The Beginner’s Guide To Amazon Associates Affiliate Program

Amazon is not only a great place for both buyers and sellers, but it's also an awesome platform for affiliate marketers.

There are people making thousands of passive income per month from Amazon alone by promoting other people's product. And that's the power of affiliate marketing!

In this Amazon Associates Guide, you'll learn the essential knowledge you need to get started with Amazon's affiliate program and start earning commissions online.

Amazon is the marketplace for people to sell and buy anything online. It is one of the largest E-commerce platform today. 

As for Amazon Associates, it is the name of Amazon's Affiliate Program. It allows people to promote any products on their platform and earn commissions for each sale.

Basically, this is how affiliate marketing works - make money online by selling other people's product.

(Click here to check out the step-by-step guidance for affiliate marketing and why it's one of the best ways to monetize your passion.)

Anyone can apply to become an Amazon Associates for free (with exception in some regions where Amazon is not supported).

If you have the interest in making money online, you can leverage Amazon Associates. But the requirement is that you need to have a website when you register.

So Amazon Associates is best for people who have a website or a blog. But even if you don't have one right now, check out my post on how to create a website for beginners.

It's very easy to set up a website today without any coding or programming. So don't be restricted by the fact that you don't have a website right now.

You'll have your own website running within a couple of minutes following my instruction!

Just take a look at the following 3 statistics...

The first 2 stats show that a lot of people trust Amazon that's why they're spending so much on it.

Whilst, the last stat shows that there's a huge market for affiliate marketers like us to make money by reviewing and recommending products. This is because consumers today rely a lot on "recommendation" to help make their purchasing decision.

You can literally find almost any product on Amazon. If you don't believe me, take a look at their Full Store Directory.

The good news for affiliate marketers is that you can promote any product you want on Amazon. Regardless of your niche, there will be products available for you to promote and make money.

Sounds great?

Being one of the top E-commerce platform in the whole world, Amazon must be very good at selling.

Just take a look at how their product sales page is structured, you'll understand how good they are at upselling:

They have refined their platform, sales page and all the structure to achieve the maximum result. I'm sure they are constantly improving and doing their best to stay as the top E-commerce platform in the world.

That's why we said Amazon is great at selling!

Another good thing about Amazon's affiliate program is that you don't just get rewarded for the products you promote.

As long as your visitors go through your Amazon affiliate link, you'll earn commission for all the products they purchase on Amazon within 24 hours.

Even if they don't purchase the product you promote but purchase other stuffs, you still make money.

So, it is possible to make a few hundred bucks when you're just promoting a few dollars product. Your visitor may go through your link but purchase a TV, laptop or any high-end products in the end.

However, the 2 main disadvantages of Amazon Associates is that Amazon offers a pretty low commission rate and their cookies only last for 24 hours.

I believe they have their reason for doing so. Despite that, people who know how to market can still make use of Amazon Associates to earn thousands per month.

Let me show you their commission rate:

As you can see, their commission rate is pretty low as compared to affiliate programs offering 20%, 30% or 50% commission.

However, there are many people who still can make hundreds and thousands of dollars just shows that Amazon is really good at selling.

As long as you can drive enough traffic to Amazon through your affiliate link, you'll make money.

1. Sign up with Amazon Associates here.
2. Add your website URL and fill up your website details
3. Enter your phone number to verify your identity

And you're done with the initial sign up. There are a lot more detailed steps so follow the video below for a more thorough guidance!

After completing the initial sign up, you can start exploring Amazon Associates dashboard. But in order for Amazon to pay you your commission, you need to complete the tax information. Check out the video below:

There's another problem with Amazon Associates - Not everyone is eligible to join (sadly)... Below are some of the common reasons why you may not be able to share this huge pie.

#1 Not Enough Content

Like I've said earlier, you need to have a website before you apply. You may be rejected if you have a brand new website without any content or very little content.

I would recommend you to at least have the basic content and structure in place before you apply. If they reject you because of not having enough content, you can still re-apply after you've put up more contents on your site.

Anyway, there's no point applying for affiliate program if you don't have a decent website yet, because having a website is one of the best ways to make money via affiliate marketing.

Some people may not agree with me because there are people making money through affiliate marketing without a website. Some use Email marketing, list building, social media marketing, etc...

Having a website and building your own brand is still my preferred way of doing affiliate marketing for the long term.

FYI, I've heard a trick to apply for Amazon Associates without your own website. You can use someone else's website to apply. I'm not sure how this works and whether this will work. It's just something I've heard of people doing.

#2 Too Much Ads

If your site has too much advertisements, Amazon may reject you as well. 

Having too much Ads can lose your website's focus and also make your website looks like a spam. Amazon doesn't want to see that for sure.

#3 Inappropriate Website

Sites that contain sexually explicit/obscene materials or promote violent/illegal materials. These sites will definitely be rejected by Amazon.

Unfortunately, there are certain regions where Amazon affiliate program is not available.

For example, there are certain states in the US are banned from having Amazon Associates due to tax law issues. What I know is that Amazon doesn't explicitly say which states are banned in their FAQ page.

If you happen to be in the state where Amazon Associates is not supported, don't be upset. There are other opportunities which I'll talk about later on.

For more information about Amazon Associates eligibility, check out this post. There are a lot more detailed information on this.

Once again, if your region does not support Amazon or you're being rejected by Amazon, it's not the end of the world! Because there are still many opportunities out there...

There are 2 main types of affiliate programs - Affiliate network and Private affiliate program.

Affiliate networks are large platforms that help companies to manage their affiliate program for them. So it's like a search engine for affiliate programs/products.

Whilst, Private affiliate programs are affiliate programs offer directly by the seller/company on their own website. So, they won't be restricted by the rules of affiliate networks but they'll have to manage the technical side of affiliate programs themselves.

Apart from Amazon Associates, there are actually quite a number of other well-known affiliate networks. They all have their own market share. And they are all profitable as long as you do it right.

1. ShareAsale
2. Commission Junction
3. Rakuten Marketing
4. Pepperjam
5. ClickBank (Digital products)

Check them out and spend some time to see which platform is more suitable for you and your niche.

Other than affiliate networks, you can also look for private affiliate programs in your niche. Sometimes, private affiliate programs may have a higher commission rate.

Just search in Google " YOUR KEYWORD + affiliate program", you'll be able to find most of the available affiliate programs.

In-text advertising networks are tools that help connect marketers with merchants to create a win-win situation for both parties.

For example, by joining VigLink for FREE, you get access to more than 30,000 affiliate program opportunities all in one platform.

Other similar platforms include Skimlinks and Infolinks. They are also good alternatives to Amazon Associates. 

You can sign up with many affiliate networks and affiliate programs for FREE.

You are considered an "asset" to these affiliate programs because they want affiliate marketers like YOU to promote their products. 

You just have to pass certain criteria, like having a decent website to run your business and work with them.

Once you're accepted, there will often be training and guidance provided to help you.

Amazon's affiliate program is a huge thing for many affiliate marketers. Many are making a 6, 7 figure income just by leveraging Amazon Associates alone.

So, if you really want to make some serious money online, don't miss out this opportunity of sharing this huge pie.

It's not going to be easy when you just get started. This is true for all other endeavors, right? But the rewards afterward will make everything worthwhile.

Imagine you can quit your job if you want to, making money while you sleep and travel. All these can be done by leveraging Amazon Associates.