Is Amazon Associate a viable business model?
I’ve been in WA a couple of months now, I read and commented on dozens of posts. What I find curious is how few of them follow that first model we were taught: pick a niche you are passionate about. Write lots of interesting posts about your niche, and intersperse those posts with links to products on Amazon related to that niche. I’d say less than half of what I’ve read in comments and feedback follow that model. The rest don’t seem to be using affiliate marketing so much as selling affiliate marketing. Blog after blog seems to be promoting Subscriptions to affiliate marketing sites, Wealty Affiliate and others
Don’t get me wrong. I think WA is great and I wrote one post recommending it. But there seems to be so many sites where selling an affiliate marketing subscription service to current and would-be affiliate marketers is the niche! So, is that where the money is? Or are there really that many people passionate about that subject? I’m sorry, but that seems unlikely.
I have two sites. One is about backyard ponds and waterfalls. The other is about the Ketogenic Diet. I feel passionate about both of these topics and find a great deal to write about them. The two subjects both have literally thousands of related products and I have put in links and written product reviews for many of them. I’m really enjoying it.
Is that enough? Is that a viable business model? Do people actually make a living at it? Do you? Do you know anyone who does? Like I said, I really like Wealthy Affiliate and if someone clicks on the link on my one post and joins, I feel I will have done them a favor. But I have no interest in becoming a WA sales rep. I just want to write my blogs and product reviews and gently point people to Amazon. That I enjoy. Is it enough? I don’t expect to get rich at it, but can I be modestly successful. Can it be a lucrative part time job? Is anyone doing just that and succeeding or do you all have other irons in the fire?
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The way I look at it is, if you haven't found success yet, you have no business trying to teach others how to have that success. Just doesn't make any sense to me. I think a lot of people think there are quick bucks to be made in the IM or MMO niche. The truth is, the competition is so incredibly high unless you are a "guru," which 99% arent, there's no point in it. Besides, most IM "gurus" are just scammers playing on the hopes of the uninformed that believe you can get rich quick without hardly any work. Business just doesn't work that way.
There are plenty of niches that would be easier to find success in. It boils down to them not wanting to put in the work, time and persistence.
I agree. WA pays a much more generous commission than Amazon, which is nice of them, but I wonder if makes some people think it’s a short cut.
Sadly, I think you're right. Too many people are just too lazy to put in the effort to build, from the ground up, a legitimate business. It's easier to just stay where they're at, in their comfort zone, and complain that their life isn't getting better, blaming others for their situation.
That's why the "gurus" are successful. They sell bogus shortcuts to success. There are no shortcuts. Like all things, if it's not worth working for, it's not worth anything at all.
Yeah, I fell for some of them, but I was determined and found the right way... Wealthy Affiliate. I'm so glad they are the real deal and teach actual business principles. They give us an Online MBA for only $49/month. You can't get that at a traditional university.
Well, Janet. SelenityJade gave us a great answer as to why relying entirely on Amazon is not a good idea.
Interestingly, I never did hear from anyone saying “yes, I’m making good money off of Amazon. Not one.
Yesterday someone brought a laptop from my affiliate link to amazon $129
My Commission is less than $4
And that is with three more items so I don’t know what to say
Just sharing
Janet
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The only way to success is to pick something you're passionate about and then find products that help solve your audience's problems within that passion.
Choosing a product first and building your niche around that is very obvious in most cases, just a way to sell.
Some people ARE passionate about teaching people to make money online, and they will succeed, but if it's just to get money, they won't.
And you should always have multiple streams of income from your blog as well as multiple traffic sources to REALLY succeed. That way, if Amazon shuts down its affiliate program or you get slapped by Google, you can survive.
But you're right, it's supposed to start with a passion that drives you to solve problems in that passion niche.
I see what you’re saying. Relying solely on Amazon for revenue leaves me vulnerable to the vagaries of Amazon’s Policies. It could all end tomorrow without warning. So, your answer is no, Amazon Associates alone isn’t a viable business model in the long run. I need to branch out to other affiliate programs.
But in the meantime, while Amazon IS up and running, what is the potential. Everyone says, “the sky’s the limit” but I’d like to see some hard numbers. I’d like to hear from someone who is actually making a living wage from it.
Regarding people being passionate about helping others make money online, many of these sites are from people who haven’t been doing this any longer than I have. You know they aren’t making any money yet.
Wealthy Affiliate is great training and great support and probably worth more than what I’m paying. I believe that it will eventually lead to online income. But for me to say it’s a good way to make money online, something I so far HAVEN'T done, would be disingenuous at best. All I can really say is that people I’m coming to trust tell me it’s true, but I don’t really know it out of my own experience.
I think the same may be true of some of these other newbies. They are promoting a hope, a belief rather than knowledge or personal experience, perhaps cynically exploiting that hope in others just to make money, or perhaps sincerely but really to bolster their own flagging faith.
You're right that teaching people to make money online when you have no idea what you're doing and perhaps misleading others isn't right. The same is true for people creating all this training on WA when I know some facts are wrong there because they are very new.
That said, length of time on WA doesn't necessarily mean someone is a newbie, though. I had experience blogging and website building and affiliate marketing for over a decade before I joined WA, but it was a hobby and I joined WA to get serious about it because I already had an idea about what I wanted to do. There are others like Tiffany Domina here on WA getting very successful, though she was a bit experienced before WA too. Jerry Huang is another one making a killing off promoting WA.
But I won't build my own MMO site unless I make a crap ton as well, nor was I looking to promote WA at first because I didn't know if I believed in it when I first started. Now I'd have no problem promoting it.
But people like you're mentioning should definitely know what they're talking about before blogging about it or creating training about it. They're looking for a quick buck when they should be paying attention to the long road of SUSTAINABLE success with their website.
I stand corrected on the newbie comment. What would I do without Saelnetyjade to set me straight?
I joined to keep up with SEO and social media marketing and email marketing, plus to see if anything I already knew about websites and affiliate marketing had changed. Plus you can always learn something new about what you already know. Plus being able to have one platform for everything is awesome for the price.
But you're definitely not wrong about sites in site comments pretending to be successful (and saying this too) when they aren't and they don't know what they're talking about, just repeating what they're learning. I have issues with this myself.
You're right to be questioning it and such. I'm definitely not an expert on technology and the like, or even affiliate marketing because I never stuck it out as more than 'fun'. I'm also not an expert on plugins or site speed or whatever Google Analytics is actually saying. That's why I'm here.
But I'm good at figuring out what looks good to an audience even if my creative juice doesn't flow into visual pictures well. I'm also logical so I can understand rules, ranking, math, grammar rules very well. But that also comes in handy when reading BS online. I can usually tell something is hinky when its faked or scammy or wrong, just because it doesn't make logical sense.
Listen to your instincts when you're seeing other people's sites. If you feel like it's just to make money, instead of monetizing a passion, you are likely exactly right. :)
I agree 100%. My thought since I joined WA is that I won't try to promote WA and teach Affiliate Marketing until I actually achieve real success. How can I teach something I haven't fully learned myself? To do otherwise would be a disservice to the industry and
the community of those looking for success. I would be perpetuating the techniques used by all those scammy "gurus," which I absolutely refuse to do!
Kudos to you! Don't teach what you don't know! :) It's about building a business to be proud of, not faking it in hopes people are gullible. :)
There's a quote I hear often, "Those that can't do, teach," which makes no sense whatsoever to me.
Lol!