How To Make Money With Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Amazon Affiliate Marketing is one of the major ways that bloggers and online marketers can monetize their efforts. Amazon started as an innovation in ebook publishing, expanding the opportunities for indie authors. It was started in 1996 as a small online bookshop run from Jeff Bezos’ garage.

Because it had a limited marketing budget, it decided to use its love for books to spread the word. As such, it developed a program that can pay people commission for referring customers to it, instead of spending money up front to advertise. The commission was paid once the customer had purchased, eliminating any upfront marketing costs.

In 1998, which happened to be when the Amazon Associates Program was launched, there weren’t many ways that budding internet entrepreneurs could make easy and affordable money online. So the Amazon affiliate program brought about much-needed change. However, to make a significant income as an Amazon affiliate, you had to sell a lot of books. Amazon’s product range has made it easier to earn income.

Earning an Amazon income requires work, research, and marketing, just like any other home-based money-making plan.

What Is The Amazon Associates Program?

Amazon Associates, just like any other kind of affiliate marketing, is basically a referral program. They pay a commission for websites that refer to them. You get a portion of any sale that a customer makes by referring them to Amazon through a link on their website.

The type of product a customer buys will affect the commission. The chart below shows the Amazon standard program fee rates for different product categories.

Keep in mind that your commission is not just based on the percentage of sales you make. Your conversion rate is also important because it reflects how many people clicked on your affiliate links and made purchases after visiting your website.

The percentage of your website visitors who purchase through your affiliate link is your conversion rate. This is the proportion of your site visitors that make a purchase. If your website received 5,000 visitors in August and 10 of them made a purchase using your affiliate link, then that would give you a conversion rate of 0.2%.

Average affiliate conversion rates range from 0.5 percent to 1%. Some affiliates have higher conversion rates.

Because you will get a certain percentage of all products purchased by customers from Amazon within 24 hours after arriving at Amazon from your affiliate link, there is also a chance to get more income or commission from products that you have not specifically promoted.

It’s possible to earn a portion of any sale if a customer visits Amazon via one of your affiliate links. If the order is placed within the 24-hour period, and the item is added to the customer’s shopping cart before the shopping cart expires (which is usually 90 days), you will receive the referral fee.

Benefits or Advantages Of Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Here are some of the many great reasons to start Amazon affiliate marketing.

• Amazon is a well-known, highly visited name that people trust and use every day.
• It is free to join.
• You do not need to meet any traffic thresholds or other criteria to participate in this program.
• There are many products that can be promoted.
• Amazon offers many tools that can help you sell specific items or a particular category of items.
• There is a good reporting system available, so you can view the factors that drive clicks and the factors that drive sales.
• Direct deposit payments can be made into your bank account.
• Amazon provides excellent customer service, so your customers will not be mad at you if there is a problem with their product.
• Even if your visitors did not purchase the product you promoted, but they make a purchase during the visit, you will receive a commission.

Cons or Disadvantages of Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Amazon’s affiliate program is not an entirely perfect program. There are some downsides to the Amazon affiliate program.

• It is 1% to 10%, depending on the item, which is a relatively low commission rate compared to other affiliate programs. It offers flat-rate for the bounty programs, such as $15 for business account sign-ups, $3 for Prime referrals, and $5 for Audible referrals.
• They only last for 24 hours. This means that if you refer a friend and they don’t purchase within 24 hours, your credit will be void. The cookie will last for 89 days if they add the product to their cart.
• Emails containing Amazon affiliate links are not permitted. This includes blog posts sent via email. This rule is especially disappointing since email is a great way to send amazing offers to your readers.
• If you are an American site owner and you promote products on Amazon U.S., you won’t be credited for referring anyone who buys the product from another country. Amazon UK).
• Only direct deposit, check or Amazon gift cards are available payment options.

How To Promote Your Amazon Affiliate Link

These are some of the many ways that you can promote Amazon links.

#1.  Blogging

Blogging is the most popular and preferred way for Amazon Associates affiliates to make money. Bloggers may have one site that covers a broad topic and can use many affiliate programs or other monetization options. Others have a niche website that focuses on a specific product. You can make money by selling Amazon Associates products on your blog.

1. Write content for your website or blog about buying or picking a product on Amazon. People are now more likely to go online to find out about their options. You can write an article about picking the best vacuum for your family if you are a mom blogger. If you are a food blogger you can also link to cooking equipment. An internet photography site can be linked to cameras or other equipment.
2. Reviewing new products. People want to learn about products before investing in them. This is especially true if the item is new or there’s not much information. So blogging about new and not well-known products within your industry or niche is a great way to do Amazon affiliate marketing via blogging.
3. Write about the best-sellers. You can either use Amazon’s best-sellers or check your statistics to see which products have sold the most in your community. By writing about products that have already been proven to sell well, you can increase your chances of higher conversions.
4. Promotion of special offers on the blog. If you have a daily coupon deals blog, You should keep an eye on Amazon for special offers on products that are relevant to your site’s topic.

#2.   Social Media

Social media can be used to share the blog articles or posts you wrote that promote an affiliate product, or you can share them directly.

While Amazon allows you to share your Amazon affiliate product links directly on social media, be careful not to overdo it as people don’t really like it when all you do is sell them a product.

To be transparent with your followers, you need to indicate that the link you are sharing is an affiliate link.

#3.  YouTube Videos

Video content can be as varied as a blog. The advantage of video for promoting Amazon affiliate products is that you can give tutorials, tours, and other visual content that can better help potential buyers decide whether to buy the product or not. This can help increase your Amazon affiliate earnings.

#4.  Answer questions on Quora

The best way to drive traffic to your blog is to use Quora. Quora is used by thousands of people every day to ask questions.

You will need to search for questions related to your niche, answer them and then link to your blog.

Answer as many questions on Quora as possible. Before you know it, your website will be generating traffic and Google will rank you equally.

#5. Get Backlinks

Backlink building is a huge topic and for good reason, since it has a major impact on the position your website ranks on search engines.

Your site will be more authoritative the more backlinks you get. Google will recognize authoritative sites over those with fewer backlinks.

#6. Collect Emails And Send Your Subscribers to Pages With Amazon Affiliate Links

Find a way to get your site visitors’ email addresses and send them an email newsletter whenever you publish new content.

You can use Mailchimp to get started. To get started, you can take a 30-day free trial. They are great and I use them as well.

#7.  Sponsored Ads

Although this is the quickest way, it will cost you some money. To drive traffic to your website, you can run a Facebook Ad.

You have many options.

• Pop up ads
• Native ads
• LinkedIn ads
• Pinterest ads
• Twitter ads
• Instagram ads
• Snapchat ads

For more information on how to drive traffic to your website, read our full article on digital marketing.

How To Become an Amazon Affiliate

It’s easy and free to get started with Amazon Associates. Here’s how it works:

1. Sign Up. Register by visiting the Amazon affiliate program login page and fill out the forms.
2. Be sure you read their policy. For example, posting Amazon affiliate links in emails violates Amazon Associates’ policy.
3. Decide on the product you wish to promote. Amazon lets you search using keywords, ISBNs (for ebooks), and product numbers.
4. How you will promote the products that you have chosen? Amazon offers a variety of ad scripts for your blog or website.
5. Increase traffic. A steady, large stream of targeted traffic is the best way to increase your affiliate income. You can get people to your website or blog in many ways that are easy and inexpensive.
6. Your website topic should be reflected in product recommendations. Blogs about digital cameras should not include a link to men’s clothing unless the camera is being recommended to designers that want to learn how to take a good shot of their designs to populate their digital portfolio.
7. Take care when choosing products. You shouldn’t sell something you don’t want or wouldn’t purchase just to make money. This will backfire on your website visitors and result in you losing credibility. Referring to others is more likely to get them to purchase your product. You can read reviews to find out what others’ experiences with the product if you haven’t had to use it.
8. Your content should contain multiple links and photos. Ads can blind web readers. More people will click on links or photos in an informative article.
9. Bloggers should disclose that the link is affiliate link per FTC blog disclosure guidelines. It’s legal to do affiliate marketing in the USA, but it’s important to maintain your readers’ faith in you by having an FTC blog disclosure.

Tips to Maximize Sales and Your Amazon Affiliate Commission

These are some additional tips to increase your affiliate income.

1. Promote or discuss related products. You’ll be asked if you would like fries when you order a hamburger. You can promote accessories and other products that enhance many items.
2. See what items other referrals have purchased. Amazon Associates is a great program that pays you for items your referrals buy, regardless of whether they purchase the item you referred. Amazon stats will show you which items your referrals purchased. If the item isn’t already promoted.
3. Keep an eye on your analytics. To see what is selling, what gets clicked on your site, and other data that will help you understand your market and what they want and will pay for.

Amazon affiliate marketing is a great way to make a living at home. Even though it takes more than just creating a blog or website and adding a few affiliate links. It requires understanding a market’s needs, providing resources and information to help them find their solutions, and driving targeted traffic to your affiliate site.