Update 2022-06-16: I am no longer recommending the Amazon affiliate programs. Commissions are just too low to make all the hard work worth it.
If you follow me on Facebook, you know that recently, I started to invest massively in Amazon sites. It’s quite funny because most affiliate marketers are doing completely the opposite and moving away from Amazon.
To be honest, I understand them… The big Amazon commission’s cut has pissed me off too and when it happened, I’ve sold all my Amazon sites except one.
Before continuing, I want to explain to you that at the end of 2019, I’ve started/bought 8 new Amazon sites because I wanted to add more diversity to my portfolio, 6 months after a big investment, this happened (Amazon commissions cut) and I decided to stop this new venture and sell at lost all my new sites (except one).
After a few months of working part-time on this Amazon site, I realized how easy it was and realized the potential of Amazon affiliate websites. You have to understand that I started doing affiliate marketing in the most competitive niches like finance, software, marketing, etc… So ranking Amazon sites for me is literally a joke.
Why Invest in Amazon Affiliate Sites
The answer is simple and can be answered in only 2 words; Easy & Scalable.
You have also to consider the fact that I’m a website flipper, I rarely keep my websites longer than 2 years. There is a big pool of investors looking for buying Amazon affiliate websites and the demand is non-stop growing.
I’ve sold recently a non-Amazon website for 300K on EmpireFlippers.com and it took almost 6 months to find a buyer. Amazon affiliate websites are sold much quicker.
Other pros for Amazon;
- Content costs are cheaper.
- Require less investment in backlinks.
- Easy to dominate any niche.
- Almost an infinite source of keyword opportunities.
What I’m looking for when buying a new Amazon website;
- Weak backlinks profile.
- Have a lot of posts already published.
- Domain age >2 years old.
- Brandable domain.
- Have already some traffic and earnings.
- Have a bad-looking website.
The First Things I Do After Buying a New Site
Now that I have acquired a new Amazon affiliate website, there’s a series of important things I do/schedule. Here is the list of things I do in order of priority:
1. I update Amazon affiliate links.
The first thing I do when the website is under my control is, of course, to update the current Amazon affiliate links on the website. To replace all my affiliate tags easily, I just use the Better Search Replace plugin.
I also installed the Genius Link WordPress plugin to convert the international traffic (US, UK, CA, AUS) to boost my revenue.
2. I change the design/logo of the website.
Changing the web design and logo are the most important things I do after a new acquisition. Most websites I buy have a crappy design and convert poorly, it’s easy to boost the revenues by 25-50% by improving the brand and CRO of the site.
2.1 CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
Increase the CTR. More clicks mean more sales. For improving CRO, I add CTA boxes, Sidebar widgets, and a CRO-optimized ranking table for the best products. For a quick CRO guide, you can check this article.
2.2 New logo
Increase the trust of your visitors. Would you trust the recommendations of a site with a $5 logo? I highly doubt it. Having a professional logo help to increase the trust of your visitors, increase the times per session and reduce your bounce rate.
3. I start to build links
Time is money… I don’t wait to finish the steps above before planning some links to my new website. In the first 3 months, I build around ~20 new links monthly, a mix of guest posts and niche edits links.
The great thing about Amazon is that it’s so easy to rank that you do even not need to use PBNs. To get guest posts or niche edit links, you can use my service here.
4. I update all the content
Finally, I export the list of all my posts (Just use your sitemap for this) and ask my team to proceed with the following;
4.1 Check for ranked keywords above 100 in volume, between positions 3-20 THAT ARE NOT in my headings, and add them to the existing content, followed by 200 words of new content.
4.2 Add the missing entities (I just ask my writers to add these missing entities to the new content for
4.3). You can use POP or Surfer for this.
All the points above are in my opinion, the most important things to do to grow your new website earnings quickly.
After 6-8 months, if really needed, I started doing keyword research to add more content.
Scalability & Investment: What to Expect
Now let’s talk money… Because it’s only what matters in the end!
What I like about this plan, is that it requires a minimum time investment and a low initial investment. When a website is bought, it only requires 1 or 2 months of work… After it’s only growing the traffic of the site (link building only).
So, to throw some numbers on the table… let’s say that I need 2 months to “upgrade” a site. Meanings that I can buy 6 new sites yearly.
Now, let’s talk about one acquisition I just did (will do a case study on it soon) and simulate the required investments and potential profits for this project.
- Website cost: 10K USD
- Initial cost (new logo + design, content upgrade): 2K USD
- Link building expenses: 2K USD/month
So the initial investment is 14K USD, for a website that is making ~$100 USD/month.
Some of you think that I’m crazy to pay a multiple of 100X for a site, but forget about the multiple “principle”, and look instead at the opportunity and its growth potential. This site has 180 posts… Which means a lot in content costs.
Okay, so 14K USD first month, then 2K USD/month for the next 11 months.
Total expenses after 1 year; $36 000 USD
At the current market (30X), to recover 36K, I need to make 1.2K USD/month… making this after 1 year is really easy. My other Amazon site that I worked only part-time on it has grown from $20/month to $1000/month in only 10 months, and I have just invested ~6Kin links into it.
IMHO, this site should make around 3-4K USD/month in 1 year. So If I decide to flip it for 80K in 1 year. That would mean a profit of ~40K USD.
Because I can do this 6x times per year, that means that in 1 year, I should be able to flip one website every 2 months, which could add another ~20K USD/month to my current income.
Not bad for a sideline, especially since in this project, I didn’t include the earnings of the sites, which is another 5-10K USD/month.
I think this site will be an interesting case study, stay updated it will be posted soon.