Amazon Affiliate Program: How To Become An Amazon Associate To Boost Income
The Amazon Affiliate program, also called “Amazon Associates,” can be an easy way to monetize your website or blog. Simply sign up, receive immediate approval, and place Amazon affiliate links on your site. When someone makes an Amazon purchase via one of your links, you get the commission it’s that simple.
But how do you get started? Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to becoming an Amazon Affiliate, with screenshots. Whether youre hoping to become an entrepreneur, starting your own business, or just looking for a small business side hustle, I hope you’ll find this guide a helpful place to start.
Why You Should Signup For Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates Program
Amazon Associates possess certain features that make it a pretty essential platform to sign up for all those who are looking to earn through affiliate marketing .
1. Trustworthy Brand
The customers highly trust Amazon and dont hesitate in making a purchase of any product from them. Apart from being trustworthy, Amazon is also convenient that makes it perfectly accessible for people.
2. Easy Startup Process
The startup process for Amazon Affiliate Marketing is easy. To easily integrate your website and blog, Amazon provides you with good software, widgets, linked images and other relevant resources.
3. Earn High Commissions
Earn High Commission
4. Earn Commission on Additional Purchases
The consumer has a tendency to explore a range of products before making the final purchase. Similarly, on online shopping platforms like Amazon, the consumers also look through a lot more products.
Here is your chance of earning an extra commission. Apart from purchasing a product that you recommended, if the consumers purchased additional products through your link, you are entitled to get that extra commission for that.
5. Make optimal use of the Festive Season
The Holiday Season can be a great time to earn extra commission. The engagement and conversion rate increases drastically during the festive season. This can be a very profitable time for you in terms of commission.
How To Make More Money With Amazon Associates
Its possible to make even more affiliate income while promoting your books. One method is to share the sales pages on social media using your affiliate code.
This is tricky because it is against Amazons rules to shorten your affiliate URLs and they may be too long for Twitter, or might be shortened automatically on Facebook.
Fortunately, Amazon provides a way to share your books sales page on Twitter and Facebook while using your affiliate tracking code.
Go to your books sales page while logged into your affiliate account, then use the share tab at the top to post to Twitter or Facebook. Heres a simple tutorial that walks you through the process.
Another way to get an Amazon-approved short link is to search for your book from your Associates home page. See the yellow Get Link button? Click the arrow next to it and choose Shorten URL with amzn.to?
I discovered another creative way to boost your affiliate income in a Kindle publishers forum. One thing Ive done is post product links to the equipment that I or my fictional hero use in the books. Things like knives, optics, tents and such, said one user.
For example, he says he made an 8 percent commission on a rifle scope that costs over $2,000 thats more than $160 from one sale through his affiliate link!
Letting your books characters sell things for you is a neat trick! Unfortunately, the consensus of Kindle forum users is that its against the rules to include affiliate links in Kindle books.
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How To Get Started
First, check if youre eligible to sell in your chosen category. Some products, such as auto parts and watches, require Amazons approval before you can list them. Then determine how much it will cost to get your product in customers hands. That includes everything from materials and labor to packing, labeling and shipping.
You may outsource the shipping, storage and customer service by participating in the Fulfillment by Amazon program. But that will cost you, so weigh the options carefully.
What Is Referral Marketing
Companies use word-of-mouth marketing to generate honest discussions and recommendations about their goods. Getting people to talk about a business, brand, product, or service is the goal. As social creatures, WOMM works because we like to share our experiences with our family, friends, colleagues, and network. One way to stimulate WOMM is through a great referral marketing program.
Referral marketing is a method of promoting products and services through existing customers and users. Companies provide unique links to customers to send to others. Referral programs typically offer discounts and account credits as referral incentives. For instance, Joe sends his referral link to Suzy to save $10 on her first purchase. Referral programs go by different names, including:
- Advocate program
- Rewards program
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What Is The Amazon Affiliate Program
The Amazon Affiliate program, or , is an affiliate marketing program. It’s free for website owners and bloggers to become Amazon Associates. They advertise products from Amazon.com on their sites by creating links. When customers click the links and buy products from Amazon, they earn referral fees.
Successful Referral Program Examples
Lets review the best online referral programs from companies that have shown continuous referral program success. If a company offers their own referral program, it will likely be visible in their website footer menu, and you might receive details about it in the companys email or newsletter.
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You Cant Promote Controversial Products Or Make Fake Claims
While youre allowed to use affiliate links with almost any Amazon product, there are some limitations. For example, you cant promote sexually explicit, obscene, violent, or illegal products. Make sure anything you promote is legitimate before adding the link.
You also may not make misleading, overly promissory, or false claims in your content.
This is particularly important when recommending health and beauty products. Avoid exaggerating benefits and give ample information about side effects and other warnings.
On a relevant note: Dont promote products you dont believe in. While it may be hard to prove you were intentionally misleading, you could end up losing audience members if everyone hates what youre trying to sellparticularly if the downsides are obvious.
Create A Storefront On Your Website
You dont have to only rely on editorial mentions to drive referrals to Amazon. You can actually create a storefront that acts like an online store the only difference is that every link points to Amazon instead of a checkout page on your website.
Storefronts are a great choice because they require minimal upkeep and content writing. Once visitors get to your site, it’ll be simple and easy for them to browse through the products. Another benefit is that the links arent buried within other content.
The one thing youll need to do is check the links on a monthly basis to ensure your storefront drives referrals. Sometimes, product pages move, or products are removed entirely from Amazon. You want to make sure every product is still available on the retailers website.
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Amazon Affiliate Store Cons
- Amazons Commission Payouts Are Low: Amazons commission payout is a paltry 3%. You will need a ton of referral traffic to make meaningful money
- You Will Have Low Visitor Retention: Because you are driving visitors away from your website, this is generally bad for SEO. Customers may also be confused by why your store is sending them to Amazon.
- Your Store Requires Maintenance: Products go in and out of stock all of the time so you have to monitor your listings like a hawk. In addition, items may be discontinued and prices change constantly which requires maintenance.
- Your Payments Are Delayed: You receive your payout 60 days after the affiliated sale is made. During this time, any returns will be deducted from your payout.
Identify The Right Keywords And Use Them Strategically
The baby products industry is a huge market. Its growing rapidly and definitely lucrative, but its also highly competitive. As you can see from the quick search on Keyword Tool, the keywords found in organic baby products niche are also pretty competitive.
The competition level is rather high at 1.00 . Even the long tail keywords have high keyword competition levels. So, how do we tackle this problem? Youll need to find more related keywords.
To do that, scroll up and click on the Related Keywords tab:
There is now a larger list of keywords with more than 4 million search volume! Now, lets scroll down and see what we have:
You now have a wider variety of search terms to use alongside your focus keyword. This part of your keyword research can not only result in a larger pool of high volume keywords but also give you product ideas and content angles.
High volume keywords are great to draw in a lot of clicks, but if you want the traffic to convert, youll also need to rank for long tail keywords. They are usually lower in search volume but people who use long tail keywords have a higher likelihood of having purchase intent.
When looking for keywords for conversion optimization, its a good idea to find keywords that have a bare minimum of 100 monthly search volume but less than 1,000 searches. Long tail keywords are also a lot less competitive than more popular, higher volume focus keywords.
Scroll down to find long tail keywords with at least a search volume of 100:
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Become An Amazon Affiliate
Affiliate marketing is a brilliant way to make some passive income if you have a blog or website that generates a decent volume of traffic.
Become an and earn a commission by putting special affiliate links to various Amazon products on your site.
The idea is to promote products that align with your blog or websites mission. So, if you have a website about how to travel efficiently, you may promote items such as packing cubes, sturdy suitcases or wrinkle-free clothing.
Each time someone who comes through your website clicks on the affiliate link, youll earn some money. You can earn anywhere from 4% to 8.5% of a sale.
Keep in mind that commissions are generally really low, which is why you need a significant amount of traffic to your site.
The more page views you have, the more chances are that the links will get clicks. No traffic means no chance that anyone will see those links to be clicked on.
Amazon offers a progressive earnings structure on the majority of merchandise and the more clicks and purchases you get from your site, the more you can make.
How To Earn Amazon Gift Cards For Grocery Shopping
One of the best ways to earn gift cards is by cashing in on the stuff you already do and grocery shopping checks that box.
Earning money by grocery shopping usually entails connecting an app to your debit or credit card or uploading receipts after making a purchase.
Here are the top companies that will pay you in gift cards for grocery shopping.
1. Ibotta5. Drop App
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Sell Almost Anything On Amazon
Got some products that need pushin? Let Amazon customers take a look.
Listing items on the platform as a third-party seller can help you reach more potential customers were talking more than 206 million unique visitors each month, according to Comscore December 2018 rankings.
Here are a few examples of items you can start selling:
- Those stacks of books collecting dust in your home.
- Private-label products, which are generic products you resell with your own unique packaging and logo.
- Clearance items, eBay deals and Craigslist freebies youve hunted down.
- Collectable toys youve found at second-hand stores and antique shops.
- New clothes youve purchased off clearance racks at Target and other retailers.
Amazon offers a complete list of selling categories. Some categories require approval, so youll have to submit your request to list, then hang tight for about three business days until Amazon gets back to you.
There are fees to sell on Amazon. Amazon sellers can choose between two selling plans:
- With the individual plan, youre charged a 99-cent fee per product sold.
- The professional selling plan costs $39.99 a month, and it offers a few more perks, including the ability to sell in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Youll also have access to more selling categories, including automotive, business, collectible coins, fashion jewelry, luggage or video categories to name a few. If youre operating under the individual plan, you cant sell these products.
Sell Your Designs With Amazon Merch
I heard about this last year when my sister was exploring the Amazon dashboard and somehow stumbled upon it.
Basically, you can submit a t-shirt design for other merchants to purchase. Its a great way to connect designers and people who need them to be made into shirts.
As with many selling caveats, it can be really competitive.
It probably wont make you rich, and its possible you may not even sell any of your designs, but it also doesnt cost anything for you to try, so if youre creative and know how to make cool designs, it might be worth a shot.
Opportunities to sell a design may be closely tied to things that are timely or seasonal remember those political shirts around the elections?
If you have an eye for riding the trends and understanding what might resonate with people, on a shirt, give it a shot.
As with many Amazon selling opportunities, you have to get approved from Amazon before you can upload your designs.
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Choosing Affiliate Products To Promote
People buy just about everything on Amazon. You should be able to find a good selection of related products to promote, whatever your site niche is.
The first thing you can do is check the Best Sellers page. On the left side, you can browse through Departments and pick a product category relevant to your website.
Always go with products closely related to your site niche. You can choose a broad category and niche down to the specific products to target visitors looking for particular items. This way, visitors are much more likely to click through and buy.
For example, Camera & Photo > Accessories > Bags and Cases > Filter Cases.
When it comes to what price point of items to promote, the rule of thumb is to go for middle-priced items. The low-priced items are usually easy to sell, but you receive too low of a commission. On the other hand, high-end products have much higher fees but wont sell as easily.
This means that the best approach is to go for items around the $50 $200 mark. At this price point, your commissions are good, and the items will be easier to sell.
Keep in mind that its important to promote high-quality products. So, keep an eye on the customer reviews and ratings.
Key Amazon Affiliate Rules To Maintain Your Status
Learning how to become an Amazon affiliate and adding links to your site is only part of the puzzle when it comes to growing your relationship with Amazon.
If you want to maintain your status as an Amazon affiliate, its absolutely essential that you follow Amazons rules. Some common affiliate marketing tactics can actually get you banned from Amazon Associates, so you dont want to be in for a bad surprise.
Heres what to pay attention to:
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Amazon Affiliate Store Pros
- There Is Less Upfront Risk: The Amazon Associates program is free to join and you dont have to invest any money on inventory, shipping or payment processing.
- You Dont Have To Do Customer Service: Because Amazon handles all of the customer service, you will never have to deal with customer complaints or any customer correspondence whatsoever.
- You Are Building A Brand: By referring your visitors to quality products, you are effectively building a reputation and an audience that you can later leverage for your own product sales.
- You Can Access A Large Product Portfolio: With Amazon Associates, you can sell millions of products in your store without worrying about inventory or fulfillment.
- You Can Conduct Product Research: The beauty of running an Amazon Associates affiliate store is that you are leveraging Amazon sales data to decide what products to source for yourself and maximize your profits.
- You Get A Cut Of Overall Sales: With Amazon Associates, you will receive a commission on ANYTHING a customer buys within 24 hours which can add up over time.
How To Make Money On Amazon Which Method Should I Choose
If you have the money to invest, selling private label products on Amazon will easily be the fastest way to make life changing money online.
Choosing from the remaining business models will depend on your budget, your talents and the amount of time you are willing to devote to your side hustle.
For example, if you are a writer, then selling your books on Amazon KDP is a no brainer.
If you are a designer, then selling with Merch By Amazon might make more sense.
If you dont have the time or the money to spend on a side hustle at the moment, it might make sense to sign up for Amazon Mechanical Turk to make a couple of extra bucks while watching tv.
Regardless of what you choose, the general rule of thumb is that the more money and time you are willing to invest on your side hustle, the more money you will make.
At the lower end of the revenue scale, Mechanical Turk will net you around $200-300/month on average whereas a private label business can easily net you 7 figures or more.
Figure out what your priorities are and your tolerance for risk and make money on Amazon with the method that makes the most sense based on your personality. Good luck!
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