Amazon Affiliate Marketing is one of the quickest and most profitable ways to build an extra income source from online sales. However, it also has the potential to grow into a full-time online business.
Amazon was a tiny book retailer on the internet with a short marketing budget. Rather than spending a large sum on promotion, Amazon chose to pay a commission to people who will recommend Amazon to their peers.
Amazon calculates the affiliate cut on the price that excludes the marketing value.
Amazon started its affiliate marketing website with the difficulty of drawing in the right traffic, converting visitors into customers, generating more clicks, and getting more sales. Luckily, this method worked and is serving millions of affiliate marketers worldwide to make money from the comfort of their homes.
Do you know what Amazon affiliate marketing is?
On our blog, we talked a few times about the Amazon Affiliate Program and Amazon Affiliate Marketing. It has pros and cons. But, how should you promote your Amazon Affiliate links? How to set up Amazon Affiliate Program? How to maximize your affiliate transactions on Amazon? Let’s go ahead and answer these questions.
Amazon Affiliate (Associate) Program
Back in 1998, when Amazon Affiliate Program was introduced, there weren’t that many affordable means for online entrepreneurs to make money.
The only problem with Amazon Associate Program was to produce substantial revenue as the program needed the affiliates to market a ton of books. Fast forward to 2020, Amazon has extended its stock to virtually anything from couches to laptops. Now it’s easier to make serious money using their affiliate marketing program.
Want to know how much top affiliate marketers are making? Check out our research stats.
Amazon’s affiliate program still offers a moderately low payout compared to similar affiliate marketing networks. Still, with a colossal customer base, solid product line, and unbeatable credibility, chances are – you can market your goods and make money effortlessly.
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To earn money with the Amazon affiliate program, you have to study the market well and then promote the products wisely. Now, Let’s go over the pros and cons of becoming an Amazon Affiliate.
The Pros of Amazon Affiliate
Amazon is a very busy website, and there are many reasons you should consider joining the Amazon Associate program. Here are some of the pros:
- Amazon is a popular brand, and customers trust it.
- Amazon Affiliate Program is free to register.
- Amazon has millions of products you can promote.
- No thresholds that you have to meet to be accepted to the program.
- Amazon offers functional tools to help you market specific goods or a section of goods.
- Amazon provides a good and detailed reporting system that allows users to analyze the clicks and items that have been sold.
- Amazon also offers direct deposit payments to its affiliates’ bank accounts.
- Amazon provides excellent customer service to the buyers, thereby lowering the danger of reversed commissions.
- If the potential buyer, upon his visit, purchases a different item instead of the one that you have promoted, you still receive a commission.
As you can see, Amazon has a great list of benefits, some of which even beat other big affiliate networks.
Now that we’ve looked at the pros of becoming an Amazon affiliate let’s look at the cons.
Cons of Being an Amazon Affiliate
Everything that has an upside has a downside too, and the Amazon Associate Program is no different. Here are a few cons of being and working as an Amazon Affiliate.
- Amazon has a low commission rate as opposed to other online affiliate programs. Amazon has a fixed commission rate for the reward programs: $3 for Prime referrals, $5 for Audible referrals, and $15 for business account sign-ups.
- Amazon session cookies last 24-hours only, which means if your visitor doesn’t buy within a 24 hours timeframe, you won’t get paid. But, if they do add a product to their shopping cart, the cookie then lasts 90 days.
- Doing email marketing? Then Amazon isn’t for you since their affiliate links can’t be shared in email newsletters, apart from the ones that combine blog posts. This rule in their ToS frustrates the affiliates since email marketing is an excellent way to distribute offers to your readers.
- No commission for items bought outside the country. For instance, if you’ve referred an item on Amazon U.S. and the user purchases it from Amazon U.K., the commission will not be credited to you.
- Amazon offers limited payment methods such as direct bank deposits, Amazon gift cards, or cheques. One of the most common payment methods – PayPal – is not supported by Amazon.
After looking through the pros and cons of being an Amazon affiliate, you can make up your mind if this will work with your particular business model.
Suppose you have a big list of email subscribers and prefer to have your hard-earned cash transferred to your PayPal account. In that case, the Amazon affiliate program is definitely not for you.
On the other hand, if you only deal with U.S. customers and know they will stay on the U.S. version of Amazon website, and most likely purchase quick (because it’s a hot deal with a time limit, such as Black Friday) – you might do very well with their program.
Before getting started, check out how you are allowed to promote your Amazon affiliate links, to make sure you comply.
How to Promote Your Amazon Affiliate Links?
There are many ideas you can utilize to promote your Amazon Affiliate Marketing links. Which are the best?
Amazon Affiliate Links in Blogs
Blogging is the traditional way for affiliates to earn money using the Amazon affiliate program. Bloggers build a broad topic site where they employ a wide variety of affiliate programs and other monetization alternatives to earn money. Making money with Amazon Associate Program through a blog can be accomplished by:
- Creating content for your blog about the goods available on Amazon.
- Covering the bestsellers and top products.
- Writing reviews for new items.
- Promoting seasonal deals.
These days, everyone shops online. Many bloggers can write blog posts related to various products. For instance, a cooking blogger can market cooking utensils. A hairdresser blogger can sell hair accessories or styling tools.
Amazon Affiliate Links on Social Media
You may leverage social media platforms and share your affiliate links instantly or interlink them in the content of your post. You have to state that the link you are posting is an affiliate link to comply with U.S. regulations. Social media users are not often in a mood to purchase something, so your affiliate links should be neatly mixed with non-sales or non-affiliated content.
Amazon Affiliate Links on YouTube Videos
You can produce videos with product reviews. The advantage of posting videos for earning money is that you can offer tours, tutorials, or other visual content that encourages customers to decide whether to order the product or not.
Read here our complete guide to selling affiliate products on YouTube.
Amazon Affiliate Links in Emails
Many successful affiliates have an email marketing software and a very basic two-page website (or just a killer landing page) that markets their affiliate links on autopilot and generates passive income. They build a landing page as a lead magnet that draws the target audience to subscribe to their emails or receive something via email.
Once they subscribe, they are sent to the other page, presenting information about the affiliate product.
Affiliate marketers email users with product details, additional important information, and offers.
Read the Amazon ToS carefully because adding links directly to the email is NOT allowed. You have to send your visitors to a landing page first.
Adding Amazon Offers to Your Current Business
You may link the amazon products to your other company offerings to sell your products and build an additional income stream. If you market a product or secure a sale, users get to see other similar items and buy them too. This can serve you even better.
Use everything in your power to promote Amazon affiliate links wherever possible.
How to increase sales through your Amazon Associates account?
Now let’s find out what you can do today to increase your income and boost your sales from Amazon affiliate products.
When you suggest a product to your visitors, market also related products, and try to sell them too. For instance, when you go to McDonald’s and order a burger, you’re also always asked if you want fries with your order. Usually, they are cheaper than if you were to buy them separately. Do you also want a salad? Extra sauce? Larger size coke? That’s “related products”. Many goods can be improved with accessories or work best together with other products.
Study the Amazon referrals list
Amazon Associate Program is great in letting you know which items your referrals are purchasing and whether you are connected to those items or not. If the item they have purchased is not added to your product list, you can now go ahead and add them. Market the goods and examine if they are a good fit for your audience.
Monitor your analytics
Utilize the analytics system that Amazon offers to the sellers and affiliates. Measure the number of clicks on a particular product, understand what is trending, and examine other data to determine what your target audience is willing to pay for.
Conclusion
Amazon’s affiliate marketing is a great way of making money online. Nevertheless, it needs more than simply building a website, making a blog page, and posting a few affiliate links here and there. You need to understand customer demands, provide relevant information, and provide resources to meet those demands.
Today, affiliate marketing has become an effective performance marketing strategy. Many famous affiliate marketers have discovered digital marketing as a key to their online success. You can also grow to be a successful Amazon affiliate marketer if you are eager and serious about it. With a commitment to your business and having the necessary expertise, you can make a good passive income stream from being an Amazon Affiliate.
Why don’t you start right away?
Last Updated on April 10, 2024
