Cutting Through the Noise

Every week, Amazon rolls out new features. Every month, influencers debate the latest tactics in forums and groups. But when you study the accounts generating meaningful revenue—the ones pulling in four figures weekly—an interesting pattern emerges.

They're not doing anything complicated. They've simply internalized two principles that most people overlook.

Principle One: Target Active Demand

This sounds obvious until you realize how many influencers ignore it completely.

A product page without buyers is like a billboard in an empty desert. Your video could be cinematic perfection, but if nobody visits that listing, nobody watches your content.

Signals that indicate genuine demand:

• Monthly purchase volume exceeding 300 units (visible through various research methods)
• Accumulated review counts suggesting sustained interest
• Active "frequently bought together" sections
• Seasonal relevance for time-sensitive categories

Here's where beginners stumble: they create content for products they personally like, assuming others share their enthusiasm. Enthusiasm doesn't pay commissions. Transaction volume does.

Consider this scenario: you spend two hours filming a detailed review for an obscure kitchen gadget. The video is excellent. But the product sells twelve units monthly. Even if your video converted at an impossible 100%, your ceiling is twelve sales—maybe $4 in commissions for two hours of work.

Principle Two: Secure Visible Positioning

Amazon product pages have prime real estate and graveyard real estate. Understanding this geography changes everything.

Near the main product imagery, you'll sometimes see a video carousel. Videos here capture attention naturally as shoppers evaluate purchases. This positioning generates most influencer revenue.

Scroll way down the page—past bullets, past A+ content, past reviews—and you'll find another video section. These "buried" placements rarely convert because shoppers seldom scroll that far.

Identifying favorable positioning:

When browsing a product page, look for the media carousel near the top. A video icon with descriptive text beneath it indicates the product accepts influencer content in premium positions.

Video icons without accompanying text, or pages lacking video sections entirely, mean your content gets relegated to low-visibility zones.

Competitive density matters as well:

Amazon limits premium placements to roughly five influencer videos simultaneously. Products already hosting five creators mean you're competing for fractional exposure. Products with zero or one existing influencer video offer substantially better odds.

These Principles Override Everything Else

Brand partnerships, sample programs, enhanced commission campaigns—none of these fix a fundamentally flawed product selection. They're optimizations, not foundations.

Veteran influencers understood this before most of these features existed. Their early success came from accidentally stumbling onto products with genuine demand and available visibility. The successful ones eventually recognized the pattern.

Practical Application

Before investing time in any product:

• Validate genuine purchase activity using research tools
• Confirm visible positioning opportunities exist
• Assess competitive saturation in premium placements
• Weight these factors above commission percentages

Building content for products meeting both criteria compounds over time. Each addition to your catalog contributes. Each video on a poor product wastes effort that could have gone toward something productive.

The formula is deceptively simple. Execution separates outcomes.