The site I was using Amazon for contained book and DVD reviews so, although many of my pages rank well for some longtail keywords, sales were never good. I think many people who read a DVD review, and deiced they want to watch a particular movie, often go off in search of a free download or (these days) pull it up on Netflix. Even when I did generate sales the commission was pennies. I was in the wrong niche.

Amazon are not particularly generous with their commission rates though, and their cookies expire quickly, so I am not keen on spending time trying to generate Amazon sales when so many other affiliate programs offer a better deal. I’m not a diet pill affiliate, but I write content for a client who is. I did a little research and discovered he’s making 40%.- 45% commission on every sale.

I am still truly amazed at how well you guys are doing with Amazon. I’d heard lots of people make it work, but I had no idea anyone was making $8-10k on a “slow month”.

I could stand to apply much more of a science to my monetization attempts. I will take a look at SEMRush and Longtail Pro – thanks for the tip! 🙂

Hey Steve,

Thanks for your comment! Nora is absolutely correct. A big part of it is getting in front of the right audience. We have over 15 websites now ranging from just a few months old to a few years old across a variety of niches and no two websites make the same amount of money. Actually a lot of them make very little money and its just a handful that carry the load. That’s just the way it goes. But a lot of it is getting those high Google rankings for high traffic “buying terms” that really counts. For example, “best remote control” or “remote control reviews” rather than targeting just “remote control”. Tools such as SEMRush and Longtail Pro are a huge help. Hope that helps some 🙂

Hey Steve,
I too am amazed at how well these two have done with Amazon sales. After years of making very little with it myself, my income jumped a couple of years ago to a nice monthly sum – but still a fraction of what Brittany and Charlie earn!
I think Amazon can be very effective – but it needs to be used with certain audiences and markets. I think targeted sales is a bit part of it.

I’m always interested to hear how other people manage to live location independent lifestyles as well, but I was shocked to find out anyone could be so successful with Amazon. I signed up as an Amazon affiliate over 12 years ago and have never managed to make enough to reach the minimum payment threshold. As far as I am concerned, Amazon is a lost cause, but it’s nice to see someone can make it work.