Amazon Affiliate marketing, also known as the Amazon Associates program, allows you to earn commissions by linking to Amazon products on your website or blog. As an Amazon Associate, you earn a percentage of each sale you generate, with commissions ranging from 4% to 10% depending on the products. Setting up an Amazon Affiliate account is easy and completely free. In this post, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of how to set up your Amazon Affiliates account correctly so you can start earning money.
Step 1: Sign Up for an Amazon Associates Account
The first step is to head over to Amazon Associates and click on the “Join Now for Free” button. You’ll need to provide some basic personal information like your name, email address, password and address. Make sure you use an email you check regularly since Amazon will send notifications and updates to the email associated with your Associates account.
Amazon requires you to provide a valid website with original content. If you don’t have a website yet, just put in a placeholder for now – you can add your site URL later after your account is approved. However, you will need to have a website or blog to be approved for the program.
Once you submit all your information, Amazon will review it to approve your account. This usually takes about a day, but can sometimes take up to a few days.
Step 2: Create Affiliate Links
Once your account is approved, you can login to your Amazon Associates dashboard and start creating affiliate links. These special links allow Amazon to track referrals so if a visitor clicks your link and makes a purchase, you get credit for that sale.
To create affiliate links, you first want to find the products you wish to promote. Browse Amazon as you normally would and select items relevant to the content of your website or audience. When you find a product you want to link to, simply click “Get Link” and copy the generated affiliate link. Now you can add these links to your website or content.
I recommend being strategic with your affiliate product choices instead of promoting random items. Think about what your audience would enjoy and find useful. Getting targeted with your links will result in a higher conversion rate.
Step 3: Add Affiliate Links to Your Website
Now comes the most important part – driving traffic to your affiliate links!
There are a variety of ways you can incorporate affiliate links on your site:
-Product Reviews – Write an in-depth review of an Amazon product and embed your affiliate link to that item within the review. Don’t forget to add images and videos if possible.
-Blog Posts – Mention relevant products within your regular blog content and link to the items on Amazon. For example, in a post about the best coffee machines, you would link to your top recommendations.
-Resource Pages – Create dedicated resource pages such as “Recommended Gear for Hikers” and link to related gear and products. These types of affiliate pages tend to convert very well.
-Sidebars and Popups – Add affiliate links to sidebars, banners or popups so visitors viewing any page on your site will see them. Just be careful to not be too aggressive with popups as they can deter visitors.
Make sure your links are naturally placed and relevant so they provide value for your audience while earning you commissions!
Step 4: Track Performance
Once your affiliate links are live on your site, you can track their performance from your Amazon Associates dashboard. Log in and navigate to the “Reports” section where you can see important stats like:
-Total earnings
-Number of clicks
-Number of sales
-Top converting products
Based on performance, you may consider removing links to low-converting products or testing new links for better earning potential. Pay attention to which posts and pages result in the most affiliate sales as well so you can create more of that type of high-converting content.
Amazon also provides data on customer behavior and buying patterns so you can gain insight into your audience’s preferences. Use this to better tailor your affiliate promotions.
Final Thoughts:
Amazon Affiliate marketing is an excellent way for bloggers and site owners to easily monetize their existing platform. As you drive more targeted traffic to your website, you can start generating passive income from your content. Just be sure to provide honest recommendations to products you believe your readers will genuinely appreciate.
With these steps on how to set up your Amazon Associates account, you’ll be all ready to start your affiliate marketing journey!
