Passive income sources have now become a great business among 21st-Century individuals. Affiliate marketing is one side hustle you can possibly start even now. To join the Amazon Affiliate Program, you will have to learn first the applied steps and necessities on how to become an affiliate marketer for Amazon. Just like any other businesses, being an Amazon affiliate grants you long-term earnings. And as might be expected, it will consume much time, though low costs, and consistent hard work.
Once you become passionate about it, it won’t be just an additional stream of income. Some affiliates even earn six-digit revenue here. We believe that anyone could commence in this e-commerce business without too many complicated operations. If you have channels and blogs beforehand, it will indeed be easier for you to join the program. But don’t be afraid if you don’t have any. Amazon lets you follow an easy process of applying as their affiliate.
Where to begin? What are the requirements? Well, you are at the right site. Read along as we provide you a beginner’s guide for starting as one of Amazon’s associates.
What’s Amazon Affiliate?
Amazon, as named from the largest forest on Earth, is also known as a retail blockbuster. Comprising about 40% of all online sales in the U.S. alone, you can have the chance to access their proceeds.
Acquiring a website, a blog or social media accounts can now be monetized. Thanks to Amazon’s affiliate program called Amazon Associates. You can maximize your profits by participating, then getting commissions. If you are the seller, this program is an affordable way of advertising or increasing sales.
Taking part in this program doesn’t require you to establish and maintain an online store. After you sign up, you shall have full access to all Amazon products and find their respective links. Pasting your personalized links to your websites or accounts lets numerous people find the product.
From clicking those links, you will receive commission through certain conditions or agreements:
Pay-per-click
Everytime people are directed to the products via your links, the traffic boost you incite is the thing regarded, not the sales. Your commission depends on how many visitors were channeled from your links.
Pay-per-sale
An affiliate like you will only get paid by the merchant when someone purchases his product from your link. Most of the merchants have fixed rates while Amazon pays a percentage of the sale.
Pay-per-lead
In this type of condition, the affiliate receives a payment based on the number of visitors who signed up as leads or filled up a form upon the site’s request.
How does the Amazon Affiliate Program Work?
Generating links and engaging them through your websites may send customers to Amazon. When they are there, whatever they purchase in the next 24 hours will render you a percentage of the sale.
Aside from the terms mentioned earlier, your commission also depends on what type of products the customer purchases. That is why it’s important to consider product categories where you can get higher demands.
Obviously, if they purchase the product not via your link anymore, you won’t earn any commission. Remember that once people have clicked the affiliate links, you will only have a valid commission upon purchasing the product within 24 hours. At that moment, when they purchase products beside the one you referred to, you would also get commission from them.
Luckily, if the same person has clicked the link again, a new 24-hour duration is opened. This is eligible for commission when they purchase. It is still possible for you to earn whether or not they purchase the product. By adding items to their cart and not confirming the order within 24 hours still counts sometimes.
How To Become an Amazon Affiliate in 2021?
You can be an Amazon affiliate right away if you already have pre-existing websites. Just make sure they’re active and are teemed with visitors. It will be a lot easier for sure. You must have mediums where you can widely promote Amazon products before getting involved in the program.
Before you apply, the acquisition of website/s is a prerequisite. You don’t wanna enter a battlefield bare-handed. Amazon may decline your affiliate application if they had observed you weren’t potent enough in promoting their products.
Starting a YouTube channel may interest you. Owning a popular channel is more lucrative than you think. Aside from your revenue in AdSense, you may conduct affiliate marketing effectively by endorsing links in your videos.
Websites, YouTube channels and social media accounts are your main requirements before plunging into their program. Thus, you could be approved faster.
How to Create a Website / Blog? (for affiliate program)
Select your niche
It is necessary to regard what niche you’re about. This niche is the particular essence of all your contents in a site. You would most likely pick a niche that suits your knowledge so you can relate products to your audience more efficiently. Commission percentage varies for every Amazon product category. It is as high as 10% (luxury beauty products) and as low as 1% (video game consoles).
Set up Web Hosting
This is to ensure your website runs with a stored database. Hosting packages have various costs. It starts at $3 monthly. There are affordable web hosting services but most of them have limited domain names. The higher the price, the better the features. The package you’ll choose depends on your needs and budget.
Buy A Domain
A customized email address or brand name enables people to find you on the web without much hassle. Make sure it does reflect on your niche and is commonly searched by an average person. But check first whether previous sites have acquired the same name. It will become a competition. Usually, you’ll pay for a domain at $10 or more every year.
Design Your Website
Besides the contents, a professional-looking site is another advantage to gain credibility. WordPress has a lot of pretty themes you can access for free or buy. The app is flexible, easy to use and templates are provided. It highlights the freedom of personalizing the design of your site. It can also save time and effort for starters.
How to Create Amazon Affiliate Links?
Now that your affiliate account is verified, you could view the Amazon Associates dashboard where you should create affiliate links. There are many options to do so:
Common Method – Product Linking Feature
Once logged in to your account, there’s a bar called “Product Linking.” After clicking this, select Product Links. You can now search in two ways:
- Quick Links: Search For Products – where you can search a particular product. After finding it, click the Get Link button.
- You may also try searching various products in a category by clicking the Browse For Product button. Then get the link of the item you chose.
Your link will pop up and Amazon allows you to customize it as well as the image, texts, background color, and the overall look of the ad to match the trademark of your website. Copy the HTML code and paste it to your sites.
SiteStripe
This tool appears on any Amazon.com page as long as you have an Amazon Associate account. Find a product you opt to get an affiliate link for. Just click the gray stripe at the top of the screen. There will be several types of personalized links. Once you’ve chosen, copy the code in the box beneath it and simply paste it to your websites or social media accounts.
How Do You Get Paid From Affiliate Program?
An affiliate marketer from Amazon can earn the payment about 60 days following the end of each calendar month. There are three modes of payment you can choose from, according to the frequency of receiving and the minimum amount of payment:
Direct Deposit
Banking information is needed in this type of payment. This includes your bank name and account number. Payment is held until you reach a minimum amount of $10.
Check
You should provide Amazon with your mailing address if you choose this mode. Payment is held until you reach a minimum amount of $100. They will charge you a check-processing fee of $15.
Amazon Gift Card
The primary email address on your affiliate account will receive gift cards of your earnings. Payment is held until you reach a minimum amount of $10.
Amazon Affiliate Program: Tips to Bring Traffic to your Sites
Attempt Different Niches
You may be thinking that choosing only the niche of your expertise is the smartest strategy. However, trying out other niches for content-making can widen your selection of audience. Beginning with the niche you’re most familiar with is appropriate. But if you know your niche is very common among other content creators, you will soon figure out that it’s become a tough competition.
Learning rare niches is quite a challenge, though, since you aren’t sure if many will patronize them. The reward of successfully engaging a lot of audience is satisfying, nevertheless. But it would be harder and arduous. Interesting subjects alone can’t supply enough traffic. Keyword research must be done, too.
Create Contents Regularly
You want to have a separate blog featuring only Amazon product reviews. This will be your Amazon Affiliate Site. The more blogs written, the better optimization.
Aside from this, on other websites you too can upload engaging contents which unwittingly endorse the products you’re linking. It is somewhat a product review but has an article-ish outline. The most effective way to do this is by ranking multiple products and stating their specifications. (e.g. 10 Best Mobile Phones for Gaming)
Make Use of your Socials
YouTube and other social media platforms are also easy gateways to promote Amazon products. For instance, you can make tutorials on how to use an Amazon product then upload them as audiovisual presentations.
TikTok is where most trends begin. A lot of affiliate marketers nowadays venture into this platform after knowing its transparency. The same thing with the videos you post in YouTube, you can just advertise products somewhere within the content, providing your referral links in the description.
Conclusion
We’re happy to tell you that you’ve just accomplished reading everything you should know to be an affiliate for Amazon. There’s nothing wrong with giving it a try. If this side hussle works for you, good.
If not, there are still other ways to make money online. It’s not a problem if you currently don’t own any websites or popular channels. You can later build them and join the Amazon Associate Program ahead.
In every business you start, don’t forget to market, market and market! Promote your niche sites and accounts. Except getting commissions from affiliate links, optimizing your sites is a long-term circumstance for maximizing profits.