Estimating monthly income for Amazon affiliate websites can be a little bit tricky. There are several variables and assumptions that come into play…
- First, we need to determine how much traffic the website will get on a monthly basis.
- Next, we need to estimate the percentage of that traffic that will click over to Amazon.
- After that, we need to guess (or estimate) the percentage of the traffic that clicks over to Amazon that will actually make a purchase.
- And finally, we need to estimate (or guess) the average purchase price that buyers will pay.
Simply put all of those variables together – and we can come up with a pretty good estimate for potential monthly earnings for Amazon affiliate websites.
Assumptions We Use at Niche Wolf (and a FREE Tool!)
First, we’ll show you the free tool that we use to estimate monthly income for Amazon affiliate sites. Click over to AmaProfits.com and this is what you’ll see.
As you can see – we simply change the variables in each of the boxes and this handy calculator updates on the fly and shows us the estimated earnings based on what we enter.
- Main Keyword Searches – if you have a ‘main’ keyword like, ‘best pressure washers’ – insert its search volume here
- Longtail Searches (est) – insert the total volume for ALL of the longtail keywords you plan to target or think you might be able to rank for
- Niche Wolf – we simply add up search volumes for ALL of the SECockpit keywords for any particular Keyword Research Package
- Average SERP Position – this is an overall average of where you think you’ll be able to rank most of your keywords in Google
- Some will rank higher and some will rank lower – this is just an average estimate
- Niche Wolf – we use 5 and 3 in order to conservatively estimate a potential range of income
- Visit Affiliate Link – percentage of overall website visitors who will click over to Amazon via one of your affiliate links
- Niche Wolf – we use the tool default rate of 40% as our estimate
- Amazon Purchase Rate – the percentage of people who actually make a purchase after clicking over to Amazon from your site
- Many niche sites will typically average between 5 and 10%
- Niche Wolf – we use the tool default rate of 5% as our (conservative) estimate
- Average Amazon Purchase – the average price for the main product promoted on your site
- Many products will be available from different sellers/manufacturers in a vast array of price ranges
- Niche Wolf – we use the average of all products shown on the first page of Amazon search results for the ‘main’ product
- Example: Go to Amazon and search for ‘pressure washer’ – calculate the average cost for every product on the first page
- Niche Wolf – we use the Jungle Scout chrome extension to calculate this average in a matter of seconds
- Amazon Rate – the expected commission rate that you will receive for Amazon affiliate sales
Amazon pays higher commission rates when you sell more products – see chart on this official Amazon Associates pageNiche Wolf – we use 7% as our estimate – it’s not hard to sell at least 111 products per month- Update: As of March 1, 2017 – Amazon changed it’s commission structure for U.S. sales.
- Amazon now pays fixed commission rates based on categories – refer to the chart on this official Amazon Associates page
- Niche Wolf – we’ve done our best to estimate which category sales will be credited to and all of our estimates are now based on the new commission structure that Amazon is using for U.S. sales
Again – we use the FREE tool over at AmaProfits.com to quickly and easily come up with these estimates.
Your Actual Monthly Income Could be More (or Less)
This process (and this tool) are designed to simply show you a rough estimate for the potential in your niche. It is completely impossible to accurately estimate actual website income. There are many other variables that come into play that cannot be summarized with a numeric value.
For example – website design can be a major factor when it comes to conversion percentages. Terrible website design may convert very poorly despite great written content. Excellent website design, that is optimized to increase conversions, could see Amazon purchase rates closer to 10% or even much higher!
The types of visitors that you attract to your website are also a factor. Are your visitors just looking for information? Or are you attracting buyers with the keywords you are trying to rank for?
Also – not included in this estimate are other monetization methods. In addition to promoting Amazon products, there are several other ways that you could (and should) by making money from your website. Google Adsense can do well in many niches. Product promotion through direct affiliate links (other than Amazon) is also an option and sometimes pays out better commissions than you might receive from Amazon.
Lastly – one major reason that your Amazon Affiliate income could (and should) be higher than this estimate – the fact that Amazon pays out commissions for EVERYTHING that a buyer purchases (within 24 hours) after they click over to Amazon from your site.
For example – say you are promoting ‘pressure washers’ – one of your visitors clicks over to Amazon to see the latest price or get more information. Maybe they buy that pressure washer or maybe they don’t. Either way… they remember something else they’ve been meaning to buy from Amazon. They do a search then find and buy that other item. It can literally be ANYTHING that Amazon sells. You will get commission for that item (and anything else they buy within 24 hours) just because they clicked over to Amazon through one of your affiliate links! Even if they don’t purchase the item that you were promoting!
Get Started with Your Next Amazon Affiliate Site Today!
What are you waiting for? There is SO much money to be made by promoting products on the world’s leading online retailer – Amazon!
Maybe you’ve already built successful Amazon Affiliate sites in the past? Why not start another? Check out all of our available keyword research packages. Most of them are really great Amazon niches.
Have no idea how to build an Amazon Affiliate site? Consider investing in a training course that will walk you through the entire process, step-by-step. One of the best courses available (even for total beginners) is the AMZ Affiliate Bootcamp by Tung Tran.