Amazon Associates, also known as the Amazon Affiliate programme, is a great way for individuals or businesses to monetise their website by placing affiliate links for Amazon products on their site.
If you’re a blogger or own a website which has a steady stream of traffic, you could potentially generate an income by placing affiliate links on your site. When someone makes a purchase by clicking on one of those links, you get commission.
What's the opportunity?
For some, Amazon Associates is used to generate a little extra income, but for others it’s a significant revenue stream and potentially has the opportunity to become a business.
Affiliate marketing is growing, and is most effective when the content environment is complementary of the product being promoted. In terms of this content environment, to be considered as an Amazon Associate this can be an active website, blog, YouTube channel or app.
An audience may be engaging with your content due to your authenticity, passion and knowledge, and therefore they are likely to have an element of trust in your content not always achieved as quickly in an ad environment. This will provide more of an opportunity for you to direct them to a product on Amazon, allowing them to easily purchase something they really want or need, and allowing you to reap the rewards!
How do you become an Amazon Associate?
Well, it’s pretty straightforward:
1. Sign-up.
If you have a website, YouTube channel, app or blog you can go straight to the sign-up page. If not you’ll need to set this up first.
Then you’ll need to enter your Amazon account info (or set up an account), provide the relevant website URL’s and select a preferred Store ID.
2. Provide some info on your site.
At this point you’ll be asked to describe the purpose of your content and select the topics you wish to target, as this will help Amazon establish who your audience might be. Amazon will also ask how you drive traffic to your site and your monthly user numbers. Once you’ve inputted your payment info you’ll receive access to your personal dashboard and then it’s go time!
3. Promote!
Once you’ve generated your Amazon Affiliate Link you can use the Product Link Tool to find products that would align with your content. And then it’s up to you!
Amazon have some rules and regs for their affiliate partners, but aside from the ‘musts’ there are some basics that most associates follow:
Top tips
- Make sure your website or content has a core focus: this will allow you to attract a specific audience and encourage loyalty with these users
- Post regularly so you can incorporate multiple affiliate links
- Make each post or article count: give it a clear purpose and don’t stuff too many links in that aren’t relevant
- Think about your content strategy: post reviews, comparisons and how-to guides
- Promote, promote, promote. Actively direct traffic to your website as the more users, the more opportunity!
