The Ultimate Amazon Thread Mark 2 - Q/A - Good/Bad

So I just found that you can make money from the amazon program with Squidoo lenses, even if you're in one of Amazon banned states, sure they take half of the commissions but this is great news!
 
I need help with this:
I am a non-USA resident (live in Serbia), do I need to pay taxes for the Amazon affiliate program?

I know that Kindle publishers pay tax, but I am not sure about affilate program? Because in Kindle you are selling your own product and for affiliate program you are a middle man...

I planned to get into it, but tax thing turns me off from Amazon.
 
Ok - not here long today - but arrived and somewhat set up -- my dog is in prison at quarantine station - it is not a comfortable place at all - and my dog hates the food there (I don't blame him - looks like crap)

** Taxes - Amazon doesn't deduct taxes - but as an individual you have to pay tax under your home tax countries laws .. some of the most famous criminals get caught for tax evasion - pay your taxes.

Start a company and get an accountant if your dream is to live off your IM Income.

** using weebly, blogger and these type of platforms is a waste of your time - that is not full time income.

** I never promised Amazon would be easy or every person will be successful with it - nor there are any shortcuts to "game" the system ... what I have said is if you use common sense techniques / develop a system that you use -- and then scale it --> you can get a decent amount of income out of it.

some people may prefer CPA > Amazon and that's fine ... for me I enjoy Amazon as I am a "Seo" guy - its passive mainly for me now -- but when I started it took me a while to figure it out .. I think that will be the same for alot of people -- it will take you a bit of time to figure out site structure / keywords etc.

anyway I hope more people take this thread for what its worth - and I think anyone who has started an Amazon journey and has made some Sales will tell you -- it gets addictive and you learn a hell of a lot that you can use here or in other ways to make money online.

best of luck everyone .. I will check back as I can.
 
I read a few threads today - and saw some people criticizing Amazon and people for doing Amazon - for a variety of reasons.

Amazon is not "sexy" - doesn't have the highest commissions - really provides few ways to cheat the system (blackhat) and for some people the investment in something that really isn't going to pay off for 3+ months in the future is not something they choose to do.

But on the Other side of things :

+ Amazon is a recognizable brand name - that automatically provides great prices / quality support / excellent returns and people know the brand and would shop there
+ Amazon spends money on marketing - that you don't have to ... all you have to do is find keywords you can rank for and let the traffic convert for you.
+ You Get Paid Like Clockwork ... do it whitehat and you get paid ... simple and no worries about the company closing down and not seeing your money.

So I think if you understand what the program offers and work within the rules then alot of people if they are going to stay in IM for the long haul -- then its something you should get involved with.

... just my 2 cents on the whole issue of whether Amazon is worth it.
 
GREAT post Danny, and after spending many weeks reading, studying and taking notes, I have decided to act upon this method.
Now I'm just sourcing and analyzing my keywords, then by next week will have a few niches picked out, keyword chosen and domains bought.
I will keep following this thread and others as I learn my way into IM.
Thanks again Danny for your patience and great knowledge and sharing your experiences.
I know in the future I will be doing the same with other as I learn "the ropes"

Wylie
 
My Amazon site that was making $60 a day tanked on Saturday and still hasn't recovered :(

It had just started ranking number 3 and traffic was higher than ever.

I'm not sure why, I've tried removing some of my Amazon links on the homepage...maybe I had too many.

I only built 9 backlinks to the site but 4 of those had my primary keyword as the anchor text. Is it really possible than google would penguin a site with only 9 backlinks? I've changed the anchor text of 2 of them...so we will see.
 
nice to hear you've settled in to your new crib Danny, everyones been missing you :)
 
when your site is new - has few back links --> your going to find you bounce around.

What I found though is if you have really good content and structure - then you hit page 1 fairly easy around 8-10 .. to move to 1-3 then you need the total package.

Should you choose keywords that are too tough then your really going to struggle to stay there - unless you have a much larger site.

Alot of these "tweaks" you have to learn yourself from doing it - because each situation will be slightly different -- depending on the sites your competing against.

As far as anchor text goes - seems that has become one way Google clamps down on people - so you have to be smart with that ... Seo evolves/changes - which is why I stay at my level of keyword difficulty - If I can't get it too work I just get rid of it - and the cost is minimal - with larger sites you can't do that - you have to work with what you have.

Nothing much else to say tonight .. check back tomorrow .. cheers.
 
when your site is new - has few back links --> your going to find you bounce around.

What I found though is if you have really good content and structure - then you hit page 1 fairly easy around 8-10 .. to move to 1-3 then you need the total package.

Should you choose keywords that are too tough then your really going to struggle to stay there - unless you have a much larger site.
In my case though having under 10 backlinks is enough because they are all very powerful links. My site already has far more domain authority and page authority than any other site going for my keyword.

My content is all written by myself, very long articles though there is only 11 pages so far...maybe that is the issue.

I really don't think it is bouncing because it was firmly established for quite a while...for me it has to be a penalty of some sort. I just hope I can figure it out because it was a real winner.
 
Guy I have a serious Issue in here and I really need some advices... I started in february 3 Amazon websites using the same template same VPS they were making me arround $900 month, they was growning fast. Every site got arround +40 article of 500 words. No blackhat stuff, very few quality backlinks. And 20th July BAAAANG they all lost ranking and still didn't recover yet. Now they are making 4 sales a week lol...

So now I have a budget of $1000 what would be your recommendation:

A- Starting a new authority website with + 60 /1000word articles on a new vps(different IP, different template...), this site will be targetting many amazon categories and not a specific nich.

B- Buying articles for my actual 3 websites and adding one 1000 word article a day maybe they will recover

C- Abandoning amazon and taking a flight ticket for one month of chilling n'banging in Thailand LOL.

Guys A or B? I really need your recommendations. thanks in advance
 
Awesome thread Danny. There's some very useful info in here!

Thanks for sharing

- ice
 
a. stick to quality only -- articles / backlinks .. if you spam too much you just put a target on your sites

b. if it were me I would make a few new sites - and work on those for now ... in 3-4 months I'd come back to the other sites and add 1-2 articles and see if you see any ranking movement.

overall once you prove to yourself you have a working strategy that is making you money - then just replicate as many times as you can -- however if you hit any Google Issues try not to repeat the same mistakes so it spreads too wide across your sites.

I think its obvious but 1-3 sites just isn't enough - because you have to worry about everything .. with more sites/more diversity you can ride through the ups and downs sites can have. (I realize you have to start with 1-3 sites everyone does - to ensure you know how to make it work -- but the goal must be to move past that level)
 
Guy I have a serious Issue in here and I really need some advices... I started in february 3 Amazon websites using the same template same VPS they were making me arround $900 month, they was growning fast. Every site got arround +40 article of 500 words. No blackhat stuff, very few quality backlinks. And 20th July BAAAANG they all lost ranking and still didn't recover yet. Now they are making 4 sales a week lol...

So now I have a budget of $1000 what would be your recommendation:

A- Starting a new authority website with + 60 /1000word articles on a new vps(different IP, different template...), this site will be targetting many amazon categories and not a specific nich.

B- Buying articles for my actual 3 websites and adding one 1000 word article a day maybe they will recover

C- Abandoning amazon and taking a flight ticket for one month of chilling n'banging in Thailand LOL.

Guys A or B? I really need your recommendations. thanks in advance

If you had done 6 sites with 20 pages each, and on different hosting you would have been way safer. You gotta
diversify your backlinks as well...having a few quality links just don't cut it, now you know it!

Someone also had issues with their traffic from using just a few links, but yes I encourage everyone to do what they
think is "best" makes it much easier on the rest of us.
 
I found that non native english sites dont convert as well. The difference in sales is night and day, everyone beware!
 
for me at this point - I don't think I can add much more to this thread - everything I do is here

so I'll leave the thread open and you guys can compare notes as you go.

I was going to start a fresh site from scratch and make a case study here : but since I've moved countries I'm going to start a couple of other ventures instead - if those prove to be successful - then I'll start threads on those.

Best of luck guys... any questions just read through .. everything is here.
 
Sorry to hear this Danny - hope you dont become a stranger to the thread.

Thanks again for making both threads - they contain a wealth of information - even now i still go back and get a few gems of information when re-reading them.

Best of luck in the future and I hope to enjoy more new threads of yours if your new ventures prove to be successful ;)
 
yeah I'll check back from time to time - just not every morning like before.

it's just that I have different goals here so I need to focus on those - and once I test out a couple of new ideas if they work - I'll post some new threads.
 
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