I just became an Amazon Affiliate. Currently I'm only doing this with one blog, an SEO, web-design and freelancing related blog. I'm thinking I should start some more blogs, but I don't know what good topics would be. I want to write about something I'm actually interested in, which includes things like exotic birds, art, web-design, music, and composition, as well as sci-fi, fantasy, and video games. My worry is there's a ton of people covering most of those topics whom are all ready well-established, and others I have to wonder if there's much of a market for. So any suggestions for good topics to cover? My other concern is I don't want my blog to seem spammy, I want it to actually be useful. So how do you guys avoid your affiliate blogs ending up seeming spammy? Also is it best to just place your affiliate links in the body of an article, or are there other places they should be placed?
Hi Emerald, Start writing productreviews for products with a price level above 100 Dollars. It seems to me, that you are looking for a system to get your going. There are many good systems in the IM-jungle to teach you Amazon affiliate marketing, just try google Sara Young. She has a course, where you will be learning - how to write good product reviews, that converts into sales. Program is called easy paycheck formula. I´m promoting it, as an affiliate - on my own blog. regards, LASSE
I've been putting pictures in my blog here and there, maybe I should add a bit more. I definitely am looking for a system to kind of get going. I'll have to think about what products over $100 to review, I was going to concentrate on books, but those tend to not be nearly that much. I'm sure there's other products out there that could be of interest to my readers, definitely software could be good, but I'll have to think about what else.
I think you are on the right track - if you haven't already, go to Darren Rowse's blog and read everything he has ever written about making money from blogging. I can't help you with an exact subject area (too much on my mind with my own stuff!) but think: what am I looking for when I Google for stuff? A cheesy, thin, one-paragraph "review" of a product by someone who has evidently never even used the product in question? Well, that might fool the search engines, true, but for a loyal readership that's not the way forward. But that's why you are right, you have to write about what you are interested in, else you are doomed to failure, like many a blog or site I have started . Also, don't start loads of them, work on ONE, make it really good, THEN when it takes off and you are into a rhythm, think about branching out. You'll just burn out otherwise...
Hi Markowe, that sounds like it's good advice to me. I've been careful to avoid just making little tiny one paragraph reviews. I think the one time they are appropriate is if you are going over several items, and just want to sort of give a little summary of them.
Don't go with books. If people were going to look up a book, they go right to Amazon. Do other products that don't have a end all site that resonates in peoples heads when they search. Find good examples, then copy them with other products. For some great examples, google "vacuum cleaners" and look at the top couple of sites. Figure out how they managed to rank first for their keywords, do the same for other products and you win.
Find a great niche that you know about and build a site about it. Write some great content that people need. Don't take shortcuts.
I agree with freshdevelopment. It took me a while to consider Amazon as an affiliate because of the low percentage commission, but the sheer volume of physical products being sold on the site makes it worthwhile - if you choose the right niche and provide good content on your site.
quality is the king... write quality articles about your niche and promote products related to your niche. try to be positive and straightforward in your reviews, include the pros and cons, this is how visitors will come back for more... and don't forget a little sense of humor never hurts
I agree, and I like to put a lot of humour in my writing, BUT I should point out that there is one school of thought in marketing that says, "Humour doesn't sell". I am not sure if that's entirely true, but I think when people are making a serious buying decision they want to read a serious article. I think humour could be good as an ice-breaker in your introduction, but NEVER when it gets to the 'Call to action'. The preacher at my wedding cracked a "mother-in-law" joke right in the middle of the serious part of the ceremony - BIG no no! Tell the joke at the beginning, and then get serious, applies to any form of serious communication.
Don't use any automated tools or scripts. Don't try to write a general "stuff I like" blog. Don't write reviews of products you don't know or don't own. Pick a single subject and solve problems around that subject. If you know something about exotic birds, that's a good place to start. What do people search for about exotic birds that is hard to find? Medical information? Exact cage sizes? Food quality? There may be tons of sites selling bird cages and supplies, but there is always some important tidbit that's a pain to find. Try sorting bird cages by size on Amazon. Wait, can't do it can you? Make a bird cage Wordpress site. Host it yourself! It's a giant pain to move your site in 6 months when you realize you should have been spending the $5-10 a month on hosting. Use Godaddy or Hostgator or Bluehost (those are the top three hosting companies, check Alexa.com for rankings). Don't copy the descriptions or anything from Amazon. Make one post per cage. Describe it in your own words. Have at least one picture for each post, make it kinda small so people might click on it. Link the image using your Amazon affiliate link. If you can find videos on YouTube, include them in the post. Tag each post with size, shape, color, material, special door latch, whatever. Put a big "Click Here for more details" button at the bottom of each post that includes your affiliate link to Amazon. Use description phrases for your post names, not product names or numbers. You'll likely never show up in Google for "Cagemaster 3000 XL" without spending tons of money on links. But "Best Large Bird Cages" is probably not half as hard to show up for. Promote it by making links to your posts however possible (hubpages, squidoo, ezinearticles, blog comments, forum comments, reddit, mixx, propeller, etc.) People will find you, and those people will buy the cage through your link since you solved their problem and now they're ready to buy. Add Adsense or other ads to try and capture the people who didn't find what they were looking for on your site. Seriously, it works. Takes time. Takes effort. Do it in your spare time for a couple years, make multiple related sites using different hosting accounts and link them together. Hosting is $5-10 a month. Make a bird food one, make a bird toy one, make an forum for exotic bird lovers, make a save the rare birds one, make a zoo birds one, etc. Pay someone on elance.com or some other place if you don't know how to make websites. Keep making links and you'll be shocked at how much you'll start making in a few years. BUT, don't give up. Everyone and their brother tries this for a few months then gives up when they're only making a few dollars a month. It takes TIME. Those few dollars soon turn into tens of dollars, then hundreds. Then a few years later thousands. It snowballs if you FOCUS and KEEP WORKING AT IT.
I agree, and I like to put a lot of humour in Wordpress site in my writing to provide good content on your site.
Lol Timothy I swear you literally took the words right out of my mouth with this post! I have to honestly say it is one of the weirdest things to have happened to me online! Anyway Timothy is 100% correct and don't quit after a few weeks or a few months. A good quality profitable business takes time to mature and develop. I know how easy it is to get frustrated online but just take a stab at it and never look back. In all honesty start with the exotic birds, seems like a good niche to get into too. Get into Google Keyword Tool and really dig down and look for those hidden gems that are there. Don't be afraid to go for a keyword that doesn't get 1,000's of hits a month. Go for the smaller keywords over time they really add up on your page til you are getting hits from very obscure keywords. Best of luck to you!
When I first started blogging, I also promoted books from Amazon. What I earned was a few cents here and there. So, what I have learned is this. What you are interested in may not be what will make you money in the online world. Now, I just researched keywords and browse through Amazon first and see what people are buying. Then, only I create a website for that product/niche. So far, I have avoided the temptation of pulling data automatically from Amazon. I have not tried those autoblogs yet. My sites are basically full of articles with write-ups, personal opinion or review of the items I want to sell with my affiliate links in them.