In the digital era we live in, many people earn their bread and butter online. One of the most popular ways to generate cash is to use Amazon Affiliate sites. Learn all about Amazon Affiliates and how you can create one of the best affiliate sites.
What are Amazon affiliate sites?
Amazon Affiliate site is a website that is associated with the Amazon Associates Program.
When a person buys something through the link provided on these sites, the people running the website (usually the author) earn a small percentage of that money. This commission can range anywhere from 1% to 10%.
With so many Amazon Affiliate websites, it is impossible to tell which ones are good – mostly do it for the money.
Most people will simply give the links to those products which offer them high commissions. These websites do earn some money in the short run, but when it comes to generating consistent leads, they are not even close to those Amazon Affiliates which give unbiased reviews.
Common thing among all the top Amazon Affiliates
No matter what the niche is and how saturated it is, only those Amazon Affiliate websites succeed in the long run, which has this one common property. There is only one secret method to succeed in this field. Put simply; your website needs to have integrity. If you go for making money in the short run, you will greatly damage your reputation and potential to make more sales.
What do I mean by having integrity? For whatever product you give reviews, make sure that your reviews are unbiased.
Even if a specific product is giving you a high commission, but it has a lot of flaws, do not ignore the flaws just to get some commission. Sure, you may sell some of those; in fact, you may sell many of those. However, the customers who buy those products will never come back to you. Those potential long-term customers are no longer your customers.
Getting a little bit of commission but retaining your reputation and name is much more effective than selling some high commissioned products.
With that being said, there are quite a few things that come into play. First, we’ll take a look at some of the most successful Amazon Affiliate stores and what made them successful. In the end, we will take a look at some Amazon Affiliate marketing strategies that you can use to get your program to generate more sales.
5 Best Amazon affiliates sites
Here’s a list of five of the best affiliate sites:
1. PC Mag
PC Mag has dominated the PC industry. Be it anything related to games, laptops, or computers, PC Mag has proved itself to be the king. PC Mag’s strategy is simple but effective. First, they connect with their consumers emotionally.
Created by Bunnel, Jim Edlin, and Cheryl Woodard, PCMag was originally a bimonthly magazine. But, over time, it earned its reputation and earned its name. Now an affiliate site, it still covers every tech-related thing.
Their unbiased and in-depth reviews make them one of the best Amazon Affiliate websites when it comes to technology (specifically computers).
This website is nothing fancy, unlike your expectations. But, if you’ve ever come across this site, it’s impossible to tell at first glance that it is one of the best Amazon Affiliate sites.
Interestingly, this website is really specific; it only writes on a specific topic in a specific industry. However, it has its priorities straight. Dog Food Advisor is what you would call an industry expert.
Every amazon affiliate follows a strategy that is responsible for its success. Dog Food Advisor follows one, too (which we will look into in the later section of this blog).
3. Wirecutter
Wirecutter is the opposite of Dog Food Advisor. Instead of focusing on a single item in a specific niche, it covers everything essentially. It is even said there’s nothing you can’t find about on Wirecutter. In addition, Wirecutter shows that you do not have to dig deep in one niche only – digging into multiple niches pays out as well.
By not covering only a single niche, it was very hard for Wirecutter to build its credibility. One might perceive The Wirecutter to be greedy because it covers everything it can get its hands on. However, that is not the case.
Assuming that is true, they would try to sell the most selling items on Amazon because doing so would simply bring them more cash. However, upon careful analysis of the website, you will find that not all of their recommended products are best-selling ones on Amazon.
They follow the one principle of providing their readers with the best products – not the ones which could bring them some cash.
As the name suggests, this Amazon Affiliate covers outdoor gear. This follows a similar model to that of Dog Food Advisor.
By focusing on a single niche, you do limit your growth in the short run, but this pays off in the long run. Writing in one single niche has many benefits; you become an expert in that field and earn the trust of industry-level experts.
Earning the trust of industry-level experts is much more important than earning the trust of a few people (who can’t help you generate leads) for a short span.
5. Home Grounds
This is a website that focuses solely on homemade coffee – how to brew better coffee. One might think that coffee brewing can only be covered for so long before hitting a dead end. However, once you decide to go all out, you start finding so many things you would have never thought of as a regular customer.
Something as simple as coffee can have so many aspects to it; the possibilities are endless.
Home Ground does not just go around implying the message that they are just there for the commissions. They teach baristas how to make better coffee and cover many more aspects than just the “Best [Coffee Type].” They provide value to their customers.
Top Amazon affiliate’s strategy and their business models
Every business uses a different strategy to get to the top. That doesn’t mean some are wrong and that some are right. To know what truly got a business to the top, one must analyze the A-players of that industry.
Let’s take a look at the business strategies of these Amazon Affiliates.
PCMag started as a magazine (as suggested by its name). By engaging its readers by giving them everything, they could possibly read, PCMag had created its name in the tech industry before the internet boomed. This prevented them from having to start from scratch.
We can learn from PCMag that by establishing your presence in a niche that hasn’t bloomed, there are high chances of success if that niche blooms.
Dog Food Advisor has succeeded by focusing only on a very specific topic. “Pets” itself is considered a specific niche.
Dog Food Advisor took that two steps further: it went deeper not into the dog’s category but also by targeting a specific dog product.
“Dogs” may seem like a narrow term, but to your surprise, it has a monthly search volume of around …..
We can learn from Dog Food Advisor that focusing on something extremely specific is crucial for your Amazon Affiliate to be a good one.
The Wirecutter, the polar opposite of Dog Food Advisor, shows us that choosing one niche and sticking to it is not the only thing that counts when it comes to making a good Amazon Affiliate website. Unbiased reviews, regardless of commissions, are the key to success in this field.
This one follows a model similar to that of Dog Food Advisor. A person searching for outdoor gear is most likely in shopping mode and looking for items with the best value for money. Again, user intent is taken advantage of in a brilliant and smart way by them.
By engaging with their readers and conveying them the message that they are not just there to sell their products to their readers, they develop feelings of trust between them and their readers. People buy from where there is trust.
Bottom Line
Upon understanding the business models of these top Amazon Affiliates, one will conclude that the following are essential ingredients to brew a good Amazon Affiliate website:
- Unbiased reviews;
- Specific niche; and
- Trust (through how-to guides and blogs)
So, if you want your Amazon Affiliate Program to succeed, you must adhere to these basic principles religiously.
What convinces you to buy something online (from an affiliate link)?
