I’m starting a new series of articles about how to make money as an Amazon affiliate, since it’s an easy way for people to get started making money online. Amazon is not only the largest marketplace on the web, but most agree that they have the largest affiliate program on the internet.
I have been earning money with the Amazon Associates program for a little over two years now. I started in the summer of 2008, strictly on the side as a hobby. I have a regular more than full time job and small children, so the amount of time I devote to my sites (including this one) is rarely more than 10 hours a week.
My initial earnings with Amazon starting in the summer of 2008 were from a technique called Affiliate Arbitrage by advertising Amazon pages directly on Google. Did pretty well for a bit there, but it required a decent investment upfront to buy ads that may or may not pay off. Amazon stopped paying commissions on the practice in early 2009, so in January 2009 I turned my Amazon focus toward natural SEO techniques. It took a while to see the results, but two years later I’m pretty pleased.
My earning numbers with Amazon 2009:
My earnings numbers to date 2010:
Since I stopped advertising, my costs for earning with Amazon are pretty low, basically just hosting costs and an internet connection. Only a couple weeks left in the year, but I think I’m going to break 12K with Amazon this year.
I’ve been able to almost triple my Amazon earnings from 2009 to 2010, and can see the path to triple again next year. For the first time I can see the point now where my “hobby” earnings could beat my actual salary at my job. I’m only showing you Amazon earnings here, none of which comes from the site you are reading right now. I also make money with Google Adsense, AzoogleAds (now called EpicDirect), eBay Partners, Clickbank and a couple other smaller affiliate programs.
Note that I ONLY use White Hat methods with my Amazon sites. No link buying, no comment spamming, no cookie stuffing, etc.
How have I earned this much money as an Amazon Affiliate? Click here to read my Lessons For Amazon Affiliates starting with Lesson #1 to be published on Dec 21st 2010.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
So how much did you really earn if you exclude advertising fees etc…? How long did it take you? Also do you get traffic from SEO? Or you usually just buy traffic?
Thanks!!!
Kitarist, that’s pure SEO money. I don’t advertise or buy traffic on any of my Amazon focused sites. That’s all from two sites on two different shared hosting accounts. Hosting is around $10 a month per, plus the $10 a year fees for the domains. So that less than $300 out of pocket. I’m cheap too. No paid tools, no paid links, no eBooks or courses bought on those sites. I hate link building too, so I could probably be doing much better if I put more effort into it.
Site #1 was the very first site I started in August 2008. Site #2 I started in September 2009. I’ve started a couple more sites this year, but none are showing much traffic yet.
So you actually earned 155k in a year? thats like 1200usd a month average
Woops i meant around 12000usd
Look more closely at the dates. Those are the yearly totals, not monthly. And again, that’s just Amazon earnings from two basic sites like this one that required no computer programming at all.
Hi, El Plumber,
nice to see you makin a few quid, i am going to have a go at doing what you have done see if i can earn a few extra quid.
nigel.
Why would u still have a job if u are making numbers like this? I’m sorry but that’s very hard to believe, if you’re actually that good at making so much money you would be smart enough to invest all your time and effort to make even more, please explain.