Even though Amazon announced yet again they will be cutting down the commission rates for affiliates, I still believe an Amazon product review blog offers a great/easy way to start making money online (you just have to work a little bit harder at it).
Of course, product review blogs are not just limited to Amazon, but as is the case with one of my own money-making websites, Amazon is still the best option I have for now, and I will tell you why below.
In this guide, I will be showing you how to start your own Amazon product review blog, but again – feel free to use this method with any other affiliate program that pays higher commissions.
With that said, here’s everything I will be covering below:
Table of Contents
Why Is An Amazon Product Review Blog (Still) A Good Idea?
There are a lot of people angry at Amazon (& Jeff Bezos) right now.
They’ve just cut their affiliate commission in the midst of a pandemic when many people were relying on this income to help them off-set the losses they are experiencing from their “real job”.
However, as I said in the beginning, love them or hate them, they are still one of the best affiliate programs there is, and here are my reasons:
Amazon Is A Trusted Brand
While the affiliates are furious at Amazon, the general population is still in love with the website and they continue to spend billions on the platform. Just in Q1 of 2020, they reported a mind-numbing $75 billion in revenue.
Understanding why Amazon is so successful doesn’t take a genius either:
- They are focused on the customer
- They offer super-fast (sometimes free) shipping
- They have perfected the art of e-commerce
This means that as an affiliate for Amazon, you also get to leverage those 3 points for your business.
When you send a customer to Amazon, chances are they already have an account there and when they land on the product page, that convenient “one-click purchase” button is super easy to click.
You’re also leveraging the billions they have invested in perfecting their marketing funnel, which again will help increase your conversions as Amazon knows how to sell a customer!
You also know that their shipping (especially in the US) is unmatched by pretty much anyone.
These are all things that make Amazon what they are today, and partly why I think starting an “Amazon product review blog” is still a good idea (especially for beginners who are just getting started in this business).
You Get Paid For Everything
You also get paid for everything and anything the customer purchases on the website.
If your product review blog is about gaming chairs and when a reader clicks on the link, goes to Amazon, and purchases a new $5,000 TV, you also get the commission for the TV.
I too was furious at Amazon with this recent commission rate cut, but after seeing how many products I’ve actually sold on Amazon (that I wouldn’t have otherwise sold), it still made sense to keep sending people to the platform.
70% of all the products I sold through my Amazon affiliate links were products I did not promote!
Sure I can find another affiliate program that will pay me a higher commission rate, but when it comes to physical products, commissions are low everywhere you go and I also would not be able to leverage the brand Amazon has built as mentioned above.
They Have Millions of Products You Can Promote
There are currently 12 million products on Amazon you can promote, and make money from.
Since we’re talking about building Amazon product review blogs here, you can see how many options you have here for you to make money.
As I said, you get paid for anything a customer buys while visiting Amazon through your affiliate link so knowing there are so many products that can interest a customer, I still think this is a good affiliate program to promote.
Those were just some of my reasons why I still think an Amazon product review blog still makes sense – if you don’t have an alternative.
If you agree with me and you’re still interested in creating your own review blog, let’s now take a look at…
How To Start Your Amazon Review Blog
This is going to be simple, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.
What I’m about to share with you next is the approach I take when I decide to build a new website (whether that be an Amazon website or otherwise).
There may be other better/faster/easier methods out there, but this is what I use and I have proved many times this works through my running niche-site case study which you can find here.
Pick Your Niche
First things first, find your niche.
- What topic are you going to cover?
- What products are you going to review?
- Who is your target audience?
Once you have that figured out, you can look into creating a website. Here’s what you need to do that.
Start Your Website
Once you have those 3 questions figured out, it’s time to start your website. You are going to need:
A Domain + Hosting:
Registering a domain (and getting hosting for it) is a pretty simple process these days. All you have to do is to go on BlueHost and follow the instructions there. It will take you about 15 minutes to set up and with ~$100, you will have everything paid for a year + money left over.
A WordPress Website:
You are also going to need to create your website using WordPress. This is the most advanced, yet easy to use website builder there is and using any of the tools mentioned above, you will get a free, one-click installation of WordPress with any domain package you choose.
I won’t even mention alternatives you can use, just use WordPress! You will regret it later if you don’t.
Create 30-50 Blog Posts/Reviews
The next step is the hardest one, and it’s where many eventually give up and fail.
Again, this does not only apply to Amazon product review blogs, but to any website that wants to get traffic (& make money).
When you first launch your blog, create and publish 30 to 50 blog posts and reviews (I have a review template you can follow here).
This will be enough to start getting you some decent traffic, and hopefully some sales as well.
It will take time for you to start getting traffic and making money (about 6-12 months) but if you can get these 30 posts up (ideally 50), you can sit back, not work on your website and wait for the results to start showing.
Once you have the first 50 posts up, you can then sit back and wait or you can do another round of posts. This will further give you power in the rankings and more income (eventually).
I learned this strategy for IncomeSchool’s Project 24 course. If you want a great course to show you how to make money online, you should check it out (the link leads you to my review).
How To Pick The Right Amazon Products To Promote
There’s nothing holding you back from reviewing any and all products (which are related to your niche), but I will share with you one tip that will help you make money sooner rather than later.
Do not promote/review cheap (inexpensive) products.
As we’ve already covered, Amazon’s commission rate is not great (and I even predict they will get cut yet again in the future).
I would highly advise you to not waste your time promoting anything below $300.
If your niche does not offer these kinds of products, you may want to choose another niche or another affiliate program.
Making 3% on a $20 product is not going to move the needle for you, and to make this a “successful business” you are going to need a lot of work.
On the other hand, making 3% on a $600 product is enough to give you a decent monthly income, even if you just sell one product a day.
Just to make this even clearer, here’s the difference that can make in the long run.
- One $20 a day purchase x 12 months = $219!
- One $600 a day purchase x 12 months = $6,570!
Please, do not promote cheap products.
You’d be working 10X harder (and 10X longer) to earn 10X less.
It’s just not a good idea, but I will leave you to it to decide this for yourself.
6 Tips To Remember (If You Want To Be Successful)
Before I leave you to it, I also want to share with you 6 things you need to know, do, and remember to make this a successful venture.
These are hard-earned lessons that I had to figure out over many years of promoting Amazon products so consider yourself lucky as you’re about to learn them all in just a few minutes.
Do Not Just Focus On Product Reviews
Yes, Amazon product review blogs do still make money, there’s no question about it. However, do not focus just on reviews thinking it’s what will make you money.
That may be the case, but if you don’t have a mix of both promotional reviews and information content (that is not about a product) the sooner you will start seeing results.
Those 30-50 blog posts I suggested earlier will help you get traffic from Google, which is what you will need to make money, but Google won’t be sending you traffic if your website is just another run-of-the-mill “Amazon product review blog”.
Do Not Place Affiliate Links Everywhere
Another tip I will give you is to not over-use affiliate links.
Use them when it makes sense. If it doesn’t make sense to add an affiliate link, don’t add it.
When you’re writing your “information content” and you mention a specific product, instead of linking directly to Amazon, link to your review.
Do Not Make Amazon Your Only Source
Amazon is a wild-card, and as I hinted already, I predict they will eventually cut commission rates yet again.
Make sure you actively look for other alternatives that you can use too. I have a list of 101 alternatives to Amazon here and I also have reviews about some other big brands you can join:
Do Remember To Use Your Affiliate Link
When looking for products to review, please remember to use the affiliate links provided and not the link in your browser.
The link in your browser does not have your affiliate ID and if you use that, and someone makes a purchase through that link, you will not be credited for the sale.
Do Have Patience (It Won’t Happen Overnight)
Again, have patience. This is a business you are building here and great business doesn’t get built in a week.
Take your time to create the best reviews you can, study the niche you’re in, learn what makes customers buy, and understand how you can provide content that helps them solve their problems.
These things take time to master and it will take time for you to make money but I promise you, if you stick with it, you’d have a successful, full-time-income earning review blog which you can be proud of.
Do Get Some Training
Last but not least, please invest in some training.
You do not want to find yourself 6 months down the line realizing you’ve been doing it wrong all along. That is a brutal pill to swallow and most probably, you will not have the will to start all over again.
To safeguard against this and to make sure that what you’re working on will eventually lead to you making money, consider joining this free training course here.
It’s where I learned how to make money online and I’m sure it can help you do the same as well.
That’s all from me today. I hope this guide has helped inspire you to start your own online business.
If starting an Amazon product review blog is what you want to do, I hope this has answered any and all questions you may have had.
If you have some additional questions, don’t hesitate to drop me a comment down below.
