Amazon's Associate Program is one of the largest and most successful online affiliate programs in history. Millions of people around the world use affiliate links on their own blogs, e-commerce stores, and social media accounts every day. You may have heard about it before – but did you know that there’s actually quite a few different ways to earn from this program? If you already sell products through your blog or store, why not make some extra cash by promoting these items as well?
In this article we will cover how to find the right kind of Amazon affiliate program (and what they look like), plus how to sign up as an associate and get started making passive income. Let’s dive into our guide!
The first step in getting started with any affiliate program is finding them. There are literally hundreds of thousands of companies offering various types of affiliateships. Some offer free signups, others require paid membership fees, while still more only accept payments after you've earned enough commissions.
Some of the top online marketers focus solely on building out their affiliate marketing campaigns - which means they don't have time to run ads themselves, so they rely on other marketers to drive traffic to their offers instead. These "affiliates" pay per click advertising services such as AdWords & Bing Ads, and then share part of the revenue generated by each ad clicked on.
Other marketers choose to focus on creating high quality content specifically designed to attract clicks from potential customers searching for related terms on search engines. They work directly with advertisers who want to promote their product or service using articles, videos, and even podcasts. This type of partnership allows creators to monetize their efforts without having to worry too much about driving traffic to their own site.
Here are just a handful of popular affiliate networks you might consider starting off with if you're looking to build a new business:
Shopify
ShareASale
CJ Affiliate
eBay Partners
Rakuten Marketing Solutions
Paid Media Networks
Payment Processing Services
While many of these options allow you to set up an account completely free of charge, many charge monthly subscription fees ranging anywhere between $1-$10 depending on the size of your audience. If you think you could benefit from learning more about affiliate marketing and selling online, here's a quick overview of all the main platforms available:
Once you've decided where you'd like to go next, the second question becomes “which affiliate company should I partner with?” In order to answer this question, let's take a closer look at exactly what makes each option unique.
Affiliate Programs Based On Your Niche Of Interest
You probably won't be able to pick one single platform that meets all your needs perfectly. However, there are several things you'll need to keep in mind when choosing which niche you're going to target. For example, if you plan on selling physical goods, you'll likely want to stick with something like Clickbank, since it specializes in digital downloads. Other programs may cater more towards digital information or software sales.
Your choice also depends heavily on whether you prefer to create original content yourself or simply leverage existing materials. If you're interested in writing, video editing, or podcasting, you'll probably want to turn to the latter approach. That said, if you decide to write articles for other people, you'll obviously want to stay away from anything that requires copyright infringement.
This is because the vast majority of affiliate programs prohibit reselling copyrighted material. Instead, you should opt for affiliate programs that feature non-exclusive licenses. By signing up with these programs, you agree to give full permission to link back to whatever resource you used in order to create your content.
So, when considering which affiliate program fits you best, ask yourself what sort of content you enjoy creating. Then make sure to check the affiliate policies carefully to ensure your chosen company doesn't restrict linking.
When deciding which affiliate program to join, always remember that your decision will ultimately come down to two factors: profitability and support.
It's important to note that no matter what specific business model you chose, you should never ever forget the importance of customer satisfaction. After all, if you're spending hours upon hours working hard to bring in customers, you owe it to them to provide excellent customer support whenever possible.
To help you determine which platform suits your particular situation better, here are three key questions you should ask yourself when evaluating your options:
Do you need assistance managing multiple affiliates?
Are you willing to pay someone else to manage your associates?
Is it easy to reach my customers via email/social media/phone call?
For instance, if you were planning to launch a small online business and wanted to avoid hiring employees, then you would definitely want to choose a platform that lets you operate independently. Otherwise, you would end up paying for someone else to handle everything while you sit back and wait for profits to roll in.
That being said, if you prefer to delegate tasks to another person (like me) then you should absolutely consider Pay Per Click Advertising. It's basically like outsourcing your job or turning your hobby into a side hustle. A lot of PPC professionals spend upwards of 40 hours per week running ads alone, so you can easily see how this would quickly become overwhelming and unproductive.
However, if you aren't comfortable delegating duties yet, then you should seriously consider partnering with an established affiliate management firm. Many agencies specialize in helping independent entrepreneurs grow their businesses using proven tactics and strategies.
They typically charge a flat fee based on the number of clients you hire, and they often include access to tools and resources that you wouldn't otherwise have available to you. But if you feel like it would be easier for you to learn the ropes yourself, then you should try to find a program that gives you complete control over your affiliate relationships.
Finally, the last thing you should really consider is whether the affiliate program supports its merchants. Does it offer tools and training to help its sellers succeed? Are there forums where experts discuss problems and solutions? Do they send regular newsletters containing helpful tips and tricks? When researching an affiliate program, these kinds of details tend to play a major role in determining whether or not you trust the brand.
There isn't just one perfect affiliate network out there - but rather dozens, if not hundreds. So which one should you choose?
Well, that entirely comes down to personal preference. One way to narrow down your choices is to evaluate each individual affiliate program according to four criteria:
Ease of Use
Support Level / Customer Service
Commission Rate
Platform Flexibility
As mentioned above, the most important factor is ease of use. If you prefer to remain hands-off and leave the technical stuff to someone else, then you should select an affiliate network that provides the ability to add products manually. Otherwise, you'll be forced to either deal with complicated web forms or constantly monitor your sales reports.
Next, make sure you choose a platform that has reliable customer service. Even though you may not personally interact with anyone on a daily basis, it's vital that you know that your partners are standing behind you 100% of the time.
After that, you'll want to make sure you maximize your earnings. Not everyone wants to commit to buying expensive software, hosting costs, etc., so make sure you get the highest payout rate you possibly can. And finally, if you're thinking about leaving your current career path altogether, then you should research each network thoroughly to see how flexible it truly is.
Many of the biggest names in affiliate marketing have changed their entire systems within the past year due to massive user complaints. Just imagine how frustrated you'd be if your favorite affiliate program suddenly disappeared overnight…
Overall, the best advice I can give you is to do your homework. Take the time to study each affiliate program closely, figure out which features appeal most to you, and then compare those results against the overall reputation of the company itself. Once you've done that, you'll be able to come to a solid conclusion regarding which affiliate program to join.
Amazon's Associate program has been around since 1998. Since then it has grown in popularity to be among the top 10 of all affiliate networks. With almost 950,000 people now participating in this network, it is easy to see why. This article will show you how to join that group and get started making money by promoting products from Amazon.com.
The first thing you should know about becoming an Amazon affiliate is that you must have your own website before you can sign up as an affiliate. There are a number of reasons behind this rule - but the main reason is that if someone clicks through to your site and purchases something there, they may not return again. It would therefore make more sense for them to purchase directly from Amazon rather than going back to your site to buy something else. You don't want them doing this because the next time they come across your product, they won't remember where they saw it. So having your own website at least gives potential customers a chance to try out what you sell before buying from Amazon themselves.
If you already have a site, you need to take some extra care when choosing which items to promote on your site. As well as being sure these products really meet customer demand (and hence are likely to increase sales), you also need to ensure you aren't selling things that could cause problems down the line. For instance, if you were to go into business selling adult toys, you'd obviously want to avoid anything pornographic!
There are many other requirements to consider before signing up as an Amazon associate. These include ensuring you're familiar with relevant laws governing advertising and marketing activities. A good place to learn about this is the FTC guidelines on "Online Consumer Information".
You'll also need to check whether you can register under any of the following names:
- Clickbank
- Shopify
- Shareasale
- CJ Affiliate
- eBay Partner Network Inc
These are just a few of the hundreds of different companies offering their services to help affiliates market products sold through Amazon. Each company uses slightly different methods, so choose carefully. However, once you've found the right partner, it makes getting paid much easier.
As we mentioned earlier, the biggest advantage of using Amazon itself is that they offer a dedicated affiliate tracking system called 'affiliate manager'. They collect information such as total orders made, average order value per item purchased, etc. This means that even though you might only receive a small percentage of each sale, the amount collected by Amazon is far greater than if you used another method.
In addition, they provide a range of tools to help you build your list and improve your search rankings. One example of this is the "Search Traffic" section of their dashboard. Here you can monitor traffic coming to your site and track its source. By looking at the keywords driving visitors to your site, you can alter the content of your pages to better match those keywords.
However, while this option is great, it isn't always necessary to rely solely on Google. Many users who visit Amazon simply browse by category or type of product, instead of searching specifically for what they're interested in. Therefore, you can also look at creating keyword rich landing pages within Amazon itself. Once you create a page like this, Amazon will display it whenever someone types a particular word into the search box. When they click on it, they land on your page. That way you can give them exactly what they're looking for and hopefully convert them into buyers.
Another important tool provided by Amazon is the ability to set up a shopping cart. This allows anyone visiting your site to add multiple items to their basket, and then checkout via PayPal or credit card. All of this happens automatically, meaning you don't have to worry about handling sensitive data yourself.
What this means for you is that you no longer have to wait until after someone buys your product before sending them payment. Instead, you can send them payment immediately. In fact, you can even automate payments based on certain actions happening elsewhere. For instance, if a user registers for your free eBook, you could allow them to pay instantly for it. Then, every month, you could automatically send them a bill for the same price.
Finally, let's talk about how to actually earn money from Amazon. You will need to sign up as an affiliate and agree terms with Amazon before you begin. In general, this involves paying them either $1 or 5% of each sale. But there are additional fees involved depending on your specific situation. Some of these are detailed below:
- Signing up to Amazon: Free
- Registering your domain name: $12-$25 a year
- Creating your account: $30-$50
- Setting up your affiliate link: Free
Once you've signed up and agreed the appropriate terms, you can put together a blog post detailing everything related to your chosen niche. Don't forget to include a call to action asking readers to visit your Amazon store. Remember, you cannot yet advertise on your own site, so this needs to happen somewhere outside of it.
When writing your blog posts, keep in mind that Amazon provides a wide variety of categories to focus on. The ones listed above are merely suggestions. You can pick whichever ones interest you and write articles relating to them. Be careful however, to stay away from topics that might infringe copyright or otherwise violate Amazon policies.
Once you've written several articles, you should submit them to Amazon along with a description of what you plan to do with them. Amazon will review each submission individually. After that, you can either accept or reject each article.
For best results, you'll probably want to target popular niches. To do that easily, you can use SEO software to analyze existing blogs on similar subjects. From here, you can identify the top 500 sites related to your topic, and then research how they rank for various key phrases. This will tell you roughly how competitive your niche is, helping you decide which areas to concentrate on.
This is not an exhaustive guide to Amazon affiliate marketing, but it should provide enough information to get you started. We recommend reading our full guide to becoming an Amazon affiliate to fully understand the subject.
Amazon's Associate program is well known around the world as being one of the biggest and most popular affiliate networks. The main reason for this success is that it offers many opportunities to earn passive income from selling other people’s merchandise through its own marketplace, or by promoting third-party sellers on your blog or website.
This article will help those who want to join in the fun by providing some tips about how to find Amazon affiliate websites, where to go when looking for them, what makes an effective Amazon affiliate link, and more. We'll also cover how to make money using Amazon affiliates and why they're so valuable.
If you have been thinking about becoming an Amazon affiliate marketer but haven't gotten started yet because you don't know exactly how to begin finding the best ones, then these articles may be just what you need!
Finding the right affiliate site to sell product through is not easy. It takes time, patience, and persistence to learn which are good and which aren't. One way to narrow down the search is to use Google searches like "amazon affiliate" or "affiliate marketing", which are likely to bring up millions of results. There are several ways to sort out the wheat from the chaff, however. Here are five suggestions:
Use keywords related to your niche (e.g., keyword phrases) to look at the top pages ranked in Google. Make sure you select only relevant pages that contain information similar to yours. This will give you a better idea of whether there is demand for your services. You could even try writing content based on the topic you've chosen. A great place to write such content would be HubPages.
Look for links pointing back to the original source. These are usually called "anchor text". They tell you something about the page itself, including its title, URL, and sometimes even its content. When checking out a potential partner site, pay attention to the anchor texts used in their links. Some sites will use generic terms like "click here" while others prefer more specific words like "buy now". Look carefully for these words and avoid getting caught up in other aspects of the site.
Check out the domain name. While the.com version is often considered the gold standard, you should take note of anything else that might be included in the URL, especially if it contains key words that relate to your business. For example, if you were making jewelry, you wouldn't want to promote any site whose domain name was simply "jewelry". Instead, you'd choose something like "makeyourownjewelry.net".
Try adding "-review" to your favorite search term. Most major retailers have review sections on their homepages. Searching for reviews of particular items will show you all sorts of useful data. In addition to reviewing the quality of the item, you can check out customer ratings, the average price range, and much more.
Finally, consider signing up for a free account on each website before committing yourself to a long-term contract or deal. Free accounts generally allow you to test drive a service without having to commit to monthly payments. This gives you the opportunity to see what kind of support they offer, how quickly they respond to e-mails, and whether they provide you with detailed reports.
Once you have found a few potential partners, it is important to remember that you cannot buy traffic. No matter how tempting it seems, no amount of paid advertising will increase your sales volume unless you already have customers. And even then, you will probably lose money doing so. To succeed in affiliate marketing, you must build trust between yourself and your visitors.
There are two basic options available to you when choosing an affiliate link. First, you can create your own. Second, you can purchase someone else's. Let's talk briefly about both types.
Creating your own affiliate link involves three steps:
Write a compelling description of your product. This helps attract readers' interest and encourages them to click on your link. Be honest and accurate -- you won't gain credibility by lying about your products or claiming to offer something different than you actually do. Tell prospective buyers why they should care enough to read further. Include any special features or benefits of your product.
Create a unique landing page for your affiliate link. This means creating a separate HTML file that has nothing to do with your regular web presence. Your new page should include images, video, audio, or whatever other media you think appropriate. Don't forget to add a call to action. Ask your visitor to visit another page, sign up for a newsletter, download a PDF report, etc.
Add your affiliate code to every single page where possible. Use the same HTML code wherever possible, in order to streamline things later on. Once you have created your page, copy the code and paste it into every page you wish to display your link on. Keep in mind that you can always change the design later, if necessary.
When purchasing an existing affiliate link, you have two choices. Either you can buy individual domains or whole packages of multiple URLs. Whichever option you choose, you should keep in mind that buying links is expensive. Even though you're paying less per month rather than per year, you still end up spending thousands of dollars on ads alone. That's why it pays off to shop wisely.
In general, we recommend avoiding expired, banned, or otherwise defunct sites. Also, beware of sites that seem too cheap to be true. Finally, always verify that each URL belongs to the company listed on the site. Many scams exist, and it doesn't cost very much to find them.
An affiliate Web site consists of everything required to generate revenue from advertising. Generally speaking, this includes:
A strong focus on conversion rate optimization. An ideal affiliate network provides excellent tools for tracking user behavior and improving conversions.
Easy setup. Creating an account with many companies can be confusing and tedious.
Reasonable commissions. Payouts vary widely among different platforms.
Many payment methods. Many merchants accept direct deposits or credit cards. Others require checks or PayPal transactions. Each method carries a different fee.
Paid upgrades. Sometimes, users need extra functionality beyond what the default software package offers. In this case, the vendor charges additional fees.
Strong community support. The larger the network, the greater the chances that you will run into knowledgeable folks willing to assist you along the way.
As you can see, affiliate Web sites differ greatly depending upon the platform you decide to work with. But the bottom line is that you should expect to invest some serious effort in learning how to operate within the system. Otherwise, you risk wasting countless hours trying to figure out how to properly set up your account. That said, once you understand how to navigate the process, you'll save yourself endless frustration.
You can find plenty of helpful resources dedicated solely to Amazon affiliate marketing products. Just type "amazon affiliate" into Google and dozens of result pages will pop up. From there, you can either browse the listings or perform targeted searches to find the exact product you seek. After locating the perfect product, click the Add to Cart button to put it on hold until you return to the checkout screen. Then fill out your billing details, confirm your choice, and complete your transaction. As soon as you receive your confirmation email, you can proceed to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
It goes without saying that shopping at Amazon requires little explanation. However, if you are unfamiliar with the concept of affiliate marketing, a brief overview follows below.
To participate in affiliate marketing, you first need to register with a reputable affiliate program. Next, you will submit your URL to the merchant. By clicking on the link above, you will automatically become part of the affiliate program.
After completing this step, you will be able to view the various products available. Click on an item and follow the instructions provided. Depending on the size and scope of your business, you may be asked to input personal information. This information is typically limited to your name and contact number. At times, you may be required to log into your account and approve certain actions.
Next, you will reach a point where you can enter your shipping address, billing information, and payment details. Remember to double-check everything prior to submitting the final order form. Upon completion of your purchase, you will receive an email confirming the transaction.
Congratulations! Now you are officially an Amazon affiliate marketer.
Affiliates are responsible for most of the activity surrounding purchases made on Amazon. According to statistics compiled by the Internet Retailer Group, approximately 20% of all total retail sales come directly from affiliate relationships. Of course, this percentage varies considerably across categories.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.