Unroll Me App Review – The Best 5 Minutes for Your Email’s Inbox
This Unroll Me App Review is going to show you why you should spend 5 minutes every month using this tool to clean up your email inbox. At the end of each month, your inbox will be writing you a thank you letter.
I wonder if it will send the thank you via email or snail mail?
Well, today we will talk about Unroll Me and really just how easy it is to use!
What is the Unroll Me App
To start off this Unroll Me app review, let’s answer a couple of questions as to what the tool does and who the company behind the tool is.
Unroll Me is a free service that allows you to easily (an understatement) unsubscribe from all of those pesky email subscriptions.
After signing in, the algorithm scans your inbox looking for e-commerce emails. Once found, the application lists them out allowing you to decide what to do with the subscription.
Who Is Unroll Me
Slice Technologies is the parent company that owns Unroll Me. They are able to make Unroll Me a free service because they collect data on the e-commerce emails you get. They use this data to, “build an anonymized market research products that analyze and track consumer trends.”
Slice says they strip all of the personal information (name, email, address, or anything else that could identify you) from the data collected. The technology behind Unroll Me is designed to determine if the email is personal or e-commerce. The algorithm completely ignores the personal emails as it searches your inbox.
You can read their blog for more information to see what the data is used for. Some of the research they post is actually pretty fascinating but I am a nerd when it comes to data.
How to Use the Unroll Me App
It literally took me five steps and less than five minutes of my life to unsubscribe from 74 subscriptions. I really could not believe that I was done already!
Choose your email provider and click through the prompts.
The algorithm will run. It searches through your inbox for subscriptions and then spits out a list of them.
Click either ‘Keep in Inbox’, ‘Unsubscribe’, or ‘Add to Rollup’ (I’ll explain that later) for each subscription on the list.
Success!
Was that not super easy? I know! Right?!?!
Oh! I mentioned I would talk about what ‘Add to Rollup’ is. The Rollup is a single email that Unroll Me will send to you at the end of the day. This email will consist of all the content from every email that is a part of the Rollup from that day. I have not personally tried this yet but they say the Rollup email is very digestible and easy to read.
One final tip. If you would like, you can have Unroll Me notify you on a particular schedule to check for more subscriptions that were not in your inbox at the time. I decided to do the monthly reminder.
Why Unsubscribe?
We now live in a world where we are completely submerged by advertisements. The design of these advertisements is to tempt us to spend our hard-earned money on materialistic items.
These ads do not stop with commercials, billboards, or temporarily tattooed to the back of that guy’s head on the bus. Subscription emails also drown us every day with more temptation.
Using the ease of Unroll Me to unsubscribe from these emails trying to derail us from our financial goals allows us to stay focused. This is why you should unsubscribe to these emails.
Also, they are just annoying. Unsubscribing will also help keep your blood pressure down.
Final Take
To wrap up this Unroll Me app review I must say that I really enjoyed my experience with this tool to free me from those spammy email subscriptions.
Look, I understand if you are skeptical because of the data collection. You are entitled to have those feelings!
The algorithm design to strip out my personal information is what sold me to try out the Unroll Me app. I understand if you are still skeptical after hearing that. But hey! As a data guy myself, I do know this technology exists and it is pretty amazing.
Overall, this is a great free service. If you can get over the data collection thing, then I think you will enjoy it just like I did.
There is no bad time to become a blogger. Simply the sooner you start, the larger a blog can grow. In this article, we’re going to show you how to start a money-making blog in under 5 minutes.
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!
I’ve always been fascinated with stock photography as a way to make money. So I decided to try it and share my success as I sold my first stock photo in 10 days as a Shutterstock Contributor.
Honestly, I’ve been wanting to try this for a while since discovering Adam of Team Wallet Squirrel made $1,000 off a single photo (sold multiple times)! A photo he took randomly of the St. Louis Arch while supporting me as I ran the St. Louis Marathon in 2012.
This is my 10-day review as a new Shutterstock Contributor!
What is Stock Photography?
These are digital photos that are sold online, usually for commercial purposes. Sites like Getty Images and Shutterstock are great examples of websites that sell stock photography.
It’s an interesting passive income because all you have to do is upload a photo once, as a digital product, and earn money each someone downloads it! This can occur thousands of times without any additional effort on your part.
Great Stock Photography Example
How I Started and Sold my First Stock Photo in 10 Days
I’m not a professional photographer or a good photographer by any means, but I applied to both Shutterstock and iStockPhoto, two top stock photography websites, on the off chance they’d accept an amateur like me.
Unexpectedly, I was accepted to both.
There are other Stock Photography websites out there, you can apply to. Here is a list of the top 10 I discovered in my research, but I’ll only focus on one (Shutterstock) for this article. I assume they all have some similarities.
In order to start submitting photos, I had to understand what stock photography sites were looking for, and sell best. People aren’t going photos of clouds taken from an airplane window.
In fact, they specifically ask you don’t submit photos of clouds. They have MILLIONS of them.
You need to submit photos that could be used for commercial purposes. Some types of photos that sell best are Portrait Photography, Food Photography, Landscapes (usually with people) and fine art photography (artsy). Above all, nice photos with people sell the best!
This helped to understand what stock photography sites were looking for!
Day 2 – Find the Best Photos I’ve taken
Now to inventory what photos I already have. Having taken thousands of photos for fun, I had to assume some were decent.
So I plugged in my external hard drive carrying every photo I’ve ever taken through college, life, and traveling. That night, I went over 4,000 digital photos.
I sat at my tiny desk with Netflix on in the background as I clicked on my computer’s right arrow button nearly 4,000 times to go over every photo I’ve ever taken in the last 10 years. Most of these were taken with a point and click camera, so the quality wasn’t great, but a few gems were discovered. =)
I pulled all the good photos into a folder. I ended up with 100 great photos.
That’s still too many! I had to limit those 100 great photos down to 60 awesome photos, then down to the 30 all-time best photos I’ve ever taken. Later ranking them 1 to 30.
That was hard, very, very hard.
I had to keep in mind, I can’t control how these photos will be used. A family portrait may be used in a prescription depression magazine ad, so I was cautious and respectful to other people in the photos. Plus I would need photo releases signed (and submitted) with any people in them. I could download these online, but I simply avoided people to make things easier.
I was ready to apply to Shutterstock!
Day 3 – Apply to Shutterstock
Yes, you have to apply, they don’t just take anyone with a phone camera.
So I submitted to Shutterstock & iStockPhoto, but we’re still focusing on Shutterstock. Shutterstock was A LOT faster with the review process, taking around 5 business days. iStockPhoto took around 30 days.
I created a profile (basically username, password and verify email address). Then they requested I upload around 14 of my best photos. They would review these for the application process. Yes, it was a process, they have an official review team that reviews each photo uploaded to make sure it matches their quality.
Luckily I already went through and had my top 30 ranked. I added my top 14.
Finally, on Day 9 I get the “You’re Approved” email. I was honestly a little shocked. I knew the photos I submitted were MY best, but there are MUCH more talented people out there with better photography. I wanted to reply back and say “Really? Are you sure I’m approved?”. However, I kept my mouth shut and moved on.
So I hop into their platform and start familiarizing myself with their dashboard. It looks a little something like this and hasn’t changed in the last couple years.
I spent time filling out the rest of the information and verifying who I am for tax purposes. They are very keen on this, in fact, they ask you to submit a photo of your driver’s license to confirm who you are. That part was a little weird uploading a photo of my driver’s license but figured I’ve gone this far.
Remember every photo you upload, even as a contributor, has to be reviewed by their team first, even after you applied with those same photos. I guess it’s a different review team.
I started by selecting my top 8 photos for consideration to sell on their site. Now more work.
Having a nice photo isn’t enough, you’ll need to add categories to describe each photo, such as “travel, nature, urban, etc.”. Then add around 50 description keywords. These are how people search for your photos when they’re looking for a stock photo to purchase.
This part is crucial!
Once I selected all the keywords and categories for each of my 8 photos, I clicked “Submit” to have their team review my photos with those specific keywords. The idea is you’re not using unrelated keywords, have the necessary photo release forms if you’re including people (yup, upload those too), categorizing the photos correctly, and the photos are high enough quality.
Two of my photos got rejected rather quickly. They at least tell me why.
However, the other 6 photos were approved! These are the best photos I’ve ever taken right here. If you agree, feel free to purchase them, but I have no idea what you’d use them for. I just like them.
Day 10 – Sell Stock Photo, Check!
Someone liked my photo and bought it! I’m not sure who it was, but I made my first sale on Shutterstock for my “dock” photo taken in New Zealand. Maybe it was my mother, she still has my crayon drawings from 1st grade.
Not sure how they found it, just searching for “dock” won’t really find it. The term “dock” is pretty saturated. They must have searched for some of the additional keywords as well.
I can see how other people may use this as a stock image though. It’s very calming. The only thing missing is some kids running off the end, into the water.
So finding the right keywords for your photos makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE. You should be spending 30 min on keyword research for each photo and don’t be afraid to look at your competitor keywords on similar images.
How much did I make?
Lesson Learned – I was most disappointed that I can’t control the pricing. This is entirely controlled by the website. The cheapest they sell photos for are $29 for 2 photos, so we can assume they sell the basic quality photos for $14.50 each.
From my one download, I made $1.88. It’s not great considering Shutterstock is taking 88% and I’m getting 12% of each sale, but it’s what I have to deal with since it’s their marketplace.
We’ll overlook the fact that I only made $1.88 on one photo, or 12% of the price online.
Some people can make a living off it for sure, but as I mentioned our own Adam in his recent article “5 Simple Ways – How to Sell Photos Online” said he made around $1,000 off one photo of the St. Louis Arch. He uploaded it once and has continued to receive checks from it over the last year.
What I Would Do Differently
Now the photos I uploaded weren’t the highest quality (it was just a 2MP point and click camera). In the future, I would invest in a nicer camera. I’ve been thinking about a camera that would be great both for photography, and video recording.
This would allow me to sell stock photography, stock video and start vlogging for additional money. Personally, I’ve been looking at the Canon EOS M50 Mirrorless Video Creator Kit. It has everything I need for all three, all packaged together!
The only addition to my dream setup would be to add some nice, but cheap lighting stands or ring light to make everything pop and look more professional.
Conclusion
I’m continued to be excited about stock photography even though I only received 12% of the total sale.
I suspect the 6 photos I uploaded won’t do great, but they’ll continue to bring in a few bucks without any additional effort on my part. Plus I can add more as a Shutterstock Contributor now.
Now that I know what type of photography sells best, I can shoot some new photos to sell online as another way to make money! Maybe grab a suit and take photos in conference rooms for the highly popular business attire photos. Every photo I take is just another stream of passive income with stock photography!
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!
I write this article after my girlfriend won money with the StepBet app by walking. She’s been using it the last couple of months, so naturally, we had to try it on Wallet Squirrel. Here is my personal experience over the last 6 weeks using StepBet for our StepBet Review.
For the record, I actually won money with the StepBet app, and the money was delivered the next day via PayPal. See how much below.
What is StepBet?
StepBet, owned by WayBetter, is both an Android and Apple app that pays users money for reaching their daily step goals through walking or running. The StepBet app achieves this by offering multiple mini-games or step challenges for users to choose from. At the start of each mini-game, all participants are required to put in their own money ($10-$100) along with a pool of people (I’ve seen up to 1,000 people) and each must reach their individual step goals every day for multiple weeks (average 6 weeks). If you fail to reach your goals, you lose your money. While if you reach your goals, you split the pool of money along with the other winners.
How Does It Work?
Once you download the highly reviewed StepBet App, it will automatically run through a couple of prompts.
Sync A Electronic Pedometer
You WILL need to sync with an actual electronic pedometer. These can be a wearable Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin Device, or your phone’s internal pedometer through Google Fit or S Health. It’s vital to play. For the StepBet Review, I chose to use my phone and since it’s a Samsung, I synced with my default “S Health” app.
Your Step Goals Are Chosen For You Automatically
StepBet will link to the device you’ve chosen and review your past step history to create new step goals for you. There is no easy or hard difficulty, your goals are automatically calculated from your device’s past data. If your electronic pedometer shows you normally walking 20,000 steps a day, your daily goals are going to be around 20,000 steps and vice versa if you’re new to walking. Each “daily goal” is specifically set for you as an individual so you’re not competing with anyone except yourself.
StepBet Membership
I was initially encouraged to sign up for a “Members Only” mini-game but I decided to try a “normal” experience for this StepBet Review.
The StepBet Membership is a monthly $6.99 rate that allows you to play more games, different types of games, multiple games at a time, and has higher payouts since StepBet has reduced fees for these games.
My girlfriend purchases a monthly StepBet membership and enjoys it. So far it’s paid off as she’s been able to earn more money than it costs.
Join A Game
Each mini-game is hosted by real people also participating in the step challenge, so you can set up your own game with friends, open it to the public, or join someone else’s game. Since StepBet is an app based on a community pot payout, the larger the buy-in and more players involved create higher rewards if you win and other people fail.
StepBet has a number of mini-games to choose from, but you will notice quite a few “Members Only” games that StepBet will rank higher and shows noticeable favoritism. However, most mini-games were similar in terms of buy-in ($40 average) and length of weeks (6 weeks).
I Joined A Game For The StepBet Review
For the StepBet Review, I choose a mini-game called “Stepping into Spring w/ DSM”. I don’t know who this person is, but they had a nice description for the StepBet and shared their Instagram “Diary of A Shrinking Mommy“. I loved their story so I joined her StepBet!
Here was the bet
I needed to bet in $40 of my own money
There were 426 players total (player count grows until the week cut off)
The pot was $17,040 to be split by the winners (pot grows until the week cut off)
The game lasted 6-weeks in total.
My individual goals I must reach
Active Days – 7,237 Steps (4 days of the week)
Power Days – 9,537 Steps (2 days of the week)
Free Day – I get one free day a week in case I don’t hit my goal (Thank goodness)
After I selected “Join Game” I was asked for my $40 payment and how I would like to pay. They provided 3 easy payment options “PayPal”, “Venmo”, or “Credit or Debit Card”. I went with Venmo and authorized it.
Stepbet Review – Week 1
Week 1 I learned was a warm-up week. I could walk and attempt all my step goals, but I would not be penalized if I didn’t reach them (Thank goodness, because I did not). It’s a warm-up period for you to acclimate using the app and getting into a routine. This warm-up week was much appreciated!
This is what my StepBet Dashboard looked like in Week 1 of the StepBet Review:
Thoughts:
I’m excited about the additional motivation to exercise, plus the potential to win money. However, I’m a little worried that I started this StepBet during the COVID19 pandemic.
I’m forced to walk in circles isolated in my tiny apartment to reach my goals. Hopefully, my neighbors aren’t making too many judgments through the window.
StepBet Review – Week 2
At the end of week 1, I noticed more people joined this mini-game (814 players) and the pot had grown exponentially to $32,560. It didn’t stop growing until the end of Week 1. At that point, everyone was locked in.
Active Goals and Power Goals took me a second to understand. It’s done automatically so you can hit your Active and Power days any time of the week. You’ll notice in the screenshots I’m all over the place.
Active Goals/Days are the average steps you must complete 4 times a week. These are your minimum goals. In my case, it was 7,237 steps in a day.
Power Goals/Days are your highest goals you must complete at least 2 times a week. In my case, it was 9,537 steps in a day.
Free Day – Basically life happens and sometimes you need 1 day of the week to slack off. I tried to meet my steps every day, but some weeks I forgot to get my steps in and this free day was a lifesaver.
This is what my StepBet Dashboard looked like in Week 2 of the StepBet Review:
StepBet Review – Week 3 – Week 6
Honestly, it was a little tough to constantly remember to meet my step goals, especially since I usually left my pedometer/phone at my desk. I had to consciously remember to have it on me at all times for my steps to be counted towards StepBet. There were nights I had to walk in circles in my apartment because I simply forgot to have my phone on me during the day. I lost a lot of steps simply because my pedometer wasn’t on me.
If I did this again after the StepBet Review, I would get some wearable pedometer so every step I made during the day was recorded and counted towards StepBet. I know Adam has the Garmin Fenix 6, and loves it! I personally have been looking to get a cheaper version after this challenge, the Garmin Forerunner 235. If you’re an Apple fan, just get the Apple Watch since it will integrate with everything in your life. Yet for the cheapest pedometer that will work with StepBet, a regular Fitbit will be perfect!
I Did It! – Here’s How Much Money I Won
I did it! I was so excited I took a screenshot to show all my friends. Many of them could care less, but for me, it was a big victory. It was a testament that I went above and beyond for fitness goals (and money). It was a good feeling!
I was pleasantly surprised at how streamlined the winning process was through StepBet. It took only one day after the end of the mini-game for the app to finalize everyone’s data and send out the final results/winnings. Plus I was allowed to immediately request a payout and deposit my winnings into PayPal (PayPal Only).
I’ll admit I expected a bit more than $2.99 for my total winnings. Especially since I had been calculating the math every week of the StepBet Review as people dropped out. I could see 645 players of 813 original won, and the $32,520 pot was going to be split between all of us winners. I figured each person would get $50.41 or $10.41 in profit. I was wrong because I didn’t calculate fees for StepBet. However, I still won money!
Could You Cheat If You Wanted To?
I absolutely do not encourage cheating, as this was a great community of people bettering themselves through walking and I was just happy to be included. While I did not cheat, nor know anyone who has ever cheated. After my 6-week StepBet Review experiment ended, I did test a few ways people can fool their phone’s pedometer if they had ill intentions.
While these are effective for fooling your pedometer, they do require a bit of effort to pull off continuously day after day, week after week. I personally think StepBet should remove or identify users who use phones over wearable devices since phones seem to be easier to fool steps.
StepBet Review – Is StepBet Worth The Effort?
Yes! If you are used to doing lots of steps every day, I would easily recommend StepBet. It combines exercise and winning real money. You’re not competing against anyone except yourself, so as long as you’re vigilant in meeting your individual step goals, you’ll leave the app with money in your pocket. Plus, if you’re lucky, maybe a few walking friends.
Our winnings, along with all the money we make with these different money experiments are added to our Investment Portfolio. Join our email list below for new experiment ideas and see how we invest our winnings!
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!
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!
This is easily one of the most creative ways to earn extra money if you have the opportunity. I did this in college and will go over everything from how I signed up to be an extra, how it went, and as the headline suggests, how I made $80 a day being a movie extra.
Movie Extras Are The Non-Speaking Background People In Movies
This is not a guide on how to become a movie star, I have no idea how to become the next Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts. I’m strictly focusing on how to become one of the non-speaking people in the background of a movie because all those “normal” people in movies are all paid to be there. These people are called movie extras. Their job is typical to be the “normal” people in the background of movies.
How I Stumbled Into Becoming A Movie Extra
During the fall/summer of 2009, I worked as an intern in a Landscape Architecture firm in Des Moines, Iowa (don’t pronounce the “s”). This was the year Iowa had a number of tax advantages for movie companies and many of those companies made their way from Hollywood to Iowa to shoot big-budget movies.
My design firm was located on the second floor of a build with vacant space on the first floor that a casting company set up temporary shop. It wasn’t a grand Hollywood looking renovation, but rather a modest set up where you could tell they were only in Iowa for the tax reasons. Yet still professional. Don’t think creepy abandoned building.
It was a big deal in my office that this casting company opened up shop, so about 5 of us during lunch went downstairs and checked it out. The casting company was super friendly and asked if we’d want to submit our info for potential projects. We were like giddy schoolgirls thinking this was our chance to become famous, of course, we said yes.
Signing Up To Be A Movie Extra Was Easy
Now since then, I’ve heard people spending hundreds of dollars on headshots and all that. For me, it didn’t cost us anything. It was a quick 15 min process where we filled out some forms that were primarily about our physical descriptions “height, weight, hair color, eye color, etc.”. Afterward, they took a couple photos “headshot/body shot”. Just our regular look/style, no Zoolander Blue Steel or anything.
My First Project (aka Movie)
About a month after we all signed up, I got a call on my cell phone. Mind you, this was a month of hearing nothing, so the call was unexpected. I guess this is the way it goes. You sign up and wait.
The call was brief and happened a while ago, but this was roughly how it went.
Casting Agency: “Hey Andrew, this the Casting Agency (I don’t remember the name), we were going over headshots with the director of a new movie and we liked your look. Would you be available to be an extra, a non-speaking role, on May XX (don’t remember this date)?
Me: “Oh Hey! That’s cool! What movie is it?”
Casting Agency: “It’s called “The Experiment” with Adrien Brody about the Stanford prison experiment. You know about regular people taking on the roles of prisoners and guards for a psychological experiment. We’re shooting a scene at a café, it will be an all-day shoot and we’ll pay you $80 for the day. Are you available?”
Me: In my mind, I’m thinking HOLY MOLY I’m going to be hanging out with Adrien Brody, this is awesome. Yet I played it cool. “Yea I can be there”.
How Being A Movie Extra Actually Goes
It was easy to spot the café where I needed to go. It was an upscale coffee shop in the middle of a nice strip mall in an up and coming part of Des Moines. I recognized it right away because it was surrounded by large trucks lugging movie equipment and barriers that stopped people from going anywhere near the coffee shop. Needless to say, this coffee shop wasn’t getting any actual customers, it was completely rented out and filled with silent movie extras already inside miming fake conversations to look “normal”.
Apparently, a trick with experienced movie extra actors, those who get there extra early to get the best parts closest to the action. I didn’t know this.
After I parked, I walked up to the café but was sent around to the back alley where the cast/crew area was set up. It was there I met about 10 other extras who were eagerly waiting to be told what to do.
Waiting was the keyword because the life of a movie extra is primarily waiting around all day.
The first 4 hours of the day were the crew setting up the café, checking the lighting, and running through the scene without actually filming. As the “additional” movie extras, we waited patiently for someone to tell us what to do and tried to catch glimpses of the café whenever the alley door opened. Some people (who’ve done this before) brought books, but most of us gossiped about what was going and sharing stories of other movies they’ve been in.
As An Extra, I Only Did One Thing All Day
About 5 hours in, the assistant director asked for some people. My hand shot up instantly. I was dying of boredom. I didn’t know what needed to happen but anything was better than sitting.
My job was to walk in the background outside the cafe so there was normal movement outside the window. In a straight line, I had to walk 20 feet. That was my moment of movie glory!
To give you a mental description. The scene was a mental flashback of the main character in this coffee shop. So while you would see the hero in the coffee shop talking, surrounded by “normal” looking movie extras in the coffee shop. There was a view of the window looking outside, probably in the corner of the shot. That was me, I was one of 6 people walking on the sidewalk past the coffee shop to make the outside look “normal”.
I sat 5 hours, to do a 5-second walk outside a coffee shop window in the background of the background of the actual café scene.
After I did my walk, well a couple of times for a couple of takes and after the assistant director told me how to make my walk look casual. I was done and went back to the alley.
The only other activity came at the end of 7 hours when they were packing up to do a night club scene. They asked for volunteers who wanted to join and while I offered (along with everyone else), I was the 7th person when they only needed 6.
That was the end of my acting career. The moral of the story, movie extras need to show up early and act fast to get in the good scenes.
Remember Your Scene May Get Cut, Mine Did
If you ever watch movie commentary, some actors remember doing some of their best work in scenes that never made it into the final movie. Well, I bought the 2010 “The Experiment” movie online, even though you don’t really own the digital movies you buy. I recognized numerous Iowa qualities, but my coffee shop scene never made it into the movie. Yet I still got paid.
They Handed Me A Check for $80 That Day
I remember when they were packing up that day. I asked if they needed anything else. They were super nice, but said no and handed me a check for $80. That was it! However because I showed up and was there if they needed me, I got paid.
If You Want to Try Being A Movie Extra, Here’s What To Do
Many elements of my story are pure luck, but don’t let that deter you from trying. Check websites of professional (non-sketchy) casting agencies in your area. They’re most likely in larger cities. Ask them point-blank that you’re interested in being a movie extra and what you need to do. I’m not sure it’ll be as easy as taking your photo and done, but each casting agency will let you know.
Once you’re in their database, you’ll be on their list for a while and will never know when or if they’ll call. Each new movie may be looking for something different or something you uniquely have. There is no way of knowing.
In fact, I received a call from the same casting company 4 years later having never spoken to them since. They called in 2013 after I started my job in Denver and asked if I could be in LA in a week. I immediately thought about how random it was but kindly responded no. In hindsight, maybe I should have tried it, but either way, it’s a unique way to make money and a fun experience.
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!
Let’s face it, we are in the age of digital media. Companies like Amazon and iTunes have made it so convenient for us to buy movies off their digital marketplace. We no longer need to go to the store to buy a physical DVD or Blu-Ray anymore. We can just buy a movie online and stream it instantly. However, do you actually own the digital movies you buy?
Let’s look at the most popular movie this year. Avengers Endgame is now available to purchase. You have the choice to buy the “digital movie” or a physical DVD/Blu-Ray. In both cases you’re actually buying a personal “license” to watch the movie, the difference is the format.
Yet, as you’ll learn, there’s a big difference between digital movies and the physical movies you’re used to buying.
4 Reasons you don’t really own digital movies you buy on Amazon
1. You can’t access your movie whenever you want
Whenever you want to watch a digital movie, you have two barriers to overcome. First, you need to have internet access on the device you want to watch, or thought ahead and have the movie downloaded to that particular device.
Then you also need to have Amazon’s proprietary software on that device to play the movie. Think app. Once you have those, you just need to pray your movie won’t be interrupted by constant buffering or their servers fail.
2. You can’t sell your movies or let friends borrow them
Ever been to a yard sale? You can usually find some awesome movie titles for sale. For the seller, it’s one of the easy ways to make money and you get an awesome movie to take home. Later, you can make a few dollars back when decided to sell it in the future.
However digital movies are now stopping this practice.
Your digital movie is directly tied to your account. You are not allowed to let friends borrow them or sell your movies once you’re done. Your movie is directly tied to your account. If a friend wants to watch a movie, they have to watch it on your account or buy the movie themselves.
3. Amazon can lose the movie rights or cancel your account at any time, and lose all your movies
If you read the long, lengthy Amazon agreement when you buy movies. They state that you can watch your digital movies as much as you want (subject to the limitations described in the Amazon Instant Video Terms of Use)
Those limitations stated in their agreement include “Amazon will not be liable to you if Purchased Digital Content becomes unavailable for further download or streaming.”. Meaning that Amazon isn’t responsible if the movies you bought suddenly and unexpectantly disappear. Doesn’t it feel like buying a digital movie is more like renting it for a long time until an unknown deadline when Amazon loses the rights? Something that doesn’t happen with an old DVD.
This has actually already happened to people. Consumer Reports found one such individual who purchased the animated film “Puss In Boots” from Amazon for $14.99 later to be told that due to “licensing restrictions, videos can become temporarily unavailable”. A situation where the typical movie lover can feel powerless.
Amazon can also cancel your account at any time with no warning, they’ve done it before. In April 2018 Fortune Magazine found hundreds of Amazon Prime account users had their accounts deactivated by Amazon for no reason.
All of those people’s movies and music which they “bought” were gone. They no longer had access to anything and with no warning. Amazon later said they removed people’s accounts for violating their return policy (returning items is a negative thing now?) and if people were accidentally removed, they were “encouraged” to contact Amazon to clear the matter.
So Amazon removed a bunch of people from their accounts and movies then informed them it was their responsibility to fix it. Ouch.
4. If Amazon goes out of business, you’re screwed
Remember when Myspace was a big deal? Tech companies like Amazon seem so large that they’ll be here forever but the fact is, they won’t. At least not as the same company they are now.
If Amazon does go out of business, everything you ever bought digitally is lost. Movies, Kindle books, the works.
The fact is, everything digital you buy from Amazon, technically remains theirs. When they’re gone, so is everything digital you bought.
Conclusion
Amazon and iTunes make purchasing digital movies incredibly easy, and at times even cheaper than actual Blu-Rays and DVDs. However, by giving up the physicality of a movie you can hold, you lose a certain amount of control of when and how you can watch digital movies.
You can’t sell them, lend them to friends, watch them without internet access (unless pre-downloaded) and you’re constantly at the mercy of Amazon and iTunes hoping they won’t deactivate your account, lose their movie licenses, crash their servers or go out of business.
That may be fine for most people, but it’s important to know digital movies work and how much control you have.
Personally, I always buy physical copies of movies becasue they typically come with a free digital code anyways. It’s the best of both worlds.
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!
While I have recently updated this Robinhood App Review, it still holds true that the Robinhood App has saved me $420 in trading fees in my first 6 months of buying and selling stocks on the stock market.
However, our article is now updated to reflect 5-years later those savings have grown to over $1,631 in trading fees saved!
Since my initial review in 2015, the Robinhood App has grown into a wildly popular stock trading platform and their $0 trading fees have become industry standard. Companies such as Charles Schwab, Fidelity and more have all moved to $0 trading fees simply to compete with the Robinhood App now valued at $8.3 Billion (source). With all these companies reducing their fees, the average customer is the real winner, thank you Robinhood.
Nowadays with every brokerage platform offering free trades, Robinhood still holds a competitive advantage (especially with millennials) due to how simple it is to buy and sell stocks.
That’s what we’re going to look at today!
What is Robinhood?
Robinhood is a mobile app (plus now website interface) that allows anyone to buy and sell stocks on the stock market. Plus recently, users also have the opportunity to buy and sell cryptocurrency.
Robinhood offers $0 trading fees
Initially for this Robinhood App Review, Robinhood’s biggest claim to fame was that it had $0 trading fees. This was a big deal because at the time most brokerage accounts charged $7 – $10 per trade. Meaning if you wanted to buy 1 share of Apple (APPL) or 50 shares of Apple, most traditional brokerage accounts would charge you $7 – $10 in addition to the stock price for the privilege of purchasing that stock. Plus another $7-$10 whenever you sold it.
This obviously sucked because those fees would add up and drastically cut into your profits, especially for younger investors who could only by 1 share of stock at a time.
The Robinhood App wasn’t the first start-up to offer $0 trading fees, but they are one of the most well-known to have done it successfully. So much so, that it became industry standard. If you’re wondering if they don’t offer fees like other brokerages, how do they make money? I’ll explain below in a moment.
Incredibly Easy To Buy/Sell Stocks For Beginners
The target audience for Robinhood is the millennial investor, around the average age of 24 who recognizes the benefit of buying a stock like Amazon (AMZN) but intimidated by the often mysterious process of purchasing a single share of stock.
Robinhood wanted to make the process simple, easy, and fast, so they designed an elegant and intuitive process for buying stock. Simply find the stock ticker you want and hit “buy” and confirm with a swipe.
I have personally used other brokerage accounts in the past and grown headaches for the unnecessarily complex design and clunky software. Those experiences have produced a deserved fondness for the ease of Robinhood. Since then, many of my friends have switched to the app.
It’s worth noting that Robinhood has received some negative press over some individuals who have lost a significant amount of money on Robinhood because they say Robinhood makes it “Too Easy” to buy and sell stocks. While I feel terrible for those individuals, I can not fault Robinhood making such a successfully simple solution for people wishing to invest in their own financial future. We should encourage these simple solutions to complex problems, like the iPhone, Internet, and Indoor Plumbing all making our lives easier.
If you ever want to understand a company, understand the way they make money. Nike and Gap use child labor to make a higher margin. I’m not here to judge, just a shining an example of why you should understand the fundamentals of how profits are made. For our Robinhood App Review, we have to look at the finances.
Robinhood makes money by:
Collecting Interest from the cash you have lying in your brokerage account that isn’t invested. For example, if you have $1,000 in your account and haven’t yet bought any stock. The Robinhood App gains interest off that $1,000 similar to how you would gain interest on a savings account. You won’t ever lose money sitting in your brokerage account, but it’ll simply be there gaining interest for Robinhood, so invest it! This is a pretty common practice for most brokerage accounts.
Robinhood Gold is an additional subscription ($5 monthly fee) that gives you additional research tools, larger instant deposits (typically any deposit up to $1,000 is instant, otherwise you need to wait 3 days) and margin investing. I typically don’t recommend this for beginners and use Yahoo Finance for all my investing research.
Rebates from Market Makers and Trading Venues this means when you buy certain stocks, ETFs (Electronic Traded Funds) and options. Robinhood sometimes recieves a rebate (money back) on the back end if they have a relationship with some of the companies they purchase stocks, ETFs or options from. It’s like getting a rebate on a cell phone, but instead of a discount, Robinhood gets to pocket that money. It doesn’t affect you, but it’s a nice little boost to Robinhood’s profit line.
Stock Loan Income meaning Robinhood Securities earns income from lending stocks purchased on margin to counterparties. This is more for advance users.
Cash Management is the debit/credit card that Robinhood started. It earns fees from your card like a typical bank would see.
All in all, these are a nice way to help Robinhood make a profit without charging you additional money. It’s pretty clever.
Robinhood App Review: My experience
I initially signed up for Robinhood because they have a great deal when you use this Robinhood App Referral Code, you will automatically receive one random share of stock. I am happy to say that our referral code won a free share of Apple (AAPL) now worth over $400. It’s worth signing up for the free money. One of our favorite ways to make money.
Signing up: Pretty simple. I downloaded the Robinhood App from the Google Play store on my android phone (also available for iPhones). You will fill out the same info you would open a bank account. You will have to give your social security number, so be warned, but this is the same info you’d give to any brokerage account. It just feels weird because you’re doing this all over the phone.
Once you register and sign in. You don’t have to use your email and password every time. You can set up a 4 digit pin for security or a fingerprint if you prefer for quick access.
Connect your bank account: Everything is electronic, so you need to connect your bank account. Both traditional brick & mortar banks, as well as virtual banks, will work. I connected both my Wells Fargo account and Ally bank account. Keep in mind, when you sign up, you won’t be able to trade right away. There is usually a 5 business day waiting period once you sign up. This is usually just for Robinhood to verify that your money (a few cents) can be sent to your bank and back.
Is it weird doing everything over an app? There is definitely an adjustment period where you need to get comfortable trading over the app. I’ve never traded over anything before this, but it turned out quite easy. There aren’t many buttons, so for our Robinhood App Review, it was pretty straight forward.
Search for your stock ticker
There is a large buy button, click it
There is a verify screen, where you must swipe up to verify. This removes people who accidentally double-tap from making mistakes.
Done.
Here is a look at what the Robinhood App looks like.
What I Like About the Robinhood App
In the past 5 years, I have done over 233 trades. Most of these are buying a single share of stock at a time because that’s all the money I have to invest.
For me personally, I buy stocks that offer dividends because this matches my dividend investing strategy. I like the idea that I can regularly earn money from a stock without ever selling it by collecting the dividends they produce for stock shareholders. This way I rarely worry about the stock market going up or down because I constantly am collecting dividend payments. Here are all the dividend stocks I own.
Since I did mention earlier it’s easy to buy stocks on Robinhood. Here’s an example.
I can receive a notification that Realty Income (Stock Ticker “O”) has decreased in value over 5% and immediately open the app, hit buy, select the number of shares I want and swipe to confirm. All within 10 seconds I can buy stocks whenever I feel with absolute ease. I’ve done this during work meetings, walking in the park, and eating out with friends.
All investing should be this easy and free to use.
What I Don’t Like About the Robinhood App
The biggest issue with Robinhood is the three business day wait period. If you transfer money to your Robinhood brokerage account on Monday, it won’t be available till Thursday. If you sell a stock, you won’t have that cash available to you till 3 business days. Yes it sucks, but I have more time than money. Easily worth $0, but worth sharing. Just wait till Robinhood Instant is revealed to everyone. UPDATED 9/22/2017 – There is no more wait period for Robinhood Instant. It’s open to everyone, so no more 3 day wait period for your investments. This is awesome!
There is no website to access your stocks whatsoever. That means I can’t connect it to Mint (my money manager). Mint as consistently stated that since Robinhood doesn’t have a website, it can’t connect to the brokerage account. So my true financial worth isn’t provided. This does kind of suck. UPDATED 11/1/2017 – Robinhood now has a website interface so you can check your stocks on your computer. Plus it now integrates with Mint, one of my favorite apps.
There is no in-depth analytics to analyze stock values. It gives the basic info, but I usually use Yahoo Finance to do my research and just use the Robinhood App for pulling the trigger. With so many great analyzing tools on the web, this isn’t the biggest loss. UPDATED 9/29/2016 – Robinhood launched Robinhood Gold with additional research tools however, it cost $5/mo. I still prefer using Yahoo Finance. It’s free and a great tool!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the recent glitch Robinhood had. I once woke to find that Robinhood glitched out and didn’t display my portfolio value. In total shock, I absolutely froze from fear. My balance went from $6,604.54 to $8.14 (which was my available cash). I immediately noticed that I still had all my stock positions, but it simply wasn’t totaling correctly. I knew since it was displaying my available cash instead of the portfolio value, this was a glitch and pulled the wrong info. Customer service was promptly reached and they fixed the issue in a couple of hours. UPDATED 8/11/2020 – This hasn’t happened since.
Notice how all those negative comments have been fixed over time from the original Robinhood App Review?
Robinhood is constantly growing and improving. They still have a start-up mindset by listening to customer’s feedback while being large enough to have an $8.3 billion evaluation. I use this app daily and simply haven’t found a better investing solution.
Would I Recommend the Robinhood App, Yes.
In my experience for this Robinhood App Review, this is simply the best brokerage solution I’ve ever used.
It’s a well-established brokerage, backed by Google Ventures and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash).
That last part is taken from their website.
Back in 2015, I predicted that Robinhood would powerfully impact the market and force other brokerage firms to lower their prices. That absolutely came true and Robinhood continues to take market share from traditional firms because they have an elegant solution to investing, much how Tesla took over the car industry because they had a better user experience (yes you can invest in Tesla).
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!
Teespring Review: Make Money Designing Custom T-Shirts
This is the second time I ever tried Teespring, but my first time writing a Teespring Review. As a designer, this is a fun way to earn extra money by designing fun tee shirts and other gear. You essentially design funny/clever t-shirts and then market them to be sold.
What is Teespring?
Teespring is a legit website where you can design custom tee shirts and other apparel such as hoodies, socks, mugs etc. using their proprietary online design software. Once you create a custom design, you can share a link with your friends who can buy your t-shirt design directly on Teespring. The money, printing and shipping are all handled by Teespring.
The difference between Teespring and other custom t-shirt design places is the shirts aren’t actually made until you have a minimum order.
This way you don’t have to buy a bunch of shirts you’re not sure will sell or not. Thus filling your garage full of crappy shirts. All you do is create the design and TeeSpring handles all the orders, payments and shipping once a minimum amount of shirts are sold. Then you as the designer get a small profit off the orders sold.
Is Teespring Legit?
Absolutely! We’ve personally used Teespring and found numerous positive reviews about the company. They’ve been around for years and built up a solid reputation. Even Forbes mentioned them as a great way to make money by selling well-made t-shirts and other gear.
Yes, Teespring Pays You!
The biggest bonus to Teespring (and why I wanted to write this Teespring Review) is that once you get the minimum amount of orders. You as the designer get a cut of the profits for creating the design!
Teespring handles all the heavy work (collecting money, printing, shipping), but since you are the one that created the shirt design and marketed it, you get a portion of the money made. Of course, Teespring takes their share, but you get yours too.
It’s a unique sidehuslte if you’re a creative type that can create some clever t-shirts and market them.
How Does Teespring work?
Head over to Teespring and hit “Start Designing”. It’ll ask you to create an account with them. It’s just the basic name, email, and password. They don’t ask for any payment information when your first setting up an account or first creating a shirt design.
You’ll then be asked to “Pick Your Canvas”. They have a number of options since they originally started. You can create unique/clever designs on a wide variety of items including:
Canvas Prints
Beach Towels
Phone Cases
Wall Tapestry
Posters (12″x24″) & (24″x36″)
Flags
Indoor Pillows
Socks
Apparel
Stickers
Tote Bags
Mugs
I am going to focus on t-shirts for this Teespring Review since that’s what they’re famous for.
I select apparel. This takes you immediately to their online design software where you can create a completely unique t-shirt design from scratch.
It’s a bit intimidating, I just created a basic word print design (I find inspiration from Amazon’s funny shirts). I obviously didn’t get too crazy, but you have a lot of options for what you can do including uploading your own custom designs.
I was impressed with the variety in Teespring’s online software program, it really was impressive. It’ll work great for beginners if you don’t have your own design software like Adobe Illustrator. This is what their online software looks like.
Once you finish a design, Teespring will let you set the price for how much you want to sell the shirt for. You could set the price for $50 per shirt if you’d like. It may be more than people want to buy a shirt for, but it’s up to you.
You’ll start off with Teespring’s recommended sell price.
In addition to what you set the price at, Teespring will show you how much of a profit you’ll make based on the number of shirts and the selling price. So simple economics, the higher price you set and the more you sell, the more profit you’ll make. In the Teespring Review example below, if 7 shirts are purchased, I would make $70 or $7 per shirt if I sell for $23.99.
After you set the price, you will create a profile on your new shirt design. This is what people will see when they view your shirt on Teespring.
T-Shirt Title
Profile
Custom URL
Take some time with this. Giving your campaign/shirt description a clever description can really help sell shirts to people on the fence.
If you want to check out the t-shirt design I did for this Teespring Review, go to Teespring.com/i-am-a-blogger-teeshirt where you’ll have the option to buy. It’s very basic. I like to set the bar low for you to create your own amazing shirt design!
That’s it. Now anyone can see your shirt and buy it. The biggest thing from here is sending the link to your friends, post on your blog or share with your social network to buy the new shirt.
A popular strategy I’ve seen, create a clever t-shirt idea for a specific niche of people. For instance, the famous “Don’t worry I’m a ______” tagline. To give an example, I’ve seen “Don’t worry I’m a Nurse” and people created specific facebook ads for people who listed their occupation as “Nurse”. I believe it’s been really successful.
Teespring Review Pros
You only have to create the design, Teespring will handle the creating/paying/shipping info on their end. This is a huge space saver from the days you had to store tee shirt inventory in your garage.
You get paid per t-shirt. You can set your own price for your designs and that profit goes to you. So if you LOVE creating tee shirts, you can make quite a bit of money.
Their design software is pretty easy to use.
If you’re organizing shirts for a large group, you can create the shirts on Teespring and have everyone pay on their own via the link you send. Way less chaos.
Teespring Review Cons
Even if you create the best t-shirt design ever, you have to market it completely on your own. Meaning you have to email it to all your friends or create Facebook ads to drive traffic to Teespring’s website for people to buy your t-shirt. You’re basically selling Teespring’s t-shirts for them.
You’re limited on the amount of space you can design on the front/back of the shirt. This makes it easier for Teespring to print onto shirts, but prohibits super creative designs that take up the entire shirt. So no sleeve designs or anything like that.
Teespring Review Conclusions
I like the idea of Teespring. It allows you to quickly create a custom t-shirt design to share with all your friends for them to buy. However, it doesn’t seem to be set up for a permanent side hustle. There are a lot of better/easier ways to earn more money.
Once you create the t-shirt design, it takes A LOT of effort and marketing dollars to get those shirts to sell. So unless you have a particular network of people who are willing to buy a specific t-shirt, I wouldn’t recommend this as a permanent side hustle.
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!
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.
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.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)
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. =)
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)
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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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
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.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.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.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.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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!
Unroll Me App Review – The Best 5 Minutes for Your Email’s Inbox
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