The Problem With Amazon Affiliate Sites

[Encrypted]

Amazon affiliate is perhaps one of the best / easiest way to make passive income online , However , this program has contributed to the unbelievable amount of shitty content on the internet. Every tom , dick & harry now has an affiliate site with a ton of "Shitty content" claiming to be the "best product" for xyz.

Today , i took time to evaluate this whole "Craze" and it's just unbelievable how easy it is to create an affiliate site , write shitty "best xxx" content and still make a ton of money from that content.

Most affiliate sites are liars. They tell you this is the "Ultimate guide to buying xxx" , we spent "100 hours researching xyz" when in the real sense , what the owners did was just go on Amazon and fetch the top 10 products with highest ratings and then list them as the "Best XXX". Any product not on Amazon is seen as not worth it..

COMPLETE BULLSHIT.

Things change and technology is advancing everyday. What happens to new products that were released or will be released in the next months? They will be better than the current products you listed but they will never make your list of Best XXX because ,

1) They're not on a Amazon

2) They don't have enough reviews

3) You obviously don't care about them or the niche. You don't follow trends to know the latest products. You just setup the site and go to sleep , deceiving the innocent people that will read your article.

You'ld never know how important this is until you're genuinely interested in buying a product for your need , then will you realize the amount of shit on the internet.

 

[CCarter]

Why don't you solve the problem? You can do what TheWireCutter did, buy all the products they reviewed, do actual reviews with videos, pictures, and then create a better version so people can look up? The cream always rises to the top - Why don't you solve the problem for the industry you were researching? Clearly there is a ton of money to be made online and with affiliate marketing, and if you can see through the bullshit you can clearly create a better user experience.

Being an entrepreneur is about being able to spot weakness in a market, sloppy competitor, and opportunity to make money because of laziness, incompetence, or no vision. That's why capitalism is so great, the best of the best earn their keep. When you are incompetent eventually a competitor will come and overtake you.

Note to anyone that comes in to complain about "Google" or "Competition on the SERPs" you aren't cutout for this life - go get a job. There are thousands of pro-active ways to generating traffic and making money without SEO, Google - but laziness is not one of those ways.

I don't believe in passive income - that's just laziness.

Carry on...

 

[Encrypted]

Does it make any difference if i decide to go that route? I'm just one man in an army of affiliates writing shitty content.

Besides it dosen't make sense going that route unless i'm absolutely sure my high quality content will rank ; something big G cannot guarantee even with a million links.

Wait.....

What if i go that route and somehow manage to rank #2. What happens to others that will click position #1 , #3 & below and read my competition's shitty article. What difference does it make?

Things will get better when WE ALL make a collective decision & effort to stop being lazy

 

[CCarter]

I'm not sure what you are here for, to make money or remove spam from the whole internet? Cause spam is pretty hard to remove.

As a user when I do research on something, I open the first 10 results, and quickly scan which ones make sense and close the ones that don't (too many ads, video/sound auto playing, etc).

Besides it dosen't make sense going that route unless i'm absolutely sure my high quality content will rank

Are you here to make money OR save the world from spam content?

my competition's shitty article. What difference does it make?

"shitty" is relevant no? You can be 100% correct and have a misspelling in your title or on paragraph 5, and someone is going to come along and call your whole content piece "shitty".

Things will get better when WE ALL make a collective decision & effort to stop being lazy

How are you going to collectively get people ALL on the same page? People can't even do that for general elections, community decisions, or within a corporation. People aren't on the same page since people come from different backgrounds, cultures, and have individual perspectives on life. How is everyone going to conform to "one" ideology? What you may think is "shitty" is gold to someone that doesn't speak English. What you think is "high quality" an English linguist would laugh at.

I guess you have to ask yourself first what are you HERE for? To save the world from spam, engrish, fake reviews, bad reviews, fake news, the crazy left or crazy right? How can complaining about the environment help? The only way to change is to start with "one man" in an army, that one man influences others, and viral word spreads about his messaging and the ways he's doing things better. Then other people start mimicking that "one" and eventually everyone falls in line with the new standard.

Change ALWAYS happens and is led by ONE. Can you be that one for us?

 

[Nat]

Does it make any difference if i decide to go that route? I'm just one man in an army of affiliates writing shitty content.

With that attitude, why do anything?

Besides it dosen't make sense going that route unless i'm absolutely sure my high quality content will rank ; something big G cannot guarantee even with a million links.

No, you can actually build a following with high-quality content. People might bookmark and share you. And you can actually share it yourself without getting banned for spamming affiliate bullshit if you're offering real value. I see people word of mouth recommending the Wire Cutter.

What if i go that route and somehow manage to rank #2. What happens to others that will click position #1 , #3 & below and read my competition's shitty article. What difference does it make?

Once I've found what I want or need, I stop reading.

Things will get better when WE ALL make a collective decision & effort to stop being lazy

Wouldn't you rather be a beacon of light in an army of shitty affiliates?

 

[Charles Floate]

I really don't recommend joining Amazon's affiliate program anyway.. They routinely have "issues" with tracking, they take forever to payout (I've waited up to 6 months before), they ban accounts based on little facts.. e.g. I had an Amazon US account for 2 years that did steady income, black Friday roles around and I cash over $12.5k in commissions in one day - Bam, suddenly what I've been doing for the past 24 months has mysteriously not been up to scratch and without good reason they ban the account.. aka they want the sales, but they don't really want to pay me out.

If you have a site doing good sales for Azon already, it's a much better idea to:

• Contact sellers directly for higher commissions.
• Become a reseller/dropshipper.
• Find programs that are either direct with the company or much higher commissions.

As well as the fact they recently changed there payout structure and that it's EXTREMELY low commissions - I mean tech @ 4% commission per sale? Even if you're selling a $1,000 product that's a measly $40. You need to be doing very decent levels of traffic (>200k/Mo visits+) to get into the 5 figure monthly earnings range on your sites.

 

[mmm91492]

I'm not sure what you are here for, to make money or remove spam from the whole internet? Cause spam is pretty hard to remove.

As a user when I do research on something, I open the first 10 results, and quickly scan which ones make sense and close the ones that don't (too many ads, video/sound auto playing, etc).


Are you here to make money OR save the world from spam content?


"shitty" is relevant no? You can be 100% correct and have a misspelling in your title or on paragraph 5, and someone is going to come along and call your whole content piece "shitty".


How are you going to collectively get people ALL on the same page? People can't even do that for general elections, community decisions, or within a corporation. People aren't on the same page since people come from different backgrounds, cultures, and have individual perspectives on life. How is everyone going to conform to "one" ideology? What you may think is "shitty" is gold to someone that doesn't speak English. What you think is "high quality" an English linguist would laugh at.

I guess you have to ask yourself first what are you HERE for? To save the world from spam, engrish, fake reviews, bad reviews, fake news, the crazy left or crazy right? How can complaining about the environment help? The only way to change is to start with "one man" in an army, that one man influences others, and viral word spreads about his messaging and the ways he's doing things better. Then other people start mimicking that "one" and eventually everyone falls in line with the new standard.

Change ALWAYS happens and is led by ONE. Can you be that one for us?

Dear god I just can't pin you down; I love and hate so many of the things that you say.

You could give fucking Hitler lessons in charisma...

 

[Ryuzaki]

@Encrypted, I agree with your sentiment and agree with CCarter's solution. Be the best, make people aware that you exist, and you will rise to the top.

I'm actively doing it with products I've used, ones I know the professionals in the vertical approve of, and some best sellers.

It all works out because sometimes those best sellers are the best of the cheap stuff and that's what most people want. They don't want the $2,000 "best" version of the $200 thing.

But I agree too, not having the same nonsense every other page has on it means you offer value in the eyes of Google. Helps you rank. It helps to know the vertical, know the consensus, and use all of that plus the best sellers.

Also, opining about the way it should be is fantasy. Reality is what it is and accepting it makes it easier for you to be 100x better than the idiots cluttering the SERPs with nonsense. The very thing that makes you disheartened is the opening for you to earn enough money to make a real difference by being able to afford to provide the solution, and thereby make even more money.

I'd be proactive instead of reactionary and dominate one of these niches you're talking about.

 

[contract]

Very few people actually care about buying "the best"...

They just want something that just works.

And they want their purchase validated by someone else.

EVERYTHING you will ever buy is designed to fail.

I bought a $800 paint spray gun. $800... The plastic connection on the hose broke within a half hour. It was the "best" across every forum, review site, etc I could find. Thousands of people praised it... Yet, the designers decided to go with a plastic connection that would ultimately fail down the road. You'd have to be a total moron to look that over. They knew what they were doing...

The same is true for cars...

Even a pair of $10-$100 gloves you'll find manfs deciding not stich them twice or three times but saying F it, once is okay. And let's drop that thread from 8oz down to 0.5oz to save some more money. Let's also use some fake plastic leather resin for the palm. It will look durable, but in comparison to real leather... It will fail in a year or less.

Most products aren't really getting "better". (Aside from tech)

The people producing them are getting better at designing them to fail. Even Apple has been caught doing this with their non-replaceble iphone battery. Look at the new Macbook, you can't remove ram, the battery, hard drive, etc easily. You're forced into upgrading constantly, just they way they like it.

Most affiliate sites are liars.

Guess what?

Most trades and salesmen are liars... Even your insurance rep.. Your dog walker, etc.

This is the last one left. (It's not). I can do the job for $10K. (They can do it for $3K). The lowest price I can go is $500. (They'd settle for $150). I'd recommend this product.. (They haven't even tested it personally. OR they wouldn't even FUCKING buy it themselves.) We sell ABC Brand and let me tell you, it's the BEST! (They KNOW ABC brand is complete DOG SHIT, but they work for ABC brand and get paid selling it to YOU.)

.....

Does any of it matter?

No.

The problem isn't with any one company or affilate...

The world isn't all for one.

It's one against them fucking all. (Though, you may pick up some allys along the way.)

....

There are countless people pumping out dog shit services/products all day.

Making millions doing it....

If they don't do it, someone else will beacuse people are always buying into something. No matter how moronic or brilliant it is.

 

[JasonSc]

@Encrypted I agree the internet is littered with spam and 98% of it is crap. However, you might need to take your IM hat off and look at things from a different perspective.

Here is an example. I emailed my wife 3 sites listed on Flippa. All of them are PMD and pitching the Best "fill in blank". All of them are making over $1K a month and less than 50 pages indexed.
My wife said, the sites looked good and she liked the reviews. Personally, I thought the sites looked like crap and the content was 1 step above "engrish".

My wife is a smart lady, much smarter than me, but she hasn't been jaded by IM'ers and is the typical American consumer.

Bottom line, you can go on your crusade trying to rid the internet of Spam. Noble, but it's not going to pay the bills. Or you can build something better than what is currently ranking, make your money and cash out.

 

[GrindingTo10K]

build something better than what is currently ranking, make your money and cash out.

This line is gold. That is what I am trying to do, too. "Hustle hard" @JasonSc.

 

[Mahjong]

If you complain about, how shitty their English is. I write in English, it sounds shitty to my followers, but I make money doing it, don't forget we are here to get money and expend continually until we beat the dust.

I'm no expert as you but who cares if you can get some of that cash.

"The result justifies the deed" Heroides by Ovid.

 

[Jeteye]

My wife is a smart lady, much smarter than me, but she hasn't been jaded by IM'ers and is the typical American consumer.

My girlfriend has been bitten by the internet marketing bug, and it was amazing how strongly she reacts to sites that just a few months before she was crazy about.

Back in 2000 as high-speed internet began to become widespread, I began to see that I don't use the internet quite like others.

Many of us who do digital marketing and SEO often forget that we are not a basic user, we're not even power users. Instead, we're constant users and the hours we spend at a keyboard change our perceptions of the Internet and how it is used.

I WANT my competition to keep throwing out crappy content that misses the intent of my niche. I WANT them posting articles that are a jumbled mish-mash of products with single line reasons of why this is a top 10 item and I should buy it now. I WANT them wondering why they can't beat my sites even though they have tons of articles and backlinks and fake social likes.

Who cares what other people do with their sites?

My concern is my site and making it the best site that I possibly can.

 

[algospider]

Read through all the posts and I agree with most of the.

@Encrypted @Ryuzaki @CCarter @Charles Floate

Besides, where do you think the affiliate review site industry is heading?

What are the frontrunner industries within the review business model?

Would love to get you opinion.

 

[mikeshinobi]

I'm no expert as you but who cares if you can get some of that cash.

At least one person has the right idea. Jesus christ.

I miss the Wickedfire days when OP would have been called a faggot instead of getting these lengthy diatribes about how he can be "a beacon of light in the darkness". As if internet marketing is something you do because you want to better the world or something.

If you see someone doing something and they're making a lot of money doing it then copy them or do something else that you think is better and beat them. Last time I checked complaining about it won't make you any money.

 

[Sutra]

Sometimes a quick and brutal reply is perfect like you said. But I usually prefer the more thoughtful, balanced, and thought-provoking posts.

I wasn't around for any WF days, but from hearing the way people talk about it, it sounds like the IM version of bodybuilding.com. That place has a lot of good info, but it's a cesspool of bullshit and nonsense. I'm glad that BUSO is above that.

 

[Golan]

That place has a lot of good info, but it's a cesspool of bullshit and nonsense. I'm glad that BUSO is above that.

Yes, but what is missing here is shittons of fun and heavy nonpolitcorrectness. Don't say BuSo necessarily needs those, but i miss those a lot. Just sayin'.