Evolving Wisdom a company started by me, my wife, and her dad. My business started from the purchase of a website from Flippa which I grew leading to buying another and then another website with the earnings to the point that I now run a large scale Affiliate program of sites.
Belize? Really? Well, you’ll be “close” to México, so if we can ever meet, that would be great. But why? Can you comment about this decision? 🙂
2. What kind of numbers have you been pulling lately with Amazon Affiliates?
We average somewhere between 7k-10k all though recently its been on the high side of that regularly. I would also like to bring to a point that we are running close to 5k-8k a month in net profits outside of all the cost to run the websites and the original purchase cost of the website acquisition.
3. Are you using SEO techniques? Or how do you get traffic to your Amazon niche sites?
You will probably start to see a theme in this interview but I am a “content is king guy“. I don’t know how many times I will show a friend or someone in a group a website of mine that is making 3k a month and I always get the response “that’s it?”
$10,000 per month with Amazon?
Make 5 figures per month with the Amazon Associates program ranking websites and dominating your niche!
My websites are very simple but I always focus on great quality content. I do obviously use keyword research, keyword targetting in content, and of course all the good stuff that lets Google know what the content is about (meta tags, h1, h2 tags, descriptions on media). I also stay away from PBNs mostly because I am uneducated in them and Google penalties scare me. I know this sounds a lot like I am scared of sharks so I only swim in pools and to an extent that is probably correct but right now my pools are warm, clean, and easy so I will stay in them!
I’ve been using PBNs for several sites for the last 2 years and they work. But I know the power of no backlinks can work too as I’ve experimented with it lately a lot. Of course, good keyword research comes in hand with this. If it’s working for you, let’s keep it that way!
4. If you don’t mind sharing a bit, what’s working for you nowadays to improve your rankings?
Outside of the mentioned above which is probably a good 80% of it, I have had some success promoting created videos on Facebook and just started an email list on each site to try and re-market some of the products.
5. What kind of CR do you see from your Amazon sites (clicks) to sales?
To be honest I am at a very low conversion rate on Amazon depending on the month 4%-6% but that is a little bit by design because of the high dollar items I am promoting. I would prefer to be on the low end of that with sales of $300-$500 items then trying to increase conversion rates on low end products. Its nice when one sale can bring in $40 of commission.
True. A good mix of low cost products with high products can be great for Amazon because the commission rates are increased by the number of sales. I always preferred to sell high price products inside AND outside of this industry.
6. Name the weirdest thing you’ve seen someone buying on Amazon?
Hands down was a natural suction cupping nipple enhancer. None of my sites are even close to adult entertainment but this product was to correct inverted nipples it made me laugh pretty hard. That same day someone bought like 5 bottles of lubrication and a back messager I think it was all the same person.
Just for the people that don’t get it. Amazon counts every sale made by the referred link as long as it’s within their time limit. So if you send someone that’s looking to buy a TV, but later they decide to buy a tablet and a set of kitchen knifes you’ll get that commission too.
As for the Nipple and clitoris suction thing… I’ve got no words…
7. Do you this full time? If so, how many months/years have you been working on Amazon sites?
I started working on this as a hobby back in 2012 doing interviews for kickstarter campaigns, that lead to site creation and Adsense accounts. It was extremely part-time 5 hours a week tops until I bought my first site in 2013. It was still more of a hobby until I started getting some momentum and last September I started working at about 20 hours a week hoping to build on some success.
In December I took the plunge and made this my full time gig. I probably work somewhere between 50-60 hours a week on this but it is a passion of mine and feels less like work and more like a hobby. For those of you just starting 50-60 hours is not required at all but once your sites start earning and you start enjoying it you can’t turn it off.
Work on things that you love and you’ll never feel like you have a job again. This is me telling you that you should pursuit something that you like doing and be the best at it. I work around 40-60 hours per week and I never hate doing it.
I’m almost never stressed, I don’t have to pull 8 hours per day and I can do whatever I want any time of the day without feeling guilty.
8. What are the best months of the year for your sites? Why do you think that happens?
I have about 5 sites that do a majority of my earnings and I have specifically chosen those niches to give me good seasonality year round. I own two sites that are spring seasonal, 2 sites that are fall seasonal, and a steady earner that increases a little during Christmas. These seasonalities are because the products that I promote are used only during those times.
9. What would you recommend for someone who wants to get into the Amazon niche business and has just $100 to get started?
That one is tough. To be honest keyword research is so important that I would hate to buy a domain in a bad niche and the keyword research tool I use would use all that money and then some. Thinking about this harder I would get on Facebook and join a group around amazon niche sites. Basically like the private group we have 😉
Talk with some of the group and see if they could help you with keyword research to get you started so you can buy a good domain and start content focused in the right place. From there buy your domain, read Amazon’s terms thoroughly to know what you can and can’t do, and then go to town. Learn what works and what doesn’t by trying out things to this day I learn more and more every day and laugh and the stuff I still don’t know.
10. High price products or low price products?
In a full portfolio you need both but more high price than low. You need both, Amazon’s commission structure is based off volume of orders and obviously lower priced products tend to be bought a higher volume but I love the higher priced products.
If I was only starting one site I would do high priced products I just feel like your tweaks, conversions, and sells with high priced items get so much more return than lower items.
Some quick math to back me up:
I get 100 visitors a day going to site A and 100 visitors to site B. Site A has products that are $300 each and site B has $50 dollar items. Most Amazon conversions are between 4%-15% so lets take the low and highs for both sites. Site A converts at 4% so it sell 4 products for $1200 dollars at 6% commission thats $62 in commission. Site B converts at 15% selling 15 products at $50 bucks for $750 at 6.25% commission (I went higher cause of more orders) thats only $48.25 in commission. Thats why I prefer high end products I would also expect conversions on the site B to be closer to 8% CR than the 15% at which you would only make $25 in commission.
True, although I’d like to add that with the low cost products you get more data and statistical significance cause it’s easier to make decisions based on 100 sales than make a decision made of 4 sales.
For example, if you change your design and tweak your funnel and then you go from 4 sales per day to 5 sales sales per day, you can’t really say you’ve made improvements until you analyze the data of several days/weeks. Whereas having data of a tweak that made your sales go from 75 to 100 sales allows you to decide if your tweaks are really making a difference in just a matter of 1-3 days.
11. Let’s say I have an Amazon niche already making $500-1000 per month. What would you do to scale that to $5-10k per month?
Start long tail keywords. Your site is obviously doing well with Google so its easier to start ranking in other keywords. Target a group of 10 new like keywords and start your content creation. Then you can start internally linking pages from one to another from already established ranking pages to your new ones. Golden tip. I do this with some of my sites and i don’t even build backlinks for the new pages anymore.
These keywords can bring in more traffic, give you a new set of products that could bring more clicks, and boost your Domain Authority.I would also start capturing emails if you already are not. Offer something free that will get them to sign up with you. Nowadays I am more interested in the new email subscribers than my actually Amazon numbers because with new email subscribers I can sell over and over to them. The money is always in the list. Building an asset like that can yield to evergreen earnings for months or years to come.
12. Amazon Affiliates vs. Adsense, which one do you recommend for starters?
I think Adsense sites are easier and a lot more passive when starting out in online properties. With that being said I feel like your return on time spent, community support (facebook groups, training, and tools available), and scalability would lead me to doing Amazon sites.
For starters what I would suggest is buying an amazon site that is already earning. I know this means there would need to be a some upfront cost but a site already earning is much easier to manage, allow you to make mistakes and see immediately what is working what isn’t, and gives you a good blueprint to recreate another site like in a different niche. This is really what changed the game for me.
I was struggling to get sites of the sand box, get good traffic, and learn a process that works. I bought a site for $500 dollars earning $25 dollars a month. Getting into the WordPress panel and seeing all the plugins, content that work, and just structure of the site really helped me out. I got to play with the site a bunch learn how to help it along and within 3 months it was making $50 dollars a month. I know this doesn’t sound like a ton but it gave me a proof of concept that this could work. This was 2 years ago and started me on my way.
BTW that site now is making $300 a month and while it is very low on my earnings measuring stick now it is still the one I am most proud of and while I can’t even come close to quantifying how valuable of a learning experience it was I can tell you its made me $4725.32 since I purchased it well worth the investment.
13. Have you tried Amazon niches outside of USA? Perhaps other languages?
I have affiliate accounts in other countries even though none of the content is in the native languages. I get a couple bucks a month from Germany and a couple of bucks a month from others.
14. Do you ever do retargeting or other niches to increase your sales?
Currently in that process though never really done it before its my next big project to see numbers jump even more. Don’t hesitate to ask me anything about retargeting. I’ve been doing it for more than a year and it works wonders.
15. OK, final question. What would you recommend for anybody that would like to get started in this business?
Me personally I would suggest buying a website. I am currently in the development on my personal blog on how to buy sites safely but you can contact me personally for help. I hate the sandbox and I hate trying to figure out or waiting to see if Google likes the stuff I was doing. When you buy a website that has traffic already things are much easier. I understand some people don’t have the money but the site doesn’t have to be huge and growing it makes the investment worth it.
Also connect with people there are so many great people out there and many who are willing to help. I call it the biggest pay it forward community in the world. Someone learned from someone and getting to return the favor is great. Mastermind groups are awesome as well, if the group is active it can lead to great discussions and even help. Quick story I just recently was hacked on all my sites. Thanks to people in a mastermind group, a couple people from trainings I have taken, and friends of friends my sites got back up in less than a week and are stronger than ever with great new security and backups and a learned a ton of stuff I never would have without them. The power of Facebook groups and connecting with people in the industry its a must.
The power of a mastermind in a real case study 🙂 BTW, I’ll publish an article on how I get all my sites out of the sandbox a lot faster than the “normal” estimated time soon. If you’re not in my email list, what are you waiting for?
Conclusions
I’d like to thank Zach Gray for taking some time to answer this interview and sharing his thoughts and experiences in this industry.
As you can see, Zach’s learning curve took him a few years but recently he started doing this full time and I think his reaping the rewards.
Another interesting post related to this is our case study on how people make money with Shopify. Check that out!
I’ll try to get a few more members of our mastermind group on board of this interview series. Some of them have a lot of experience and a lot to show off within the niche sites industry. If you want more interviews like this please leave a comment below!
Talk to you in the next one.
Mike pius says
Thanks for this post. Am new to amazon affiliate and with these i learnt its all about the articles.
Jude says
Great article, and I’m interested in the method involving buying of domain. How does that work? Is there an article or interview on that?
Servando Silva says
I don0t know what method you’re talking about?
hernan says
Your content is very interesting. I would like to ask you about inserting Adsense ads on an amazone affiliate website. Could you please tell me what you think about it?
Thank you. I’d appreciate your reply.
Servando Silva says
I think if your site is focused on Amazon affiliates it’s better not to mix them with Adsense.
Ivan David Lippens says
The only thing that set off bells, here, was the comment about ranking with zero backlinks as being some sort of method.
That should have been covered MUCH more heavily.
Erwan says
Hi Servando,
It’s an interesting post and 5k-8k a month in net profits outside of all the cost is great but Zach doesn’t mention how many sites he run to reach this amount. Do you have any idea or could you ask him please? It will give us an idea of how much one site can gerenate per month.
Thanks
Servando Silva says
More important than the number sites are the traffic numbers, but back then he had around 10 sites working if i remember correctly.
ArcticPanda says
Do you create websites from scratch now that you’ve learnt from your initial experience of buying the website? Or do you still just buy websites with traffic?
If you start them from scratch, how much content do you crate?
Servando Silva says
Hello.
As far as I know Zac now only buys websites and improve them, but from time to time we might create some of his own and invest time-7money into them as well.
Nabil says
Hello Silva and thank you for this worth informations, as Zach mentioned in the interview , from where we can buy an existing amazon website ?
Thank you in advance for you answer
Servando Silva says
Hi Nabil.
The Empire Flippers and FEInternational are my choices, but also Flippa works but you need to be careful there.
Vaibhav Joshi says
Hey thanks for this wonderful and very informative article. I have started amazon this year from January. I have made 3 WordPress websites that shows only amazon products targeting only 3 countries that is India, U.S and U.K. but currently i am not having such traffic. Can you help me out.
Servando Silva says
Hello.
I don’t really give any coaching services but you can learn a lot from different sites and my articles as well.
Also, for your security I deleted the links of your sites as you probably don’t want to reveal them publicly. Are you working on SEO or how are you planning to drive traffic to them?
monish says
Finally what I was looking for. Thank you very much.
Kamrul Hassan says
Hi,
Could you please let me know what percentages of all Amazon Product sales are done through Amazon Affiliates Sites per year? I would appreciate it very much for the reply.
Thanks
Kamrul
Servando Silva says
I have no access to that information. I’m not sure if Amazon even discloses it but Google is your friend in case they do 🙂
Sahir says
Hi, informative interview. Although you’ve asked to buy a website instead of making a new one. But what if I make an affiliate website using a woocommerce theme like Nielsen Store and writing 2-3 dozens of state of the art articles. Will it work?
Ramiz Syed says
Good informative article,
what will be the difference between amazon.com vs amazon country level
as amazon offer affiliate in many country level.
should i go with amazon.com or country specific.
Thanks
Servando Silva says
They payment rates and methods are different in every country.
So you have to tweak your links according to your visits because unfortunately Amazon doesn’t have a global affiliate link for all the countries.
business energy says
Hey,
Thanks so much for this post! I love the interview you featured with Zach. Hearing from someone who actively works in this field made everything much more realistic!
Best,
Dennis
Brand Baskets says
Hi Servando,
Its a Great Article About Amazon Affiliate
Great inspiration for fresher
corburt erilio says
I was very pleased to seek out this web-site.I wanted to thanks to your time for this excellent read!! I positively enjoying every little little bit of it and I’ve you bookmarked to take a look at new stuff you blog post.
Prateek says
A good read after loNG TIME. Do you use any other afflilate network except amazon, probably with a better cookie period?
andrea says
HELLO!
very interesting article.
I got a question that i would love you to answer.
regarding retargeting, Do Retargeted Amazon ads preserve your affiliate ID? that is, if a user gets to a product in amazon through your website and leaves the page without purchasing and, in less than 24 hours, clicks on an amazon retargeted add to that same product, do the affiliate still gets the commission?
I tried several manual examples with retargeted adds from amazon, and the url is not the same (the “tag” doesn´t say the affiliate´s name)
thank you!
Servando Silva says
Well, now that you mention it I wouldn’t use retargeting from the ads straight to Amazon. I prefer sending them to my website again and if they click links and buy after that I will make a commission.
As for your other question, Amazon has cookies for 24 hours, so if they buy something even if they don’t come from your link anymore, you’ll get a commission for that. It doesn’t matter if your link was pointing to a book and he ended up buying a flower or a fridge.
Andrea says
Hi Servando,
thank you for your comments.
I wouldnt use retargetting pointing to amazon either. Im talking about taking advantage of the fact that amazon does retargetting ITSELF so its not necessary to spend the money on it, DOnt you agree?
Another thing that concerns me, is how to MEASsure the origin of CONVERSSIONs, that is, if a user that went through my site and finnally bought, came through a facebook CAMPAIGn, or an add in a website or from a certain keyword im GOOGLE.
BasicAlly the issue here is how to connect the sales report that amazon gives you, to the analyticS of my website. I know I can have different Id FOR DIFFERENT WEBSITES OF MINE, BUT WHAT ABOUT DIFFERENT IDS FOR THE SAME WEBSITE DEPENDING ON THE ORIGIN OF THE USER? IS THAT POSSIBLE AND WOULD THAT BE A SOLUTION?
THANK YOU
BEST REGARDS
ANDREA
Servando Silva says
OK, now I understood.
Yes, Amazon does some basic retargeting but it’s random and it could happen the day after and so it won’t count as a commission for you.
Teespring did the same but still you had higher ROIs by doing it by yourself.
As for the origins, it’s difficult because the way Amazon tracks everything is a bit primitive, but you can check your Google Analytics stats or create a second website just for retargeting to get a different tracking number.
Edward says
Hi Servando Silda, Thanks for the great article, i learned alot from it. I’m currently building an amazon affiliate site, and i have a question about ranking without backlinks.
You’ve mentioned in the article that “But I know the power of no backlinks can work too as I’ve experimented with it lately a lot.” is it really possible to outrank sites with backlinks with just keyword research and good content? would it be like ‘publishing content and hope that it ranks’ kind of situation?
please advise, thanks!!
Servando Silva says
There’s a situation where you can actually create great content that gets comments and social signals and it might rank without backlinks. However if you’re competing with sites with lots of high quality rankings it’s going to be difficult to crack the top 3 results.
Melissa Quintero says
I manage the written content for an amazon affiliated review site. the folks i work for keep me and my writing team relatively in the dark. I have no idea how they make money since the site is often a hot mess. they give me a large list of products, i in turn assign those to my writers who write an article about the product, then I edit and post the article. often the articles don’t even match the products well.
could you tell me how my part of the puzzle fits in, i have no idea if we are paid fairly or how they even make money on a site that is a mess. It seems that what we write is not important, which as a writer myself is disappointing. any light on how this whole thing works would be great. thank you.
Servando Silva says
Well, your part is the content creation as a ghost writer, however we have no idea if that content is being ranked and if it’s actually done doing white hat or gray hat techniques, so it’s difficult to say.
Andy says
Hi melissa,
what’s your website/contact?
Michelle says
Useful info. (sorry, i have no idea why my comment is appearing in all caps).
anyway, i just purchased eazy azon, a plug-in, mainly for the ability to geo-link and get some sales overseas, esp. canada and UK, where i seem to have a signficant amount of readership.
as of now, one of my posts is front page on google and that’s where i get most of my traffic. this is also the post i would like to geo-link. so, i was told that i have to go back and edit my amazon affiliate links using the plug-in. my question is will this affect my seo at all? i’m thinking not, as i’ve updated posts before but this would be taking every amazon link appearing in my post and re-doing it.
so, i guess i’m asking does changing my amazon affiliate links (but linking to the same product) affect my seo?
thanks.
Servando Silva says
It shouldn’t affect your rankings and SEO man. You’re good to go.
Dave says
Do you know why he emphasizes buying a site versus starting from scratch? Is it just too hard to rank nowadays with new sites? Or is it because it takes Months to get indexed by google?
Servando Silva says
A bit bof both. It’s easier to get something that’s already working and scale or optimize it than start from scratch, but of course it only works if you have enough budget to invest.
MATT says
HEY MATE, GREAT POST.
CAN YOU GO INTO DETAIL ABOUT RETARGETING?
ARE YOU JUST BRINGEN VISITORS BACK TO YOUR HOMEPAGE OR TO A SPECIFIC DEAL PAGE OR SO?
ANY TIPS HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT SUCCESSFULLY?
Servando Silva says
Best way is testing different pages. You can bring them back home or to a landing page or deal but it will depend on your niche and what you’re promoting at the end of the day.
Ken says
Zach, what’s your website so we can sign up for your newsletter?
Servando Silva says
I think Zach decided to focus on his niche sites and canceled his personal website, so he has no newsletter at the moment.
Juan Pham says
I can’t believe in my eyes, you can make a big profit in one month. I hope I can make just 10/100 by yours, but is very hard to do.
Thank you for your sharing.
SENGUPTA says
hi Servando,
I am just reading your post today and the interview with zach is very insightful. I have recently started with amazon affiliate and would love to get your take on how best to add value to customers.
Thanks!
Servando Silva says
Hello.
You mean adding value as content or not sure I’m understanding your question.
SENGUPTA says
Yeah, I was wondering if you had any tips how content can be tailored to add value to the customer. thanks again for your help!
William Blears says
Great Tips zach, loved the interview and the questions, really helpful!
haar says
i’ve learned something new from this article. i once was an amazone affiliate, but i’m rejected because i didn’t sell a single stuff around 90 days. i would like to start again. i’m from southeast asia and is possible if i don’t submit domain just a blogspot url.
i’m your email subscriber.
Servando Silva says
Don’t use a blogspot for that. Create a high quality website with a few articles around the niche you want to promote first.
Mostafa says
How many Article I need to establish micro niche website?
Servando Silva says
There’s no fixed number. Some sites have just like 6-10 articles and others have 30-50.
I’d start with 5-10 at least.
chris says
thanks for a great article, do you know how I can find facebook mastermind groups focused on amazon affiliate marketing? can i join yours?
Servando Silva says
They’re not accepting new members. You can find them using Google Search and Facebook search.
Dweepayan says
Reading the post now, btw, I’m making 5K+ from Amazon, and am I in any case qualified to join the mystery driving force bunch? I have confidence in including esteem there 🙂
Servando Silva says
I’m not one of the admins of the group anymore and as far as I know they’re not receiving more members at the moment. But I’ll ask and see what they say.
stacy Hoehn says
Dweepayan, could you give me advice on how to earn? My website is jewelrystoresolutions.com. I have only had 2 sales and 27 clicks in 3 months.
Aezaz says
Hi,
I have a domain with .in extension. Is it good to sell amazon.com products? I wanted to do amazon affiliate marketing with amazon.com site.
I am a newbie, can you please help me find the right path?
Thanks in advance.
Servando Silva says
If you’re selling in India, it should be OK. But if you want to sell from the USA, you better get a .com domain.
reci says
Do you think guys we can come to $1000 a month, with $500 budget?
Servando Silva says
It’s possible, but it will take a few months, lots of work and patience.
Sunil Singh says
Servando,
Pretty great stuff for the newbies. It surely gonna help them make some money out of Amazon Associate program.
Sunil
tharan says
Appreciate your post and all the best for your success.I’m interested in amazon affliate marketing.could you help me to find out good niche / keyword ? last few week i have followed the wordpress and now i have some knowledge of it.please help me to find good niche by instructing
Servando Silva says
Keyword research and niche selection is something you should do on your own and also keep it as private as possible. Otherwise your site becomes a risk when other people know about it.
John says
Hi Silva,
I saw that you are talking about Facebook Retargeting for Amazon Niche site, so did you created Lookalike audiences(from your existing custom audiences who were on your site before) or just using that Custom Audiences without Lookalike audiences?
And what about average CPC to your website?
Thanks!
Servando Silva says
Hello.
This was from a guest post but usually I love using retargeting.
If the audience is big enough (let’s say 5-10k or more) then I focus on that audience first until I exhaust it and then create lookalike audiences.
However, if the audience is smaller than 3-5k, then I start with lookalike audiences right away.
Average CPC changes a lot from country to niche, but normally CPCs/CPMs on retargeting are 1/3 of the cost of the interest based targeting.
John says
Thank you! I just installed tracking code for 2 days and the CAs quite small, just 300 for now. I wonder what kind of ad posts you are using for retargeting: A promotion, giveaway, create coupon code with discount or just use the post that they were there?
Michal says
Great Stuff,
So motivating!
Where can I join your mastermind guys :)?
Servando Silva says
Are you doing Amazon affiliate sites?
Colin says
Hi Servando,
I was wondering about a specific term about Amazon Associates program. They mention you need to put a disclaimer on the page of every page containing an Amazon Affiliate Link.
Is it sufficient to just put a LINK to the bottom of each page. The LINK would go to a separate page having the disclaimer.
Thank you very much!
Mark says
This interview has really helped me and made me realise that ive not been doing enough keyword research, ive started a site selling hosting and domains, now realization has set in that so are a million other people :0) i have the basics down but am struggling for traffic 20+ visitors a day, and my adsense is pennies per week. and im not making any conversions at all.
And buying a site is really out of my reach atm, so its down to me lol, i will prevail.
thank you
Dweepayan Das says
Hello,
I just started being AN Amazon Associate. I am working with Cyber Digital promoting. I paid them $24,000 total to build my website, FB page, YouTube Video, SEO, Google Rapid Index, top one hundred fifty Search Engines, 20 keywords, etc. This is for permanent traffic. They are terribly useful and teaching Pine Tree State, but I’m afraid as a result of-of the cash spent. I hope I earn money. Do you have any thoughts?
Servando Silva says
What? why would you pay so much just for those services?
I think another commenter here did it and he learned the lesson.
I mean, if you pay $24,000 the website they build for you should start earning at least $2,000 per month since the first month or it’s not worth it.
stacy Hoehn says
I’m responding to why I spent that amount of money. They did give me options and said I would be earning between $8000-$12000 a month. Now I am waiting for them to fix my website (jewelrystoresolutions.com) because I found out through Amazon that i was never even appro ved! I don’t know what to do, I feel I’ve been scammed!
stacy Hoehn says
Also on my original post to you i had I did not write pine tree? What is that?
Servando Silva says
Feels like a scam but i’m not sure as I never heard from them besides form you and another person who I think got ripped too. What pine tree? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Ali says
what??? I am a web developer and digital marketer, my web development and digital marketing company built amazon affiliate sites with all the features, for only around $3000 – $5000
why would you pay that much?
stacy Hoehn says
Hi, I believed them when they said I would be building a business, and that I could write it off as business expenses. They said I was purchasing targeted traffic, SEO, so many visitors a month, etc.
Now I’m in the process of dealing with the attorney general’s office to try to get some money back.
The website domain is not even in my name. Amazon keeps denying me everytime there is a sale, because they say it looks like a 3rd party created the website, etc. And when Cyber digital made the website they didn’t even know that there should be an amazon affiliate DISCLOSEr, etc. I found all that out from going onto the amazon affiliate forum and learning about the PROGRAM, something I should have done immediately before I got scammed.
Cyber digital definitely fooled and scammed me, and I fell for it completely!!
Any suggestions?
Ali says
Oh oo am really sorry for that.
i also check the domain whois database the entire domain and website was registered by them. i cant even believe my eyes that website was designed for $24,000 it looks like a early 90s website. any way there must be a way out, you really need to do something to recover that money. there are lot of lucrative business online you can start. in fact you can even run the amazon store successfully on your own. let asume you budget $5,000 – $7,000 you will definately archive a good result. I own a web development / degital marketing and consuly company. I will guide you free!!!!! it pain me when ever i remember the amount you wasted for nothing on that carp website.
just keep your question coming. if you also need more suggestion please drop a question, i will be very happy to help you out.
thanks.
Rich says
Thanks for the info. Its good to know that real ama sites (not crappy bot sites) are making money as long as you have a structured plan, patience and a realistic timeline.
You mentioned about buying sites on Empire flippers but struggling to get my head round the numbers. Its selling for 150,000 with 30,000 a month traffic and 5,000 net. At the same margin it would take two and half years to recuperate the cost with the possibility that amazon and google may change their terms over this period and stock/trends etc can also effect the long term result.
Is the high sales price then determined on increasing the rank through better SEO as well as driving sales with more products and better content which must be achieved fairly quickly to recoup the cost and hopefully make a profit. Am I missing something here as Im totally new to affiliate marketing but built a few business sites which have done well.
Many Thanks
Servando Silva says
Hello Rich.
It’s a usual number to sell your website from anything like 5-10x the revenue per month and up to 24 or even 36x depending on the niche and value of the website.
What most people do is buy a website (let’s say they pay $20,000 for a $1,000 per month profit website) and then they build it and grow it so they can recover the price a lot faster than in 20 months. If you increase your revenue to $1,300 per month after working it for 3 months, you’ll end up recovering your investment a lot faster and, if you you ever want to sell it, all of it will become profit in the future.
It takes good money, that’s for sure, but you can get started with something small.
Also, the reason why many people do this is because it’s a lot easier to take an already working website and improve it than starting from scratch without knowing if it will work or not.
richj says
It’s pretty difficult to buy a website that’s already making so much money from the start. I’d recommend buying one making much less so its much more affordable and you have more room for growth.
Wan Derlan says
Hi, may i have more info about how and where to buy a website that currently had traffic and income with amazon affiliate? I am very interesting in how to buy sites safely.
Servando Silva says
The Empire Flippers and FE international is where I’d start 🙂
Stacy Hoehn says
Hello,
I just started being an Amazon Associate. I am working with Cyber Digital Marketing. I paid them $24,000 total to build my website, FB page, You Tube Video, SEO, Google Rapid Index, top 150 Search Engines, 20 keywords, etc. This is for permanent traffic. They are very helpful and teaching me, but I’m scared because of the money spent. I hope I earn money. Do you have any thoughts?
Servando Silva says
I have no experience with them, but that’s a lot of money. Could you share their website or is it a course?
Stacy Hoehn says
Here is the website…cyberdigitalmarketing.com
Jaswinder says
I check the website, its nice, but I don’t think its making money.
Anyhow, you paid them already, which is a big amount. I can never spend that much money to earn affiliate income commission.
We should do things slowly and by learning through own own experience, not as people say and show their income to impress others.
As I am making money with my Niche Ease Bedding, which is only seven months old.
Even I am using free theme right now, I spend only for hosting and domain.
Good luck for your Earnings.
Stacy hoehn says
Jaswinder, I spent that money thinking I was starting a business. I was a fool. I am now trying to build a different website in hopes of earning money as an affiliate. I am still trying to get cyber digital to fix the website they made for me.
Servando Silva says
What are they fixing? If you’re not earning anything you should ask for a refund as it looks like a scam.
Stacy Hoehn says
Amazon said site did not have enough content. I would have thought being they sold this to me they would have known what was required.. I can’t wait to see it. If it doesn’t get done I will file with BBB and contact attorney general.
Joe says
OMG, you spent a lot of money . I don’t know what reasons you pay that much money for being an Amazon Affiliate. Do they guarantee you that you will make money every month from Amazon ?
In my opinion, you can hire a mentor and get coaching , hire someone to build a website, hire someone to do SEO for your website, hire someone to create your own private label product to sell on Amazon, even outsource everything with a lot cheaper than $24,000.
Let’s wait and see if Cyber Digital company can bring you some money. I hope they will because you already paid them a lot. If not, don’t be sad. It is a learning step that everyone has to go through. Keep your fingers crossed !
Stacy hoehn says
yes they guaranteed I would earn so much per month, and i fell for it! I regret not learning more about it then, as I sure have since!
John says
Hello, Servando Silva, Very informative post.I would love to learn more every single secret that you use for ranking your website.Thanks for this great post.
Joe says
Can Zach create ebook/video training step by step how to make $8,000 per month from Amazon affiliate site ? I want to buy it.
Servando Silva says
Hi Joe.
I don’t think Zach is interested in creating courses as a business at this moment because he’s well focused in his Amazon niches and doing over $10,000 per month now.
There are other courses around though but I haven’t personally taken them.
kazi zahir says
can I use Amazon Affiliate with my forum site?
I want to use Amazon Affiliate on my ebook section.
Is it possible?
Servando Silva says
I don’t think they have issues with forums, but you should check their terms and conditions to make sure.
Michael says
In the article you mentioned that you do quite a bit of retargeting for your amazon niche sites and you say feel free to ask you and you will help out. I currently have a few successful Amazon niche review type sites and I have been interested in increasing traffic with retargeting. Any response or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Servando Silva says
In my case, retargeting is done via Facebook.
So what you do is use the Facebook pixel to build a list during a couple weeks or a month for all of the traffic that goes to your website (or you can be more specific and create different pixels for different pages) and then spend a few extra dollars per month to brig that traffic back with Facebook ads.
This helps you increase your revenue by spending a bit more.
For example, let’s say your site earns $1,000 per month.
Then you build a retargeting list of 5,000 people with FB.
Spend $60 on Facebook Ads ($2 per day budget).
Earn another $300 on sales.
Your total revenue is $1,300 although you had to spend $60 more on ads.
That’s pretty much how it works.
Michael says
Thanks for the reply,
I figured that you were using Facebook and I have had the pixel installed for quite a long time. I would like more information on the type of ads you are using and where you are sending them. For example, if you had a survival knife site and the visitor was on best 3 inch survival knives what kind of an ad would you use?
Servando Silva says
Newsfeed Ads. You need to test yourself and see what works better for your niche.
Try sending them to different locations and tracking your stats to see where they convert more. There’s no “better” location for everyone.
Glad you already had the retargeting pixel.
bhanuprasad says
hi this is bhanu prasad how to enter this business please help me
keeshia says
HI, Servando! I always read your articles. I have a website, and I want to earn from adsense. But, I can’t drive traffic into my website. I am running out of budget already. Please help. Thank you.
Servando Silva says
How can I help? Why can’t you drive traffic to your website?
keeshia says
Hi, I just get traffic 8-20 visitors a day 🙁 so sad. I tried to do facebook ads at facebook, but my ad already expired and it didn’t add me friends even one. My total people who like my page is 2, 600. Please help me. I really need it. Thank you so much.
Servando Silva says
I don’t know how can I help. If you want to grow your fan page then you should try dozens of ads to get more fans, not friends.
But also you can try doing SEO as Zach in this interview.
KENT REST says
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon everyday.
It’s always useful to read articles from other authors and practice something from their web sites.
Muhammad humayun says
Awesome article you have described every point about affiliate marketing , i personally think Amazon affiliate marketing is little bit tough but after some time when you will be on track then the speed will be in your hand and you can control all the parameters. once again thanks alot for awesome posting.
Riza says
Hi Servando,
Inspiring Blog , makes me enthusiastic to learn internet marketing from zero.
Regards
Riza
Anu says
awesome article dude keep it up
Subhash Sharma says
Dear Sir
I have my personal blog..
Please guide how to generate 8 K per month…
I have got verified from Amazon…Ads are flowing over my blog…
Please guide further…
Regards
Subhash Sharma
Yogendra Sharma says
I wondered after seeing these screenshots of 8K commission. I want to give it a try for sure. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Ishan says
I want to start affiliate marketing… Can you help me…. I want to do all with you…
Servando Silva says
Who are you talking too? I don’t think Zach’s got plans for any joint ventures at this point.
Donfelix says
Hello Silva,
Regarding my previous comments, i have sent in the email.
Servando Silva says
Received. Will get back to you before the end of the week since I’m on holidays. Best Regards!
Donfelix says
On Sep 1, i brought in a comment here regarding some issues with my Amazon affiliate membership approval. Now am looking for blog to do a guest post regarding the mistakes i made in the first site – https://flippa.com/5524568-fitness-tech-store-with-verifiable-search-traffic
And how to avoid them. Just asking Silva or someone else here to consider this.
Servando Silva says
Hey. I remember you.
If you’re interested, please send me an email through my contact form (you can find the contact page in the main upper menu).
Best Regards!
Tony says
@Donfelix
I will be interested to learn more about your experience.
I have experience got kicked out of Amazon affiliate program and shared how I got back into it here in case you are interested.
https://digitalreadymarketing.com/amazon-affiliate-account-shut-recover/
mt33 says
i recently bought a ecommerce digital camera website on flippa that intergrated with amazon affiliate
is it good to start make money with this niche ?
Servando Silva says
Why did you buy it? Is it generating revenue already? It it’s well ranked, of course it’s a good niche.
Mt33 says
It is new website
Tony says
@Mt33
From my personal experience, digital camera niche is difficult to get into.
In fact, most tech related niches have high competition.
I have also heard Education niche is difficult
Donfelix says
Hello Guys,
Am a bit new to Amazon affiliate marketing.
Built some sites before, failed at it. Learnt some lessons.
But my current challenge is this………..
Amazon just booted me out for the third time
First, because i couldn’t get a sale within 90 days
Second, i made two sales but the old site applied with was no longer active.
They reviewed my account, saw the inactive site and said ”application rejected”
Third, i built a new site (eCommerce/review blog posts), got some sales again. Just when i was trying to convince myself that my site had started converting visitors to buyers, they reviews my membership application again and rejected it. Reason
”- Lack of content which is original to your site and beneficial to your visitors
– Pages that are mainly empty when advertisement content is removed”
How can i get over this as soon as possible.?
The search traffic from my site just started growing, main from long tail keywords.
Unfortunately, this traffic is wasting now. Though not significant.
I am even considering to sell the site and invest more in content creation.
What should i do?
Servando Silva says
Could you start using other options like Adsense an alternatives while you get an steady account approved?
Brent Dunn says
Hey Servando,
Great post.
I have a gaming site that uses Amazon, even after selling PS4’s it’s not worth the effort.
Have any niches you recommend?
Servando Silva says
Amazon commissions are low, but you can still make good money. It’s definitely not my favorite option but I know tons of internet marketers killing it.
I can’t really recommend any niche in specific.
Jaume says
Hey Servando, saludos desde Barcelona!
I’m also a low profile amazon affiliate marketer (spanish market). I’ve been growing my sites since early 2014, few months ago I quit my job and go full time with it (I’m around the figures you talk about). Right now I’m seeking a mastermind group to join and reading your post (and your blog in general) make me feel like we could fit. If you guys are open to new members please contact me! 🙂
Servando Silva says
Hello Jaume.
Would you contact me via my guest post form? I’d like to get to know you a bit more before we decide if we can add a few more members.
Best Regards!
PJ says
Zach, what plugins are you using to protect your sites from hackers?
Joan says
Hello,
The key to making sure that your WP doesn’t get hacked is to do the following always make sure that you always upgrade your plugins when upgrades are needed. Then add the following plugins:
– WP Security Scan
– All in One WP Security and Firewall : Adds a firewall to your site
– Sucuri Scanner: scans your site for malware etc
– Wordfence: This is a full feature security plugin
I hope this helps =)
ann says
Hello,
Thanks for the recommended security plug-ins. Will this slow down the site as too many plug-ins? any reco on plug-ins to use to speed up site? thanks.
WearableHunch says
Very detailed information.
From the tone of things, it’s very clear
this is coming from someone with respectable experience.
I have built first Amazon affiliate site, failed with it. Got booted out
by Amazon after 90 days of zero sales. Am back again with better knowledge.
Love your points on high/low priced products.
Currently am in the process of buidling a second site
with 200 products priced $100+ with 100 reviews and above.
Got my eyes fixed on the ”$5k per month milestone”
Just wondering two things in view
1. How many sites will it take to hit $5k/pm from Amazon?
2. What’s the total volume of traffic that could bring in that amount?
Guest-imates from your experience could be insightful.
Thank You Zach.
Georgi says
Hello, great article. I want to ask if there is a market where I can buy(my first) such a website, or I should find alternative methods to buy one?
Zachary Gray says
My first website purchase was through flippa.com. All the rest have come from either people who I have networked with and trust or empireflippers.com. For beginners I strongly suggest empireflippers.com they do an amazing vetting process that limits the risk of buying a website and they have amazing customer service after the sale to make sure the site is transferred to you properly.
Georgi says
Thank you for the reply. I will give it a try 🙂
Mohammed Sayed says
Hi,
First of all – great interview / article. I loved it!
I have been reading your posts for some time now and I have suscribed to your email list. And I was wondering whether you could create a course/ an ebook that it is full of tips and methods about affiliate marketing, seo and so on.
You could sell it at a reasonable price.
Servando Silva says
Hello Mohammed.
Not sure if I can do that anytime soon with all the projects I’ve going on. Will definitely write it in my to-do list. It could be a super big guide.
Tony says
@Servando,
I will be interested in that also.
Matthew Allen says
Zach mentions that he bought his first site on Flippa for $500. And from the interview it appears that he purchased the rest of his sites as well. Not sure if Zach is monitoring this comments section – but my question is…
Did you pay cash for the rest of the sites (reinvest profits or use personal savings), or did you use some sort of business loan? If you used a loan, what kind of terms and how long before you expect to get it paid in full?
Great interview overall. I should submit one of my own very soon. 😉
Servando Silva says
I think he bought the first ones and then he started building his owns. That’s what I remember Zach mentioned a few weeks ago. As for the rest, I’m sure Zach will chime in soon.
Looking forward to your interview!
Zachary Gray says
It has been a blend of our own money and business loans. All the business loans that we took out the websites make a lot more money than the month payments and most of them have actually been paid back. We made the decision to continue using some loans in the model so that there was money for me to work full time and also invest into some scaling opportunities like VAs.
Don Hesh says
im following you for 8 months now. The best thing about this blog is, you actually teach something in every blog post.
fernando says
hola gran entrevista, y una gran alternativa eso de hacer sitios amazon, yo no se por donde empezar pero bueno por esta entrevista creo que estoy comenzando, y la verdad si me gustaria esta clase de entrevistas y que nos dijeras si hay algun grupo para novatos donde uno se puede adherir, saludos hasta cuautitlan suerte
Servando Silva says
Por el momento no hay ningún grupo de nuestra parte para los que van empezando. El grupo es más para quienes ya tienen algo de experiencia y generen $500-1000 al mes mínimo con nichos.
Saludos y gracias por el feedback!
Zachary Gray says
Para principiantes Me gustaría sugerir fuertemente nohatdigital y haciendo una pasantía si quieres algo barato / gratis. Si usted tiene un par de dólares para gastar , entonces te invertir en el curso ANSF para aprender algunas técnicas .
MSivaRamaKrishna says
Hi Servando Silva,
I’m Associate of Amazon for US,UK,Canada,India.Not able to generate single penny from it.
Can you help me,How I can generate at least $ 3000 per months.
Thanks you in Advance
Servando Silva says
Hello. Did you read the whole interview? There’s actually a question on how to get started 🙂
Zachary Gray says
My suggestion to get started if you have some money or even can take a small loan buy a small site that is already generating money. It allow you to see how someone else was able to make money and also start earning a monthly number for yourself.
Darko says
Hi,
First – great interview / article. I loved it!
Looks like I have finally found a real thing, someone, or better yet, few online marketers to follow and learn from.
It is hard to find true and honest people on the web who are willing to share their thoughts, experiences and wisdom they have gathered over years by working online or from home ( whatever you prefer ).
Now I got tons of stuff of read of your blog and some that you mentioned in this article, but needed to leave a mark in hope to connect with you.
Thanks for overal great content!
Servando Silva says
Glad you liked it 🙂
Andrei says
This was an awesome read as usual Servando!
Keep the interviews coming – I’ll be keeping an eye on my inbox! 🙂
Al-Amin Kabir says
Reading the post now, btw, I’m making 5K+ from Amazon, and am I anyway eligible to join on the secret mastermind group? I believe to add value there 🙂
Servando Silva says
Hey. Please contact me trough the guest post page and we’ll check that there. It’s always good to have people doing this as long as we can all share experiences and learn from each other.
Al-Amin Kabir says
Hello Servando Silva, I emailed you 2 days ago, still no reply. Please let me know if you received the email.
Thanks
Servando Silva says
I’ll get back to you today. You know, it was weekend 2 days ago 🙂
I received a few other emails too.
Chandra says
Hi kabir. Can you please contact me through this email id?? My email id is [email protected]. Thanks.