Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular methods to make money online. And why not? It is a low-cost business opportunity that does not require much expertise. Additionally, after a bit of time, the income streams are passive.
Although several online retail giants have started their own affiliate programs, the Amazon affiliate program is still the first choice of a large number of publishers across the globe.
Amazon’s affiliate program, also known as Amazon Associates, allows website owners, YouTubers, and Social media influencers to earn a rate based revenue by recommending Amazon’s products to their audience.
Let’s find out how this program works.
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How Does Amazon Affiliate Marketing Work?
When a buyer clicks on an affiliate link and orders a product or service through that link, the affiliate is then paid a set commission for recommending that order. While the commission rate ranges by product category and some categories are listed with small commission percentages, affiliate marketing revenue can add up a substantial amount of money for affiliates who generate significant traffic.
Under Amazon’s affiliate program, buyers who click on an affiliate link have a 24-hour cookie placed on their device. For those 24 hours, all qualified purchases on Amazon will be calculated toward the affiliate’s commissions. Most of the value from the Amazon affiliate program is the benefit of revenues earned on products that you did not recommend but were qualified purchases within the 24-hour period.
Amazon has different commission percentages for different product categories. Let’s take a look at the different product categories that Amazon sets rates for.
As you can see, the number of product categories span various niche interests and blog types; you should consider choosing a niche that offers higher commissions. However, each of these product categories’ rates are subject to change. See the latest published rates here.
Amazon Affiliate Commission Rates
| Product Category | Fee Rates |
| Luxury Beauty, Amazon Coins | 10.00% |
| Digital Music, Physical Music, Handmade, Digital Videos | 5.00% |
| Physical Books, Kitchen, Automotive | 4.50% |
| Amazon Fire Tablet Devices, Amazon Kindle Devices, Amazon Fashion Women’s, Men’s & Kids Private Label, Apparel, Amazon Cloud Cam Devices, Fire TV Edition Smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV Devices, Amazon Echo Devices, Ring Devices, Watches, Jewelry, Luggage, Shoes, and Handbags & Accessories | 4.00% |
| Toys, Furniture, Home, Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden, Pets Products, Pantry, Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business & Industrial Supplies, Outdoors, Tools, Sports, Baby Products | 3.00% |
| PC, PC Components, DVD & Blu-Ray | 2.50% |
| Televisions, Digital Video Games | 2.00% |
| Amazon Fresh, Physical Video Games & Video Game Consoles, Grocery, Health & Personal Care | 1.00% |
| Gift Cards; Wireless Service Plans; Alcoholic Beverages; Digital Kindle Products purchased as a subscription; Food prepared and delivered from a restaurant; Amazon Appstore, Prime Now, Amazon Pay Places, or Prime Wardrobe Purchases | 0.00% |
| All Other Categories | 4.00% |
Different Ways to Earn Money via Amazon Associates
There are plenty of ways you can make money with Amazon Associates – a few popular ones are listed below.
Blog
Starting a niche website blog is one of the classic and efficient ways to drive affiliate traffic. If your website is properly optimized for search engines through SEO, it can draw a significant amount of organic traffic from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Your blog articles then direct this traffic to Amazon via your affiliate links.
To make maximum profit from affiliate marketing, you can consider writing posts that review or compare certain products. Besides this, how-to and DIY kinds of articles also work well for affiliate advertising.
So, if you have a niche blog, you can sign up for the Amazon affiliate program and get affiliate banners and links for your blog.
Undoubtedly, niche blogs take time and effort to build, but once they are established, they can pay off quite generously. If you’re looking to start a blog, you may read our guide on how to start a blog in 5 easy steps.
YouTube Videos
Today, YouTube is one of the most-watched video streaming platforms in the world. What makes YouTube so popular is that creators can easily share their content with a broad audience.
Moreover, you don’t need to invest in web hosting and website design. Anyone with a camera (even with a phone camera) can start a YouTube channel.
To get started as an affiliate marketer, you can start creating product review videos. Create a YouTube channel that is dedicated to one particular niche. You can add your Amazon Associates program links in the description of your video to earn commissions.
If you think Facebook is merely a social networking site where people share their photographs, post comments, and chat with friends and strangers, you are mistaken. Over the years, Facebook has turned into a popular platform to reach potential customers.
You can create a Facebook page to build a large audience. Once you have a good number of audience, you can use your page for affiliate marketing sharing your affiliate links.
Once your Facebook page is well-established, you can start posting content related to your niche. If you have good engagement with your audience, you can generate enough clicks and sales from your posts.
Combine Channels
As it might take some time to turn your Website, YouTube Channel, and Facebook page into a significant stream of income, you could combine all of these channels to build multiple income channels. Thus you can drive more traffic to Amazon and earn even more Amazon affiliate revenue.
How to Sign up for The Amazon Affiliate Program?
Signing up for the Amazon affiliate program is quite straightforward and completely free. The company has dedicated Amazon programs for different countries like they have different localized websites for different countries. For instance, if you’re from the United States, you will shop at amazon.com. On the other hand, if you’re from India, you will use amazon.in.
So you need to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program for the store located in your country. Below we have put together Amazon affiliate program links to some major countries.
- USA: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
- Germany: https://partnernet.amazon.de/
- Canada: https://associates.amazon.ca
- France: https://partenaires.amazon.fr/
- Mexico: https://afiliados.amazon.com.mx
- United Kingdom: https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/
- Japan: https://affiliate.amazon.co.jp/
- India: https://affiliate-program.amazon.in/
- Brazil: https://associados.amazon.com.br
To sign up for the affiliate program, visit your country’s Amazon affiliate program link and then click on Join Now for Free. Now from here, you have to take four steps to start using your Amazon Associates account.
After that, choose the account information for payment, and then add your website or YouTube channel on the next page. Once done, click on the Next option and then create your profile. Now you will be able to access your Amazon Associates dashboard.
Next, you have to get banners, widgets, or links to your site or YouTube channel. Choose product links or banners based on your website’s or YouTube channel’s niche.
For example, if you are running a tech-related blog, you can recommend some tech gear. Similarly, if you have a fitness YouTube channel, you can add affiliate links to health-related products.
Once your traffic is clicking on your affiliate links you will see conversions and grow your income.
These are some of the basics of making money with Amazon affiliates. Hopefully, the post will help you start as an affiliate marketer. As you progress, you will learn what works best for you and the niche you choose.
