If you're looking at adding an Amazon affiliate link to your site or blog, then it's important that you have this question answered before you start trying to figure out any other details! The answer to "How do I make money with Amazon?" has changed quite dramatically over time - in fact, it hasn't been very clear what the correct path even was for most people who were just starting out.
In recent years, however, there have been some changes in the way things work with Amazon affiliates (also known as "affiliates"). These include the introduction of several different programs within the Amazon network, and changing terms like "Amazon associates" to more accurate descriptions such as "Amazon Associates". There's certainly a lot going on here, so let's take a look at each of them below.
First off, you'll need a few pieces of information in order to set up your own store on Amazon. You will need to register with Amazon through either their marketplace (in case you want to sell physical goods) or their shopping cart platform (if you only plan to offer digital items). This registration process should be fairly straightforward; simply follow the instructions provided by Amazon when registering, and log into your new account via the link they provide.
Once logged in, you'll see something similar to this:
This screen gives you a list of all the various options available to you while selling on the Amazon marketplace. If you click on one of those tabs, you'll find yourself taken directly to the appropriate section of the Amazon webstore where you can begin creating products for sale. Here's what your new page looks like once you've selected a category:
As you can see above, you can select between different types of products offered by Amazon. For example, you might choose to create an eBook, a T-shirt design, or perhaps a Kindle book. Once you've made your selection, you can proceed to set up your listing under the relevant tab. As mentioned earlier, each type of item provides its own unique interface:
The first thing you'll notice after selecting a particular option is the pricing table. When choosing a specific price range, you'll notice a small price box pop up near the top left corner of the window. Clicking on this button allows you to enter a dollar amount anywhere from $0 to whatever is currently displayed in the field.
Next, you'll probably want to give your product a name. A good idea would be to use something short, descriptive, and easy to remember. It may seem obvious now, but bear in mind that this is likely to end up appearing next to every single product sold by your business on Amazon, so keep it simple. Also, don't forget to check the spelling of the title; many mistakes aren't caught until later on during review processes. Finally, after entering your title, you'll see a dropdown menu appear offering you additional fields to fill out. You'll definitely want to spend some time filling these out carefully, because they define much of the overall appeal of your product online. They affect everything from customer reviews and search rankings to whether or not customers actually buy your stuff.
Here are a couple examples of common fields found across nearly all products:
Title: Your Product Name
Description: Briefly describe your product here. Make sure to include keywords and phrases related to your niche market. Try to avoid generic words like 'product' since these won't help anyone learn anything about your product. Instead, try to think of words that both potential buyers and searchers could use to identify your product and get you ranked higher in searches.
Keywords: Related Words Used To Describe Your Product
Category: Select the right subcategory based on the main categories listed in the previous step. Don't worry too much about accuracy here; Amazon doesn't really care if you pick the wrong category. However, if you happen to accidentally put your product in the wrong subcategory, you may run into problems down the road.
Customer Reviews: Number Of Positive And Negative Customer Ratings
Availability: How Many Items Are Currently Available On Amazon For Purchase?
Shipping Options & Pricing: Is Shipping Included With Each Item Offered Or Does Purchasing An Additional Fee Apply? What Kinds Of Payment Methods Do Customers Have Access To?
Finally, you'll see a series of buttons allowing you to upload photos, videos, text files, etc...
These last three sections allow you to customize your product further than ever before. Since this guide isn't meant to cover every possible detail regarding setting up your Amazon shop, we'd suggest reading our full guide to getting started as a seller on Amazon instead. We highly recommend doing so, especially if you feel like you still haven't gotten enough info yet!
Now that you have created a basic product for sale on Amazon, you'll need to go back to your original dashboard and navigate to Settings. From here, you should see two things:
Your Account Information
Product Listings
From here, you can access your Dashboard again and view your sales history. You'll see a summary of your earnings per month along with detailed breakdowns of the individual products you sold. At the bottom of the page, you should see a little icon labeled "View Sales History"; clicking on this will open up a second page showing you exactly how well each product performed.
You can also go ahead and edit certain aspects of your listings. For instance, you can change prices, modify availability dates, and adjust shipping costs. Be careful though, because if you mess up on any one of these settings, your entire inventory could potentially disappear overnight. You should always doublecheck your data before making any final changes.
Keep in mind that Amazon's policy makes it extremely difficult to recover lost profits due to incorrect pricing. So, if you accidentally misprice something and lose hundreds/thousands of dollars worth of revenue, Amazon may never compensate you for the loss.
When you place an Amazon affiliate link on your site, you typically want to ensure that visitors click through to purchase the advertised product. While you can manually measure clicks, this method can become rather tedious and costly. Fortunately, there are a variety of tools designed specifically to automate tracking conversions for you.
One popular tool is Google Analytics, which offers free accounts to everyone. After installing Google Analytics onto your server, you can configure it to automatically send conversion statistics back to Google whenever users visit pages containing your link. You can also install multiple instances of GA, giving you access to more detailed reporting capabilities.
Another great solution is called WebTrafficSchool.com. Simply sign up for a trial account and watch your stats roll in realtime. Not only does the service offer a nice visual display showing you the status of your traffic, but you can also download reports detailing the exact location of your referral traffic.
However, none of these services are perfect. Even if you implement them correctly, it's unlikely that you'll receive 100% accurate results. One problem is caused by the nature of internet marketing. Because there's no guarantee that a visitor will convert, it's impossible to be absolutely certain that a person visiting your website came from an Amazon affiliate link. That said, you can usually assume that a large percentage of referrals come from Amazon, and thus focus your efforts accordingly.
For example, if you had 1000 regular visitors coming to your website and 500 of them converted to purchases, you could safely say that 50% of your total traffic comes from Amazon.
Unfortunately, there's no way to tell for sure if someone is purchasing through your Amazon affiliate link. But, there are a few tricks you can employ to improve your chances of success. First, consider including a special message in your description pointing readers towards your Amazon affiliate link. Second, pay close attention to how long it takes for your affiliate link to load. If it loads instantly, it's a pretty safe bet that your user didn't come from an affiliate link. On the flip side, if your link takes longer to load than normal, your user almost certainly did come from an affiliate link.
It's also worthwhile considering implementing a technique called re-targeted ads. Re-targeted ads refer to advertisements shown to individuals already interested in a given topic. By integrating re-targeted ads into your marketing strategy, you can increase your visibility without having to waste valuable ad space on non-relevant websites.
Finally, you may wish to consider taking advantage of Amazon's Partner Program. Through this program, you can advertise and promote your products on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Doing so will generate extra exposure for your brand, and increase the likelihood that you'll eventually attract a larger audience. Keep in mind, however, that this requires a significant investment of time and resources.
Many people are looking for ways to monetize their websites or blogs with affiliate links. This has become very popular over recent years due to the rise of eCommerce platforms like Amazon and eBay.
Affiliates who use such sites have been able to make large amounts of money just by promoting products they love through the Internet. However, there's more than one way to promote a product online. When it comes to creating an affiliate link for your own site, sometimes it might be better to go straight to the source and ask the company directly if you're allowed to share that information. Other times, it may not even matter. You'll see what works best for you when you follow along below!
You probably already know this, but Amazon makes it easy to put your affiliate link anywhere you want. As long as you're selling something within its marketplace, you should be okay. If you don't actually sell anything at all, then you can still advertise any other service you offer using those same tools. For example, if you're offering coaching services, you could set up some YouTube videos and write articles about them. Then, you would simply include Amazon links whenever applicable.
If you're selling items on another platform besides Amazon, you will need to find out whether or not you can place your affiliate link somewhere else. Many companies allow affiliates to place links everywhere they please, so check with yours before getting started.
As mentioned above, you can always contact the company itself instead of going through third-party resources. Some companies have dedicated pages where you can request an affiliate link. Others give you the option to apply after purchasing a certain amount of inventory. Either method will work fine.
However, if you decide to take advantage of third party resources, here are several options for generating an affiliate link for your own products.
There are many different methods of earning commissions on sales made by others. Here are two common ones.
1) Commission Junction - One of the biggest names in affiliate programs, CJ offers various types of accounts including basic plans, which cost between $19-$99 per month depending on features offered. The most expensive plan costs around $199 per month. Each plan comes with access to thousands of merchants, as well as detailed reports showing which products performed the best, which ads were clicked, etc.
2) Pay Per Click - Another popular form of making money through affiliate marketing, PPC allows advertisers to pay each time someone clicks on their ad. There are many different PPC networks available, such as Google AdSense and Yahoo Search Network, among many others. Most of these networks charge a fee for placement, but they usually provide higher clickthrough rates compared to other forms of advertisement.
The process of adding affiliate links to your webpages involves more steps, but it doesn't require much technical knowledge. To begin, you'd firstly need to register for an account with either CJ or Google AdSense. Once registered, you'll receive an email letting you know that you've successfully created an account. From there, you'll need to paste in the URL of your webpage into whichever network you chose to join. Afterward, you must wait until your page gets approved by both organizations before being able to display your affiliate link. Finally, choose your preferred language and currency and save your settings.
In order to maximize profits while minimizing expenses, try to select affiliate partners whose products fit your niche. That means finding products similar to what you currently sell. Don't worry too much about choosing low priced goods though. While price matters, it isn't everything. Quality is far more important. Try to pick businesses that have established themselves as reputable brands. They won't only benefit you financially, but also help build trust and credibility for your brand.
While most of us spend hours building our personal websites, many business owners prefer to keep things simple. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for affiliate marketers who don't wish to maintain a full-fledged blog or website.
One great alternative is to utilize WordPress plugins. These plug-ins enable you to install widgets onto your sidebar, allowing prospective customers to click through to your affiliate link right away. Plugins come in all shapes and sizes, so look around for the best match for your needs.
Another good option is to use Facebook Ads. Unlike traditional banner advertisements, Facebook ads can appear next to posts, stories, photos, groups, events, apps, and games. Because users tend to browse Facebook during specific times, you can target audiences based on age range, location, gender, interests, and other demographics.
Finally, Fiverr lets you post jobs for freelancers to complete. You can specify exactly what you want done, and potential clients can bid accordingly. Your job description can be quite broad, meaning you could potentially attract hundreds of applicants. However, the upside is that you'll likely end up working with top talent.
Fiverr provides a wide variety of services, ranging from writing to graphic design to voiceover recording. Depending on your skill level, you could earn upwards of $500 per gig. It's worth noting, however, that you'll probably need to invest some time learning the basics of how to properly market yourself.
Product Linking is a system that enables sellers to generate an affiliate link that directs shoppers to purchase a particular item. Typically, this link appears alongside listings and reviews found on Amazon.com. Product Linking is especially useful for small independent retailers because it saves them the trouble of having to manually enter an affiliate code every single time they list a new product.
This tool is particularly helpful because it helps ensure that visitors buy a legitimate product, rather than wasting their time browsing fake listings. At the same time, it keeps Amazon happy since they receive a portion of the sale.
Amazon requires that you submit your listing details once you reach 50 units sold. The submission process takes less than 15 minutes and includes uploading images, prices, descriptions, keywords, and tags.
Once submitted, you'll receive an email confirmation from Amazon letting you know that your listing was accepted. Before submitting your listing, you should review the terms and conditions carefully. Make sure your product meets the requirements listed under "Products Sold." Also note that you shouldn't try to trick buyers with misleading pricing or hidden discounts.
Afterwards, you'll notice that your product link now displays beside your product listing. Whenever a shopper clicks on this link, they will be directed to your Amazon Storefront where they can continue shopping.
For more tips on optimizing your product listings, read How to Optimize Your Amazon Listings With Photos & Videos.
You might have seen some people posting their own products in Amazon's marketplace as Amazon Associates – but if not, or if they've changed since then, here is everything you need to know about getting started with an Amazon associate account.
Amazon has several different methods of earning money through affiliates. The most popular method being that you can choose one of many thousands of pre-made "marketplace" listings which usually include products from major brands such as Apple, Nike, Samsung, etc. These marketplaces allow sellers to set prices and make other important decisions around selling their products online like whether to offer free shipping or not, what kind of payment options to offer customers, etc. Once someone purchases something through one of those marketplaces, the seller will receive a percentage of the sale price as compensation for driving traffic to the site.
Other types of Amazon affiliates exist, too. For example, there are third party sites who sell ads on their websites and pay commissions based upon each ad clicked. Other kinds of affiliates include companies that help businesses promote their services using Amazon. This includes things like creating custom landing pages on Amazon where visitors click to learn more about a service, or even writing reviews on Amazon itself. All of these work similarly to the first type mentioned above -- when one of these sites clicks on your Amazon link, it generates revenue for both you and them!
So how does all of this translate into adding Amazon affiliate links to your website so you can drive additional traffic back to Amazon via your blog post, email list, social media posts, etc.? Here's a quick breakdown of the various steps involved.
First, let's talk about how to find Amazon product links themselves. You'll want to look at any listing that contains either the words "Product Link" or "Affiliate Link". There are two ways to go about finding these links. One way is to use your browser search bar to locate pages containing the word "affiliate", followed by whatever else comes after it. Another way is to head over to Amazon's Search Console tool - a great resource for tracking down keywords related to your business or industry, which you could potentially use to generate leads or build out your content marketing strategy. Either way, once you're done searching, be sure to bookmark the page(s) you found! Now take a look at the URL of the page you just saved. It should contain an Amazon Product ID number somewhere within it. If it doesn't, you may have to try another keyword until you hit gold.
Once you have the Amazon Product ID handy, you can copy/paste it into a separate tab of your browser window, and paste it directly onto your webpage. Note that you'll see a small blue box appear next to the text that reads "View [PID] Details." Clicking on that button brings up information about the item, including its price, image, description, customer ratings, etc. From there, simply replace the [PID] part with the actual Amazon Product ID number you copied and pasted earlier. That gives you a complete Amazon affiliate link right off the bat! Keep in mind though that if a user finds your link elsewhere on the web, they won't necessarily click on it unless you give them incentive to do so (such as providing a coupon code or discount). So don't spam your users with links everywhere you can think of!
If you'd prefer to skip the step of actually typing out the entire Amazon Product Id number, you can always use our awesome Amazon Product Link Generator App instead. Just enter in the name of your product, select how much you would like to charge, and you'll instantly receive a full-blown Amazon affiliate link ready to place anywhere on your site.
Now that you have your Amazon affiliate link, you can now start sending this link to anyone you'd like. Obviously, you wouldn't want to randomly spam everyone on Facebook with your affiliate link, so for larger audiences you may consider sharing it on Twitter or LinkedIn, or perhaps even Google+ or Pinterest. Or maybe you'd rather share it with your friends on Instagram or Snapchat. Whatever works best for you, you'll definitely want to ensure that the person receiving your link knows exactly why they've been sent it. Consider making a short video explaining the benefits of buying your product, or maybe even offering a few testimonials from satisfied customers to really entice interest.
Another option is to create a downloadable PDF file of your Amazon affiliate link and send it along with any promotional material that you plan to distribute outside of social networks. Be sure to provide your readers with instructions regarding how to access the download link (and/or where to save it), otherwise they may not realize that the link is meant for them. And again, don't forget to explain WHY they should purchase your product!
When promoting your product, remember to only send your affiliate link to interested parties that already possess a good amount of trust in your company. Also keep in mind that your audience probably isn't going to buy anything immediately following your initial outreach, so you'll likely want to follow up periodically with emails or phone calls to remind them of your deal while maintaining consistency throughout the sales process.
It's worth noting that you shouldn't rely solely on your own personal network to reach potential buyers. While it certainly helps to connect with others in your field and gain valuable feedback, you still need to actively engage with your audience in order to convince them to convert. After all, you're not trying to convince someone to buy a car from your dealership -- you're trying to convince them to buy something from YOU!
To begin, log in to your Amazon dashboard, navigate to Products & Promotions under the Your Account menu, and select Add New Promotion. Then simply click Continue and fill in the fields provided. Name your promotion appropriately, select the category of your chosen product, and decide on the pricing tier (if applicable). Finally, click Create Promotion and wait for approval before proceeding further.
After your promotion goes live, you'll notice that you can view detailed stats about your campaign, including total orders placed, average order value, gross profit margin, and more. To edit your campaign settings, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on Edit Settings. Make changes to the parameters listed below, and click Save Changes when finished.
In addition to editing existing campaigns, you can also upload a new one straight from the same section of your account. Choose Upload New Campaign, browse to your desired location, click Browse, and pick the relevant template. Fill out the necessary details, click Select Template, and then click Submit to proceed.
Finally, you can also opt to manually manage your inventory by logging into your Seller Central account and selecting Inventory Management from the left sidebar. Under Manage Inventory, you'll be able to perform basic tasks such as updating stock levels, deleting unsold inventories, and performing mass updates.
The easiest and quickest way to add items to your storefront is to use the Amazon Marketplace widget available on WordPress.com blogs. Simply install the plugin and activate it, then visit the Widgets panel located on the left side of the admin area. Scroll down to the Marketplace Widget section and click on Activate Widget. Enter your Amazon login credentials and click Login to continue.
Select the appropriate categories for your product, then click Publish. When finished, check out your newly added storefront item(s)! We recommend checking out our guide to building a successful Amazon Storefront for tips and tricks specific to running an eCommerce shop on Amazon.
There are tons of other ways to increase engagement on your Amazon storefront, however. Check out our previous guides on optimizing your Amazon storefront for better conversion rates, increasing conversions, and generating more qualified leads.
As mentioned previously, there are several ways to earn income from Amazon aside from direct sales. Most notably, you can become an Amazon Merchant Partner and participate in Amazon's affiliate program. As a merchant partner, you'll be responsible for managing your own inventory and setting your own prices. However, you'll still be paid a percentage of every sale made through your Amazon storefront regardless.
Alternatively, you could join Amazon's affiliate program and submit your own unique offers for consumers to opt into. By doing so, you'll receive a portion of the profits earned from your referrals' transactions. The exact terms vary depending on your level of participation, but generally speaking you can expect between 10% and 30% of the final cost of goods sold.
And finally, you can utilize Amazon's Ad Exchange platform to run sponsored banner advertisements across multiple websites. Sponsored banners are designed specifically for advertisers looking to boost visibility without investing significant sums of capital upfront.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.