ThisIsWhyImBroke.com: Case Study of a Successful Amazon Affiliate
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ThisIsWhyImBroke.com features cool products that you can buy online
With over 85,000 Facebook “Likes”, thousands of visitors per day, and a viral component that spreads like wildfire – ThisIsWhyImBroke.com is a terrific example of a successful Amazon affiliate site. Launching in mid-2011, it has grown exponentially over the months since it has launched, and in the process, garnered a lot of traffic and media mentions during that time.
While we don’t have direct access to the traffic, stats, or revenue – the site provides a brilliant example of how to draw thousands of visitors to your website or blog. A quick overview provides insight into what makes a site like this so intriguing for affiliate marketers or those wanting to make money online. It has all the components and pieces that make up a successful, money-making web property: a built-in viral component, a simple & creative idea, a focus on products, and (potentially) little upkeep – all of which could make for a very passive income stream.
An Overview of ThisIsWhyImBroke.com
ThisIsWhyImBroke features unique, bizarre, and one-of-a-kind items from around the web. The products featured on the site range from the inexpensive to the ultra-high-end, aggregated from a variety of online stores and shops. Each product has a photo, a brief description, and a link visitors can click to buy the item. The home page is simple and straightforward, featuring all of the items listed on the site – while there are filters that allow you to refine your results.
The Built-In Viral Marketing Component
Because the site doesn’t offer thousands of products (only hand-picking the best of the unusual), it makes a great site for people to share with their friends (did you know that you can buy a water-powered jet pack?!). The domain name itself (ThisIsWhyImBroke.com) is brandable and easily “likeable” on Facebook – “This is why I’m broke” because I want to buy ALL of the stuff on this site. It’s not often that people would like to buy nearly everything listed on an e-commerce site.
Hand-Picked, “Curated” Content
As cliche as it sounds, this is a prime example of “curated content,” stuff that is hand-picked to represent some of the coolest things that you can buy online. You’re not browsing through thousands of pool tables for something different, you’re presented with a few carefully selected pool tables that are unique and unusual. The site’s unique content and products make it a prime choice for gaining links from blogs, websites, and social networks.
Focused on Products
I find that product-centric sites tend to be some of the easiest to monetize because you’re getting traffic to things people can buy, as opposed to creating content to which you sell ads against. They’re targeting content that encourages visitors to whip out their credit card and buy something.
(Optionally) Passive Upkeep & Minimal Maintenance
One of the most attractive aspects of the site is the potential for it to be relatively hands-off now that it’s up-and-running. Should the owner choose to do so, they could simply post a new product every once in a while and still generate income from the traffic that they have cultivated.
Perfect for Affiliate Marketing
Undoubtedly, ThisIsWhyImBroke.com has integrated Amazon’s Affiliate program with their links. Whenever they create a page/post for a product that can be purchased via Amazon.com, they put up an affiliate link – every time someone clicks on that link and buys a product, they get a commission (not too bad, eh?). The great part is that people want to see more of each product out of curiosity, creating thousands of cookies that will track anything that a person then buys on Amazon.
Wrap-Up
This goes to show you that expanding upon an existing idea and tossing in a little creativity, you can create an extremely popular affiliate site that could provide a great passive income stream for months or years to come. If you have ever wanted to make money with Amazon’s affiliate program – this is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen.
It’s successful because it’s not only a great website with fun gadgets and gear, but it’s got an edge, people want to see what the next thing will be so they sign up, and they want to share the newest cool and weird stuff so they share it, it’s a well thought up website.
I enjoyed reading this review, Jeremia.
We actually didn’t evolve from the shutupandtakemymoney subreddit, the site was started because I thought I could improve upon other similar websites with a better UI and better products featured.
Regarding maintenance, it requires one hour per day of manually checking all of the links. I actually have a script that runs through all the links, but it’s still checked by human verification. The majority of the time however is spent hunting for items on the web, hoping they already have great product photos freely available (if not we do photoshoots ourselves).
Hey Adam, thanks for dropping by and the clarification (I’ve updated the post) – it’s a very cool site you have there, awesome idea, and great execution
I often visit that and its awesome, there is another content discovery magazine i found, its even cooler its called TAQAZA here is the link: http://www.taqaza.com/
Cool that Adam posted o here
Started my own Amazon affiliate site recently and learned its’s a great opportunity for websites to make profit, just started and got some numbers I was really exited about.
I have seen a few other sites that are a lot like thisiswhyimbroke. A few notable ones are http://www.dudeiwantthat.com and http://blowmypaycheck.com/ I always get the best gift ideas from these 3 sites.