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50 Amazon Affiliate Website Examples Making Money in a Niche

June 29, 2020/41 Comments/in Business, Earn Extra Money /by Wallet Squirrel

Looking to start your first affiliate website? Here are 50 examples of niche websites that are making real money to get you started. Learn from someone else who is already successful rather than reinventing the wheel. #bloggingtips #affiliateincome #affiliatemarketing #blogging

I’ve always had a hard time finding a good list of Amazon Affiliate Website Examples, so here is my personal list of inspiration that I’ve built up over the years. I’ve been itching to create a new website lately as an awesome way to make money, but before I start I thought I would review my list of successful Amazon Affiliate Websites currently making money for some lessons learned.

What is an Amazon Affiliate Website?

An Amazon Affiliate Website is any website that earns money by linking products from their website to the Amazon store. This can be a blog or website that references a product with a link back to Amazon, so customers can purchase that particular item.

It’s actually really easy to sign-up for their affiliate program, here is how to become an Amazon Affiliate.

The idea is that you are referring customers to Amazon where you gain a commission if a user buys from the Amazon store. This is usually 5%-10% per purchase. Amazon tracks this by a special code from the URL link on your website. Click here to create your own website with affiliate marketing.

Many of these websites use Amazon, along with other affiliate programs to boost revenue. Here is a list of 108 Best Affiliate Programs in addition to Amazon to make money for bloggers and influencers.

22 Successful Amazon Affiliate Website Examples

ThisIsWhyImBroke-Amazon Affiliate Website Example

ThisIsWhyImBroke – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

ThisIsWhyImBroke.com
This is one of my favorite Amazon Affiliate Websites because it’s so freaking cool! These guys gather up the coolest gadgets, gifts, tech and oddities from Amazon and around the web to showcase on their website. These are gag gifts and fun gadgets people love to buy. They likely use an SEO tool like SEMrush to find great blog post ideas. This site uncovers the cool, often hidden, things of the internet and all you have to do is click on one of the Amazon Affiliate links to buy it from the Amazon store. ThisIsWhyIAmBroke works with more than just Amazon, but it’s one of their biggest revenue sources. It’s entirely possible to create a website just like this.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 2.40M Visitors
Average Post Length: 10 – 160 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Salt Firing Shotgun
How much do they make: Around $20,000+ per month from Amazon (source)

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ConsumerSearch-Amazon Affiliate Website Example

ConsumerSearch – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

ConsumerSearch.com
This website started in 2000 as a review website which helped consumers by reviewing different products and offering the consumer the chance to purchase the product. These have become a very popular way for bloggers to create Amazon affiliate websites. It’s a great way to feature products and a good review can be very motivating for someone to purchase.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 1.10M Visitors
Average Post Length: 1,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Bose Sound Bar
How much do they make: This site was bought for $33 Million from About.com in 2007 (source)

Gift Idea Geek Amazon Affiliate Website Example

GiftIdeaGeek.com
This Amazon Affiliate Website is similar to ThisIsWhyImBroke in that the main homepage is set up as an affiliate product page which is perfect selling. The idea is that GiftIdeaGeek focuses on geeky and pop culture referenced products that appeal to that niche. This website uses witty satire to hook the audience into “clicking through” on creative products and if they buy, GiftIdeaGeek gains the affiliate commission. In addition to the homepage, they use a blogroll section to gain SEO and additional affiliate opportunities.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): Unknown
Average Post Length: 1,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Clever Socks
How much do they make: Unknown

 

TheWirecutter-Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TheWirecutter – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TheWirecutter.com
This is a great example of a top-notch review site. They start at the homepage notifying that they make affiliate commissions but provide top-end reviews from independent reviewers. This is great, to be honest upfront. In addition to being transparent, they also take the content is king strategy. I randomly clicked on their “Top Home Projector” post where they reviewed (and linked) to several high-end home theater projectors. Keep in mind that these high priced items produce high commissions. That may explain why they spent the time to write a 5,000 word post on it. This site seems to do everything right in being a prime example of an Amazon Affiliate Website. This site now has over 60 staff members working for it.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 8.10M Visitors
Average Post Length: 3,000-5,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Air Purifier
How much do they make: In 2015, this site combined with The Wirecutter made $150 Million in eCommerce sales. So you can get an idea of their commission revenue. (source)

 

TheSweetHome -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TheSweetHome – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TheSweetHome.com
This is the sister site to the affiliate marketing site TheWirecutter. Another amazon affiliate website that lists gadgets and gear that the website reviews. They come out and say it on their homepage, they earn money by affiliate commissions. Apparently, this site receives over 1.8M visitors, which is pretty impressive considering this site only started in 2013. I guess the moral of the story is, it’s not too late to start a review website. It also helps to have incredibly long reviews. In fact, their one soda stream review had over 13,000 words. This is a great example that content is king.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 2.50M Visitors
Average Post Length: 4,000 – 5,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Robot Vaccum
How much do they make: In 2015, this site combined with The Wirecutter made $150 Million in e-commerce sales. So you can get an idea of their commission revenue. (source)

 

GearPatrol -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

GearPatrol – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

GearPatrol.com
This is an interesting style review website that reads more like a magazine than a review site. This definitely helps give it some more credit than throwing a up a bunch of products and hoping people read them. It’s interesting that it takes a different approach, rather than writing long content, it focuses on a clean layout and video reviews to show people the product they’re testing, racking in 2.3 million monthly viewers. This is incredibly valuable for people willing to buy, but want to see the product in a video demo before purchasing. Now compare this site to what the site looked like in 2008 (here).

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 3.30M Visitors
Average Post Length: 100-500 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Alera Elusion Series Office Chair
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make

 

 

 

DogFoodAdvisor -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

DogFoodAdvisor – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

DogFoodAdvisor.com
This is a testament that design isn’t everything. Look at their homepage. There is one, very cute puppy, but nothing else. I’m not sure how this site is successful, but from looking over their latest articles, they are receiving regular viewers and comments. Something is working. Then again, people do love their dogs.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 1.30M Visitors
Average Post Length: 1,000-1,500 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Dog Food
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make

 

BabyGearLab -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

BabyGearLab – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

BabyGearLab.com
So combine a review site and something people everyone loves, like babies. Imagine all the confusion new parents have when they bring a new baby into the world. What do they do, what do they need, what is the best? BabyGearLab solves that by reviewing baby stuff and helping parents understand it and buy it. This site has been around since 2011 helping parents through the impossible decisions of what is best for your baby.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 234.10K Visitors
Average Post Length: 6,000-10,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Convertable Baby Seat
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make

 

BestCovery -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

BestCovery – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

BestCovery.com
Review sites continue to be an impressive way to make an affiliate commission. This review site doesn’t even niche down, their tag line is “Discover the Best of Everything”. From my initial review, they continue the streak of long content to rank high in Google. In doing this, they list multiple items really pushing their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on picks. All conveniently with their own price tags linking to Amazon. With only 152 thousand monthly visitors, it’s not as much as other sites, but they continue to push out new content and gain new Facebook users. Anyone with a blog knows, it’s hard to get Facebook users, so they’re doing something right.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 152.10K Visitors
Average Post Length: 4,000-6,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Best Epoxy
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

BestReviews -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

BestReviews – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

BestReviews.com
This is one the cleanest designs I’ve seen of an Amazon Affiliate Website. It has a very professional look for a review website, but they don’t overcrowd you with product reviews right off. This site really sets itself apart with their actual videos and reviews inside of their test center. You know these testers are actually testing the product rather than copying a review from another site or making things up. It’s so legit that I will likely be back to this site for future reviews for my purchases. It really gains your trust with the photos and videos even though you know they are making money through the affiliate commissions. Plus they buy all the products themselves and never accept any products from the manufacturer to maintain objectivity, but when you bring in 3.1 million visitors per month, you can buy a few items to review.

It’s so legit that I will likely be back to this site for future reviews for my purchases. It really gains your trust with the photos and videos even though you know they are making money through the affiliate commissions. Plus they buy all the products themselves and never accept any products from the manufacturer to maintain objectivity, but when you bring in 3.1 million visitors per month, you can buy a few items to review.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 3.80M Visitors
Average Post Length: Around 1,000 Words + Videos
One of Most Searched Products: Best Hair Bleaching Products
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

KidsTabletswithWiFi -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

KidsTabletswithWiFi – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

KidsTabletsWithWiFi.com
This is an Amazon Affiliate Website that has really niched down into specifically, as the name implies, kids tablets with Wifi. These are high priced items that produce high commissions in a huge market, children. What is the best tablet for kids? Do you give them an iPad? What if it breaks? Is there a cheaper option? These are all questions that this site helps with. It runs like a blog, but with a relatively simple design. It’s hard to tell if they have produced much new content because they don’t include dates with their blog posts. However, this site is just one blog, with three additional pages for “Best Tablets for Kids”, “Kids Tablet Reviews” and “Kids Tablet Comparisons” all of which are likely keyword researched names. It’s likely the niched down keyword research to bring in the traffic, because the content while good, is relatively short with 300-500 words per post.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 1.80K Visitors
Average Post Length: 400 – 600 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Fire HD Kids Tablet
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

LongBoardReviews -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

LongBoardReviews – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

LongboardReviews.net
Another example of an Amazon Affiliate Website that niched down to long boards. These are like skateboards but longer and meant to cruise, going longer distances than skateboards. It’s a relatively simple website that loads the user with tons of products from the homepage but highlights the lack of comments per review (usually 0 – 2 comments). The typical length of an article is 300-500 words so they are relying on their specific niche for traffic. Not bad for a “.net” domain as they are less common than their popular counterparts “.com”. It’s not the best example, but I’m going for a range.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 2.70K Visitors
Average Post Length: 400 – 600 Words
How much do they make: The website sold in 2016 on Flippa for $5,275. Usually a website sells for a year’s worth of revenue. So we can expect this site to make around $500 per month (source)

 

FootballSnackHelmets -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

FootballSnackHelmets – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

FootballSnackHelmets.com
This is one of the most niche markets I’ve ever seen. It’s gems like these that make me confident the right keyword research in the smallest of niches can lead to a successful Amazon Affiliate Website. I’m not saying this specific site is successful though. They have only 2 blog post with minimal content for each “Football Snack Helmet”. It seems like someone had great intentions to set up an affiliate site with a clean design but forgot about it after 2 blog posts, ending in June 2016. This is one of the easiest examples that you could set up in a weekend.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 2.20K Visitors
Average Post Length: 100 – 300 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Cleavland Browns Kids Uniform
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make, but we anticipate it’s seasonal and reliant on the US customer base.

 

OutdoorGearLab -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

OutdoorGearLab – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

OutdoorGearLab.com
This site is owned by the same owners as BabyGearLab.com so you’ll notice some similarities. It’s a really clean site that looks more like REI’s website than a review site. They generate tons of organic traffic for each review category like ski gloves combines all of their test products (amazon links), test experiences, reviews and opinions so that the review pages reach around 6,000 words. This is a great way to do a review page in my opinion to combine the word length of each review into one huge, helpful page. Plus keep in mind that people love outdoor gear. It’s insanely fun to go outdoors but you never know if you have right equipment. To figure out what’s right, these outdoor review sites help immensely!

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 1.60K Visitors
Average Post Length: 5,000 – 7,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Arc’teryx Jacket
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

TopTenReviews-Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TopTenReviews – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TopTenReviews.com
This is an older site (2003) with some heavy domain authority. That explains the crazy amount of content this site contains. It’s helpful though when you have 350+ employees. This isn’t a small enterprise, and they still utilize the Amazon Affiliate network to monetize their site. They use long and wordy articles to review products, maximizing the SEO of each page. The biggest difference from this site and others is the amount of digital content these guys review. Their digital content ranges from Antivirus Software to Credit Card processing. This isn’t a typical Amazon product, but digital content can earn affiliate commissions through other sources than Amazon. Amazon is a great resource to monetize your site, but it’s definitely not the only way.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 12.80M Visitors
Average Post Length: 3,000 – 5,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Best Printer
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

TomsHardware -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TomsHardware – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

TomsHardware.com
Do you remember 1997? That’s when this website was created. You could maybe tell from the website homepage that looks more like About.com than a review website, then again they have over 1.5 million pages indexed. Don’t make the same mistake I did, this isn’t a door and sink hardware company, this is computer hardware for hardcore nerds who build their own computers. I’m sure this site is at the forefront of every build-it-myself computer geek out there (I’m one ). The site is now owned by Purch, the same people who own TopTenReviews. These guys have really got a good handle on successful Amazon Affiliate Websites.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 47.50M Visitors
Average Post Length: 500 – 1,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Best Gaming Monitors
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

 

 

CarSeatAnswers-Amazon Affiliate Website Example

CarSeatAnswers – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

CarSeatAnswers.com
It’s really simple and plain websites like this that make me happy! If something this plain can bring in so many visitors, than someone creative and design oriented like me can do better, right? CarSeatAnswers focuses on keywords like “Car Seat Answers” and “Car Seat Guide” and “Which Seat is Safest for a Baby’s Car Seat” then writes 700-1,000 word articles with no photos except for the Amazon Products sold throughout the article. This is one of the simplest example, but it still brings in visitors even with a small amount of domain authority. It gives you hope though, that you can easily create a successful website, right?

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 3.40K Visitors
Average Post Length: 300 – 500 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Best Car Seat
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

KichenFaucetDivas -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

KichenFaucetDivas – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

KitchenFaucetDivas.com
This was one of the first Amazon Affiliate Website Examples I ever came across. I thought it was incredibly simple before I saw some other websites that were even worse. A lot of it is what you would expect. A wordy homepage with a couple of pages in the menu bar that all resemble more keyword targeting than actual helpful navigation. I keep wondering if they actually reviewed all those different kitchen sinks, because that would be a lot of work installing and disassembling numerous sinks to see how they work. Likely not, their “About Us” page just says a “Mother of two” which tells me as the reader, if you’re not putting your name on this, your reviews are probably just as generic. Usually, if an “About” page doesn’t list a name or company, I assume that the website is just as generic.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 30.20K Visitors
Average Post Length: 300 – 500 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Best Kitchen Faucet
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

LiveLongerRunning -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

LiveLongerRunning – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

LiveLongerRunning.com
I read this title and expected an awesome community of runners sharing their glory stories of braving the snow and rain to log in miles. Instead I’m directed to a boring treadmill site. This site is about 5 pages and a couple of additional pages for reviews for treadmills. The reviews are the only pages with any kind of lengthy content and those are still only around 800 words. The main redeeming quality about this site, is they are focusing on high price items so even a single sale of a treadmill is a nice commission. This is another example of a website you could make in a weekend. It’s motivating though because you know you can do better, right?

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 11.10K Visitors
Average Post Length: 500 – 1,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: High End Treadmill
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

PickMyShaver -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

PickMyShaver – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

 

PickMyShaver.com
This is a review site that focuses on high-end shaving equipment to have a nice mix of lower end and higher end shavers for a nice variety. It’s a simple/clean website design with lots of photos to help people understand the variety. Each review is decently long, but nothing to rave about. What is impressive is each review has a good amount of comments that are answered by the website owner. That tells me that the owner is monitoring this site and probably adding new content. A site like this wouldn’t be too hard to maintain. I’m thinking, maybe they add a new blog post once a month.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 41.90K Visitors
Average Post Length: 800 – 1,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Best Electric Shaver
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

100DaysOfRealFood -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

100DaysOfRealFood – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

100DaysOfRealFood.com
This is a great example of an Amazon Affiliate Website that’s not a review site! It’s actually more like a food blog that recommends certain products through their blog and resource pages. With 1.6 Million Facebook Likes, Lisa Leak (owner) has become an authority on “real food” and uses this platform to sell other things like her own cook book. This example is more for a traditional blogger who wants to start monetizing their website rather than creating a review site.

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 407.60K Visitors
Average Post Length: 500 – 1,000 Words
How much do they make: She doesn’t list how much she makes on her blog.

 

InflatableHotTubGuide -Amazon Affiliate Website Example

InflatableHotTubGuide – Amazon Affiliate Website Example

InflatableHotTubGuide.com
So this is a niche I guess. This is an interesting example of a site built around a high price item that I could see people willing to buy online rather than a store. This doesn’t leave a lot of room to expand into other hot tub areas, but if your focus is “inflatable hot tubs” then go for it. I can’t imagine they update it too often, the last time seems to be August 2015, but what’s new in the world of inflatable hot tubs?

Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb) : 967 Visitors
Average Post Length: 500 – 1,000 Words
One of Most Searched Products: Cheapest Inflatable Hot Tub
How much do they make: I don’t know how much they make.

 

 

29 Other Amazon Affiliate Website Examples

These additional websites, while different, follow a similar pattern of the previously mentioned. It’s a great list to reference what others are doing in the niche website world with Amazon Affiliates.

  1. SmartMonkeyFitness.com – Reviews (Fitness)
  2. DrillsAndDrivers.com – Reviews (Tools)
  3. ChooseWheels.com – Reviews (Transportation)
  4. Lucieslist.com – Reviews/Blog (New Moms)
  5. GrowABeardNow.com – Reviews (Shaving)
  6. Bpillow.com – Reviews (Pillows)
  7. TheBestEspressoMachines.org – Reviews (Coffee)
  8. AGreatShower.com – Reviews (Shower Heads) – Probably copying KitchenFaucetDivas above
  9. ShaverList.com – Reviews (Shaving)
  10. TopDronesForSale.org – Reviews (Drones)
  11. SewingMachineJudge.com – Reviews (Sewing Machines)
  12. TheRoundingSound.com – Reviews (Everything that makes Sound)
  13. KnifeInformer.com – Reviews (All Knifes)
  14. KitchenKnifeGuru.com – Reviews (Kitchen Knifes)
  15. eScooterBox.com – Reviews (Electric Scooters)
  16. MicrophoneGeek.com – Reviews (Microphones)
  17. VacuumJudge.com – Reviews (Vacuums)
  18. Oomphed.com – Reviews (Hair Dryers)
  19. Top5LawnMowers.com – Reviews (Lawn Mowers)
  20. ShredderSelect.com – Reviews (Paper Shredders
  21. BestElectricHoverBoard.com – Reviews (Hover Boards)
  22. MassageChairLand.com – Reviews (Massage Chairs)
  23. CoolCampingGear.com – New Product Site (Camping Gear)
  24. DigitalTrends.com – Reviews (Digital Products)
  25. BestRecliner.net – Reviews (Chairs)
  26. AquariumAdviser.com – Reviews (Fish Stuff)
  27. CanineJournal.com – Reviews (Dog Stuff)
  28. ThoroughlyReviewed.com – Reviews (Everything)
  29. PodcastInsights.com – Reviews (Podcast Equipment)
  30. 101birthdaygift.com – Products like ThisIsWhyImBroke

Thank you

Thanks to some helpful Reddit users, One Man’s Brand and Niche Site Project for some of the inspiration to make this list of 50 happen!

What I learned from 50 different Amazon Affiliate Website Examples

This list is pretty freaking significant with so many lessons learned. I hit on many of these in individual reviews but here are the highlights.

  1. Keyword Research is Key – is the single most important thing you can do. If your keyword is too broad, it’ll get lost in the sea of other websites and if it’s too narrow, no one is going to visit your site.
  2. Review Sites Are Popular – There are a couple exceptions, but most of these successful Amazon Affiliate Websites are just review sites that give people an idea of what the item is like before they buy. There is definitely something to it.
  3. Content is King – The more successful websites had content that was around 1,000 words per post. Google identifies this as better content and it’ll help your search rankings. It can’t just be gibberish though, it helps if you break up the content into 6-8 different sections so it’s easy for the user to navigate while still being lengthy. I used to think 300 words was good and 500 was above and beyond. I’ll likely spend even more time on articles and aim for around 1,000 words per article like my most popular article “Robinhood App Review” at 1,500 words.
  4. Mix High & Low Price Items, but Lean Towards High Price – if you’re doing all this work to push people towards a certain product, make sure that product is worth it. It doesn’t make much sense to review a $5 item with 1,000 words. You should lean towards those higher price items that will give you higher commissions. Remember, you get a percentage of the sale, not a flat fee.
  5. Get People To The Amazon Store – Many of these websites that had more sales, sent more people to the Amazon store. It’s a numbers game, the more people you send the Amazon market place, the more that will buy.

 

 

Conclusion

Affiliate Marketing is easily one of my favorite income streams from our list of ways to make money.

Just imagine how much you could start investing if you owned or two of these niche sites. The thing is, it’s completely do-able. I have the skills (most people do) to create something like this. I am so freaking pumped to start my next niche website! I’m using these lessons learned to start my keyword research now. I’ll follow up on my progress in the upcoming blog posts. I really hope this helps you as much as it did me. It’s really inspirational to see how others are making additional income online with niche websites!

Am I missing any good Amazon Affiliate Website Examples I can add to this list?

Wallet Squirrel

Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!

www.walletsquirrel.com/

How to Start Selling on Amazon as a Side Hustle

June 26, 2020/0 Comments/in Earn Extra Money, Guest Post /by Jimmy Olsen

Looking for a new side hustle? Today's sponsored post runs us through how to start selling on Amazon as a side hustle. #amazon #sidehustle #earnmoremoney #financialfreedom Today we have a guest post from Kate at Money Transfer Comparison. Her website helps people get their hands on the best foreign currency accounts. Today she wrote an article for the Wallet Squirrel audience on how to get started selling on Amazon as a side hustle. Let’s read what she has to say.

How to Start Selling on Amazon as a Side Hustle

Over 30 million Americans and countless people in other countries around the world have already lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There might be more of them in the future as the recession becomes worse. And even if you are one of the lucky ones who are still employed, your salary might take a dip. And don’t forget that prices will likely grow fast and hard.

All in all, now is the time to get all the side hustle income you can. Amazon is one of the prime providers of such. It’s not only launching an Amazon affiliate website that can help you make money on this platform. Becoming a full-fledged seller is a much better route if you want to make substantial money.

How to Find the Best Products to Sell on Amazon Today

The first thing you need to do in order to become an Amazon seller is to choose products to sell. If you are planning this business as a side hustle, there is no point for you to develop a personal brand. Instead, you should start selling products that already exist. This will allow you to get straight to selling as you will be able to use existing listings. You also won’t have to promote the products from scratch and try to generate reviews.

When you are starting out, you should focus on products that are likely to sell well. Amazon itself will help you with its Best Sellers list.

Also, use price-tracking tools like CamelCamelCamel. They will allow you to track the volatility of the product’s price. You should always choose the most stable option you can. This will reduce your risks as you won’t have to worry about sudden price drops that will make you lose all your revenue.

As to the precise product you should sell, pick something you have easy access to. First of all, do some calculations and research. You need to determine how much money you can spare to build your initial stock. From there, see what kind of products you can afford to buy.

Do Not Fall for the Private Label Hype

Many sources recommend building a personal brand to increase your profits as an Amazon seller. It used to be a valid strategy. However, today the platform is packed with personal brands that all sell the same cheap poor-quality products.

Unless you can afford to splurge on developing a good branding package and invest in high-quality products, starting your own venture like this will be a waste. Instead, make use of a well-known third-party brand by selling its products.

How to Become an International Seller on Amazon

Before you begin, look at our guide on How To Become An Amazon Affiliate, like we did!

If you want to succeed as a seller today, you need to think outside the borders of your own country. Of course, local sales are good. However, you have more opportunities by offering your local top brands to people from different countries. They usually don’t have access to such products, so the demand should be higher.

That said, to become a global seller on Amazon you simply need to register and list your products in chosen foreign marketplaces. Amazon offers a variety of tools that will help you through this process. You can even synchronize your listings and prices across marketplaces and translate product descriptions using built-in services.

All in all, the only work you’ll need to do yourself has to do with money management. You’ll need to research permits and taxes you’ll have to pay as a seller depending on the location. Also, you’ll need to develop a strategy for shipping the products. The cost of shipping might make selling to some countries unviable from the business point of view.

Finally, you need to decide how exactly you are going to get paid. Amazon offers some payment management options for global sellers, including the Amazon Currency Converter. However, that solution is expensive and has some hidden fees. Using third-party money transfer services will be a cheaper option for the majority of sellers.

 

 

How to Collect Revenues from Your International Amazon Sales

With the Amazon Currency Converter, you might lose as much as 4.5% of the money your customers pay. This is definitely unacceptable because the revenue margin on such sales is low by default.

Bank wire transfers are out of the question because they are even more expensive. Depending on the country, such transactions might cost up to 10% of the transfer volume. No buyer will agree to pay such a hefty extra charge on something they can buy cheaper from a different seller.

PayPal is a popular payment processing service, but it does have many cons. Those include but aren’t limited to high transfer costs and bad customer service for the sellers.

The best solution for global sellers, at the moment, is offered by money transfer platforms. Companies like TransferWise, WorldFirst, Moneycorp, and OFX, to name a few, specialize in providing cheap international transfers.

Money Transfer Companies for Online Sellers

A Global Amazon Seller will benefit most from using a service that allows one to create multiple foreign currency accounts. For example, WorldFirst, one of the leaders in the money transfer industry-renowned specifically for its multi-currency accounts, enables online sellers to open USD, EUR, and CAD accounts in nearly every part of the world. Moreover, it even allows for creating foreign currency accounts for sellers in China and Japan.

WorldFirst was recently purchased by Alibaba, so it’s not surprising why many of its services are targeted toward online sellers. With a multi-currency account, a seller will not avoid paying huge fees. They will also get a chance to exchange currencies at near mid-market rates. WorldFirst has one of the lowest FX margins on the market right now. It also has those margins fixed, similar to TransferWise, which is another good money transfer provider online sellers can use.

In the end, the choice of a money transfer company should be determined by your location. These companies offer different rates and terms in different countries. Therefore, you should choose the one that will suit your future customers best.

How to Promote Your Amazon Listings Without Spending a Fortune

Now that you’ve registered your Amazon Global Seller account and set up an international payment processing account in preparation for your first sale, you need to make sure that sale happens. To that end, you need to promote your products effectively.

This would be a challenge if you sell the same products as other sellers. In this case, you should do your best to make your specific offer stand out. Try offering the product in rare colors or add a discount coupon for future purchases.

Making your product offer unique might not be an option, but there are other online marketing tactics you can use.

Ideas for Promoting Your Amazon Products

  • Encourage reviews.
    Positive reviews sell, so your product listings must have those. Of course, they must be verified reviews. But you can use different tactics to encourage your buyers to leave those reviews. For example, offer a discount for the next purchase or include a small gift.
  • Make your product reviews professional.
    Selling on Amazon might be a side hustle for you. However, you need to make sure that your product pages look fantastic to attract attention from buyers. Optimize product descriptions for keywords using simple tools like Google Keyword Planner. But you also need to make descriptions that sound interesting and offer detailed info about the product. All the while, those keywords must be an organic part of the text. If you are no expert in creative writing, consider commissioning descriptions from a professional copywriter.
  • Take to social media.
    Promote your Amazon listings on social media, both through your account and ads. You should also post in groups popular with your targeted customers. You can also launch contests, like asking customers to share your post and offer a free product to the one chosen randomly.
  • Involve influencers.
    Any good marketer today understands the value of influencers. They do not only allow you access to a wider audience. They also increase your product’s credibility because people who follow them already trust their opinions. The only problem might be that involving influencers might be too expensive for you at the beginning. You’ll need to be sure that this would be worth the expense.

Final Thoughts

The COVID-19 pandemic has already launched a wave of at-home entrepreneurs and their number will only continue to grow in this recession. Selling on Amazon is one of the side hustles that can truly make a difference for you in this situation. In fact, this business might be able to help you stay above water if you lose your main job.

But in order for your Amazon listing to be successful, you need to treat it like a real business. Take the time necessary to market it well. Make sure that your product pages stand out among competitors by giving better product descriptions and pictures. Offer additional services and, above all, sell internationally. Reaching out to customers abroad will increase your opportunities greatly. And with modern money transfer services, you’ll be able to get revenue from these deals, instead of losing all of it in international transaction fees.

Google AdSense Review: How Much Are Bloggers Making With Website Ads

June 9, 2020/0 Comments/in Blogging, Earn Extra Money /by Wallet Squirrel

Our Google Adsense Review walks you through on how to use Google Adsense as well as some awesome alternatives. #bloggingtips #blogging #earnextramoney #sidehustle You’re probably familiar with the concept of “website ads”. They are often little graphics on the side of a website or embedded in an online article. While a bit annoying, they drastically help blog owners earn an income while sharing their content for free. One of the most popular ad services to bloggers is Google’s AdSense. Here on Wallet Squirrel, we’re particularly familiar with Google AdSense since we’ve been using it for the past 5 years. So we feel qualified to share a Google AdSense Review and share how much we’ve made over the years.

Google AdSense Review – What Is Google AdSense

Google AdSense is an online advertising network, meaning they allow bloggers/websites to post a small snippet of “code” on their blog sidebar (or wherever) and Google AdSense automatically populates that space with advertisements.

Google AdSense Review - Type Of Ads

Choose an Ad

There are different types of ads that you can display on your blog, each with a different purpose and intention.

  • Display Ads – These are your standard graphic banners. We use this as our Sidebar Ad as an example.
  • In-Feed Ads – Think those “Sponsored” ads you see in your Facebook feed.
  • In-Article Ads – These are inside your article. They often look like they are a part of the article, but usually just a little off to designate them as an ad. We should have an example in this article for you to see.
  • Link Ads – These are less popular, but usually involve text-based ad. These often confuse your visitors to think it’s a website hyperlink rather than an ad. It’s tricky, and I personally don’t like them.

Google Automatically Populates Those Ads

Google can tell based on your website’s content and each unique website visitor, what advertisements are best for that visitor. This is based on complex algorithms, constantly changing and pointless to dive into. As a blogger, you simply choose one of these Ad Types and copy the code onto your website. Here is what our WordPress Widget looks like with the Google AdSense code.

Google AdSense Review - What Code Looks Like On WordPress

Blog Owners Get Paid

From a blogger standpoint, that’s all you need to do. It runs automatically (takes a day or two to load) and you as the blog owner will start making money. You will make a small amount of money every time someone sees your ad, and a little more every time someone clicks it.

As a blogger, you have no say in what ads are used on your site through Google AdSense (nothing adult, etc.), but not always related to your blog. It usually depends on your visitor’s past history.

You won’t actually receive any money until you reach Google AdSense’s $100 minimum payout. Once that is reached you can get paid by check, direct deposit, or quite a few additional ways. All you need to do is complete your tax information before they’ll send you money.

Google AdSense Review - Your Earnings

What Happens Behind The Scenes

What’s actually happening on the back end is companies from all over the world are turning to Google to help them get their ads “out there”. These companies will give Google the advertisement they want to be shown, a detailed profile of their ideal audience and money.

The amount of money companies pay Google for ad space varies.

  • The Length of the Ad Shown – The longer you want the ad shown, the more it will cost.
  • Saturation of the Ad Market – If Company A is trying to sell costumes during Halloween. There are likely lots of other companies trying to do the same. Those advertisements can get very costly because you will need to outbid other companies for the same ad space. The more popular keywords you’re targeting, the more expensive those ad spaces will be.
  • Quality of the Ad – Google prefers good looking ads that match their keywords. So if Company A has a terrible looking ad and generic keywords, Google punishes them by increasing the cost of their ads.

After the ad space is bought and paid for, Google will use its trillions of data points to locate Company A’s ideal audience. Then whenever those people come across a website within Google’s Ad Network (that’s your blog if it has Google AdSense), they’ll see an ad from Company A.

That’s how Google AdSense works!

 

 

Does Google AdSense Pay Bloggers Well?

If you ask the internet, the answer is no. However, I think for this Google AdSense Review answer is a bit more difficult because there are additional considerations.

Google AdSense Is The Easiest Option For New Bloggers

One of the best qualities of Google AdSense is it’s super easy to use (as I mentioned above), and you don’t need a minimum amount of visitors on your website. Even if you only have 20 people visit your website a month, you can still get a Google AdSense account. This is why it’s one of the most popular options. Most people get Google AdSense when their blog is first starting out and stick with it as their blog grows.

How Much Have We Made On Google AdSense

We are one of those people that have been using Google AdSense since day one and this likely makes us one of the most qualified bloggers to share the earning potential for a Google AdSense Review. If you want a breakdown of how much we’ve earned every month, feel free to check out our monthly Income Reports where we include every dime we make on Wallet Squirrel. However here is the full amount we’ve earned on Google AdSense since day 1, back in 2015.

Google AdSense Review - 5 Year Earnings

We’ve had well over 325,000 visitors to WalletSquirrel.com and made $500 through Google AdSense. Cool Right! Actually, it’s not that impressive. That’s $0.001 per visitor (1/10 of a cent) since our website hatched.

While Google AdSense is one of the most popular Ad Networks out there, and one of the easiest for new bloggers. It is not one of the best paying.

Alternative Ad Networks For Bloggers

There are a number of Ad Networks out there for bloggers to choose from. In fact, we’ve started to look at a few of these to replace our current Google AdSense website ads. Writing our own Google AdSense Review has given us lots of reasons to look into other options.

Each one has its own set of requirements ranging from a minimum number of visitors to a minimum number of sessions. You just need to find the right one for your current blog size.

If you’re starting off, I definitely recommend Google AdSense. However, if you’ve grown a little, here are some additional options.

  • AdThrive (minimum 100,000 visitors/month)
  • MediaVine (minimum 25,000 sessions/month)
  • Monumetric (minimum 10,000 visitors/month)

 

 

The Wrap Up

Basically I loved Google AdSense as I built this personal finance blog. It was super easy to get approved, set up, and earn passive income (all the ways we earn passive income). However, it’s not a forever solution. It simply doesn’t pay as well as other Ad Networks. It’s like training wheels for new bloggers. A great stepping stone to building a blog empire.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about our Google AdSense Review in the comments below. Plus if you’re on our email list, we’ll be sharing new details when we move to a new ad network.

Wallet Squirrel

Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!

www.walletsquirrel.com/

Get Paid To Write Articles: 20+ Websites That Pay You For Writing

May 10, 2018/6 Comments/in Blogging, Earn Extra Money /by Wallet Squirrel

Getting paid to write articles is one of our favorite ways to earn extra money, so much so that we made a list of websites that will actually pay you to submit articles for their publications. This is a great way to earn extra money while building your writing brand. #earnextramoney #sidehustle Getting paid to write articles is one of our favorite ways to earn extra money, so much so that we made a list of websites that will actually pay you to submit articles for their publications. This is a great way to earn extra money while building your writing brand. The more prestigious websites your articles are published on, the more you can charge per submission, but everyone has to start somewhere. Here is how to get paid to write articles: 20+ Websites that pay you for writing.

20+ Websites That Pay You For Writing

Listverse

Get Paid To Write on Listverse - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Anything with a Top 10 Tagline
How Much Can You Make: $100 per 1,800 word article (via PayPal)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 8.02M monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Listverse is full of (you guessed it) lists! Top 10 lists and such are a great attention grabber for readers and Listverse pays for articles with at least 10 list points. They will easily shell out $100 for good quality list articles. If you have a great idea for an attention-grabbing list, submit your list idea to Listverse for consideration. It may be a quick way to get paid to write articles, making $100 per article on our list of websites that pay you for writing. Just make sure that you do your research on your lists, avoid easy grammar issues and create a really attention-grabbing headline.

Smithsonian Magazine (online)

Get Paid To Write on Smithsonian - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: History, Science, Innovation, Arts & Culture, etc. (Smithsonian stuff)
How Much Can You Make: $1,000 per article
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 9.81M monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
How ambitious are you? The Smithsonian is a big deal and one of the more prestegious websites that pay you fro writing. So you may be surprised to hear they do accept submissions from freelance writers. Although you need to provide at least 3 links to previous writing examples, and if you don’t have good ones, you should move on. If you do have all of that, you should “pitch” an idea for an article you have. Don’t worry about having crazy good photographs, they’ll provide the photography your article needs, you just need to supply the 250-300 worded idea and eventually final article if approved.

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HubPages

Get Paid To Write on HubPages- Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Anything
How Much Can You Make: Pennies Per Page View (via ads)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 3.18M monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
HubPages is an online community that writes about anything and everything. Once you sign up for free, you can write about whatever your passionate about. Your article will have ads on them and you’ll receive a portion of that revenue while you get paid to write articles. The more popular your articles are, the more money you’ll make. This is similar to having your own blog, but HubPages host your articles for you in return for a small portion of the ad revenue your articles produce.

iWriter

Get Paid To Write on iWriter - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Topics They Ask For
How Much Can You Make: Up to $40 for a 500 word article (depending on writing level)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 591.52K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
How iWriter works is that people pay iWriter to write articles for them. So a client will pay iWriter to write an article on “Baking Bread”, for example. Then iWriter will send the request to its army of writers (you) and you’ll take the job. The client will pay iWriter and iWriter will pay you in return. The more great articles you write, the more you’ll earn from iWriter based on their 4 tier (Standard, Premium, Elite & Elite Plus) writer levels. Once you receive Elite Plus level, you’ll be paid $40 for a 500-word article. You’ll pay will depend on the level of writer you are and the number of articles you write. What’s nice is you can accept/decline as many articles as you can write from the comfort of your own home. This is nice because the email request will come in with different topics where you can get paid to write articles.

Tuts+

Get Paid To Write on Tuts - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: How To Articles for coding, web design, Adobe Products, anything graphic
How Much Can You Make: $200 per tutorial (increases the more you submit)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 19.74M monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Tuts+ is a site I used to visit all the time when learning Photoshop. They have some great tutorials by some awesome teachers, so this probably isn’t for new writers, but people who can prove they’ve written similar tutorials for well-known websites. This makes them one of the top websites that pay you for writing, paying around $200 (starting out) for How-To’s. There are opportunities to create written and video how-to-tutorials. Just make sure you have the depth of experience to back up what you’re teaching. Here is a list of tutorials they’re looking for people to teach.

Income Diary

Get Paid To Write on Income Diary - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Tips to help out bloggers (blogs, social media, making money online)
How Much Can You Make: $100 – $200 per article
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 303.49K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
The Income Diary is a website focused on helping new bloggers to set up their site, write content and monetize it for future revenue. Since this is a specific niche, there is much similar content that currently exists on the site. While you may be able to earn $200, it is a very difficult way to get paid to write articles and get your content accepted. However if you have an idea that you think fits well with their audience, submit your idea and they’ll tell you if it’s worthy. Otherwise don’t bother writing an entire article until your idea is accepted. If you do get your article idea accepted, you should jump for joy because they are one of the top paying websites that pay you for writing.

Travel + Leisure

Get Paid To Write on Travel and Leisure - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Trip Ideas, Destinations, Hotels (travel stuff)
How Much Can You Make: $1 a word (articles range from 400 – 2,000 words)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 6.03M monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
With an audience of 1 million viewers per month, Travel + Leisure receives many writer submissions so they’re looking for high-quality articles from writers with previous writing experience. If you’re interested in writing for them, go over their website and understand what type of articles are published. Then go over to their contact page and email them a short email with your “pitch”, don’t bother writing your full article. If they like your idea, they’ll email you back with the guidelines they want. About 95% of the articles on their site are from freelance writers so you may have a shot. They’re one of the few proven websites that pay you for writing.

Transitions Abroad

Get Paid To Write on Transitions Abroad - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Volunteering, Work, Living and Studying Abroad
How Much Can You Make: $50 – $150 (for a 1,250-2,000 word article)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 422.94K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
While not the most aesthetically pleasing website, these guys have tons of articles submitted by people around the world relating to volunteering, working and living abroad. So much so that their “Travel Writer Guidelines for Submissions” page is heavily detailed on what they’re looking from their writers. Overall this is a great place to share that amazing study abroad adventure you had in college and share all those little secrets you learned along the way like don’t buy cheap outlet plug converts or how to use hotel key cards as knives for your PBJ sandwiches. If you have any of those wacky travel stories, consider this one of the first websites that pay you for writing that you try.

Back To College

Get Paid To Write on Back To College - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Things important to adults going back to college
How Much Can You Make: $55+ (for a 1,000-1,500 word article)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 386.82k monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is an old-school website but maintains high popularity for people interested in going back to college later in life. This site makes money by ads and selling leads to college recruiters. So articles about sharing your personal story about going back to college or how your thinking about going back to college may be ideal. This may be a great place to get paid to write articles if you’ve ever considered going back to school.

The Travel Writers Life

Get Paid To Write on Travel Writers - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Getting paid to travel whether it’s writing, photography, tours, etc.
How Much Can You Make: $50 – $200 (for a 300-600 word article)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): less than 10K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is an interesting writing topic because The Travel Writers Life showcases popular ways people are making money while traveling. So you won’t find any fluffy travel stories here. It’s more about how you paid for your study abroad apartment by working at your landlords banana stand. If you have any stories where you made a little money while traveling, this is a great place to share your story on one of the few websites that pay yforfro writing.

The Matador

Get Paid To Write on Matador - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Wide range of topics from life style, culture to family and night-life
How Much Can You Make: $20 – $60
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 3.35M monthly visitors
Since this is such a popular website they receive numerous writing solicitations and thus don’t have to offer much money for people looking to get paid to write articles. While they don’t pay much, this may be a good place to start if you’re a beginner writer. If you’re looking to try it out, you’ll have to create a profile on their contributor page and send them your article idea. It’ll take them a month or two to review it and if you don’t hear back, don’t take it personally they get a lot of ideas. Try submiting another idea. When it comes to larger websites like this, it’s a numbers game. Luckily you have the option to write about a wide range of topics on their websites that pay you for writing.

A List Apart

Get Paid To Write on A List Apart - Websites That Pay You For Writing

 

What To Write About: Web development related to code, content, design, process, business, etc.
How Much Can You Make: $50 – $200 (1,500 word articles avg.)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 543.71K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is a very niche website related to website development. If this topic interests you, send their team your pitch idea (ideally in a Google Doc) for review. They review all ideas once a week and rarely accept pitches on the first draft. However they’ll likely help you develop your idea further making it worthy of their website. They’re currently looking for new writers so if you have a story to share regarding web development or user experience, shoot them an email.

Flywheel – The Layout

Get Paid To Write on Flywheel Layout - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: All things WordPress Website related
How Much Can You Make: $50 (They give you a list of topics with prices)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 712.64K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
These guys have one of the most efficient ways to get new writers. Beyond their super easy sign-up page where you submit your credentials, they give you a list of topics to write about and how much they’ll pay for each one. It looks like someone on their team realized keywords they want to rank for and added that list for potential writers to write about. Most of the articles they currently have posted only pay $50 per article, but they claim up to $150. Keep in mind, most of the articles they are looking for are related to how to code WordPress websites, so it may be a little niche for most people. If you have the WordPress knowlege though, it’s one of first websites that pay you for writing you should consider.

BootsnAll

Get Paid To Write on BootsNAll - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Trip Ideas, Destinations, Travel Adventures (travel stuff)
How Much Can You Make: $50 per article (articles range from 1,200 – 2,000 words)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 160.98K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is a site I really enjoyed right after researching. It’s a very indie type travel site where it encourages really exploring your travel destinations over high-end resorts. If you have a travel story/idea that you want to pitch, send it to them after you check out their article guidelines to get paid to write articles. Most of is it pretty basic, but something to keep in mind. If you’re not sure your work is good enough to submit, try their “Guest Post” guide where your article won’t be paid for, but you can submit it in front of their audience. It’s a great way to gain travel writing exposure without much pressure on our list of websites that pay you for writing.

International Living

Get Paid To Write on International Living - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: All things related to retiring overseas (cost, living, places, etc.)
How Much Can You Make: $75 – $400
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 712.64K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
International Living has both a blog/newsletter (they call it a Postcard) and monthly magazine that they’re looking for contributing writers to get paid to write articles. If your article gets accepted to the Postcard, it’s worth around $75 while the monthly magazine is worth $250 for 840 words and $400 for 1,400 words. If you’re curious what to write about, they love inspirational stories about retiring abroad in your dream location (use SEMrush for popular keyword ideas). They want to know how your money will stretch longer in other countries and how that affects healthcare and other lifestyles. If you’ve ever been thinking about retiring in a small tropical country or somewhere cooler, maybe this is one of the websites that pay you for writing for you.

Cracked

Get Paid To Write on Cracked - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Anything Pop Culture with a funny twist
How Much Can You Make: $100 – $200
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 19.24M monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
While most websites actively look for experienced writers, Cracked is all about encouraging new writers to submit ideas with lots of different ways to contribute and get paid to write articles. You can write the long lists they’re known for like “26 Sexy Halloween Costumes That Shouldn’t Exist” or creating funny graphics they can use on their social media accounts. They are heavily reliant on content writers like you can contribute to their online publication. If you think you have a sarcastic or satire writing personality, definitely register as a writer for them and jump into the hilarious world of Cracked. This is one of the most popular websites that pay you for writing on our list.

Photodoto

Get Paid To Write on Photodoto - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Articles About Great Photography
How Much Can You Make: Likely Around $50, not listed
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 151.96K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is a really open category, photography. Everyone has tried photography at some point in their life. It’s pretty easy to point and click to great a great image. Either to sell via stock photography, share with your friends or hang up in a gallery. The point is, most people have a photography lesson learned or story to share and Photodoto is the perfect place for topics such as Photography Inspiration, Tips, Gear or post-production. Take a shot at this website to write a guest post, they seem to be very excited to hear about pitch ideas.

The Dollar Stretcher

Get Paid To Write on Dollar Stretcher - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Anything to help people save time and money (stretch your dollar)
How Much Can You Make: $0.10 per word (Most articles 500-700 words)
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 151.96K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Now, this is a site we can get behind, another personal finance website! If you have some great ways to save money/time this is the place but keep in mind, The Dollar Stretcher has been in circulation since January 1998. They have TONS of articles on how to save money so if you’re going to pitch them you need to be creative, inventive and very specific. They ask you don’t pitch them “7 ways to save on groceries“, but rather “7 ways to save money on ground beef”. If you email them your pitch and don’t hear anything, they likely already have similar content and didn’t bother responding. Try pitching again being more creative, everyone does something cool to save money. It’s a great way to get paid to write articles if you’re able to niche down into specific money saving ideas.

Curby

Get Paid To Write on Curbly - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: DIY Home Improvement / Interior Design Projects
How Much Can You Make: Likely Around $50, you set your price.
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 271.60K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Yay I’ve been looking for a good DIY site where I can get paid to write articles. Curby started as one man’s journey doing home improvement projects and grew into a vibrate community of 271 thousand visits a month focusing on cool home improvement and interior design projects inspiring people. Now they’re one of the top websites that pay you for writing about home improvement projects. If you have a home improvement project that all your friends just rave about, consider pitching Curby to see if it’s a good idea for their site and get paid!

Blog Paws

Get Paid To Write on Blog Paws - Websites That Pay You For Writing

What To Write About: Life of a Pet Owner (tips, hacks, pet stories, etc.)
How Much Can You Make: $75 per article
Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): less than 10K monthly visitors
How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Many websites that pay writers are related to web development or travel so it’s great to see sites like this that pay for articles that most people have experience with, like pets. This site focuses on connecting pet owners through their site and social media. More importantly, they help animal shelters and rescues connect with a wide range of pet owners for possible adoption. Blog Paws really tries to capture the reality of life with pets and can use writers that can help others navigate that world. If you’re a pet owner that can’t stop talking about how great it is to be a pet owner, this may be a perfect place to get paid to write articles on our list of websites that pay you for writing in 2018.

Consider Writing For Your Own Blog

How To Start Your Own Blog That Makes Money on Day 1

Writing for others is a quick way to get paid writing and build up your own portfolio. However, you’re working for other people and making THEM money. Consider using our guide to Starting Your Own Blog That Makes Money on Day 1! This is a nice alternative utilizing your writing creativity. Having your own website allows you to display a portfolio of your writing work and earn money for yourself from the awesome content you create!

Get Paid To Write Articles – Our Thoughts

Hope you like our blueprint for starting to get paid to write articles! We absolutely love websites that pay you for writing, helping fellow freelance writers and side-hustlers. While writing this and looking at the criteria these websites are looking for in contributing writers, it’s actually a really easy way to earn extra money. Most of these websites paying between $50 – $150 per article even for beginners, you could write an article every day for a month (30 days) and make $3,000.

Wallet Squirrel

Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!

www.walletsquirrel.com/

How Much Do Uber Drivers Make? Here’s What Drivers Say

April 26, 2018/5 Comments/in Earn Extra Money, Review /by Wallet Squirrel

If you're considering driving for Uber, it's one of the easiest ways to make money. We've considered it here on Wallet Squirrel, but first we wanted to ask around how much do Uber drivers make? As you'll see below, as an Uber driver you can work whenever you feel and make money per ride. However as an Uber driver, you are a freelancer in the eyes of the company and all costs of gas, insurance, accidents, wear & tear and taxes are your burden to pay. So in our examples, we note how much these Uber drivers make and include whether that's before or after expenses. #MakeExtraMoney #Uber #RideShare #Driving If you’re considering driving for Uber, it’s one of the easiest ways to make money. We’ve considered it here on Wallet Squirrel, but first we wanted to ask around how much do Uber drivers make?

As you’ll see below, as an Uber driver you can work whenever you feel and make money per ride. However, you are a freelancer in the eyes of the company and all costs of gas, insurance, accidents, wear & tear and taxes are your burden to pay. So in our examples, we note how much these Uber drivers make and include whether that’s before or after expenses.

Examples of How Much Do Uber Drivers Make

Mr. Money Mustache – $7 per Hour (after gas, insurance & waiting around)

Mr. Money Mustache did a great Uber driver experiment and shared his results after driving people around Boulder, Colorado for a while. He stressed the importance of driving costs and importantly your time. He was surprised with how much waiting around there was waiting for pick up requests, he noted how waiting around doing nothing affected his profit per hour. This profit per hour would be a lot lower if he didn’t receive tips, that is where most of this money came from, not the driving. You should consider this when trying Uber.

RideShareGuy – $15.68 per hour (before gas, expenses, etc.)

Harry who hosts the RideShareGuy, a blog centered around the ride-sharing economy, has been a big advocate of ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft hence the blog “RideShareGuy”. In 2017 he did a survey of 1,150 Uber/Lyft drivers on his website. He asked them a range of questions including how much do Uber drivers make and discovered on average, drivers made $15.68 per hour driving with Uber. If your curious, he found Lyft drivers made $17.50 per hour.

MIT Study – $3.37 per hour (after gas, insurance & waiting around)

MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research did a survey of more than 1,100 Uber and Lyft drivers on how much they were paid by the ride-sharing companies as well as their expenses such as insurance and repairs. This study was heavily criticized by Uber arguing the questions weren’t worded fairly causing MIT to take down the study, but here are the main points. Researchers found that a median driver generates $0.59 per mile of driving but it costs them $0.30 per mile to drive.

Stanford Study – $21.07 per hour (before gas, expenses, etc.)

A Stanford study focused on the gender earnings gap in the gig economy estimated an Uber driver’s gross hourly earnings at $21.07 before expenses. They even dug down into Uber’s payment formula and discovered Uber drivers are paid $1.70 as a base fare PLUS $0.20 per minute PLUS $0.95 per mile. While they estimated a driver’s expenses at $0.32 per mile.

For example a 2 mile &, 15 minutes trip could earn the driver $6.60 and cost the driver $0.64 in expenses. A real total of $5.95 for that ride.

SherpaShare Study – $11.33-$12.95 per hour (before gas, expenses, etc.)

SherpaShare did a 2015 study on Uber and Lyft drivers. They created an awesome graphic (below) and made a few assumptions from the data. In the larger cities where there is more frequent Surge time (fewer drivers & more requests = 30% price increase), drivers made significantly more. However, each city has different averages. Depending on where you live may determine if you should take advantage of being an Uber driver or not.

2015 SherpaShare Study on How much do Uber and Lyft Drivers Earn Per Trip

Source: http://www.sherpashareblog.com/2015/07/what-uber-lyft-drivers-earn-per-trip/

Cities with massive demand like New York had an insane $29.34 per hour for Uber drivers while smaller cities like Nashville had $10.14. If you live somewhere like Fargo, North Dakota, you may have a difficult time making any decent money.

Buzzfeed Study – $10.89 (after gas, insurance & waiting around)

Buzzfeed somehow gained a copy of internal Uber calculations to discover how much do Uber drivers make in three major US markets – Denver Detroit & Houston. It was important to them to include expenses into their calculations and found drivers in these markets earned less than an average $13.5 per hour after expenses.

For example, the average driver in Detroit earns $12.70 per hour or $8.77 per hour after expenses. Uber drivers in Houston earned on average $14.18 per hour or $10.75 per hour after expenses. Denver Uber drivers appeared to earn the most of the three major US markets, Denver Uber drivers earned $16.89 per hour or $13.17 per hour after expenses.

Buzzfeed - How Much Do Uber Drivers Make in Detroit

Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/internal-uber-driver-pay-numbers?utm_term=.wcw78n4QN6#.mpxrRl8dkO

Formula for How Much Do Uber Drivers Make Per Ride

If you’re curious how much you could make, use this formula. The Stanford study above shared their formula for how much do Uber drivers make. Based on this formula, Uber really encourages long trips through heavy expected traffic for drivers to make the most money. The Uber Pay Formula is as follows:

Pay Formula for How Much Do Uber Drivers Make

You may notice that this is considerably lower than any taxi fare you’ve ever received. There’s a reason for that, the Uber Pay formula is heavily advantaged for Uber Riders. Meaning Uber is highly cost competitive with taxi drivers so people choose Uber over traditional taxis, giving Uber drivers more driving opportunities at the cost of more money per ride.

Lastly, the biggest variable in the formula for how much do Uber drivers make is TIPS. Tips are not a constant factor in Uber rides so I didn’t include them in the Uber Pay Formula but they’re the single biggest reason some Uber drivers make more money. Next time you’re riding in an Uber, look around and notice the bottles of water and snacks offered by your Uber driver to entice a bigger tip.

If You’re Considering Uber, Make More Money by:

  • Driving isn’t that lucrative, you’ll honestly make more money using your Uber Referral Code and having your friends to sign up for Uber.
  • Receive tips for being nice and unique. Since your Uber fare won’t make you much money. You may receive tips from your passenger after a pleasant trip for having a bottle of water on hand or playing their favorite song.
  • Use an extremely fuel-efficient vehicle. Uber requests you use a car made in the last 10 years (they inspect it), so ideally a 2009 Toyota Prius was suggested by Mr. Money Mustache as the ideal car for lower insurance and high MPG range.
  • TRY to get longer trips in traffic to make the most money based on this formula ($1.70 base fee + $0.20 per minute +$0.95 per mile). Unfortunately Uber doesn’t tell you the destination until you pick up your passengers so you won’t know the distance or traffic.
  • Go out during “Surge” pricing. You’ll see a 30% increase in fees during these times and Uber will show you where Surge pricing is before you accept the ride.

Conclusion To How Much Do Uber Drivers Make

We’ve found Uber drivers make around average $10 per hour after all their expenses and, in most cases, Lyft will make you a bit more. If you put this in context, this is the same average wage for McDonald’s.

If you’re an Uber Driver please leave in the comments below how much you make per hour, we’d love to hear from you!

It may not be one of the most profitable ways to make money, but there’s a certain freedom and enjoyment knowing you’re the boss and working whenever you choose. Would you consider driving for Uber for this freedom?

Wallet Squirrel

Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!

www.walletsquirrel.com/

The 7 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners

April 23, 2018/3 Comments/in Earn Extra Money /by Wallet Squirrel
New to blogging and do not know where to start with affiliate marketing? That is alright, Andrew and I have tested many affiliate marketing programs. Here are what we think are the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners. #affiliatemarketing #blogging #bloggingtips

When you are just getting started with your blog things can get overwhelming. I do not blame you, we used to be there as well. One question often asked is what are the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners?

Luckily for you, Andrew and I have already tried out several affiliate programs allowing me to compile a simple list to help you get started.

Since you have a lot to do, let’s get started without wasting any more time.

Amazon Associates

Personally, I believe that Amazon Associates is the best affiliate marketing program for beginners right now. Why? Well, you have the enormous power of Amazon behind you.

With over 100 million Prime subscribers, that means A LOT of people are dedicated to shopping on Amazon.

Really, you should not even hesitate about signing up for the Amazon Associates program. It will give tremendous flexibility.

ShareASale

ShareASale is arguably one of the best affiliate marketing programs out there. It is a massive network of over 3,900 merchants. We recently just signed up for ShareASale to have access to the Tailwind affiliate program.

Why is this one of the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners? To simply put it, because the program is so big! With over 3,900 merchants it is easy to find an affiliate program that will work for you.

The negative of this program is there is an approval process. This process only takes a day or two to get signed up. Personally, I was used to programs that allowed you to sign up right away so I was not ready for the wait.

Bluehost

Bluehost is by far the most profitable affiliate program we belong to. There will be months where we will make a couple hundred dollars off of this program.

Last year (March 2017) we moved over to Bluehost for Wallet Squirrel’s hosting services. There have been some ups and downs throughout the year but there affiliate program for beginners has eased the pain.

Why is this program so great for beginners? Well, it is very simple to sign up for. Andrew was able to get everything set up within 10 minutes. Bluehost even has customer service reps that noticed the link provided was not working correctly. They promptly reached out to us to help us get that working properly.

SEMRush

Andrew and I have been using the free version of SEMRush for over a year. Now we are paying customers and absolutely love the power of the product. Even though their service is expensive, I believe it is a great value for what you get. For more information of what you can do, check out Andrew’s review here.

Not only do they have a great product, they also have a great affiliate marketing program for beginners. This is because they give you commission on the sale for each month the person signs up for. So, if they sign up for 12 months, you get 12 months worth of commision. Is that not awesome!?!?

VigLink

There is a reason Andrew and I have been using Viglink for the past four years, it is amazingly simple! We started using it for the first niche website that we created together.

Because VigLink makes affiliate marketing so simple for beginners we were able to start earning money within the first month we implemented it.

Why do we love VigLink? When you are new to affiliate marketing it is tough to catch all of the affiliates. Viglink can scan for links within new articles you write. If it finds that the link points to an affiliate it will automatically make your link an affiliate marketing link. It does not get much simpler than that.

Now, because Viglink is a middleman, they do take their cut of your affiliate earnings. This is why it is best to go directly to the affiliate program a company has set up such as Bluehost or SEMRush. Typically, you will earn more money that way but VigLink is a great place to get started!

Shutterstock

Last month stock photography was our biggest income source! One of the stock photography services we use is Shutterstock. They make life super easy and stock photography is a good way to make some extra money off of your photography.

Since we could, we decided to sign up for their affiliate marketing program as well. This has helped us earn even more money!

Ebates

Ebates is another one of those super easy affiliate marketing programs to sign up for. They will give you a bonus $50 for your first two referrals. After that, it is $5 per referral.

Yeah, you are right, that is not much but it can add up. We know people that are making close to $1,000 a month from this referral program.

Conclusion to the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners

Overall, these are what I feel like, are the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners. They all should give your new blog a great foundation to start earning more money.

What is your favorite affiliate marketing program?

Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start earning!

Wallet Squirrel

Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!

www.walletsquirrel.com/

15 Great Ways to Make Extra Money on the Side

April 9, 2018/4 Comments/in Earn Extra Money /by Adam

Looking to earn more money? Here are 15 great ways to make extra money on the side! What is your favorite idea? #sidehustle #personalfinance #earnmoremoney

This is not one of those typical ways to make extra money article. This article contains side hustles that Andrew and I have either personally tried or we have interviewed someone who has. Like others, this list was not thrown together without thought. We wanted to make sure that you, the reader, actually can make more money.

This list contains real ways to make extra money.

Some of these will earn you more money on the side than others. Some also require more effort than others. But these 15 ways to make extra money on the side will earn you actual money because we filtered out the ones that do not.

Let’s find a side hustle that fits you so you can start making extra money right now!

1. Create an Affiliate Marketing Website

This side hustle for extra income is not an easy task but if done right it has the potential for the highest returns compared to other options on this list. An affiliate marketing website is a site that focuses on particular products by reviewing them or just advertising them. The site points the visitor where to buy the product, the visitor buys the product from that website, then that website pays you a commission for sending them a paying customer.

Still confused? That is alright. Andrew wrote an amazing article with 50 affiliate website examples.

Ready to start your own? Check out this guide on how you should start your very own affiliate marketing website.

2. Start a Blog

Starting a blog is very similar to creating an affiliate marketing website. Instead, you pick a subject that you want to write about, such as finance or gluten-free recipes. Then you start writing and marketing your content.

Typically, you will make money from advertisements, sponsored posts, and affiliate income. Here is the full story on how you can start your own blog today!

3. Monthly Dividends

Andrew loves dividend stocks because he can make extra money from these payouts that companies give him each month. This gives him about an extra $10 to reinvest back into more stocks. This starts a snowball effect earning him more money each month only to reinvest more each month.

We have fellow blogging friends that are making hundreds or even thousands of dollars each month just from monthly dividends.

Interested? I highly recommend you check out what dividends are and dividend investing.

4. Become a Children’s Author and Illustrator

This side hustle is so cool! One of my friends is an illustrator for a greeting card company. She had an amazing idea and decided to write and illustrate her very own children’s book!

Overall, this side hustle takes several years to complete but sounds like an adventure for anyone who is passionate about writing or illustrating. Here is how Leah became a children’s book author and illustrator.

Photo courtesy of Leah Gilbert.

5. Use the Ebates App

You are not going to get rich by using Ebates, but you are certainly going to earn some extra cash. So what is Ebates?

Ebates is a platform that has partnered with thousands of stores. When you make a purchase through the Ebates platform from a store like Amazon, Amazon will pay Ebates a 4% commision. Then Ebates passes part of that commision back to you.

Essentially, Ebates is an affiliate marketing platform that passes some of that affiliate money back to you!

How awesome is that!?!?

Here is Andrew’s review on Ebates.

6. Write Articles

Andrew has had a lot of great success writing articles for Seeking Alpa. This website accepts articles from freelance writers about stocks, bonds, assets classes, ETFs, and investment strategies.

They are understandably very strict about the quality of the articles you write from them but once you start to figure out what they are looking for the writing gets easier. To find websites like this for your niche you should do a Google search or see if any fellow bloggers are doing the same thing.

7. Sell Stock Photography

I love photography. I got into it about 10 years ago on a trip throughout the Pacific Rim. Over the years I have taken about 50,000 photographs and some of them have turned out okay.

With so many photos stored up, I wanted to see if I could earn some money from them. I decided to upload about a dozen and hit the jackpot with my St. Louis Arch photograph.

Over the years this photo has made over $1,000 by just sitting on a few sites.

Here is some more information to help you get started with stock photography. Do not forget to check out our tips as well!

8. Exercising

The Achievement App allows you to earn points for exercising. Once you earn enough points they give you cash.

To be honest, this is the least lucrative venture on this list. You will not earn much money at all. The reason I put the Achievement application on the list is that it is truly passive. You do not have to do anything outside of exercising to earn the points. The application does it all so you might as well sign up!

9. Selling T-Shirt and Swag Designs

Teespring is an awesome website that allows you to put your custom designs on t-shirts and other swag. Then you get to sell everything you put that design on! Teespring takes care of all the order process and shipping once items sell then they send you a check.

Andrew has tried Teespring out a couple of times and has really enjoyed it.

10. Become a Movie Extra

Back in 2010, Andrew had the opportunity arise to be a movie extra in an Adrien Brody movie. This experience paid him $80 for one day worth of work!

Even though he sat around for most of the day, he had a blast being on set. Learn how you can become a movie extra.

11. Selling Your Junk

There are so many different ways you can sell your unwanted stuff now. The most popular is by selling things on Craigslist and eBay.

I was able to help pay our car off quicker by selling about $500 worth of things my wife and I did not need anymore. These items included our second TV, an old camera, and some old computers.

What would you sell on Craigslist or Ebay?

12. Start a Drone Photography Business

A little while ago, one of my old high school teachers was given the opportunity to fly a Phantom 4 drone. He decided at that moment he wanted to earn money on the side by shooting aerial imagery.

Soon after he started up his own business called WHaerial and is now shooting aerial videos from companies around the Cedar Valley area in Iowa. If you are in the area, I would check out his work!

aerial imagery header

Photo courtesy of WHaerial.

13. Rent Your Stuff

Here in Denver, there is a small startup that created a service that allows you to rent out gadgets, cars, tools, and so on to others in your community.

Fluid App is super easy to use and provides a $1 million insurance in case anything goes wrong. Andrew tried the Fluid App out for us. He had some issues with people canceling on him but once he found a reliable person to rent from, he had a great time.

14. Become a Photographer

A good friend of Andrew and mine started her own photography business several years back. It is amazing what she has turned this little business into.

What is even more amazing is she agreed to share with us how she started off in the photography business. With a lot of hard work and perseverance, she has turned this into her career and guess what. So could you!

Photo courtesy of Britney Brown Photography.

15. Domain Flipping

Domain flipping is a fun side hustle. Here you find domains that are for sale then flip those domains for a profit. Some domains have flipped for millions of dollars!

Do not expect to get that from the domain you buy but you could get hundreds or even thousands of dollars! This side hustle will take time for research, patience for the right buyer, and about $20 every year to maintain the domain.

If you have a good idea, I would check it out!

What’s Next?

Do not hesitate, it is time for you to go out and make extra money. Most of the options above are very easy to get started on so you could be making some extra money by this afternoon!

What is your favorite way to make extra money on the side?

Is there nothing on this list that is appealing? That is alright! We have TONS of other ideas located in our Ways We Make Extra Money page. This page has other side hustle ideas we have tried that I did not mention today as well as other ideas Andrew and I have not tried out yet.

appKarma Review – How You Can Earn Extra Money While Playing Games on Your Phone

January 22, 2018/1 Comment/in Earn Extra Money /by Adam

app karma review to see if you can earn extra money or not. Is this side hustle meant for you?

Who does not love to earn extra money while laying on the couch watching Netflix and playing games? I thought the same when I started playing with appKarma.

Spoiler alert: I really did not enjoy this application but this is because of my personality. I really do not enjoy playing games on my phone anymore. I would rather be reading or working on our Pinterest strategy (article to come later this year).

So do not stop reading yet! First, let’s find out if appKarma is meant for you or not.

Who is appKarma?

AppKarma is a rewards application that was created by a small software development firm, Darkfield Software, out of California. Darkfield was co-founded by Andrew Lin and Adebayo Olowoyeye.

To be honest, there is not much more information about who appKarma or Darkfield are. I could not even find information about the data they collect except the data about who you are. As a data guy, they have to be collecting more information than that. If not, they are leaving a lot on the table.

Even though this sounds really sketchy, I do believe they are a legit company.

Andrew, not this Andrew, seems very active with the application. Plus, they have over 1 million downloads in the Google Play Store with a 4.7-star rating.

Even though they are small they do seem like a real company.

What is appKarma?

As mentioned above, appKarma is a rewards application. You will earn reward points for playing around with applications you have installed on appKarma.

Basically, you earn points for playing with applications on your phone. Then you can use those points to purchase gift cards.

Throughout the whole process, you can earn Achievement Badges which will give you bonus earnings each time you complete an app offer. These badges can be earned by reaching particular milestones such as installing 5 apps, watching 25 videos, and so on.

You can also earn more through referrals as well!

If you click on this particular link to sign up, I will earn 30% of what you earn! That is awesome!

YouTubers that generate over 1,000 views a week get to upgrade to VIP. This requires you to promote appKarma through your own video. Then you will earn 50% of what your referrals earn compared to the normal 30% rate. The more views a week you get, the better your referral gets.

Do note, since I get this question a lot on my Achievement App article, AppKarma is available to users worldwide except for Vietnam.

Do I like it?

To be honest, I do, to a certain degree. This app, like many others, is not a way for you to earn extra money to get rich fast. You are going to only earn a small amount of extra money to companies like Amazon.

I would compare this service to Google Opinion Rewards. You can read more about that service and how you can earn very little money in 30 seconds or less here. The big difference is that it only takes seconds to earn rewards on Google Opinion Rewards. On appKarma, it takes awhile, you have to level up pretty high in the games to earn the reward.

Enter that spoiler alert I mentioned in the opening. I do not like playing mobile games that much anymore. I do not know what happened but I find 99% of mobile games super annoying. The “Free, With In-App Purchases” platform really bugs me and has turned me off in recent years.

Because of this, I did not find it enjoyable spending time to earn the rewards. BUT! This should not turn you off from trying appKarma if have not had the fun sucked out of you like me. If you still enjoy mobile games, appKarma is the rewards app for you.

Get Signed Up!

It took no time to get signed up.

All I did was hop into my phones app store to download/install appKarma. From here I just followed the instructions after opening the application for the first time. These were the stereotypical instructions, enter your email, username, and password then confirm your email. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The next step I did was start checking off the beginner rewards such as confirm your email, watch the tutorials, enter the referrer code (mine is amolson819), and so on. Before I knew it I was already at 606 points!

Now, once you earn enough points, you can redeem them to earn extra money in the form of gift cards. You can see the different options by clicking on the little present icon in the top right-hand corner of the application. These cards are from many major companies such as Amazon, PayPal, Starbucks, Steam, and so on!

It takes a lot of points to earn the gift cards though. For Amazon, you can get a $5 card with 5,000 points. With my 606 points, I am 12% of the way there!

Conclusion

Overall, I do think AppKarma is worth it. It is a good way to earn some extra money throughout the year. This is something you can do while watching a show on Netflix or Hulu.

Minus Andrew, he cannot multitask while watching a show to save his life.

Just remember, you are not going to get rich while using this app. You will earn some extra money to save some money on Amazon.

When you use my referrer code, amolson819, you will get 300 bonus Karma points! Be sure to do that if you decide to get signed up.

Is appKarma not for you but you still want to earn more money? Check out our Ways to Earn More Money page. Here Andrew and I personally review as many different ways to earn extra money as we can to help you decide if it is right for you.

How I Started An Amazon Affiliate Website To Start Making Money

January 11, 2018/5 Comments/in Earn Extra Money, Epic Niche Site Battle /by Wallet Squirrel

How I Started an Amazon Affiliate Website to Start Making Money

Recently I’ve committed to building an epic Amazon Affiliate Website in a new competition we’re calling the Epic Niche Site Battle. A contest over a year to see who can build a better niche website. The competition started January 1st, 2018 and this is the entire outline of how I plan to create an awesome Amazon Affiliate Website under $300.

Step 1 – Find a Niche

What do I want my website to do or sell? Do I want to be an entertainment website where people go to be happy and find cool stuff, or do I want to be an authority website where people visit to learn words of wisdom from someone who knows more than them? Or do I want to create another blog that shares silly stories?

There are a lot of choices here, but I wanted to do an entertainment website. I like being fun and frankly if it’s going to be another website to manage. I NEED this to be fun!

Specifically, I chose to niche down to a fun, witty and entertaining website on Holidays. I like holidays because people spend money (or at least expected to spend money) during these times of the year. So I’m going to create an entertainment website based on the traditional things people buy for the holidays. Cool right!

Cost – $0 to think of cool niche ideas.

How To Start A $5K Blog
Free Email Course

A free step by step course with Andrew Kraemer looking at examples of blogs making over $5k, how to set up your own blog and what you need to do to get more traffic. 

Join us to get wonderful blogging tips and access to this amazing course! 

I will guard your email with my life. Check your inbox. =)

Step 2 – Find a Clever Domain Name

This part takes time, give yourself plenty of time, like 3 months to come up with a clever domain name for your website. Usually, you want your website/business name or purpose to be reflected in the domain name. You want this to be memorable, easy to type, shorter is better and capable of building a brand around.

I spent 3 months thinking about a domain name. Yes, the Epic Niche Site Battle started 10 days ago, but I could still think of my website beforehand. To think about my holiday website, I came up with over 237 different domain names, slowly fine-tuning them, and emphasizing keywords that made sense to my brand. Those 237 domain names were just the ones that were available when I researched them on GoDaddy.com, there were hundreds more I tried that were unavailable. I went a little insane finding the right domain name.

This is how I felt…..

Eventually, I find a domain name that I absolutely loved! This is personally important to me because if I don’t like it, I won’t be motivated to work on it every week. If you’re not passionate about something, you WILL quit halfway through when the going gets tough. I don’t plan to quit.

Cost – $12 Domain Name + $12 Domain Privacy
*Always buy domain privacy, otherwise you’ll get calls/emails daily from companies trying to sell your new website different services. It’s like telemarketers on steroids.

Step 3 – Create A Fun Logo

This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I’m a graphic kind of guy and I NEED an awesome logo to rally behind. Honestly, I started to think about how the website logo will look when researching domain names. I wanted to create more than just a name in a silly font, I want to create a whole brand.

Once I had my domain name chosen, I started to research different creative logos on websites like Logopond.com and in Google Search Images. I typed in my keywords and compared what other company logos looked like. I started from there and fine-tuned until I had something that looked different, creative, but familiar.

I had about 5 pages of tiny thumbnail logos sketched out.

I needed and created something that looked professional. I used Adobe Illustrator to create it myself, but you could hire a freelance graphic designer off Upwork.com of Fiverr.com. It just depends how much money you want to spend. I personally hate spending money, so the more I can do myself, the better.

Cost – $0 if you do it yourself, I did.

Step 4 – Claim Your Social Platforms

Right before I create a website, I go through and start claiming all my social media platforms for the new company name. Chances are that if your domain name is unique enough, it should be available. If not, at least a similar enough name should be.

I’m currently going through and claiming a Gmail account for my new company (people trust Gmail), along with a Facebook Page, Pinterest Page, Instagram, and Twitter Profile. I’m doing this now so I at least have all of these claimed in the digital world.

I will use the graphic I created for my logo, as the profile photo for the new social media accounts. =P

You may not need/use all of these in the beginning, but having them for safekeeping is a nice reassurance moving forward.

Cost – $0 for the basic accounts.

Step 5 – Set Up Your Initial Website

I personally use WordPress for all my websites. It’s frankly easy to use, flexible and I like the simplicity. This new website will also be on WordPress. Most websites are.

Setting up a website is easier than you think. I personally use Bluehost (you can use whoever you want) to set up all my websites because they have a 1-click button that sets up a WordPress website for you, if that’s scary, here is a detailed post on how to start a blog written for some friends. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions. We’re happy to help!

Full disclosure, I use Bluehost for all my websites. I’m a big fan. If you want to learn more or use Bluehost, I would LOVE if you used my Bluehost Affiliate Code to check it out. It really means a lot to us!

Cost – $202.32 for 2 years of Bluehost hosting.

*You can absolutely do only 1 year, but there is a better discount the longer you go. I also paid for the Site Backup Pro (in case I accidentally delete something) and SiteLock Security (in case my website gets hacked). Overall $202.32 for two years is pretty awesome! If your website hasn’t made that back in 2 years, we should chat.

Step 6 – Find The Right WordPress Theme

So I went to the same place I buy all my WordPress themes (Themeforest) and searched their hundreds of demo WordPress Themes to find the right one that made sense for my Amazon Affiliate Website. This is the style and look your website will have. I needed a clean looking blog (it’s great for SEO) and I needed a warm looking homepage. I found something flexible and looked professional after a couple hours searching.

I’m a big fan of websites that look professional. If your website looks like it was made by a 5th grader, it will be instantly judged and people will feel uncomfortable. Take the time to give your website a nice look upfront and it will pay dividends for the success of your website. WordPress themes are a great way to give your Amazon Affiliate Website a professional look for a cheap price tag.

All you do with your WordPress Theme is hit “Upload Theme” once you create your WordPress website. It’ll then give you the look and feel of what you saw in the demo theme from Themeforest.

Cost – $60 for a WordPress theme from Themeforest.

Step 7 – Add these WordPress Plugins to Improve your site

There is an infinite number of plugins you can add to your site, but the more you do, the slower your site can run and Google hates slow sites, read Adam’s experience here with decreasing website load times. Here are 6 free plug-ins I add to all of my WordPress Amazon Affiliate Websites to keep them fast, looking good and efficient.

  • Akismet Anti-Spam – Frankly getting spammy comments suck and make your website look crappy. Akismet is one of the most popular plugins to protect your Amazon Affiliate Website from spam. Or turn comments completely off to eliminate spam if you don’t want a comment section.
  • Compress JPEG & PNG Images – This is a plugin we use to automatically reduce the file size of our images. Having smaller file sizes keep your website load times quicker since the web pages don’t have as much to download.
  • Google XML Sitemaps – This helps Google bookmark your website. The plugin does everything automatically. It basically creates a roadmap for Google’s crawl bots to quickly index your site.
  • WP Fastest Cache – Cache plugins help your website load faster and this is one of the best. We’ve tried a couple different cache plugins, but keep coming back to this one.
  • Yoast SEO – One of the most popular free SEO plugins. This will tell you how well your page/post is optimized to be search friendly. I live by this plugin!

Cost – $0 for all of these plugins.

Step 8 – Create Your Initial Pages

I want my website to be easily manageable, so I’m going to initially set up my Amazon Affiliate Website to be pretty simple. I’m having essentially 3 pages.

These pages are:

  • Homepage where I’ll sell products
  • Blog to write engaging SEO posts
  • About Me/Contact Page

I thought about separating the About Me and Contact Page, but they essentially are the same thing, I’ll have a contact form on my About Me page. In my head, the website is more manageable with 3 different pages (plus future blog posts).

I’m currently setting up these 3 pages and loading the homepage with products to sell for the upcoming holiday. Once these 3 pages are done, you’re website is almost done.

Cost – $0, just takes time.

Step 9 – Write AWESOME Blog Posts (4-5 for Launch)

In most cases, your website will be found by SEO or Search Engine Optimization blog posts. You’ll likely market your website in other ways, but most times blogs are found on Google, Bing or Yahoo. Here is Wallet Squirrel’s SEO strategy.

This is where the hard work comes! Every one of my blog posts must follow the 5 rules I discovered during my research on 50 Amazon Affiliate Website Examples Making Money in a Niche. There were the 5 important variables when investigating blog posts on these successful Amazon Affiliate Websites.

  1. Use Specific Keywords – The more specific the keyword is, the better it’ll likely rank in Google
  2. Review Posts are Popular – Before someone buys something, they want to know what others think of it. So if I have an opportunity to review something for a post, people may use my review post to click through to the product they’re thinking of buying.
  3. Content Is King – Most successful blog posts that rank well have between 1,500 – 3,000 words.
  4. Mix High & Low Priced Items – Don’t have a blog post with affiliate links to all high priced or all low priced products. Keep a diversity of price ranges and don’t overwhelm the reader with products to buy. Provide honest reviews and recommendations.
  5. Get People to the Amazon Store as Quick as Possible – The goal of an Amazon Affiliate Website is to get people to the store as quick as possible. Amazon does a great job at convincing people to buy their stuff, let them do the work and collect your affiliate commissions.

Lastly, always do your research and NEVER suggest/promote products you dislike or don’t agree with just for money. People will ALWAYS see through that.

I’m trying to create 4-5 awesome blog posts for my initial launch. Don’t worry about publishing these all at once. This just gives Google more time to crawl these pages and bookmark them for future Google Searches. After that, I’ll create a new post weekly or bi-weekly. Honestly whatever feels better with my time constraints. Either way, quality blog posts are better with Amazon Affiliate Websites.

Cost – $0 unless you pay someone else to write articles for you, but I write all my articles myself.

Step 10 – Launch Your Amazon Affiliate Website & Market It

After I finish my 3 website pages and 4-5 blog posts. I’ll be ready to launch my website!

This involves more than making it visible to the world. You need to get people to the website. Here are some ideas on how to promote your website and increase web traffic.

  • If you have an Email List, email them on the new website!
  • Create a social media campaign on your social media accounts about the launch. Add lots of hashtags if you don’t have a large following. Also, share with your friends and family, they’ll be likely to share because most people want you to succeed.
  • Post to Facebook Groups asking them for feedback on your new website. Maybe they’ll have ideas on how to make it better. You may even get a few new followers.
  • Submit the URL of your new Amazon Affiliate Website to different News Aggregators like StumbleUpon.com.
  • Try syndicating some of your blog posts to syndication sites, especially if they’re good posts. This may help you tap new audiences.
  • Create an infographic and share with different graphics platforms like Slideshare, Flikr, and other bloggers.
  • Reach out to Bloggers and/or News outlets if your new website or blog posts match their content.
  • Reach out to companies you mention in your blog posts.

Cost – $0 You don’t have to spend anything on marketing the website if you don’t want to. Find free ways to promote your website before resorting to paying for a press release or PR companies. Don’t ever try to pay for links to your website, Google may penalize you for this.

Step 11 – Repeat Writing New Blog Posts and Marketing

Remember the old shampoo commercials of rinse and repeat? That’s how Amazon Affiliate Websites work. Your goal is to attract as many visitors as possible, help them, and send them onward to Amazon to buy a product.

The more you write new content and market your website, the more visitors you’ll bring in and the more products you’ll sell.

Total Cost to Start an Amazon Affiliate Website – $274.32

Conclusion

I just laid out my entire Amazon Affiliate Website template for you to copy. If you follow this outline and track my progress, you’ll find some success for your new website.

I’m currently in Step 8, setting up my Amazon Affiliate Website now. It’s going really well! I should be at Step 9 or Step 10 by the end of January, having only spent $274.32 total. That should easily be made back in the next couple of months, I’ll continue to track and post my progress!

Leave me a comment on how your website is doing and I’ll continue to leave updates on how the Epic Niche Site Battle is going!

Wallet Squirrel

Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!

www.walletsquirrel.com/

Happy Holidays from Wallet Squirrel – A Look Back at 2017

December 25, 2017/1 Comment/in Dividend Investing, Earn Extra Money, Personal Finance, SEO /by Adam

Happy Holidays from Wallet Squirrel – A Look Back at 2017

Fun fact. Did you know there are a total of 29 holidays celebrated between Thanksgiving and New Years Eve?

So on that note, we at Wallet Squirrel, would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannuka, or any other holiday you might be celebrating!

Andrew and I personally would like to thank every single one of you for an awesome 2017!

Because of you, in 2017 we saw a tremendous amount of growth of interest in our journey to becoming financial guru’s, investing ninjas, and financially free. You all have decided to join us on this journey as we all learn together from our personal experiences.

Today, I would like to take a look back at our more popular and well-liked posts of 2017. Let the reminiscing commence!

Side Hustling

We, like everyone else, love to find new ways to earn more money and to see how others are making money. This is why we started searching around the globe for new awesome ways to earn more money outside of our 9 to 5 jobs.

How Andrew made $1.88 Selling Stock Photography in 10 Days – Both Andrew and I wrote several articles about stock photography throughout the year. His about how he made $1.88 within 10 Days of being accepted performed the best. I still own the title for making the most money off of one photograph though, $1,000 and counting.

Earn Money While Working Out With the Achievement App – Achievement is a fun application that syncs up with all of your activities, including your tweets. You earn more points the more you walk, workout, sleep, tweet healthy thoughts, and so on. Let the point earning begin!

How to Sell Something on Craigslist and Make Money – Andrew was able to sell some old stuff on Craigslist. He walks us through the whole process from posting his items to meeting up with the buyer. Pretty cool!

I believe he sold his old guitar. Now that he has a girlfriend, I guess he doesn’t need to walk the streets of Denver serenading women anymore.

Investing

3 Reasons Why Monthly Dividends are Better – Andrew talks about why he believes that monthly dividends are better than other dividend stocks. He walks you through why you should think they are awesome too and how to find those stocks that hand out monthly dividends.

Come learn how you can learn extra money on top of the normal gains of investing.

Cost-Benefit Analysis Example to either Pay Off My Car or Invest? – Andrew was not sure if he should pay off his car or invest the extra money he had. Enter the cost-benefit analysis. He walks through his thought process and how to properly perform a cost-benefit analysis. Check out the article to

see what he ended up doing.

Latest Stock Purchases – Andrew informs us throughout the year about the latest stock purchases he makes. This is intended to help inform us all about new stocks that might interest you. This is one example of those articles.

You can look at his entire portfolio in the investments page.

Personal Finance

How to Pay Off Your Car Loan Faster – Paying off our car early freed up $405 a month! This money has been great so we can be more aggressive at paying off our student loans. This article walks through the different ways we were able to apply to pay off $7,000 in only three months.

How and What to Teach Your Kids About Money – A lot of us have young kids. One question I had was, “How should we go about teaching them about money?” So I did some research and this is what I found out.

9 Bad Spending Habits that are Killing Your Budget – We all have bad spending habits that we need to drop ASAP. For me, I had a lot! Luckily, I have a loving and patient wife that has helped me break most of these bad spending habits.

What are your bad spending habits?

Blogging

How to Start a Blog – I could not believe blogging was still so hot! I thought I was caught in an episode of How I Met Your Mother where Barney was only focused on his own blog. Well, the blogging world is still massive and still hot! It is time for you to start your very own blog!

50 Amazon Affiliate Website Examples – The money that can be made off of affiliate marketing is amazing! This article provides 50 examples to get the ideas flowing in your mind.

Are you planning on starting an affiliate niche website in 2018? Andrew is doing one!

An SEO Strategy – What Works and What Does Not – We saw a 1,500% in traffic growth during 2017. This growth mainly comes from our SEO strategy (also our Marketing Strategy). This is the perfect next step after you start your very own blog!

A New Year

I love the end of a year as it is a great time to look back on the goals you succeeded at and failed. This is the time of the year to prepare how you will concur the upcoming year.

For me personally, I do not succeed at every goal on my list. I am alright with that as long as I learn from my mistakes to make the next year the best year yet!

Next week I will dive more into this concept.

 

Cheers!

Adam

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