Are "curated"/detailed/niche-specific Amazon sites even remotely worthwhile?

davidle

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Aug 30, 2010
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Are "curated"/detailed/niche-specific Amazon sites even remotely worthwhile?

I have a few topics that like like to keep up with on a regular basis. There are many products constantly being made for people interested in these niches. Since I waste so much time looking at these products and learning about these niches for my own amusement, I'm wondering if I could maybe make some money from this hobby.

I was thinking I could review or curate a very specific list of products and feature them on the site. For organic traffic, I could write blog posts related to the niche fairly easily. Also, I could post interviews with people involved in the niche in the hopes they'd also send traffic to the interview and the site.

Other possible revenue/traffic sources: a YouTube channel for each site; I was considering writing a Kindle book related to one niche and would be able to link to that from the site; I could collect their emails and send buyers interested in the niche new product recommendations

I know Amazon commissions are extremely tiny, but I don't have the willpower to make an extra few bucks every sale by stocking products myself. I figure since I'm already keeping up with these industries, maybe I could earn passive income in the range of a couple hundred bucks a month per site? Does anybody have any experience with sites like these?
 


This was exactly what I did for my first SEO website and I made about $250/mo with Adsense and $250/mo with the products being sold through Amazon. I flipped the site for $4,500 after three months.

So, yeah, you can make some money from this. Just make sure that the products your aggregating don't already exist as a category on Amazon or other big common e-comm sites. You really have to niche down.

For example, a bad site would be one that sold boots.

A good site would be one that pushed snow boots suitable for mountaineers in the arctic.

Obviously, I have no idea of that's a real niche, but you get what I'm saying.



I have a few topics that like like to keep up with on a regular basis. There are many products constantly being made for people interested in these niches. Since I waste so much time looking at these products and learning about these niches for my own amusement, I'm wondering if I could maybe make some money from this hobby.

I was thinking I could review or curate a very specific list of products and feature them on the site. For organic traffic, I could write blog posts related to the niche fairly easily. Also, I could post interviews with people involved in the niche in the hopes they'd also send traffic to the interview and the site.

Other possible revenue/traffic sources: a YouTube channel for each site; I was considering writing a Kindle book related to one niche and would be able to link to that from the site; I could collect their emails and send buyers interested in the niche new product recommendations

I know Amazon commissions are extremely tiny, but I don't have the willpower to make an extra few bucks every sale by stocking products myself. I figure since I'm already keeping up with these industries, maybe I could earn passive income in the range of a couple hundred bucks a month per site? Does anybody have any experience with sites like these?
 
Here's how I'd go about it:

1. Make the site -- try to make a profit off affiliate commissions.
2. Recreate the product that's making you the most money from affiliate commissions. Create a strong brand and increase value if possible.
3. Create an Amazon store with Amazon fulfillment.
4. Monetize by driving traffic to your own Amazon products (from your own site) + by optimizing for sales through Amazon itself.
 
This is fairly standard niche website stuff, hardly rocket science. And yes, if you make a good niche site it can be as close to passive as it gets without much linkbuilding or campaigning even.

Start here:

Niche Pursuits - Find Business Ideas, Niche Websites, and much more!
Blog - Empire Flippers

And a couple of great threads from our own members:

http://www.wickedfire.com/enlighten...rter-big-brand-checklist-how-i-represent.html
http://www.wickedfire.com/enlightened-members/166381-long-term-minimal-seo-authority-site.html

Just focus on great content and get a great, brandable domain name. None of that 'guide' or 'best' or exact match crap. Get a name which can be part of the package later on should you choose to sell it, because a site which can be converted into ecommerce will fetch much higher value on resale. Also get a good bunch of real Facebook fans and all that.