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How to Make Money with Amazon Affiliate Marketing

by Jeremy Harrison | Last Updated: January 31, 2024
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How to Make Money with Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Introduction

Imagine making money while recommending products from the comfort of your home.

In this blog post, we explore how to make money using Amazon affiliate marketing. We cover the following topics:

What is the Amazon Associates program?
The Pros and Cons of the Amazon affiliate program.
How to become an Amazon affiliate marketer.
Amazon affiliate commission rates.
My top 5 tips for being a successful Amazon affiliate marketer.

Curious to learn more? Read on!

The Amazon Affiliate Marketing Opportunity

The Amazon affiliate marketing program offers an opportunity to earn an online income by recommending products not selling them.

Many individuals have leveraged this model to generate significant revenue streams from any corner of the globe.

Example Amazon affiliate marketing blog site promoting headphones

Amazon Associates is the affiliate program where you can sign up to promote Amazon products.

The Benefits of the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program
You never have to buy and sell products.
You’ll never have supplier or logistics issues.
You’ll never have to deal directly with customers or their complaints.
Your referral links (associate links) are ‘cookied’ for up to 24 hours and apply to ANY qualifying item that is added to the cart not just the items you promote.
You’ll get an Amazon affiliate commission payout for qualifying items added to the shopping cart (not necessarily actually bought)!
You can work when you want and from where you want!
Low cost setup costs.
You can sign up using your existing Amazon account login details.
amazon associates account setup process
The Challenges with the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program
Using a blog to promote products is time consuming and requires patience and you need to find creative ways to generate traffic without paying for advertising.
Using social media channels is also time consuming and requires regular posts to generate engaged followers.
Signing up to Amazon Associates is straightforward but not everyone qualifies. When you apply for Amazon affiliate program you need to prove your affiliate marketing potential.
Things change such as product pricing, promotions and Amazon affiliate commission rate. These things are outside of your control.
Amazon is very strict about their terms and conditions for the Amazon marketing affiliate program. Many people make naive mistakes that result in severe consequences.
amazon associate program policy list

How to Start with Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program

The Amazon affiliate program is a good choice for solopreneurs who have some spare time, technical skills, marketing experience, and the ability to write or edit articles.

You can learn most of the skills through online training BUT nothing is going to happen overnight and you’ll likely only be successful if you’re committed and creative with your marketing techniques.

Below is a step-by-step list of what you need to do to be successful with the Amazon affiliate scheme:

1.

Do the right training. Equip yourself with the right skills before diving in!

2.

Set up an attractive and functional website and blog that can be SEO optimized to attract organic traffic.

OR buy a premade blog using sites like Empire Flipper or Flippa. I’ve used Flippa and can attest to it being easy to use with great support for buyers and sellers.

3.

Find a niche that you want to promote. You can search Amazon to find niches and products that are in demand. You can use software like Helium 10 for niche and product research.

4.

Research articles of interest to your target audience. You can do keyword research using Google Planner to find high-volume and low-competition keywords.

5.

Adding articles takes time. If you’re adding valuable content regularly (min 2 articles per week), then Google will start serving your content to your target audience. Over a period of 6 to 9 months, you’ll start to see an increase in organic traffic. The more content you add, the quicker this process will happen.

6.

Consider also using social media accounts linked to your website to promote your content. You can add up to 50 websites and social media accounts when you set up your Amazon Associates account!

7.

You should also have a backlinking strategy in place to help with website traffic and site authority.

8.

Only once you’re getting regular traffic you can apply for the Amazon Associates program! Amazon will review your site and assess the quality and traffic BEFORE approving your application!

9.

After being approved you’ll get access to Amazon Associates platform where you can select products to promote and get access to images and the all-important affiliate links!

10.

For ongoing income, and a sustainable income, all you need to do is to compete with other websites by creating more quality content to serve your target audience.

How to create affiliate links to promote Amazon products

If you follow the above steps, then you’ll have made a strong start in generating your online income with Amazon Associates affiliate program!

Further Reading:

Amazon Affiliate Program Best Practice

Here are my 5 top tips for making the most of the Amazon affiliate program:

1.

Invest in your business. Using the right training, tools, and software can really speed up the process for quicker success.

2.

Choose a niche or market that you’re interested in. This will help you write powerful and engaging content.

3.

Focus on the customers. Your articles will get better traction if you’re genuinely answering a need or a question.

4.

Only promote products that you’d recommend to family or friends. Everything will be more rewarding if you are genuine in your reviews. Honesty is the best policy!

5.

Become familiar with and follow Amazon policies to avoid bad consequences!

Amazon Associates Commission

The affiliate marketing amazon commission rate is documented in the Amazon Associates Program Advertising Fee Schedule. The affiliate commission percentage varies for different product categories. Amazon has a fixed rate commission for each product category ranging from 20% to 1%! In addition, some product purchases are excluded from earning a commission.

Commission Rates for Amazon Associates Program

Amazon tracks the sales and calculates the commission earned by each affiliate. The great thing is you get access to detailed reports to help you track their earnings.

amazon associates commission earnings report example

Other Ways to Make Money with Amazon Associates

If a blog doesn’t interest you, then an alternative is to use social media accounts and an influencer-style marketing model. Either way, you still need an Amazon Associates account and need to get approved to access the affiliate links.

If you want to learn Influencer marketing strategies, then you can listen to the Serious Sellers podcast dedicated to this topic.

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Final Word

Establishing an authority website is a critical step in becoming an Amazon affiliate marketing program blogger.  However, achieving success takes time and commitment to rank on Google and attract organic traffic. You also need to be creative since competition in the blogosphere can be fierce.

If you can acquire the right skill set and you’re willing to focus your efforts, then, in my opinion, the Amazon Associates program is a great opportunity with a low-cost entry, low risk, AND the potential for a significant upside!

A quick note from Hustle Life

At Hustle Life we love bringing you well-researched content to help you online side hustle grow into a thriving business. So that we continue to create great content without opening the site to annoying advertising, we accept affiliate payments. Thank you for using our affiliate links.

If you enjoy our content, please remember to like, and follow us on Facebook.

Jeremy Harrison

Jeremy Harrison started this blog to share his journey and encourage other ambitious solopreneurs. He shares his highs and lows from experience with Amazon KDP, affiliate marketing and eCommerce.

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