Amazon Affiliate Program: What is it and How Does it Work?
An affiliate program, also known as an associate program, is a mutually beneficial partnership between retailers and websites that promote their products and services to customers. Here’s how it works: you create an Amazon Associates account, then place a link to an Amazon product on your website, which generates revenue when people purchase the product using that link (the affiliate link). You earn money through commission fees and through cost-per-click (CPC) advertising on the Amazon Associates platform.
Why do I need the Amazon Affiliate Program?
The Amazon Affiliate Program helps you monetize your website or other online presence. Even if you don’t have a huge amount of traffic, or if your audience isn’t necessarily interested in purchasing products from Amazon, you can still make money with them as an affiliate. All you need to do is find a unique way to get people on your site, then market products to them that they might want to buy. Pretty simple concept. So how does it work? Let’s dig into that! To sign up for an Amazon Associates account, go here. Once you’re logged in, click Associates Central at the top of any page. This will take you to a page that looks like this: In order to join, all you need is a valid email address. Next, select Get Started Now under Become an Associate. This will take you to another page where you can sign up for an account. You’ll be asked to enter your name, password, tax information (if applicable), and bank information. You may also be asked about whether you are signing up for yourself or on behalf of a company. If you are signing up for yourself, just put your own personal information in these fields. If you are signing up on behalf of a company, make sure to fill out every field correctly; otherwise, it won’t be approved by Amazon.
The History of the AAP
Amazon launched their affiliate program in 1996, which means that affiliates have been around for more than twenty years. The AAP was started because Amazon wanted to reward people for marketing their website by adding affiliate links, but at that time there was no easy way to do so. Amazon came up with a process for verification of websites and accounts that had potential to generate sales on their site. This system allowed them to reward affiliates who were successful in doing so. Over time, however, as technology has advanced and Amazon has grown exponentially into one of the largest retailers in America today, they’ve created additional systems to help make things easier for everyone involved. One such addition was called Auto Link, or ALink for short. ALink made it possible to link directly from your product pages rather than having to search through Amazon’s database of products every time you wanted to add an affiliate link. It also added something called Custom Links, which allows users to create custom links for specific products if they are not available in Amazon’s database. These two additions have made it much easier for sellers and affiliates alike to create links that point directly to items within their inventory. With these changes along with others, Amazon continues to be one of the best places online where people can earn money by referring other businesses or companies’ services or products.
How does the AAP work exactly?
Every product you see on Amazon has a small box called In Stock that shows how many units are available in stock. You can order them directly from Amazon, and every time someone buys your book through an affiliate link, you earn a percentage of its value. This percentage is predetermined based on which category your book falls under (e.g., if your book falls under Kindle eBooks > Romance, then you earn eight percent of all sales), so there’s no negotiating with affiliates. When someone clicks on one of your links and makes a purchase, you get paid for that sale. It’s really as simple as that! What about other sellers?: The AAP lets anyone sell products on Amazon—even if they don’t have their own products to sell. If you find something interesting, simply search for it on Amazon or add it to your cart, and when you go to check out, click Shop with our preferred partner at the bottom of any page. Clicking through will take you to another page where they list other sellers who offer that item; simply select one to buy from them instead of Amazon. Note that not all items may be available through third-party sellers, but many popular ones are. Once you choose a seller, just click Add to Cart and proceed as normal. How do I get started?: To join Amazon Associates, just fill out a short form on their website and then log into your account on Amazon. Go to Associates Central > Manage Your Content and Applications > Associate Links to create new links for each of your books. Be sure to use keywords relevant to your book title in these links. Then, whenever you want to promote your books, just share those links on social media and elsewhere online. Don’t forget to include them in your email signature too! Can I promote my books without joining Amazon Associates?: Yes!
Why does Amazon have an affiliate program?
As with any large e-commerce operation, Amazon has hundreds of thousands of products for sale on its website. In addition to selling these items directly, Amazon also allows third parties to sell goods on its site through the use of affiliate programs. These affiliate programs allow any individuals or businesses that are willing to promote Amazon’s products online via their own websites, blogs or other online channels. For example, a blogger who decides to join an affiliate program could place links in his posts that take visitors straight to Amazon’s product pages. If a visitor clicks on one of those links and then makes a purchase from Amazon within a certain time frame (usually 24 hours), then the blogger will receive some sort of commission as compensation for sending traffic to Amazon. The amount of money paid out to bloggers depends on how much business they bring in. The more sales they generate, the more money they make. How does Amazon pay affiliates?: There are two ways that Amazon pays its affiliates. First, when a visitor comes to Amazon through an affiliate link and then buys something on Amazon, the company will pay out 4% of whatever price was paid for each item purchased. Second, if a customer signs up for an account at Amazon using one of your affiliate links, you can get commissions based on what that customer spends during her first year as a member. This second type of payment only applies to customers in the United States. Will I earn money every time someone clicks my affiliate link?: It all depends on whether or not you have tracking codes set up. If you do, then yes—you will earn commission every single time someone clicks your affiliate link and makes a purchase on Amazon within 24 hours.
How much money can you make as an affiliate marketer on Amazon?
It all depends on what your website brings in—website traffic is worth $0.10-$0.60 per visitor, so if you bring a lot of visitors to Amazon via your affiliate links, then you can earn some serious cash! (To put that into perspective, over 28 million people visit Amazon every month.) Depending on how good you are at driving traffic to Amazon, you could earn anywhere from $100 to several thousand dollars per month view more...