This is How One Bizarre Website Makes $20,000/month in Amazon Affiliate Commissions. And It’s Genius

Ever wanted to bank a ridiculous amount of money every month from an Amazon affiliate site?

Yeah, me too.

That's why you should keep reading. Because one weird website is doing precisely that. And it's something you could try to replicate.

The website is ThisIsWhyIAmBroke.com, and it's very different than most affiliate marketing sites you've probably heard of.

The reason I think this is so awesome is because their strategy is unlike anything I've ever heard of before. Normally, the key to successfully monetizing via affiliate marketing is to find amazing products that solve very real problems your audience has.

That's what most people do – and it works.

But this website makes money every single day by giving their audience products that are so outrageous that most of them will never be purchased…

Sounds crazy right? It is. 

And at the same time, they're generating $20,000+ every month from Amazon as an affiliate.

If you're unfamiliar with being an affiliate from Amazon, their commissions are…on the smaller side.

So what are they doing that banks that much money every month??

It's brilliant. This is why I love internet marketing! Because someone is always innovating…

Check it out:

What is This Is Why I'm Broke?

This Is Why I'm Broke (TIWIB) shares unusual items, cool products and geeky gadgets across multiple categories that they find around the web.

Gadgets, wearable items, food & drink, home and office, toys and more.

It was NOT the first affiliate website of this type.

But it was the first that really focused on user experience and engaging the visitor over just listing unusual products and trying to make money.

What Are They Promoting?

Unusual, cool, geeky and sometimes useless products from space invader chairs to camera lenses coffee cups to jet packs to bacon vodka.

It includes products from big retailers such as Amazon and Ebay.

How Do They Make Money?

The site utilizes the Amazon associate affiliate program, Ebay Partner Network and various other affiliate programs such as Think Geek, Firebox, Wicked Lasers, Hammacher and more.

Not all products are affiliate products or even on sale.

Many simply have the wow factor that it takes to get featured.

But for Amazon, Ebay and the other retailers that they have an affiliate relation with any time someone clicks a link on TIWIB and lands on the retailers website an affiliate cookie is set.

Amazon has just a 24hr cookie, meaning your visitor has just 24hrs to buy something for you to get a commission, but other sites have much longer cookie durations.

Why Does The Site Convert So Well?

The site is designed to get affiliate link clicks due to the large enticing images, well positioned buttons and great calls to action that send you off to the retailers websites.

Almost everyone who visits the site will end up on a retailers site whether they planned to or not and this sets the affiliate cookie.

Even if you don't make a purchase immediately the cookie will last for a certain duration and any purchases you make throughout that time will result in an affiliate commission being paid.

And remember the products they feature are so outlandish most will never get bought.

But their business model is simply to get the affiliate cookie set and rake in commissions from the other items people DO go on to buy.

How Many Visitors Per Month?

2,800,000+ per month (Source)

Who Visits The Site?

Primarily men from the United States of college age. (Source)

How Many Social Media Followers?

Facebook: 305,000 followers
Twitter: 5,236 followers
Pinterest: 7,358 followers
G+: 11,388

The above data will change frequently and likely be far more by the time you read this.

6 Things That Makes TIWIB Successful

1. Branding and a Great Name

The name is memorable, quirky and fits in with the concept of the site.

2. Cool Concept

It's not unique nor the first site of it's type.

But they put effort into the design, style and user engagement.

And the quirkiness in the content combined with the unusual products makes it a great site that people want to visit time and time again.

3. Great User Engagement

They engage the user with their humor and wit.

The infinite scroll feature keeps you browsing an endless amount of products.

And they get you interacting with them on social media and in the comments.

It's built with the users in mind and to give them a fun experience.

Not aimed solely at ‘making money' even though it's great at making money.

4. Ease Of Sharing For Viral Traffic

It's designed to get people sharing the products featured which spreads the word.

5. Intelligent Product Placement That Makes You Go ‘Wow'

Most people won't realize this but a lot of thought goes into the product placement and order on the site to keep it fresh.

For example they will place a cute animal toy next to chainsaw gun next to house gift which adds to the shock factor.

6. It's Designed To Convert

The site is designed to entice clicks from visitors even if they don't intend to buy the product.

Instead of ‘buy here' buttons they use clever copy such as ‘check it out' which gets people clicking to see more and landing on the retailers page.

They might not intend to buy anything at that point but the cookie is set and anything they buy throughout the duration of the cookie gets them a commission. 

People use Amazon to buy all sorts of products on a regular basis.

Lessons To Be Learned From This Successful Affiliate Site Example?

• Create something that you love and that other people want or need and can get excited about.

• Don't focus on ‘trying to make money' but on a great user experience, engaging your visitor, making your site a fun / useful place for people to visit. People hate being sold to buy they love to buy.

• Give your users a reason to return time and time again and tell their friends about it and if you've picked a solid idea that is monetizable the money will follow.

• Continually be optimizing your site for clicks. They are split testing and making changes constantly to try and improve conversion rates.

• Create something that has the potential to go viral across the web.

• Don't be afraid to try an out the box business model, TIWIB make their money from featuring products very few people will ever buy!

• There's more to the Amazon affiliate program than just creating basic product review sites and trying to rank in Google.

You can learn more about this amazing case study – as well as find more great info about affiliate marketing – at NicheHacks.