What is the Amazon Associates Program – Make Money at Home
What is the Amazon Associates program? It is a free and easy way for you to make money from home. In this post I will explain how to join and how you can get paid by Amazon for promoting their products online as one of their affiliate marketers.
Hundreds of Thousands of people do this everyday
Online affiliate marketing is a fantastic way for anyone with a blog or website to earn passive income. This is not a hard endeavor to get started in, but it does take a little bit of training, which can be done online in your spare time from home.
This form of marketing is not only easy and fun, but it has exploded in the amount of earnings everyday average people can make for just writing and sharing information on their blogs and social media. Even having your own blog and website is super easy to obtain.
You no longer need any kind of technical experience to have your own website. You have probably seen TV ads from companies like Wix, Weebly and GoDaddy promoting how you can get a website in less than an hour. I create this website within a minute using Site Rubix.
Millions of people have their own website but many fail to understand how they can monetize it. By learning how to create affiliate marketing content that will get ranked in Google, and then becoming a free Amazon Associate (affiliate), is the easiest way to earn income.
Before you make money this needs to happen
Though it is true that anyone regardless of technical knowledge can have their own website, it is another thing to be able to make money with it. Before you can earn money you need to understand how the process works, otherwise Amazon will not accept you as their affiliate.
You first need to select a niche market that you wish to target. It could be anything you are interested in but it should not be too broad of a niche. I explain in more detail how you can find more specific niches in my post about sub niches here.
But for the sake of this discussion let us say that you chose Star Wars as your niche, and to be more specific, Star Wars collectibles. You would then start writing content on your website about different kinds of collectibles. It could be as simple as your thoughts and recommendations.
There are millions of people all over the world who are into Star Wars. These people will be your target audience in this niche market that you will make money from. But how will you get people to find your website on the internet?
Google, Bing and Yahoo will help you
There is a technique every person that has a website must learn how to do if they want to make money online. This is something you never see advertised on those TV commercials from Wix, Weebly and GoDaddy, but it is essential. It is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
SEO is a process you incorporate into the writing of your website content that will get the search engines to notice your website and rank it accordingly. The higher you get ranked, the more people will see your content on Star Wars collectibles.
Knowing how to do SEO is not as hard as some people think, and I explain where you can learn this down below. But once you have your content being ranked in the search engines and you start sharing your website links on social media, people will start following you.
The more people that follow and click on your website links, the more money you will be able to make. Now that you are getting traffic coming to your website, it is time to apply to be an Amazon Associate. You will be accepted once Amazon sees that you are a legitimate website.
The making money process is simple
Now that Amazon has accepted you as their affiliate, how will you make money from your website content? By placing relevant affiliate links inside of your blog posts and articles. These links will send people to Amazon to make a purchase and you get paid a commission.
Example. Let us say you did a blog post about a Darth Vader statue collectible, telling how detailed it is and why a Star Wars fan would want it. The person reading your website post is convinced that they should purchase it. They see the Amazon link and click on it.
They are now sent to the shopping cart on Amazon with the statue there ready for purchase. They make the purchase, Amazon ships them the statue, and Amazon adds your commission (up to 10%) into your Amazon Associates account, which is paid to you at the end of each month.
How does Amazon know that the sale came from your website? Once you become their affiliate you will be given a unique ID number that will automatically be placed in every link and ad they freely give you. This is how they know who to pay the commission to.
How you can make even MORE money
One of the great advantages to being an affiliate in the Amazon Associates Program is you can get commissions on the total of the order. Here are two examples. Your website reader purchases the Darth Vader statue and also a new case for their iPhone.
The following example is even more-cool. Your website reader clicks on your Darth Vader affiliate link but then when in the shopping cart decides not to purchase it but instead purchases a brand new iPhone X. You will still get paid a commission.
The items purchased by the person sent to Amazon does not even have to be what you are advertising on your website. As long as they entered Amazon from your affiliate link, you will get paid a commission on the total of their order, whatever it is they buy.
Since Amazon is the best online retailer at getting its customers to buy more products on one order, you as their affiliate can earn more money in commissions. It is one of the reasons why the Associates Program is the most successful affiliate program online.
How you can Get Started Now
There are practically an endless amount of products that you can promote on your own website that Amazon sells. All you have to do is select a niche you want your website business to be about, write SEO content on that niche, and apply to Amazon.
The image above is a simple representation of how the process of making money online in affiliate marketing with Amazon works. Learning how to get started in becoming an affiliate marketer is also simple and very inexpensive. It is actually FREE to start.
The #1 Rated online training program that will teach and provide you with everything you need is called Wealthy Affiliate. You will not find a more inclusive affiliate marketing training program, with no upsells, anywhere for such a low cost.
Matter of fact, if you click on the above image, it will take you to Wealthy Affiliate and allow you to watch the free video lesson on how you can make money as an affiliate in the Amazon Associates Program. This is one of 10 free lessons you get at WA.
Get absolutely EVERYTHING you need for success
When you become a member of Wealthy Affiliate you get to start your first 10 lessons and build your WordPress website all for free. Just like those other website building companies at the beginning of this post, your website can be built within a minute without programming.
But that is the only similarity WA shares with those other companies. Wealthy Affiliate gives you so much more for so little money. You will learn how to write SEO content, how to get ranked in Google, and how to make money in affiliate marketing with Amazon and hundreds of other companies.
The only things WA cannot give you is your determination and patience to reach success, which normally takes between 6 to 12 months of solid learning and building. That is really a short period of time when you consider how long it takes to build a business from scratch.
Just like Amazon, Wealthy Affiliate has some nice earning income perks too. The monthly membership cost for everything is only $49.00 and you can build up to 10 different affiliate marketing websites for no extra cost. Come join me at WA for free today! If you have any questions, please leave them below.
Hi Robert,
Just wanted to stop in, and say thank you for this article explaining what the Amazon associates program is. This has been very helpful and encouraging.
I was initially under the impression that it was incredibly difficult to make decent money using the Amazon associates program, because of the high competition, and only 10% commissions. After reading this article, I have now reconsidered.
I had no idea that you could earn commissions even if your customer did not purchase the product you promoted. Being able to earn money if or when they decide to purchase another item instead is a great benefit to the program. This could be a massive game changer for anyone looking to get started affiliate marketing, using the Amazon associates program.
I’m definitely going to tackle this as my next online project.
I thank you again for enlightening me to the massive opportunity of affiliate marketing with Amazon.
Best Wishes,
Darren
You are welcome Darren. Many people think that they will only earn a commission on the initial product they are promoting. However Amazon which is known for getting buyers to purchase more than what they originally planned by bundling other items, will also pay commissions on those products too.
As long as that customer entered Amazon through your affiliate link, no matter what they buy, you will earn a commission, even if they do not buy what you are promoting. This, along with the big brand name recognition of Amazon, is why anyone with a website or blog can successfully monetize it in the Amazon Associates Program.
This is what i am doing !!!! As long as you are having fun and doing what you love you get the chance to be happy,do what you love, meet new people, learn new things and sell sell sell!! Amazon is great!! Making money is great! You need to have a catchy selling feature, a good website reviews! This is such a great way to learn through Wealthy Affiliate! They have helped me expand, learn new things, met new people and sell my hobby ! Everything works out in the end for the best if you give it a try !
I agree Trevor. With the millions of products available on Amazon, anyone can find a niche they like or in a hobby of theirs and make money by just blogging about it. When you enjoy what you do people can sense it from the content you write and will be more inclined to purchase from Amazon through you affiliate links.Wealthy Affiliate is a awesome place to learn how to do all of this in a most cost-effective way.
Hey Rob,
Thanks indeed for sharing this great information.
I must admit this post was an eye opener for me.
I have read a lot information that seemed to suggest that Amazon can not help affiliates earn a living of selling items from Amazon.
I will certainly become an affiliate and start earning commissions from Amazon. You have cautioned that one needs to be patient.
Will surely take action.
Keep up the good work.
Wishing you all the best.
The problem many people have when trying to make money as an affiliate of Amazon is that they rush the process. Only websites that have a lot of content written up on the niche and products they are promoting, will do well.
When an affiliate marketing website is heavy on the information and light on the selling, it will be more profitable. I know that sounds backwards but it works. When you help people instead of sell to them, they are more likely to buy what you are promoting.
Amazon and Wealthy Affiliate make a winning combination for those who desire to earn money online in affiliate marketing. As usual, you have laid it out in a simple-to-understand and easy-to-read way. Great job.
Bob
Thank you Bob. One of the MANY benefits for becoming a member of Wealthy Affiliate, other than the extremely low cost and high quality, is their training on how being part of the Amazon Associates Program can make anyone with a website a lot of money.
The entire concept is fun when you think about it. Like the example I give above. If you really like or are into something that you know many others are too, like Star Wars, you can make a ton of money from home. Plus this can be done 24/7/365 and while you sleep. Now that is my idea of a fun way to make money from home.
Interesting post, Rob. Thank you. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that if you don’t have a good niche or your niche is too broad getting those sales would/could be more difficult.
Do you have any suggestions as to how to find a good niche using Amazon for anyone who is not sure? Thanks in advance.
Well Merry it really comes down to your own ability to help your website readers with information through your content. If you can effectively promote products that will send your website visitors to Amazon, once there Amazon is very good at getting people to buy their products.
This is good for the affiliate marketer because you will still get paid a commission even if what they buy is not what you are promoting. As long as people enter Amazon through your affiliate link, you will still get paid no matter what they decide to buy.
As for finding a niche through Amazon, I would say that if you do not have a niche of your own you wish to promote, go up on Amazon and search for Best Sellers. Perhaps that might stir up some ideas for niches that you may be into promoting. I hope that helps you out.
Hello so good to see you again and you are right with what you said. I believe that Amazon is the easiest affiliate to join because I am apart of it and it is so amazing the number of monies that can be made.
Good to see you again too Norman. You are correct in saying that it is amazing the amount of money that can be made as an Amazon affiliate. They are masters at getting people to spend money on their website, and if you were the affiliate that sent those customers to Amazon, you will get paid a really nice commission.
Though I am an affiliate of several different affiliate programs, I must say that becoming an Amazon affiliate was one of the easiest. All anyone needs is a website or blog promoting any product that they sell and Amazon will pay commissions for every order that is placed through you. It is quite a simple process.
Great article! Never had much luck with amazon, might have to give it another shot! Anyone serious about making money should definitely check out Affilorama. It teaches you how to make serious money online w/ affiliate marketing. I quit my job and now I make ALOT more money all online 🙂
Keep up the great content! 🙂
I have checked out Affilorama, and though they offer some good training and tools, they do offer several outdated techniques that can get you in trouble with Google SEO. Plus they offer upsells and charge way too much for training, community help and support, hosting and WordPress website building resources.
If I am going to pay $67 a month for an Affilorama premium membership, I deserve to get everything I need without having to spend an additional $200 and up for the rest. That to me is a ripoff. Everything that they upsell you on can be had elsewhere for much less cost, including up-to-date training.
Fortunately I found Wealthy Affiliate, which is rated much higher by Google Trends than Affilorama. I can get absolutely everything Affilorama offers, plus much more including current and weekly live training webinars, for only $49 per month and with NO upsells.
I am not saying members of Affilorama are not making money, I am sure they are. But so are a large portion of the Wealthy Affiliate members, with a majority making really good money being an affiliate in the Amazon Associates Program. Give WA a try and see for yourself. We have many members who are or were Affilorama members too.