is there a sensible way to do amazon affiliate marketing?

Sensible version: pick a narrow niche you can genuinely review, write comparisons and buying guides that actually help, and have some traffic source sorted before you apply. Amazon closes new accounts that don't make 3 qualifying sales within 180 days, so applying with zero traffic is a waste. Commission rates in most categories are low, so don't build the whole site on Amazon alone. Disclosure on every page is required.