How To Make Money With Amazon Affiliate Program?

 

Amazon Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest, fastest, and the most popular ways to monetize your blog and earn passive income.

And getting started with the Amazon affiliate program, also known as the Amazon Associate program, is super easy.

All you got to do is sign up, receive approval, and start placing Amazon Associates links on your blog/website. That’s it!

If some of your readers click through your links and make purchases, you get the commission up to 10%.

And don’t worry about the products. You’ll find millions of products on Amazon’s website to recommend to your readers.

In this article, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to getting started as an Amazon Affiliate. Also, I’ll explain why it’s a good choice and why it’s not a good choice starting an Amazon Affiliate site.

Let’s get started.

 

What is the Amazon Associates / Amazon Affiliate program?

 

Amazon Associates and Amazon Affiliate Program are the same. Amazon Associates is the name of Amazon’s affiliate marketing program.

This program is easy and free to join. And once you’re approved to join, you can choose from over a million products to recommend on your blog, YouTube channel, Mobile App, or Social Media.

All you need to do is create links. And when your users click on those links and make purchases from Amazon, you earn the commission up to 10% of each sale.

Best part? You earn the commission not only on the sale of products your links refer to but to any other products that the user purchases after clicking through your links.

IMPORTANT! Amazon pays you the commission only when your readers make purchases from Amazon within 24 hours after clicking through your links. You won’t get any commission if they just visit Amazon and buy nothing.

You can check out my article “What is Affiliate Marketing and How it works” to know more about affiliate marketing.

Also, check out:

• Top 9 Affiliate Marketing Programs and Websites (In 2020)

Why is Amazon Associates a good choice for the Affiliate program?

 

Amazon is huge and so is Amazon Associates. And that’s the sole reason why its affiliate marketing program known as Amazon Associates is so popular and has become a great choice for an Affiliate program.

Amazon’s share of US e-commerce is 49% or 5% of all retail spending.

Now more people are spending money online with Amazon than all other top retailers – such as eBay, Apple, Walmart – combined.

Besides it being so huge, there’re also some other reasons why it’s a good choice for an affiliate program. And they’re:

• A trusted Brand: People find it safe and convenient to buy online with Amazon. So when you start with Amazon Associates, you won’t have any difficulty promoting its products as this is the largest and most trusted e-commerce site.
• Easy to set up: First of all, you don’t need to pay any fee to become an Amazon Affiliate. You just apply for the program known as Amazon Associates and that’s it.

You can easily integrate your website or blog with the help of its good tools and widgets.

• It gives you the opportunity to earn high commissions: There’re some high-value products like a camera, furniture, or computer which can earn you decent commissions.
• People make additional purchases on Amazon: And this is the beauty of Amazon Associates. You have a great chance of earning an extra commission.

When people go to Amazon’s website after clicking through your link, they usually end up purchasing additional products. And here’s the chance of earning a commission on every purchase they make.

It doesn’t matter whether they buy your recommended product or not. You get a commission on whatever they buy.

• Festive seasons are boom times: Holidays and festive seasons (especially thanksgiving to Christmas) are very profitable times to promote Amazon’s products and earn some good extra commission.
• Amazon gives many promotional options: Amazon sells almost everything under the Sun. No matter what’s the niche of your blog or website, you’ll definitely find something relevant to promote to your users.
• Amazon knows how to convert: It uses the latest in AI in luring its customers to buy multiple products at a time. For example, people easily end up making additional purchases when they see “Frequently bought together” and “Customers who bought this item also bought” type of recommendations.

 

And why starting an Amazon affiliate site isn’t a good choice?

 

There’s no doubt that Amazon Associates is the most reliable affiliate program and could be the fantastic income stream.

But here’re some reasons why some bloggers and online marketers think that being an Amazon Associate isn’t a good choice:

• Too small commissions: The commission rates of Amazon are much lower ranging from 1% to a maximum of 10%. So your earnings will depend upon the type of products you sell, the price range of items your users purchase, and the level of traffic of your website.
• The cookie duration is only 24 hours: Yeah, you’ll get commission only when your readers make purchases within 24 hours after clicking through your link.

If they take longer in making purchase decisions and buy products after 24 hours, you won’t be getting any commission.

• Most people buy low-priced products: If your reader buys $10 product and the commission rate on that product is 2%, you’ll get only $0.02 in your wallet.
• Sending referral links in emails isn’t allowed: You can’t promote affiliate offers with email marketing. So, to target your email subscribers for affiliate promotion, you need to try other affiliate networks.
• Amazon’s T&Cs are complex and change frequently: You need to carefully read Amazon’s TC’s and also check regularly for changes. If they find you not complying with their rules, they may ban you without showing any mercy.

Just imagine how it will feel when all of a sudden they ban you and you’ve thousands of dollars trapped in your account.

 

So, how to become an Amazon Affiliate?

 

#1. Learn basic HTML: Activating a website on platforms like WordPress, Wix, or Weebly is very easy. But you should also learn Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). So do take out some time to learn how to insert images, create hyperlinks, and format text.

#2. Create a website or blog: Having a website, blog, or YouTube channel is a must to become an Amazon affiliate.

So, pick your niche, register your domain name, buy hosting, install a blogging software (Recommended: WordPress), and create your blog.

When your blog is up and running, start adding some quality content to it.

IMPORTANT! While applying for an Amazon Associates, you’ll have to describe the purpose of your website. For example, the source of traffic and the audience your blog/website will target.

#3. Visit the Amazon Associates Homepage and create your affiliate account: It’s easy to create Amazon Associates account. Just follow these steps –

• Go to affiliate-program.amazon.com and click on the “Join Now For Free” button.

 

• Next, a sign-in page will open. You can log in to your account if you already have an Amazon Associates account, or if not, create a new one.

 

• After signing in, you can start creating your Amazon Associates account. First, there displays an account information screen showing your name, address, and phone number.

 

• After clicking the button “Next”, Website and Mobile App List screen appears. Here you need to enter your website address, Apps, YouTube channel, etc.

 

• Next, you’ve to complete your profile. In this section, they ask you to enter your preferred store ID, Your website list, and your mobile app list. Also, they ask you to provide some basic information such as what your websites or mobile apps are about, the topics that best describe your websites or mobile apps, and the type of products you would like to promote.

Note: The preferred ID is usually your website address.

 

• In the Traffic and Monetization section, Amazon asks you to explain how you drive traffic to your site. It also asks how you utilize your websites and apps to generate income, how you build links, and how many unique visitors you get per month.

 

Now that you’ve entered all the details, your account is set up.

Congratulations!

Finally, you’ve to enter your Payment option (whether Direct deposit, Check, or Gift card) and Tax information. You’ll have the option to enter these details now or leave it for later.

#4. Create Amazon Affiliate Links: Once you’ve created your Amazon affiliate account, you must be thinking about how to create affiliate links so that you start earning money.

But before you start creating links, you must make a list of products related to your blog topics. And for this, do take the help of Amazon’s commission rate chart and go for those products that have higher rates of commission.

 

Amazon has made it so easy for its affiliates to create links to add to their blogs. Here’re the two easy ways you can do this:

• SiteStripe: When you log in to your Amazon affiliate account, the SiteStripe tool shows up at the top left of your screen. You can use this tool to search for products and get links from any product page on the Amazon store.

Once you find the product you want to link to, click the “Get Link” button.

And “Get Link” button gives you three different options for the types of links – Text, Image, and Text + Image.

Just click on the type of link you want to get for your chosen product.

Amazon also gives you the option to get either a full or shortened link.

You can also customize background color, title color, and image size.

If everything looks perfect in the preview, you can copy and paste the link on your website or blog.

• Product Link Tool: Log in to your Amazon Associates account, click on “Product Linking”, then from the toolbar, select “Product Links”.

A search engine screen will display where you can search for a product you want to promote on your site.

You just need to select the category and then type the product name you’re looking for.

You can also search by brand and model name or number.

Once you find the product you want to promote, click “Get Link”. Amazon gives you the link for that product. You can copy the link and paste it on your blog/website.

 

What are the major rules you need to follow as an Amazon Associate?

 

You must comply with Amazon’s Operating Agreement and Program Policies to stay out of trouble. If they find you violating any of their terms of service, they’ll ban your account without showing any mercy.

So, here’re some of the rules you should know before getting started as an Amazon Associate:

• You need to disclose your affiliation with Amazon. They want you to copy and paste the sentence “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases” or any substantially similar statement on your site.

Though it doesn’t need to be on every page, you can put it on the affiliate disclosure page, or in the footer, or in any other location.

• Don’t download images from the Amazon website for use on your site. Using SiteStripe Tool or the Product Linking Tool could a better idea. This way you won’t be violating their terms of service and the images will also link directly to Amazon.
• You can’t use email marketing to promote Amazon affiliate links. But you can promote your own blog posts to your email subscribers containing Amazon affiliate links.
• Don’t use affiliate links in any pop-up ads.
• Since prices change, you can’t copy and paste the prices of products from Amazon’s website. This is because Amazon doesn’t want you to mislead the customers.
• You should always avoid using Amazon’s star ratings and customer reviews.

 

Conclusion

 

Hope this guide on Amazon Affiliate Marketing is helpful.

Quality content is the key to success. Keep providing your audience with quality content so that they get attracted to your blog.

And you’ll agree that building traffic to your website takes time.

So have patience and follow the tips mentioned above.

The most important thing is getting started.

Just choose a profitable niche, make a website, keep adding and improving your content, and add relevant Amazon affiliate links to your blog/website.

Amazon is huge!

You just keep sending your audience to the Amazon’s page and leave the rest on Amazon. Very soon you’ll start making money with the world’s largest online retailer.

Do share your story as an Amazon Affiliate. Feel free to let me know in the comments if you’re having any problem signing up for Amazon Associate Program.