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.
Bloggers and website owners that are associates create links for customers to click on to enable them to earn referral fees. The Amazon Affiliate program is free to join and very easy to use!Â
Read on to know the benefits of amazon affiliate program (Amazon Associates) & discover new strategies you can use to maximize your profits.
Why you Should Signup for Amazon Associates?
Amazon Associates possess certain features that make it a pretty essential platform to sign up for all those who are looking to earn through affiliate marketing (Amazon).
1. Trustworthy Brand
The customers highly trust Amazon and don’t hesitate in making a purchase of any product from them. Apart from being trustworthy, Amazon is also convenient that makes it perfectly accessible for people.
2. Easy Startup Process
The startup process for Amazon Affiliate Marketing is easy. To easily integrate your website and blog, Amazon provides you with good software, widgets, linked images and other relevant resources.
3. Earn High Commissions
By promoting high-priced products like gadgets and furniture, you can increase your chances of earning a higher commission.
4. Earn Commission on Additional Purchases
The consumer has a tendency to explore a range of products before making the final purchase. Similarly, on online shopping platforms like Amazon, the consumers also look through a lot more products.
Here is your chance of earning an extra commission. Apart from purchasing a product that you recommended, if the consumers purchased additional products through your link, you are entitled to get that extra commission for that.
5. Make optimal use of the Festive Season
The Holiday Season can be a great time to earn extra commission. The engagement and conversion rate increases drastically during the festive season. This can be a very profitable time for you in terms of commission.
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.
Source: Amazon.in Associates
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.Â
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 affiliate program (Amazon Associates).
Pros:
There are several significant reasons to join the Amazon Associates program, including:
- Amazon is a highly visited, well-known name that people use and trust every day.
- It’s free to join.Â
- There are no traffic thresholds or other metrics you need to be accepted into the program.Â
- There are tons and tons of products you can promote.
- There is a good reporting system so you know what’s getting clicks and what’s selling.
- You can receive direct deposit payments into your bank account.
- Amazon offers good customer service to its buyers, so you reduce the risk of having your visitors get mad at you if they have a problem with the product.
- Even if your visitor doesn’t buy the product you referred, if they buy something on that visit, you earn a commission.
Cons:
Nothing is ever perfect, including the Amazon affiliate program. Here are a few downsides:
- The commission rate is relatively low compared to other affiliate programs, 1% to 10% depending on the items. It offers flat-rate for the bounty programs, such as $15 for business account sign-ups, $3 for Prime referrals, and $5 for Audible referrals.
- Their cookies only last 24-hours. That means if your referral doesn’t buy within 24 hours, you won’t get credit. (However, if the product is added to their cart, the cookie lasts 89 days.)
- You’re not allowed to send Amazon affiliate links in emails. That includes blog posts that get sent as an email. Since email is an excellent way to send great offers to your readers, this rule is particularly disappointing.
- If you have a U.S. site and are promoting products in the Amazon U.S. store, you won’t get credit for referring someone who ends up buying the product from outside the country (i.e. Amazon UK).
- Payment options are only through direct deposit, check, or Amazon gift card. There’s no PayPal option.
Ways to Promote Your Amazon Affiliate Links
Here are different ways you can promote your Amazon links:
Blogging
Blogging is probably the most common way affiliates make money with the Amazon Associates program. Making money with Amazon Associates on a blog can be done by:
- Writing content for your blog or website about picking or buying a product available on Amazon. Now more than ever, people go online to research their buying options. If you’re a mom blogger, you can write an article on picking a low-cost vacuum with a link to your top choice or several links to your top choices. A photography site can link to cameras and other photography equipment.
- Writing reviews of new products. Again, people want to know about items before they invest money in them, especially if they’re new and there isn’t a lot of information available.Â
- Writing about best-sellers. You can use the best-sellers listed on Amazon, or if you have an affiliate sales history with Amazon, check your stats to see what has sold best in your blog’s community.
- Promoting special offers on the blog. This works well if you have a daily deal blog. This step requires that you watch Amazon for special promotions on products that fit in your website’s topic area.
Social Media
You can use social media to share your blog content with affiliate links, or you can directly share your affiliate links. Note, that you should give an indication that the link is an affiliate link when you post to be transparent and not annoy your followers. People don’t want to be sold to all the time, so posting affiliate links should be interspersed with non-affiliate and non-sales posts.
YouTube Videos
You can offer much of the same types of content on video as you do on a blog, such as reviews. The advantage of video for generating income is that you can give tutorials, tours, and other visual content that better help potential buyers decide whether to buy the items or not.
Lead Magnet and Email
Many successful affiliate marketers have a basic two-page website and an email marketing system that does their affiliate promotions on autopilot to make passive income.Â
One page is a landing page that promotes a lead magnet to entice people to subscribe to the email. Once subscribed, the visitor is sent to the second page, which often has information about an affiliate product.
 The email delivers the lead magnet, as well as a series of other emails that provide helpful tips and information, as well as promotions for affiliate products.
Get Started with the Amazon Affiliate Program Today
The Amazon Affiliate program is an excellent way to turn a side passion into a source of passive income. Choose a niche, write product-centric content, and include contextual affiliate links, and you’ll be sure to grow your Amazon Affiliate income to astronomical levels.
To read more contents about Digital Marketing, click here.