What is the Amazon Affiliate Program about? Is it the BEST?

Just about any product you can purchase on the Internet you can find an affiliate program that you can join and make a tidy living from as an Affiliate Marketer, so let’s jump right into probably the biggest program there is and let’s see, just what is the Amazon Affiliate Program about?

If you are new to Affiliate Marketing, it can be a little daunting just where to go with literally thousands of Affiliate Programs out there ready and waiting for you to join.

With around 1 million affiliates and climbing, Amazon is the largest online e-Commerce store selling pretty much anything and everything you could possibly think of, then why not take advantage of the fact that everything is in one place?

Affiliate marketing is a $9 billion/year industry. If you don’t quite understand the affiliate marketing business model and how it works, check out this article first.

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• Product: Amazon Associates
• Website: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
• Price: FREE
• Owner: Jeff Bezos
• Recommended – YES

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Before we get started – Do I really need a website to make money as an Amazon Affiliate?

If you are serious about building an online presence then it’s imperative that you create your very own website.

Don’t worry, with the advancement of technology, nowadays creating your own website isn’t as difficult as you may think, especially if you find the right training platform.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is a breeze.

Just think about it logically.

When you own a website you are in control with how you present it to the masses, who are out there literally searching for pretty much anything.

In Google alone, there are somewhere like 65,000 searches every single second, which is around 5.6 billion searches in one day alone.

That’s an enormous amount of people searching for a lot of stuff and I bet a vast majority of those searches could be linked to Amazon products so wouldn’t it be the obvious place to become an affiliate?

You bet it is!

You decide just how and what you promote and that is easy because you can use the Amazon website to research the products that people are purchasing.

All it takes are these 4 simple steps

Decide what your website is going to be about and that can be anything. This is called a niche. If you are unsure of just what a niche is and how to go about finding one then you can read an article I wrote here.

Create your website.

Research what people are searching for relating to your chosen niche. This is called Keyword Research.

Create great content for your chosen niche giving value to your prospective customers, with additional links pointing to Amazon.

A great way would be to write unique product reviews. Amazon loves great unique product reviews.

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How does the Amazon Affiliate Program work?

The business model as an affiliate marketer is a very simple one and with very little outlay with regard to costs, with no overheads, warehouse, and inventory to take on board, and you will find that all affiliate programs work in a similar fashion.

The Amazon Affiliate Program is a referral commission program, which simply means that if you refer customers to Amazon through one of your links you get a commission for everything they buy.

When a customer comes to your website through whatever means, Google, Bing, Yahoo or social media just to name a few, and then click on one of your Amazon links, they are tagged as your referral.

Anything they purchase from here on for the next 24 hours without exiting your link you will get a commission.

I know in reality that this wouldn’t happen for the full 24 hours but just think how many times have you been on Amazon to purchase a single product only to end up buying several?

I know I have many times!

It is a fact that customers will purchase more than 1 product whilst on Amazon through your affiliate link!

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How many commissions can you earn with Amazon

The new Amazon commission rates as of 1st March 2017

Prior to the 1st March 2017, the commission rates were tiered which meant the more you sold the more commissions you made with a starting 4% all the way up to 8.5%.

Granted at month-end the percentage dropped back down to 4%.

Amazon had been hinting for some time now about changing the commission structure which doesn’t appear to be a bad thing, as several categories still retain the same rate.

Amazon is going to keep pushing instant shipping with their “Amazon Prime” which can only mean better things for the affiliate. Faster shipping means more sales which mean more revenue.

Some category commission rates have gone up with “Pantry” (previously groceries) doubling from 4 to 8 percent.

This is a good thing as more and more people are buying their food online increasing the spending flow, in turn giving you an extremely profitable niche to get involved with.

But hey, as you are here and asking the question, what is the Amazon affiliate program about, an assumption can be made that you are thinking of maybe participating in their affiliate program, and therefore these recent changes will not affect you.

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Why is the Amazon Affiliate Program so popular?

People like the Amazon affiliate program because it is worldwide, which creates lots of tangential benefits.

There are plenty of reasons and I have just touched base on a few.

• Covers a vast majority of the markets – If you are in a market in which there are physical goods to be sold, you can probably use Amazon, and there’s a good chance Amazon is one of the best affiliate options for you.
• Massive inventory – With over 600 million products
• Plenty of information – Because so many people use it, it’s easy to find information about promotional tactics, technical questions, etc.
• Big platform = tangential sales – You don’t just get a commission for the product you recommended but commissions on everything your customer purchases, and people tend to buy lots from Amazon.
• Receive payments in your bank account anywhere – With the help of services like Payoneer.

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Pros and Cons

Pros

1. Great for physical products.
2. Conversions are very good due to its popularity.
3. People will purchase other products after clicking on your link.
4. Amazon is full of information and provides lots of ways to promote offers.
5. They offer a fulfilment facility. They will store your own inventory and become your order management system.
6. A trustworthy organization.
7. Target audiences in specific countries.

Cons

• Very little in the way of information or digital products.
• Percentage rates could be better
• Bans are quite severe if you don’t adhere to their rules.

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The process of acceptance for the Affiliate Program

The Amazon Affiliate Program is 100% free to join, and the registration is straightforward but your account will not become active until Amazon has vetted your website.

Amazon is a trustworthy world brand and they want to keep it that way, so it is only right that their affiliates are marketing their products in the correct manner.

If they don’t like your approach to the way you are marketing their products they will ban you, but that doesn’t mean a total ban providing you aren’t constantly abusing their rules.

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Amazon Products convert Higher than most

Amazon is the #1 e-commerce store in the world and is a highly trusted company and thrives on providing the best service possible to their customers.

Providing you have all the necessary things in place with regard to your website then customers are more likely to purchase from you rather than other sites promoting similar products from Amazon’s competitors.

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So is Amazon’s affiliate program worth trying?

Yes, absolutely.

Their affiliate program is one of the most respected out there and they respect that their affiliates are helping build the brand even further.

Obviously, their commission structure could be better!

The beauty of Amazon is the wealth of information available to you and makes it so much easier selecting a great lucrative niche with a lot of pulling power.

If you already have a niche idea that is not too popular then check out Amazon first to see if they have products related and the chances are they do.

I use Amazon all the time when it comes to researching niches and product reviews for my business, just like you do yourself when searching out product reviews before you buy.

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Feedback and Comments

I hope you found this review useful and I welcome any comments.

I obviously don’t know where you are in your research or whether at all you are interested in trying to make a living through the Internet, but if you are and want to know more about what I do for a living and you have some spare time on your hands, then I hope you will find my review on my number 1 recommendation a worthy and interesting read.

Don’t forget I am here to help in any way I can so fire away with any questions you may have.

Your friend

Mick