How To Build a 6 Figure Amazon Affiliate Site
How to Build Profitable
amazon Niche Websites
A Publication of ChirpCircle
Table of Contents • • • • • • • • • • • •
Introduction: What to Expect Chapter 1: Niche Research Chapter 2: Understanding Your Target Market Chapter 3: Setting Goals Chapter 4: Picking A Site Model Chapter 5: Setting Up Your Website Chapter 6: How to SEO Your Website Chapter 7: Driving Traffic Chapter 8: Expanding Your Network Chapter 9: Automation Chapter 10: Selling Your Niche Sites Recap: It’s All About The Process
Learn The Same Strategies We Use to Create 6 figure Amazon Websites
3 Month Old Website. $265.32 in One Day (Site Built for Client)
Why Amazon? $70 Billion A Year Company We have promoted thousands of products across multiple affiliate platforms. Never have we been able to start earning commissions as fast and scale it to the level we have until we started promoting Amazon products. Here are our reasons why you should consider being and Amazon Associate. • • • • • •
Amazon is a trusted brand Great conversion rates People buy multiple products at once Easy and multiple ways to integrate Wide variety of Products Multiple payment options
Go ahead and sign up. It’s free and easy to get started. Check it out. Become and Amazon Associate. Offerde.com(http://www.offerde.com/) is one of the largest sources for affiliate marketers to find, list or rate affiliate programs, CPA offers, affiliate (CPS)/CPA networks and Ad networks online.
Presented By: Lyman Perrine, CEO Lyman is an internet marketing expert that has worked with hundreds of businesses around the world ranging from small businesses to fortune 200 companies. Helping them dramatically improve ROI from their online marketing efforts. He has also developed several online businesses and mobile apps in multiple niches. Aside from his internet marketing expertise. Lyman served 8 years in the United States Marine Corps. While in the Marine Corps he served with a Scout Sniper team in Iraq, trained with the French Foreign Legion and Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Counter Terrorism Special Unit, and did missions with multiple special forces around the world.
Introduction What to Expect Welcome to the Amazon Niche Site Formula Course. The purpose of this training is to help you build sites that earn affiliate commissions from Amazons affiliate program. In this course you will learn how to: • • • • • • • • • • •
Identify profitable niches Perform market research Set goals Setup your website Drive traffic Build a list Convert traffic into sales Duplicate your success Build a network Automate your workflow Selling your sites for large lump sums
If you stay focused you can have your first site live in under a month. You should also start to see your first affiliate sales in the first month. I still create affiliate sites for fun and to test new marketing concepts I develop. I also like to design and build WordPress websites. So it’s a Win, Win, Win for me no matter what :) Remember to have fun and good luck!
CHAPTER 1 Niche Research
Choose Wisely Picky… Picky… Picky… Before creating your website, we need to determine which niche or category you would like to focus on. Here are some examples: • • • • •
Bowhunting Bodybuilding Camping Yoga Military Boots
I recommend keeping your niche broad vs highly targeted. This will allow you to add more products and give you more opportunities to create more content. The more content on your website the more potential your site has to attract new visitors. More visitors leads to more conversions!
Amazon Research Finding The Right Category The first place you should research niche ideas is Amazon. When researching ideas on Amazon here are important metrics to keep in mind: • • • •
Average Sales Price Reviews Amount of Products Product Lifespan
Once your on Amazon the best place to start is filtering through the different departments. For example
Sports & Outdoors > Hunting & Fishing > Tactical & Duty > Tactical Bags & Packs After analyzing the Tactical Bag Niche it appears this is a great place to start. There are over 424 products that are $100 and above.
Caption and Photo Credit: Use this space to provide credit to the original photo or graphic creator and provide context on its meaning.
The Tactical Bag Niche Has Hundreds of Products Over $100. Looks Like A Good Start!
Keyword Research Niche Potential So we’ve decided on the tactical bag niche. Now it’s time to determine the potential. To get a quick idea on the potential we turn to the Keyword Planner tool provided by Google. We start by searching niche specific keywords. For Example:
• • •
Tactical Bags (2,400 monthly searches) Tactical Packs (1,000 monthly searches) Tactical Backpacks (2,400 monthly searches)
The search volume for the above keywords are slim. So let’s do some keyword research on the exact products. Here are some examples: • • •
Condor 3 Day Assault Pack (2,400 monthly searches) 5.11 Rush 72 Backpack (260 monthly searches) Condor Urban Go Bag (110 monthly searches)
Continue to next page…
Keyword Research Continued… As you can see the search volume starts to add up pretty quickly. Let’s have some fun with numbers so we can start to see the real value of this niche website. Here is a realistic sample scenario: • • • • •
5,000 Monthly Visits 500 Clicks to Amazon per Month Average sale price of $250 4% Conversion Rate 4% Commission Rate
That’s 20 sales and $200 per month you would be earning. These numbers are fairly reserved. Most of the time you will get multiple orders from one person. Also the more sales you make the higher your commission rate. So 20 sales would actually put you in the 6% commission rate bracket. So instead of $200 it’s actually closer to $300 per month. From our experience Amazon usually has a 7 – 14% conversion rate so you could expect to make closer to the $1,000 per month. Click the link to learn more about Amazon’s compensation structure
By Doing Some Quick Keyword Research We Can See The Opportunity.
Keyword Modifiers Quick Converting Keywords Another tactic you can use to expand your keywords is by adding certain keyword modifiers. Here are some examples: • • • •
Condor 3 Day Assault Pack “Reviews” 5.11 Rush 72 Backpack “Discount” Condor Urban Go Bag “For Sale” Tactical Backpacks “On Sale”
These keyword modifiers help target people at different parts of the buying cycle. If I’m looking for reviews it means I’m at a crucial part of the research phase of the buying cycle. I’m more in the middle of the funnel. Say I’m looking for products at a discount or on sale then I’m likely looking to buy the product on the spot.
CHAPTER 2 Understanding Your Target Market
No Ponies 4 Bikers Who You Talkin To? Now that you’ve selected a niche it’s time to learn about your target audience. It’s absolutely vital that you don’t skip this step. Why you ask? Imagine you’re going to sell toy ponies and the only people seeing your products were burly bikers. How many ponies do you think your going to sell? Probably not a lot. Now you could target those bikers wives that have children. They might buy your ponies. Especially if the ponies are tatted up.
Buyer Personas Be One With Your Audience How do you identify your target market? You create buyer personas. What is a buyer persona? Buyer Persona: Semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer based on real data and some select educated speculation about customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. Here is a simple example:
Cpl Smith Enlisted Military Infantry
John Smith is a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He is an infantryman with at least 1 deployment under his belt. He trains on a daily basis and understands the better his gear, the better his training, and the better his performance. When online he spends most of his time on Facebook and likes infantry related pages. etc… etc… etc…
Would you like to have a profitable Amazon Niche Site developed for you? Click the button to the right to learn more.
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CHAPTER 3 Setting Goals
Be S.M.A.R.T Set Goals for Success Setting goals for your Amazon Niche Site will keep you focused on building a site that succeeds. In order for your goals to be beneficial they have to be specific. We do this by setting S.M.A.R.T goals. What are smart goals?
• • • • •
Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timely
Here are examples of S.M.A.R.T goals:
• • •
Get 1,000 new visits by December 23, 2015 Make $500 in affiliate sales by November 1, 2015 Get 100 new email subscribers by January 30, 2015
CHAPTER 4 Picking A Site Model
3 Main Types Pick 1,2 or all 3 There are many ways to promote your niche products. I break them into 3 different categories. • • •
Affiliate Ecommerce Sites Product Review Sites Blog Sites
I usually combine 2 or all 3 of these site types. This allows me to market to multiple phases of the buying cycle with multiple forms of content. It all depends on your strategy and approach.
Affiliate Ecomm Site Online Store w/o the Pain An affiliate ecommerce site is no different than a normal ecommerce site. The only difference is when a customer attempts to purchase the product they are taken to Amazon to fulfill the order. Plus you don’t have to fulfill orders or worry about logistics and all the other labor intensive aspects of an Ecommerce site. WIN! Here is an example I built Hunting Bows
Let Amazon Do the Lifting. You Focus on Promoting.
Product Review Site Reviews Influence Purchases Product review sites simply review products and link directly to the product on amazon. Here is a great example of the Model: The Wire Cutter Notice how most of the keywords are utilizing the modified keyword strategy I mentioned earlier. The site uses modifiers such as: • • • • • • •
Best Review Deals Which Favorite Good Great
Great Content Mixed With Amazing Presentation = More Commissions
Authority Blogs Influence The Purchase Blogging is usually more effective if you have a larger audience and mix in review posts or link to products that you mention within a blog post. The most successful blogs are ones that deliver amazing value and develop a responsive following.
One man who does this really well is Pat Flynn. Check out his blog here: Smart Passive Income
Once You Have Authority Your Followers Will Buy What You Tell Them To.
Affiliate Super Sites AKA Niche Dominators If you’re building your niche site for the long haul then this site should be an inspiration. It was created by Darren Rowse of Problogger. Digital Photography School is a combination of all 3 site types I described previously. It actually goes further. DPS utilizes a multitude of strategies to generate income. Just to name a few: • • • • •
Blog Posts Product Reviews Tutorials Forums E-Books
Check out their website to get a feel for how they are dominating this very difficult niche. Digital Photography School Darren also wrote an amazing article on making money with the Amazon affiliate program. You can read that here.
Develop More Authority and Engagement by Giving Your Audience More Content.
CHAPTER 5 Setting Up Your Website
Build It and They.. Ahhhh Nevermind… Now that you have a niche, know who your audience is, and picked out a site type. You’re ready to start putting your site together. If you’re not familiar with putting together WordPress websites, I suggest you outsource this process. Feel free to contact me or someone on my team and we can help you complete your project. lyman@chirpcircle.com chirpcircle.com
Domain Your Site Needs A Name Back in the early days getting a keyword specific domain for your niche site would determine how quickly you could rank that site. Now search engines have caught on. Site’s that continually rank for competitive keywords are brands. So when looking for a domain keep BRAND in the back of your mind. Here are some places you can register domains: • • •
Godaddy Namecheap Name
Hosting Your Site Needs Space Your new website is going to need a place to live. You do this by setting up a hosting account. Here are a few hosting providers I suggest for setting up a new website. • •
Hostgator Bluehost
If you need to upgrade, try these guys out. They are the best at WordPress hosting: • •
WPEngine Synthesis
WordPress CMS of Choice WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. Here are some great resources to help you take full advantage of WordPress. • • • • • • • •
WordPress Forums WordPress Codex WordPress TV WP Beginner WP Mayor WP Explorer WPMU Yoast
If you're like me then you like watching videos to learn new things. Check out these other great free videos offered by WP Beginner. Check them out here: Free WordPress Tutorial Videos
WordPress Themes Amazing Design Done 4 You One of the greatest features of WordPress is the ability to create or upload customized themes. WordPress has the biggest theme community compared to any other CMS. Here are some of the best places you can buy professional WordPress Themes.
• • • •
StudioPress WooThemes Themeforest Obox
WordPress Plugins More Functionality A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. Here is a list of plugins I highly recommend • • • • • • • • • • • •
WordPress SEO by Yoast W3 Total Cache Gravity Forms WooCommerce WooCommerce Amazon Visual Composer Live Composer Optin Monster Ninja Popups WooDojo Social Networks Auto-Poster WPRobot
These are just a few plugins available. There are thousands available both free and paid. If you need more help understanding how plugins work or how to install them. Refer back to the Helpful WordPress Resources section.
Analytics & Webmasters Tracking your website metrics is vital to online marketing success. I highly recommend integrating Google Analytics into your WordPress website. You can get your Tracking script by going here: Google Analytics
Google Webmasters is a must for any website owner. It’s a simple way to keep tabs on your websites. You can see how your site’s content is indexed, upload sitemaps, see If there are any issues like 404’s, find keywords that are driving traffic, and it can connect with Google Analytics. Check it out here: Google Webmasters Tools
While you’re at it add your site to Bing’s webmasters tools also. You can do that here: Bing Webmasters Tools
CHAPTER 6 How to SEO Your Website
Do You Even SEO? Nice Keywords Bro SEO is essential to building a successful Amazon Niche Site. Because your sites main source of income is affiliate commissions it’s vital to get as much free traffic as possible. What better traffic source than Search Engines. I like to think of SEO having 3 core parts. • • •
Technical such as setting up plugins, sitemaps, HTML, server 301 redirects etc.. Creative which requires writing and optimizing great content Analytical being able to find the right keywords, track performance, and plan your overall strategy.
WP SEO Plugin By Yoast ď Š Lucky for us WordPress is search engine friendly and can be optimized fairly easily. All we need to do is install the WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast. Joost created an in-depth guide on using his WordPress SEO plugin. Read it here: The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For WordPress Sites
Optimizing Content Users > Search Engines Optimizing your content for search engines is really important. What’s more important is optimizing your content for users first, then search engines. Remember search engines aren’t reading your content and clicking your links. Make sure to visit Copyblogger for tips on optimizing your content.
CHAPTER 7 Driving Traffic
Content Marketing Blogging for Traffic This will more than likely be your biggest focus when it comes to driving more traffic to your website. The goal is to identify keywords your buyer personas use to find your products or services. For these Amazon sites it’s pretty easy. Most of the content you produce will be review articles or optimized product descriptions. Remember the higher the quality of your content the better it will most likely perform. Also it’s been shown that articles with at least 2,000 words are more likely to show up in the top positions of search engines. This can be especially important when writing review articles for competitive keywords.
Social Media Starting Conversations Social media is a great way to distribute your content. It’s also a great way to drive more traffic to your website. When you create high quality content and distribute it via social media you begin to create a perpetual marketing system that helps grow your site and affiliate commissions.
A Publication of ChirpCircle
PPC Growing Your Sales PPC is a great way to test the commercial value of keywords and to quickly ramp up your traffic. I recommend doing a test spend of $50. Only bid on product keywords. This will let you know how well your site converts.
I wouldn’t make PPC a main focus unless you can make it profitable from the get go. I would only consider using it once your site is well established and making consistent sales. Try testing with Bing first. It’s usually less competitive, costs less, and converts better than Adwords.
Retargeting Don’t Lose Your Visitors With retargeting you can show your website visitors ads on other websites they visit. You can even create what’s called lists and only target people that visit certain pages. For example Jon added a tactical bag to his shopping cart but for some reason left my website. Now I can show him ads to get him to come back and finish the process. Another example could be for a product review blog post you just wrote and you use retargeting to show your affiliate offer directly sending them to Amazon. The first place I would start with retargeting is Facebook. It’s easy to setup and manage.
Email Building A Loyal Following Email marketing still has the highest ROI when compared to other mediums. So it makes sense to collect emails any way you can. I like to use popups, and add lead forms through out my site. For example on the sidebar of the blog and at the end of every post. I also use a plugin like Gravity Forms to pass contact requests directly to my email marketing provider like Aweber.
CHAPTER 8 Expanding Your Network
Parallel Niches Quick Path to Growth So you created one Amazon affiliate site. It’s getting a steady flow of traffic, making sales, and you’ve built an email list. What now? Well it’s time to launch a new site. Since we chose tactical bags as our previous niche it would be great to launch another site in a similar niche. Say Combat footwear for example. You can use your current site to promote the launch of your new site. Because it’s related to your current site it should help the launch of your new site.
Authority Sites The Category Dominator Once you have multiple sites that spread over many parallel niches it might be time to consider moving to one website. This is a great opportunity to build a brand and combine all your niche sites authority under one domain. Which has amazing SEO value helping you rank for even more keywords. If you’ve chosen the Ecomm Affiliate Site model for most of your sites, you might want to consider physically selling the products. Start contacting the manufacturers to see if they offer drop shipping. This way you can start getting more profit. You will also be able to better track your conversions and improve marketing performance.
CHAPTER 9 Automation
Automate Those with Limited Time Automating your website is a great way to save time. I only recommend doing it if you don’t have time to focus on growing your sites. Don’t worry. I do this for many of my sites. What you will be automating is your content creation and social sharing. The idea is to get as much content on your site to see which pages and keywords bring the most traffic and conversions. For example If I’m creating a review site, I will have WPRobot automatically post products from my niche. I will also attach keyword modifiers to the product title and content like : “5.11 Black Tactical Bag Reviews” Once I know a particular keyword is driving quality traffic or I see sales of that product in my Amazon associates account. I will manually rewrite the article to make sure I get the maximum value from that content.
CHAPTER 10 Selling Your Sites
Selling on Flippa Easiest Way to Sell One of the most exciting aspects of creating these Amazon niche sites is that you’re creating more than just a website. These are legitimate assets. When you need a lump sum of cash you can flip and sell your sites. Say your earning $200 per month for the last 12 months. You also have a list of 500 people, a decent social following, and rank for some really good keywords. You could easily sell your site for $10,000 or more. If you market your listing correctly I would expect you could sell your site in the $15,000 range.
Check out Flippa
Selling to Competitors One of my favorite selling strategies is to target my competitors. This is extremely effective especially if you outrank them in organic search. Simply contact them and let them know your thinking of selling your website. Highlight all the features: • • • • •
Traffic Conversions Keywords Rankings Etc…..
The strategy is to 301 redirect your pages to their website. This will send them all your traffic plus give their site a huge SEO boost. Some competitors I’ve sold to actually tripled what they paid for the site in a matter of weeks. So it’s a win win. You make a large lump sum and your competitor gets a huge boost in rankings.
Re-cap It’s All About the Process I know this can seem overwhelming at first. Especially if you’ve never built a website or have experience being an affiliate. Remember to take one step at a time.
Research
Set Goals
Build
Optimize
Expand