How to Build a Passive Income With an Amazon Affiliate Store

Earning passive income is the “Holy Grail” for a lot of internet entrepreneurs.  Who wouldn’t like to make money while vacationing, spending time with family and friends, and instead of working, pursuing their own hobbies, passions, and interests?

Of course, it’s a heck of a lot easier said than done, and when it comes to earning passive income by being an Amazon Affiliate, the key is not to be a salesman, but to transform your website into a respected authority when it comes to your market niche. 

Here are five ways to help you earn passive income by being an authority site.

I) Take a hard look at your website (especially the number of advertisements as well as the tone of your writing), do you come across as a used car salesman?  You probably know the old saying put yourself in your customer’s shoes. 

Would you like to know an even better saying? How would you react as a customer visiting your own website?  When you come across a site that has annoying pop-ups, that’s over-saturated with flashy advertisements, and for which the tone of the author is “Buy! Buy! Buy! BUY THIS NOW!” what is your general reaction to these types of websites? 

Even better, how many times have you actually bought a product from these types of sites?  Does the layout and feel of the site make you immediately cautious and put your guard up as a customer?  How do you think that mistrust and apprehension impacts your conversion rates? 

II) When it comes to website advertising, choose quality over quantity.  Allow me to be the heretic that tells you something that a lot of successful websites already know – Google AdSense really isn’t worth it. 

Be truthful with me, how many Google advertisement have you clicked on and purchased a product from?  Conversion rates and payouts from AdSense ads are pitifully low, and even worse, in order to compensate for those low conversion rates, many people will over-saturate their websites with advertisements, which actually turns off a lot of visitors and lowers their conversion rates even more.

This is the beauty of being an Amazon Affiliate.  Replace Google advertisements with Amazon Affiliate links, especially the core products that you’re really trying to sell on your website.  Unlike a lot of the businesses that Google advertises for (which most people have never heard of and immediately distrust), Amazon already has a premium brand with a massive and loyal online following. 

One successful conversion from an Amazon link can dwarf the profit from a dozen Google links (especially when considering that Amazon pays commission on the customer’s total basket of purchases, not simply the one product that you’re advertising on your site).

III) If you’re looking to build a trusted brand in regards to your website’s reputation, then be incredibly cautious about endorsing dubious products, services, and websites.  There is no better example of this rule than looking at one of Amazon’s chief competitors, Clickbank.  Don’t get me wrong, Clickbank does sell some good products, but it’s also notorious for not doing proper due diligence on its inventory of products, many of which are bald-faced scams. 

If a customer ends up buying a scam product that you recommended on your website, what is that going to do to your site’s reputation?  What are the chances of converting that guy into a repeat customer?  What just happened to all the potential customers that guy could have brought to your site with word-of-mouth advertising?

IV) Don’t over-saturate a post when it comes to Amazon links, otherwise you start looking like a used car salesman.  A good rule of thumb is that for every product advertised, link the product within the article itself (preferably linking it to a verbal description), and then do a visual link at the end of the article so that they can see the actual product.

Additionally, posting the most expensive product available isn’t always the best idea.  Remember, you’re selling your customer value, and value is what will allow your website to build a long-term reputation as being trustworthy and reliable. 

What does selling your customers “value” actually mean?  Well, it means simply because a product is the most expensive doesn’t mean it’s the best product on the market.  Additionally, it means ranking the value of products through a Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum hierarchy, and simply because a product is labeled as Bronze-grade, that doesn’t mean that it can’t have great value in regards to its price, even if you get a smaller commission on it.

But there’s also some icing on the cake when it comes to this ranking system.  Remember, Amazon pays commissions on the whole basket of products that a customer purchases, not simply the single product that he or she clicks on at your website. Collectively, the commission received from a customer who purchases both a Bronze and a Silver-grade product might actually be higher if he simply purchased a single Gold or Platinum-grade product.      

V) Get rid of the “churn and burn” mentality towards content creation, envision each post as a “fishing net” that can create profit for weeks, months, and even years after it’s been published.  Yet again, the key to success is selling your customer value.  Get rid of the used car salesman persona, and imagine that you’re building your own version of Consumer Reports for your market niche.

Every post is thoughtful, well-written, and above all, well-cited with respectable sources that your customer can check to validate what you’ve written.  Imagine the internet as a river, and every article that you write is comparable to stringing a fish net across that river.  If that net is well made, it can create passive income for months if not years after you’ve launched it. 

Conclusion – Building an authority site takes time, and it’s very easy to become frustrated within the first few months of launching a site.  But remember, what you’re really doing during this time period is paying it forward.  The more time and effort you invest into creating sturdy and well-made fishing nets, the more passive income you can earn from those nets in the long-term.