Amazon is one of the largest retailers in the world. In fact, in the U.S. alone, it’s responsible for nearly 40 percent of all online sales. And anyone can access a share of the retail giant’s profits — all you need to do is have a website or social media presence and sign up for the Amazon affiliate program.
Amazon’s affiliate program, also known as Amazon Associates, is an affiliate marketing program that allows users to monetize their websites, blogs or social media. Amazon affiliate users simply place links to Amazon products on their site, and when a customer makes a purchase via one of their links, the user receives a commission. Read on to learn how you can participate in Amazon’s affiliate program and discover strategies you can use to maximize your profits.
Affiliate or associate marketing programs like Amazon’s are basically arrangements in which an online merchant like Amazon pays affiliate websites a commission to send them traffic and/or sales. Affiliate sites link to the merchant site and are paid according to the program’s agreements. Amazon’s affiliate program, for example, pays affiliate sites based on the number of people they send to Amazon who also make purchases on the site within 24 hours.
There are several benefits to affiliate marketing for both the merchant and participating affiliates. For the merchant, it’s an opportunity to expand reach and increase sales through affordable marketing. Because affiliate marketing is performance-based — affiliates are paid only when the desired action takes place — participants in the affiliate program are also motivated to drive conversions.
For affiliates, taking part in an associate marketing program allows them to become involved in e-commerce without having to establish or maintain their own store. It also provides the opportunity to monetize a website, blog or social media and earn a commission.
There are three types of affiliate marketing:
- pay-per-sale: In this type of program, the merchant pays an affiliate when the affiliate sends a customer who makes a purchase. Some merchants pay the affiliate a fixed rate per sale while others, like Amazon, pay a percentage of the sale.
- pay-per-click: In this arrangement, the affiliate is paid based on how many visitors arrive at the merchant’s site via the affiliate link, and the affiliate is paid regardless of whether visitors make a purchase.
- pay-per-lead: This type of program pays affiliates based on the number of visitors to the merchant’s site who sign up as leads or fill out the requested information on the website.
How does Amazon’s affiliate program work?
Amazon Associates is essentially a referral program that pays a commission to referring websites. So when you send a customer to Amazon via a link on your website, you get a percentage of the sale of whatever they purchase over the next 24 hours.
Your commission varies though depending on what type of item a customer purchases. Refer to the chart below to see what Amazon’s fixed standard program fee rate is for various product categories.
It’s important to keep in mind that the percentage of the sale you receive isn’t the only factor in your commission. Your conversion rate also matters because it reflects how many people are actually clicking an affiliate link and making a purchase after visiting your site.
Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who make a purchase via your affiliate link out of the total number of visitors to your site. For example, if during the month of August, your website receives 5,000 visitors and 10 of those visitors made a purchase after clicking on your affiliate link, that would be a conversion rate of 0.2 percent.
The average affiliate conversion rate is 0.5 percent to 1 percent. However, some affiliates regularly have much higher conversion rates.
Because you get a percentage of everything a customer buys from Amazon within 24 hours of when they arrive at Amazon.com from an affiliate link, there’s also the potential to earn more revenue from products that you don’t specifically advertise. For example, if you run a beauty blog that features affiliate links to luxury beauty items, which have a fee rate of 10 percent, you may get 10 percent of the purchase of a high-end moisturizer, but also 8 percent of the cost of a box of dog treats if the customer also purchases biscuits.
However, to earn a commission from Amazon purchases, a customer must place an order within 24 hours of arriving at Amazon.com from your affiliate link. Once that 24-hour window closes — or if the customer re-enters Amazon through another affiliate’s link, you won’t earn any fees from subsequent purchases. However, if the customer returns to Amazon via one of your affiliate links, a new 24-hour window opens, and you’ll again be eligible to earn fees based on the customer’s order.
If a customer arrives at Amazon from one of your affiliate links, adds an item to their shopping cart and leaves Amazon without completing their order, it’s still possible for you to earn a percentage of that sale. As long as the item was added to the shopper’s cart within that 24-hour window, you’ll receive the referral fee if the order is placed before the shopping cart expires, which is typically 90 days.
Amazon affiliate program: Pros and cons
Earning income simply for linking to an Amazon product may seem like a no-brainer, but there are a few things to consider before becoming an Amazon affiliate. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of Amazon Associates.
Pros:
- It’s easy to become an Amazon affiliate. You can register and start sharing affiliate links, detailed in the following section, in just a few minutes.
- Amazon is an ecommerce authority. The retail giant is a trusted, well-known brand, so affiliates don’t need to sell visitors on purchasing from the website.
- There are many products to advertise. With more than 3 billion items for sale, in addition to services like Prime Video, there’s no shortage of products to promote via affiliate links.
- Participants earn income from products besides the ones they link to. When you send traffic to Amazon via an affiliate link, and that user makes a purchase, you get a percentage of everything they purchase within 24 hours. And because Amazon is skilled at conversion and upselling, it’s very likely that a customer will add multiple items to their cart.
Cons:
- Amazon’s commissions are very low in some categories. While the Amazon Associates program has a commission rate of up to 10 percent for some items, such as luxury beauty products, others, such as video game consoles, are as low as 1 percent.
- The Amazon Associates Program Operating Agreementcan be difficult to understand and is frequently updated, so members can easily be found not in compliance if they don’t stay up-to-date.
- If you don’t already have a website with product reviews or other suitable content that would be a good fit for affiliate links, creating one can require a lot of time, effort and upkeep.
Given the benefits and challenges, who should become an Amazon affiliate?
Just because you don’t have a personal blog or a website with product reviews doesn’t mean you shouldn’t become an Amazon affiliate. You can launch a website that includes affiliate links to products you endorse and continue to add content and links over time. While your site may not be immediately profitable, this is a good way to create a steady stream of additional income in the long-term.
If you have a YouTube channel or are interested in starting one, you can also include affiliate links in YouTube videos. Adding affiliate links to videos can make them more professional and enhance the user experience by providing additional value.
Amazon affiliate links can also be shared on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, making the affiliate program a great option for anyone who’s active on social media. You don’t need a large following to benefit from using such links. Promoting products you know and love is powerful word-of-mouth marketing, and friends and family may be more likely to take your recommendations because you’re a trusted source.
How to become an Amazon affiliate?
Registering for the Amazon Associates program is a simple process. To begin, simply visit affiliate-program.amazon.com and click “Join Now for Free.”
First, you’ll have to enter your account information, including your name, address and phone number. Next, you’ll be asked to enter the websites and mobile app URLs where you plan to display banners, ads or affiliate links. You can enter up to 50 websites and mobile app URLs combined.
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