Can you start and scale an affiliate marketing website for cheap?
There has been some positive and negative feedback on my month three affiliate site update…
Many YouTube subscribers are frustrated that I'm investing money to build and grow a website, instead of "doing all the work" myself.
They feel like it makes the path to success online seem that much more daunting. That the goal feels farther away because they need to outsource all of this work too.
So I want to give you a specialized training in this post that will really, truly reveal...
The DIY approach to making money with an Amazon Affiliate Website.
Here’s how to start and scale in 5-steps.
Step 1: Choose A Niche
This is the first step, and I've created an entire video series on YouTube. I’ve linked to the first video below so you can take a look at it.
But the 'easy button' here is to go search through the premium sites on Human Proof Designs.
Why?
Because the amazon niche research has already been done for you on these sites.
There are over 65 niche site ideas on that page alone...
You don't need to copy one. You can adapt your own if you would prefer that road. But... you will see how specific these sites are.
You can see pressure cookers and deep fryers… Maybe you want to focus on air fryers or rice cookers...
You see pregnancy pillows and baby swings, and maybe you have a little one on the way and want to do baby carriers… or maybe you are more interested in the philosophical approach to niche ideas.
Quick question… do you think new mothers and new parents are going to spend money on Amazon buying the best equipment after having a kid?
LOL...
Ya... I'd say that's true...
But the point here is that, in order to get started, you have to choose a niche.
- The cool part is, if you love building or racing drones, your site could be about drones…
- If you love hand drums, it could be about drums...
- If you love target practice, it could be about BB guns... Or throwing knives
So, as you're putting in this time for the next five years, creating the most helpful website focused on this super small niche...
- You get to play with things that you love...
- You get to read about things that you love...
- You get to write about things that you love...
Choosing can be difficult, and my "hack" was just to buy one, because it was the fastest way to get it started. If you want to go that route, just choose one from the list to save time.
I'm going to use 'baby monitors' for the rest of this example, because I think most new parents would end up buying several, to be honest.
Step 2: Build A Blog
Okay. You’ve chosen your niche.
Now you need to build a blog.
This post on my site shows you exactly how to build a blog, step-by-step, from setting up hosting to getting your theme dialed-in.
Hosting is going to run you less than $100 for the year if you choose an awesome hosting service like A2 Hosting.
This is the total investment my wife and I made on our first site that has brought in millions, and it still does tens of thousands per month like clock-work.
Step 3: Do Keyword Research
Next, you do keyword research...
The goal here is to find all of the relevant phrases that have "best" and "for" around your chosen product...
Personally, I bought the KGR keyword pack from here because for only $99 it saved me at least 4 to 6 hours of work.
KGR means "Keyword Golden Ratio.” They do a bit of competition research, too... but that isn't required, as you'll see below.
Because, you can learn how to do keyword research for free.
Or you can use an awesome keyword research tool like KW Finder.
Seed Phrases
You always have to start with "seed phrases," whether you're buying the keyword pack or doing the research yourself.
Let's use the baby monitor example...
Our seed phrases are "Best Baby Monitor" and "Baby Monitor For."
Google's auto-suggest will do the heavy lifting for you here...
Simply go to Google and type in "Best baby monitor."
Don't search this, just type it in and pay attention to the auto-suggest!
These auto-suggestions are the phrases people most often search for on Google.
Copy these down and make your keyword list!
So when I type “best baby monitor,” autosuggest pops up and gives me...
best baby monitor camera
best baby monitor app
best baby monitor for travel
best baby monitor without wifi
best baby monitor with two cameras
Repeat this process for "baby monitor for"...
Again, don't actually search for it. Type it in. Let autosuggest do the work!
Here is what we come up with.
baby monitor for two rooms
baby monitor for phone
baby monitor for twins
baby monitor for deaf
baby monitor for car
baby monitor for camping
baby monitor for travel
Now, you can expand these keyword phrases by just adding a letter...
"Best baby monitor for a"...
Then 'B'...
"Best baby monitor for b"...
And so on, A through Z.
Autosuggest keeps spitting out the most-often searched phrases....
best baby monitor for android
best baby monitor for alexa
best baby monitor for apartments
best baby monitor for a big house
best baby monitor for a preemie
best baby monitor for breathing
best baby monitor for big house
best baby monitor for battery life
best baby monitor for budget
best baby monitor breathing sensor
You now have your niche, your blog is built, and you have all the most popular keywords that people are searching for most-often on Google!
At this point, your total investment is still under $100, unless you decided to save a few hours and farmed out the keyword research. But even then, you’re still under $200.
Step 4: Start Creating Content
Now, are you ready for the real trick?
Write 500,000 words, answer every question, review every product, and organize all of the different options into helpful posts based on what people are searching.
Said another way...
Write 250 posts, each one focused on a specific keyword and about 2000 words in length.
OR...
Write 500 posts, each one focused on a specific keyword and about 1000 words in length.
It'll probably end up being somewhere in-between those, here are the few steps to take to write these affiliate posts simple and fast.
You Can Do It Yourself, But It Takes Time
Melanie's website has nearly one million words of content on it...
We paid $0 for 95%+ of that content!
But that doesn’t mean that it was free.
Writing all of that content cost time, energy, and sacrifice!
For 10 years, we did nothing but grow the content on her site...
No weekend barbecues, no birthday parties, no nights out on the town, no happy hours...
No concerts, no baseball games, no days off...
Every night, every morning, every weekend… We grew our content.
We were always focusing on each post being the absolute most helpful post online that we could write… and our #1 focus was always on helping our audience.
Why?
We wanted freedom that bad!
Step 5: Don’t Give Up
This burning desire to create the life I now enjoy is so hot that it burns and scares most people.
Most people are soft... They say they want it, but they aren't willing to do whatever it takes.
And that's fine, being a successful entrepreneur is not for "most people."
You don't need a fancy course to explain the path I’ve outlined in this post...
If you want to succeed, all you need to do is roll up your sleeves and put in five years of blood, sweat, and tears...
You need to create MORE of the BEST content online for your audience...
Because the person who does that is the person who wins.
The Magic that Will Emerge
And somewhere on this path… Maybe somewhere around post number 136...
Somewhere right around word 250,000-word count mark, a silent shift happens and you are no longer "becoming the foremost expert" on your subject...
You actually succeed in becoming the expert.
Because you've just done more research, and created more helpful content, than anyone else on this extremely specific topic!
No trophies, no awards, no celebration...
Because there's more work to do!
And on that note, I'm going to wrap this up.
Conclusion
I appreciate you and I KNOW you can do it... Because it's simple.
The ONLY question is:
Are going to show up long enough and put in the work...?
Your audience is searching each and every day for those keyword phrases you already found...
Hit me up in the comments and let me know if you have any questions.
Do you want to start your own affiliate site?
If so, give me a shout out in the comments, and then get to work!
Keep working toward the life you dream of! See you on the next one...
-Miles "Truth Bearer" Beckler