![[Case Study] How To Create A $20,000+ p/m Amazon Affiliate Site Like This Weird Example](https://nichehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Case-Study-How-To-Create-A-20000-pm-Amazon-Affiliate-Site-Like-This-Weird-Example-scaled.jpeg)
Would you like to to see an example of a VERY successful Amazon affiliate site so you can copy it?
Well this WEIRD affiliate site is a GREAT example.
As not only are they a SUPER affiliate but they do it in a very unusual way.
Usually the secret to affiliate marketing is to pick great products that really solve your audiences problems so they bite your hand off to buy.
With this site they specialize in showing their audience products that are so outlandish 90% of them will never get bought….
…yet they still make an reported $20,000+ a month in earnings online from Amazon as an affiliate alone which you’ll learn more about below.
This case study is on $20,000+ affiliate per month site ThisIsWhyIAmBroke.com a incredibly cool site far away from the typical affiliate site.
(BTW: If you want an in-depth blueprint on how to build a site exactly like TIWIB.com then it’s one of the 10+ ‘Business Blueprints’ available to you after you join ‘NicheHacks Academy’ here)
Find out how they make an estimated $20K+ a month and how you can copy them below…
Disclaimer: Just in case it’s not obvious I am not claiming that if you create a site like TIWIB you will be guaranteed to make $20,000 – you might but you might also make $0. It’s an example of what’s possible.
To discover 200+ profitable niche markets click the image below now…
(RELATED: Want to learn how to make income with affiliate marketing? Then check out NicheHacks Academy)
What You’ll Learn About This Example Amazon Affiliate Site:
- What this website is and how you can use their traffic strategy to make money online.
- How they make an estimated $20K+ a month just from Amazon even though anyone rarely buys the products they feature and without all the hassles of content marketing and blogging.
- How to build your own “niched down” version so you’re not directly competing with them.
- The “secret” used by site owner Adam to give massive value to his audience and in return make more more from them without directly selling.
- Ideas for similar style affiliate sites you can create and profit from
What is This Is Why I’m Broke?
This Is Why I’m Broke (TIWIB) shares unusual items, cool products and geeky gadgets across multiple categories that they find around the web.
Gadgets, wearable items, food & drink, home and office, toys and more.
Some of the weird stuff on sale
It was NOT the first affiliate website of this type.
But it was the first that really focused on user experience and engaging the visitor over just listing unusual products and trying to make money.
The Website
Why Was The Site Started?
The site was born in 2011 by Adam Freedman who had previously struggled to make money online with many failed ventures. (Source)
He started the site because he followed similar websites and thought he “could improve on their experience with a better website design and higher quality products presented” (Source)
For example it was the first site of it’s type to use infinite scrolling.
They added humor and wit in the product descriptions.
An example of their quirky product descriptions
Spent time improving product images over Amazon’s standard ones.
Carefully selected products rather than just adding anything slightly unusual.
And put a lot of thought into what order products appear on the site.
But they don’t make money unless they promote interesting products.
And it’s not as simple as you think.
So here’s how they choose what to feature…
What Are They Promoting?
Unusual, cool, geeky and sometimes useless products from space invader chairs to camera lenses coffee cups to jet packs to bacon vodka.
You’ll find gadgets, gizmos, gear, quirky products, concepts and more.
It includes products from big retailers such as Amazon and Ebay.
T niche stores like ThinkGeek and Firebox and sites like Etsy and Kickstarter.
Not every product is on sale they feature any products they think have the ‘wow’ factor even concept products that have not yet been created.
Some of the weird products on sale
The reason behind this is so to create value.
If every product they feature just leads to an Amazon link it just becomes about getting affiliate link clicks rather than sourcing out and sharing unusual and cool products.
They find products to feature by signing up to the RSS feeds of 100’s of different blogs and retailers around the net that feature or sell unusual products and check on a daily basis for inspiration.
And featuring products alone won’t make you money.
(RELATED: Discover how to find the most lucrative affiliate products on the net with NicheHacks Academy)
Here’s how they make money from it all
How Do They Make Money?
The site utilizes the Amazon associate affiliate program, Ebay Partner Network and various other affiliate programs such as Think Geek, Firebox, Wicked Lasers, Hammacher and more.
Not all products are affiliate products or even on sale.
Many simply have the wow factor that it takes to get featured.
But for Amazon, Ebay and the other retailers that they have an affiliate relation with any time someone clicks a link on TIWIB and lands on the retailers website an affiliate cookie is set.
Amazon has just a 24hr cookie, meaning your visitor has just 24hrs to buy something for you to get a commission, but other sites have much longer cookie durations.
I’ve mentioned before that it’s estimated they make over $20K p/m on Amazon (Source).
But that’s just ONE affiliate program out of scores.
Wondering how much they make it total.
You’ll be amazed…
How Much Do They Make In Total?
An estimated $20,000+ per month from Amazon alone which accounts for 66% of their income. (Source)
So it could easily be over $50,000 in total.
This is not including income from other affiliate programs and Google Adsense.
Of course it’s all speculation as Adam, the owner, won’t reveal how much he makes in public.
Amazon is the main affiliate program they link to as most people will never buy the products they feature but go on to buy something more practical from Amazon which still nets them a commission.
Comment from TIWIB owner on Reddit
Another important thing for you to consider is how they turn visitors into money…
Why Does The Site Convert So Well?
The site is designed to get affiliate link clicks due to the large enticing images, well positioned buttons and great calls to action that send you off to the retailers websites.
The big enticing affiliate buttons
Almost everyone who visits the site will end up on a retailers site whether they planned to or not and this sets the affiliate cookie.
Even if you don’t make a purchase immediately the cookie will last for a certain duration and any purchases you make throughout that time will result in an affiliate commission being paid.
And remember the products they feature are so outlandish most will never get bought.
But their business model is simply to get the affiliate cookie set and rake in commissions from the other items people DO go on to buy.
A website is nothing without traffic so let’s look at that…
How Many Visitors Per Month?
2,800,000+ per month (Source)
Who Visits The Site?
Primarily men from the United States of college age. (Source)
Facebook: 305,000 followers
Twitter: 5,236 followers
Pinterest: 7,358 followers
G+: 11,388
The above data will change frequently and likely be far more by the time you read this.
(RELATED: Learn how to profit from affiliate marketing with step by step blueprints and execution plans in NicheHacks Academy)
6 Things That Makes TIWIB Successful
Let’s look at the 6 most important things, which I believe, makes TIWIB most success.
And that you should focus on if you want to create a similar site.
01 – Branding and a Great Name
The name is memorable, quirky and fits in with the concept of the site.
02 – Cool Concept
It’s not unique nor the first site of it’s type.
But they put effort into the design, style and user engagement.
And the quirkiness in the content combined with the unusual products makes it a great site that people want to visit time and time again.
03 – Great User Engagement
They engage the user with their humor and wit.
The infinite scroll feature keeps you browsing an endless amount of products.
And they get you interacting with them on social media and in the comments.
It’s built with the users in mind and to give them a fun experience.
Not aimed solely at ‘making money’ even though it’s great at making money.
It’s designed to get people sharing the products featured which spreads the word.
The easy to find social buttons
05 – Intelligent Product Placement That Makes You Go ‘Wow’
Most people won’t realize this but a lot of thought goes into the product placement and order on the site to keep it fresh.
For example they will place a cute animal toy next to chainsaw gun next to house gift which adds to the shock factor.
Comment on Reddit from TIWIB.com
06 – It’s Designed To Convert
The site is designed to entice clicks from visitors even if they don’t intend to buy the product.
Instead of ‘buy here’ buttons they use clever copy such as ‘check it out’ which gets people clicking to see more and landing on the retailer’s page.
Big check it out buttons
They might not intend to buy anything at that point but the cookie is set and anything they buy throughout the duration of the cookie gets them a commission.
People use Amazon to buy all sorts of products on a regular basis.
Those are the 6 things that really make TIWIB as successful as they are.
Now let’s look at their traffic and the lessons you can learn from it…
Where Do They Get Traffic?
The traffic is driven almost entirely by social media though people sharing their content.
In the beginning they used Reddit and Stumbleupon paid ads including the legendary “Not Safe For Wallet” ad on Reddit.
Not Safe For Wallet Ad
But it didn’t really kick off until someone posted about it on the first page of Reddit causing it to go viral all over the web.
This was the catalyst which caused a storm of social media sharing across all platforms which continues today.
They now do very little in the form of paid advertising or marketing.
Advertising on Reddit was the first thing they did
Instead relying on their users to share across the web on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, G+, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, forums, blogs and more.
Search engine traffic is near non existent (likely due to the short descriptions most products have). (Source)
The owner Adam has stated that their best converting traffic source is a little known link exchange network called Knowd (Source)
(RELATED: Discover the 7+ different affiliate marketing business blueprints in NicheHacks Academy)
Lessons To Be Learned From This Successful Affiliate Site Example?
- Create something that you love and that other people want or need and can get excited about.
- Don’t focus on ‘trying to make money’ but on a great user experience, engaging your visitor, making your site a fun / useful place for people to visit. People hate being sold to buy they love to buy.
- Give your users a reason to return time and time again and tell their friends about it and if you’ve picked a solid idea that is monetizable the money will follow.
- Continually be optimizing your site for clicks. They are split testing and making changes constantly to try and improve conversion rates.
- Create something that has the potential to go viral across the web.
- Don’t be afraid to try an out the box business model, TIWIB make their money from featuring products very few people will ever buy!
- There’s more to the Amazon affiliate program than just creating basic product review sites and trying to rank in Google.
3 Things That Could Be Improved / Changed
Here’s some changes I would implement if I was creating a site like TIWIB…
01 – Email marketing
They have an email list but depending on what design they are split testing sometimes there’s no email opt in on the site which is a huge mistake.
Being able to send an email out and drive traffic back to your site on demand is an affiliate websites dream.
02 – Content marketing
They have a blog but it’s often neglected for months at a time and isn’t given the attention it deserves.
This could be used to draw in search engine traffic and blog readers who might not really be into the style of site This Is Why I Am Broke.com is but still like to read about gadgets and cool products.
Starting and maintaining a blog would be key.
03 – Product Giveaways / Competitions
I could see this being a huge viral success.
Basically give away some of the products they feature in a competition where people have to share on social media to enter.
You could reach thousands of interested people and drive them back to your site.
Let’s now look at ways you can create a similar site…
Ideas For Similar Sites You Can Create.
Simply trying to copy them straight up isn’t the way forward unless you can better their design, improve on user engagement, write better product copy and create better images.
They do this too well for most people to compete.
There’s already dozens of competitors out there doing similar such as:
- DudeIWantThat.com
- ShutUpAndTakeMyMoney.com
- TheGreenHead.com
- WalletBurn.com
- TheGadgetFlow.com
- OddityMall.com
A competitor site
The trick is to create a site similar but ‘niched down‘.
All of these sites are promoting much of the same products.
And trying to appeal to everyone and anyone with gadgets and cool things from multiple different categories.
By picking one single category and focusing just on that you could create a niche site that appeals to one type of person.
Yet still has the cool factor and viral appeal of This Is Why I Am Broke.com.
Instead of focusing on all cool products and gadgets focus just on kitchen/food & drink or home and office or unusual pet products.
Or pick a demographic like 21-30-year-old males or 35+-year-old women and publish things they like only.
You could create a whole site around geeky kitchen items or weird office products.
There’s no shortage of products and niches that the interactive layout would work with.
Examples of Niche Sites Using the TIWIB Style:
- http://www.cool-camping-gear.com/ (Camping Gear)
- http://whatmomslove.com/ (Parenting & Baby Care)
- https://www.mykidneedsthat.com/ (Kids & Toys)
A “niched down” similar site
To discover 200+ profitable niche markets click the image below now…
(RELATED: Want to learn how to make income with affiliate marketing? Then check out NicheHacks Academy)
Wrapping Things Up
This Is Why I Am Broke.com is a fantastic example of a clever Amazon affiliate site away from the typical ‘Amazon review site’ that so many internet marketers focus on.
The site isn’t reliant on unpredictable search engine traffic and no matter what Google does it will not be affected.
It draws in traffic virally from social media with almost no advertising or marketing on their part.
If the numbers are true and they really make $20,000 from Amazon per month (I suspect it’s higher!) then it’s a golden affiliate business model.
And it can work for anyone who uses the concept and design with their own niche or range of products.
You can take one of the many categories from the site or it’s many clones such as kitchen, home and office, or pet and focus solely on those or apply it to different niches completely.
Follow their lead in terms of product selection, design, user engagement, social media interaction but also put a lot of focus into list building and blogging to increase success.
The only key now is to take action…
(BTW: If you want an in-depth blueprint on how to build a site exactly like TIWIB.com then it’s one of the 10+ ‘Business Blueprints’ available to you after you join ‘NicheHacks Academy’ here)
