Amazon Affiliate Program Review (Everything You Need To Know)

Every beginner affiliate will eventually hear about the (infamous) Amazon affiliate program.

Every “affiliate marketing blog” out there talks about the benefits of promoting Amazon – & I do too. In fact, I have plenty of guides showing you how to make money with Amazon (and I will link all of them below) but today;

I want to take a closer look and publish an official Amazon affiliate program review.

• What is the Amazon Affiliate program?
• How are the commissions?
• What products can you promote – and
• How can you become a successful Amazon Affiliate?

All the above – and more – will be answered for you below so if you’re new to Amazon affiliate marketing, keep reading as you’re about to find out if the Amazon associates program is still worth your time.

Let’s get started…

What Is The Amazon Affiliate Program?

Simply put, the Amazon affiliate program (often referred to as the Amazon Associates Program) is the one and only – official – affiliate program for Amazon.com.

Amazon launched this program in June of 1996, making it one of the first affiliate programs ever. It is now referred to as “the web’s popular affiliate program” (Amazon’s words, not mine).

& in case you were wondering, yes – the Amazon affiliate program really is the most popular as it gives people everywhere and anywhere the ability to make money online.

That + the many benefits, which I’ll mention next, makes the Amazon Affiliate program one of the best affiliate programs you can use.

Why Is The Amazon Affiliate Program So Popular?

Huge Brand Power

Amazon is undoubtedly the KING of e-commerce and just about everyone whos ever used the internet knows who Amazon is and what they offer.

As an affiliate, this is huge for you because people like buying from websites they know, trust and (likely) have used before.

When you send people to Amazon.com, your job is half done as people already know the site, know what to expect, and of course, you’re leveraging the world’s smartest conversion funnel ever created.

The Best Converting Website At Your Disposal

One thing is for sure – Amazon knows how to sell products.

Not only do they offer a fantastic shipping-policy, but they’ve also invested millions in machine learning and conversion rate optimization.

When you send someone to Amazon.com, you are leveraging all these millions of dollars spent and hundreds of the smartest marketing people in the world that have created the Amazon purchase funnel.

From the follow-up emails to the “buy it now button” and even related suggested products to buy, everything is optimized for the customer to purchase something & when they do, you earn a commission.

People Stay “Logged In”

One other benefit of the Amazon affiliate program is that people typically stay logged into their account when browsing around the internet.

This means that if you send a customer to Amazon, who already has an Amazon account, the checkout process immediately becomes much easier since they already have an account. All they need to do is click that magical “Buy It Now” button.

Fantastic Tracking Capabilities

Using smart-cookies, you will also earn a commission if someone clicks your link on mobile, but purchases at home later via a desktop.

Your affiliate cookie tracks the user for 24 hours after the click, which is typically not a long time, but given how Amazon’s conversion funnel works, this usually is more than enough for a customer to buy, and you get paid.

Millions of Products Available

According to ScrapeHero.com, there are 200,000,000 products available to promote, and they are adding (on average) 1,300,000 new products a day.

With those kinds of numbers, it’s safe to say that if the products you want to promote is not on Amazon (considering it’s a physical product), chances are that product is not worth promoting.

As an Amazon affiliate, you have the entire product database at your disposal (although some product-categories pay different commission rates).

One thing you should also know is that you get paid for any product you sell, meaning:

If you send someone to Amazon with a link leading to a “smart treadmill” but they buy an entire home gym instead, you get paid a commission on the home gym also (that’s Amazon’s funnel at work for you right there).

Semi-Decent Commission Rates

Although you will hear plenty of people who complain about Amazon’s commission rates (& I do too sometimes), it’s what is typically offered by affiliate programs for physical products.

The higher commission rates associated with software tools can not be replicated with physical products since – of course – there is manufacturing and shipping to take into account.

With that said, Amazon makes up for this “low commission” issue with its brand power, hyper-focus conversion funnel, and the many other benefits listed above.

Trusted & Reliable Affiliate Program

While it’s not the norm, you will sometimes hear of a story where an affiliate program shuts down and takes all the affiliate commissions with it.

Although it’s not impossible, it’s improbable Amazon will ever go bankrupt. It’s also doubtful they will shut down their affiliate program since I’m sure it’s a HUGE contributor to Amazon’s impressive growth.

Perfect For Beginners

Last but not least, the Amazon affiliate program is one of the best affiliate programs beginners can use to dip their feet into affiliate marketing.

It’s simple to use, straightforward, and it’s a very “legit” affiliate program giving beginner affiliates peace of mind that they are promoting a great company with a great service.

What Are Some Limitations of the Amazon Affiliate Program?

Of course, nothing in life is (or can be) perfect, so with that said, let’s look at two drawbacks limitations of the Amazon Affiliate program:

✖️ Short Tracking Time Frame:

Many feel the 24 hour cookie time window you get for someone to make a purchase is quite short, and they’re right – it is.

However, as previously stated – the conversion funnel makes sure to make up for that. It has not stopped people from making obscene amounts of money with the Amazon affiliate program.

If this is of any consultation, if a customer adds the product to their cart, you have 30-days for that checkout to happen (and you will still get a full commission).

✖️ No PayPal:

This is my biggest beef with Amazon.

I’m outside the US so PayPal would be perfect for me to receive payments. However, Amazon does not offer PayPal as a payment option.

Instead, they offer cheques, gift cards, and bank transfers (which I’ll explain further down below).

How To Get Started As An Amazon Affiliate

Now that you know what the Amazon affiliate program is and how it works, let’s go through some steps to get started as an Amazon affiliate.

Down below, I will also share with you how much you can make promoting Amazon products, but first – it all comes down to…

Pick A Niche You’d Like To Promote:

To get started on Amazon, you need to pick a niche.

A niche is a topic that has relevant products that you can promote. For example;

• If you’re into gardening, you can promote gardening products.
• If you’re into knitting, you can promote knitting products.
• If you’re into home appliances, you can promote kitchen products.

As we said, there are millions of products you can promote, but you do need to find your niche.

I have a great guide (one of the best I’ve ever published) that shows you how to pick profitable niches to promote, and you can also see a list of great niches for Amazon affiliate marketing here.

Get A Domain Name & Website:

As I will explain below, having a website is a MUST.

To do this, you will need to get a domain + a hosting plan which will run you ~$100 a year to maintain.

My suggestion would be to get one from BlueHost, but there are plenty of other hosting options catering to affiliate marketers.

Create Your Content:

To make it as an affiliate marketer, you will need to create content on your website.

This is where many trip-up because of the “I don’t know how to write content” problem excuse.

You can hire content writers, but that can get very expensive very quickly, so my suggestion would be to suck it up and write the content yourself.

I too am not a great content writer, I’m not even a native English speaker, but I learned – because I had to.

I have a great course to show you how to write content for the web here if you’re interested, and I also have a template you can use to create Amazon product reviews.

If you’d like to see what type of content you need to be creating, WalletSquirrel.com has a list of the best 50 Amazon affiliate websites examples which you can browse for ideas and inspiration.

Apply To The Amazon Affiliate Program

Once you have your niche, your website, and some content on your website, it’s time to apply to the Amazon Associates program.

While it’s not a must that you have content published already, it does help speed up your registration and approval, so that’s what I suggest you do.

Signing up as an Amazon affiliate is very simple:

• Visit the sign-up page,
• Fill out your details,
• & that’s it!

You’re now an official “Amazon affiliate”.

Add Your Amazon Affiliate Links

Once you’ve been approved, you need to start adding affiliate links to the content you already published (and the future ones as well).

It’s super easy to find the affiliate link to the product using the handy header-bar that shows up once you are registered as an associate but;

To help you understand better, here’s a great video that shows you how to find, get and use your Amazon affiliate link:

How Much Money Can You Make Promoting Amazon?

Right, let’s crunch some numbers here as this is where the fun begins.

How much money you can make as an Amazon affiliate depends on a lot of things, for example:

This (and more) will determine how much money you can earn with your Amazon affiliate website.

There are also 2 handy calculator tools that you can check out that will help you estimate how much your chosen niche can produce.

You can check out AmaProfits.com and AzonHacks.com to see them in action, but you need to add your traffic and other data points (which you may not currently have).

How Will You Be Paid? (The Amazon Payout Structure)

Remember we talked about the limitations in payment methods offered by Amazon?

Well, as I’m sure you’d agree; knowing how to get paid for your efforts is crucial here, so let’s explore the options:

? Cheque:

If you’re in the United States, then this may be the easiest option for you. However, for us “outsiders’ getting paid by cheque is a long process that takes months to clear.

? Gift Cards:

For most of my time promoting Amazon, I chose to be paid via gift cards and then buying what I need with them.

While some may appreciate and would like to be paid in Amazon gift cards, I wanted money, which is why I chose to opt-in for a…

? Bank Transfer:

If you’re outside the US, then this is your best choice to get paid.

You will need to submit some details to Amazon, but you only have to do it once and once it’s set up, all you have to do is promote, and collect the cash every month in your account.

Who Can Become An “Amazon Associate”?

At the time of writing, there are no limitations on who can join and promote Amazon via the Amazon affiliate program.

However, you are going to need a website!

A website is relatively cheap to start, it will cost you around $100 a year to maintain, but you can get started on a monthly-basis using BlueHost (you’ll get a domain and hosting for $2.95).

A website is a must because Amazon will first have to approve it for you, and it’s also a good idea to have because trying affiliate marketing without a website makes things much easier than they have to be.

For example, while many social media companies allow affiliate links, you do not want to be banned for spamming the community too much.

Likewise, you should not spam your website with affiliate links either, but having your own website at least gives you full control of how you sell your links.

You don’t know how to build a website?

Don’t worry; there’s a free training course which I’ll tell you about next that will show you exactly how easy it is to create an Amazon affiliate website.

Help Jeff Bezos Make More Money By Becoming A Successful Amazon Affiliate (Free Training Course)

So, you want to make some more money for our friend Jeff while building a business for yourself?

You can do both with the help of the Amazon affiliate program.

The only problem here is that you need to know what you are doing.

As I’ve mentioned above, there are millions of products you can promote on Amazon that will earn you a commission but, before you do that, you need to learn how to make money as an Amazon affiliate.

For this, I recommend the 10-day starter course inside Wealthy Affiliate (link to my review).

It will show you all you need to know to get started in a 10 step-by-step DAILY video lessons course.

Here’s what you will be learning in the next 10-days:

• How to make money online (using affiliate marketing)
• How to find (the best) products to promote on Amazon
• How to build your Amazon affiliate website
• How to get people to buy from your links
• and a whole lot more.

You can see the full details of the course on this page here.

Wealthy Affiliate is free to join and use; however – there’s also a premium level of training, which will cost you just $19 for your first month.

If you like what the free training has to offer and you want to get the premium, I will also send you my $97 SEO course for free (offer valid until the 22nd April 2024).

You can learn more about this in the Affiliate Starter Pack Bundle.

Amazon Affiliate Website Success Stories At Wealthy Affiliate:

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Final Thoughts (& Why You Need To Patience)

While the Wealthy Affiliate training course and the Amazon affiliate program have made it incredibly easy for anyone anywhere to make money with affiliate marketing, many still end up failing.

This is because people expect to get rich overnight, which is a mistake!

Amazon affiliate websites (and affiliate marketing in general) need time to mature and start getting traffic and sales.

Typically I would say you need to give your affiliate website 6-8 months before you can start seeing some worthwhile results but don’t let that scare you off.

Just make sure you know what you are doing; you do not want to be 6-8 months in and realizing you’ve been doing it wrong all along, which is why I highly recommend you check out Wealthy Affiliate.