How to Make Money with the Amazon Affiliate Program
In the past, I have talked about Flipkart affiliate program, Clickbank affiliate program and the Dreamhost affiliate Program which will help you to monetize your site. Today, I’m going to talk about the Amazon affiliate program.
Amazon is one of the world’s biggest marketplaces. Even though there are so many affiliate marketplaces in the world, many bloggers and big companies use Amazon to sell their products.
Millions of people spend millions of dollars on Amazon each year – and you can get a cut of the revenue by incorporating Amazon affiliate program as part of your website content.
Their affiliate program pays you up to 15% of the sale amount and, depending on what kind of sale you are making, it’s a good and best way to make big money.
This is especially true if you are a gadget or mobile blogger. You can write a complete review of a phone and give an Amazon affiliate link.
By spending 15 minutes of your time and finding the best mobile deal, you can add substantial extra income.
How Much Can You Earn as an Amazon Affiliate Program?
Well, There is no limit to making money from the Amazon affiliate program. It depends on how you are using these programs.Many people are making more than $300-$15000 per day too with their own perfect strategy.
If you are selling good products at a high price, you get a high amount of money with the same %.
But selling low priced products like ebooks can also boost your Amazon affiliate earnings.
How to Sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program?
Depending on your geographical location or your target market, you should sign-up for the Amazon affiliate program. For example,- If your target audience is in the U.S., you should signup for Amazon U.S. associate Program using this link.
- If your target audience is from India, you should sign-up for Amazon India program using this link.
How to Monetize as an Amazon Affiliate?
I assume by now you have signed up for the Amazon Associates program. If not, go do it now. (This is for Amazon U.S. Store)The next step is to get links, banners, or widgets for your site. Depending on your niche, you can select different types of links. For example:
- If you have a gadget blog, you can create a page called “Recommended Gadgets”.
- If you have a movie or music blog, you can add a widget on the sidebar with the movie’s DVD affiliate link.
Which Products Should I Promote?
Because Amazon sells just about everything you can imagine, you should be able to find a good selection of related products to promote whatever your site niche.Always stick to products closely related to your site niche.
If your blog focuses on compact cameras, don’t be tempted to work in promotions for SLR cameras just because they cost more and your commission will be bigger.
Readers looking for information about compacts are only looking for helpful information about which compact camera to buy.
Concentrate on giving them that and visitors are much more likely to click through and make a purchase.
Should I Promote High or Low Price Items?
Low priced items fly into shopping carts because shoppers don’t think twice before buying them. Trouble is, the commission is low.For example, a book is likely to only make you an advertising fee of around $0.50 – $1.50.
On the other hand, large price items have much larger commissions but people are more likely to hesitate before buying.
That means the best approach is usually to go for medium priced items around the $150 – $300 mark. At this price point, your commissions are good and the items still sell quite easily.
In most categories, you can find plenty of items within this price range. There are literally hundreds of consumer electronics items in that price range, for example.
Banner, Widget or Text Links?
Inside Amazon Associates, you’ll find a variety of ways to generate Amazon Affiliate Links. The easiest way to get a link on your site is by using a banner ad.Unfortunately. that’s about the least effective way to generate sales. Same goes for widgets. Nice and easy, but they don’t convert well.
Not only will you get fewer click-throughs because they look like an ad, but they tend to be clicked by people who are bored and not in buying mode.
By far the most successful way to refer a visitor to Amazon is by using a text link within the text of a post like I did in the second paragraph of this post.
How to Write to Generate Sales?
Keep in mind you’re writing to help someone decide what to buy. Don’t try to sell them something.Writing like that will make you seem like a pushy salesperson desperate for a sale. Instead, think about the kind of things someone who is almost ready to buy wants to know.
These are the easiest visitors to convert because in many cases they are just looking for a final piece of information to confirm that product X is right for them.
If you are the one supplying that information you stand a good chance of bagging a commission. Among the most common things, potential buyers hit the internet to research are price, features, and comparison to other products.
Make sure you cover these three areas when you write along with any other useful insights you might have.
Keep it balanced and write about both the pros and the cons of the item. Maybe there are more features on X but Y is half the price? Are the extra features worth the extra cash? Maybe the new version just isn’t as good as the old one? Say so. And say why.
By writing a balanced article you’ll come across to your readers as a trustworthy, reliable source. Nothing will prevent you from making affiliate commissions more than being relentlessly chirpy about every item you write about.
Why can't I just copy and paste the Amazon description?
Because that’s not helping anyone and copying content will harm your search engine rankings.There’s no harm in using the product description to help you write your piece but the end result needs to be in your own words.
What Should I Link To?
The best conversions come when you link directly to the product page rather than a search results page or a category homepage.It’s all about making it as smooth a transition as possible between reading about the product on your site and buying it on Amazon.
You’ll increase conversions if you link to products that have a lot of positive reviews – it’s one of the most effective forms of social proof there is.
- Link to Special Offers: Inside the Associate's admin panel you’ll find details of the latest deals. Everyone loves a bargain, so if the offers are related to your site content you’ve got yourself a blog post.
- Advanced Linking Strategies: Once you’ve generated your affiliate links, where are the best places to use them?
- Use At Least Two Links Per Post: It’s not just your mother who reads right to the end of your blog posts – visitors in buying mode do too. Adding a link to the end of your review will tend to convert well for that reason. But make sure there’s a link at the start of the post too when you first mention the product. It’s easier to find if someone stops reading your post halfway through but is still interested enough to click through to Amazon to find out more. If you have a very long review, try to include links frequently enough so that as one scroll off the screen another scroll on. That way, users don’t need to look too hard to find the link.
- Use Image Links: People considering buying products are naturally drawn to images of the product, so experiment with linking the image to the Amazon product page.
- Track Your Links: You can create multiple affiliate tags for the same account which allows you to track which types of links work best. You might use different tags to compare text and image links for example. You’ll definitely want to use a different tag for each website you have. For more in-depth tracking you could set up Goal Tracking in Google Analytics but the Amazon system works fine for simple tracking.
- Write Multiple Posts For Best-Selling Products: If you find that a particular product is creating a lot of interest it’s probably worth creating a number of posts about it. Review roundups, YouTube videos, and reviews of specific features – and what you can do with them – all help to stimulate buying mode.
Final Tip: Brace Yourself for the Holidays
Most affiliates do double the business over the holidays and many a lot more.The biggest times of the year are Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the few days either side.
It’s also pretty manic until Dec 25th. Other holidays like Memorial Day Weekend will also show a peak in income.
Keep an eye on the Amazon affiliates blog because that’s where you’ll see current and upcoming Holiday deals listed.
How To Add Amazon Links to Your Site?
Make sure you’re signed in to your Amazon Associates account. Then visit the page on Amazon for the product you want to sell.At the top of the page, you’ll see a link that says Link to this page. Clicking that will open a box.
Choose the Text link option and edit the link text to suit your content.
By default, the link text is a long product title which looks odd and too much like a sales pitch when used in a blog post or review.
You’ll get better results if you shorten the text to a two or three-word product name.
The next step is to copy the HTML code from the box underneath and paste it into your content where you want the link.
The Easy Way
If you’re not confident with cutting and pasting HTML code, or you just want to add links without going through the hassle of all the steps above, check out a WordPress plugin called Easy Azon.It lets you search for and add products from right inside the WordPress Dashboard, grabbing images and product info for you. It’s a major time-saver.
You can also use it to automatically show links to the appropriate international Amazon store so you can make money from international visitors, and quickly create professional-looking product information grids (great for review sites).
Many people ask me if Asian bloggers can join the Amazon affiliate, and the answer is yes
Do let us know if you face any problem signing up for the Amazon affiliate program. Also, please share your experience as an Amazon affiliate.
