A Beginner’s Guide to the Amazon Affiliate Programme

Amazon is one of the largest marketplaces in the world which is used by numerous bloggers and big companies to sell their products. The need to resort to Amazon to enhance their sales laid the foundation for the creation and development of the Amazon Affiliate Programme, which is more commonly known as the Amazon Associates programme.

What is the Amazon Affiliate Programme?

If you have a website or a blog that you want to monetize, then you can be a part of the  Amazon Associates programme where you will find a plethora of affiliate money making opportunities to explore. With the help of this programme, you will be able to add links to any items on Amazon website to your own website.

Every time a person clicks on the link to the Amazon site or makes a purchase using your link, you will receive a commission. As a matter of fact, for every qualifying purchase, affiliates will be rewarded with advertising fees in addition to the commission that they will receive from advertising.

Here’s the scenario; you have just set up this great new website/blog on your favourite subject which is canvas wall art. You regularly post new content and reviews of various products involving canvas wall art and have noticed that a lot of people are beginning to take interest in what you have to say.

You then discover a couple of fantastic pieces for sale on Amazon and decide to tell your readership all about them and place a link to these items on your site. This link contains a hidden code which tells Amazon that it was yourself that referred these customers.

Your readers click the link and everytime they purchase you get a commission. Now get this, it doesn’t matter whether they purchase the canvas wall art or anything else you still get paid for everything they buy as long as they have come via your link.

They may end up buying a television, shoes or a garden shed. You will receive commission on all of these. This is the attraction of becoming an Amazon Affiliate and you may even end up having a whole ‘shop’ of canvas wall art items on your website all  linking back to Amazon.

What Can You Do as an Amazon Associate?

The commission structure of Amazon is relatively low. However, that is no reason for you to turn away from its Associates programme. This is because the programme offers a myriad of advantages to the associates. On top of that, the programme is very easy to use.

Therefore, you do not have to be a highly skilled digital marketer in order to make most of the opportunities that you will be afforded. All you have to do is follow the basic guidelines that Amazon provides you, and you will be well on your way to making some good money from your blog.

There is a provision for you to create an eStore. This serves as an individual website where you can showcase the Amazon Amazon products that you have decided to sell. It is not a one sided programme at all. Amazon tends to be very cooperative with its associates on all levels.

In fact, Amazon will suggest you products and even include a link in your blog if you let it do so. Moreover, you have the option of adding individual products to your website to achieve a customized or a personalized look.

Why Select the Amazon Associates Programme?

There are a number of reasons why people have been joining the Amazon Associates programme in masses. Here are some of the reasons that you might want to take into consideration before becoming an Amazon Associate:

Good Reasons

a) Amazon is a Trusted Brand
There are very few people that you will meet who have not heard of Amazon. This online retailer has spread to nearly every corner of the globe, and will continue to expand in the near future. Anyone who calls the Amazon Associates programme a scam has clearly never looked into its workings, benefits and potential. It is a brand that you can trust with your eyes closed.

b) Commissions on High Value Products
As mentioned before, the commission structure of Amazon is not very appealing. The current deal is a 4% commission. However, if you can promote a product that has a high value, such as a camera, then the commission rates will be significantly increased.

c) People Buy in Bulk
The fact that people usually buy more than one item at a time can be a huge advantage for any Amazon associate. When you are sending people to the Amazon website through your links, you will receive a commission on whatever they buy.

In other words, they may not necessarily have to buy the product that you have linked them to. Just send them to Amazon, and the world’s biggest online retailer will take care of the rest for you.

d) Convenient Integration
Amazon often goes out of its way to help its associates in whatever way it can. One of the main ways in which Amazon offers assistance is through the supply of tools and widgets. These tools and widgets will allow you to integrate the sales channel into your website.

e) Holiday Booms
Holiday seasons are extremely special for people who have monetized their blogs or websites using the Amazon Associates programme. Buyers love to go on shopping sprees during the days leading up to a holiday. This is the perfect time for affiliates to send as much people over to Amazon as they possibly can.

Every time these holiday shoppers make a purchase, the affiliates end up earning a commission. These commissions eventually pile up and amount to some handsome profits.

f) Amazon Offers a Huge Range of Products
The variety of products available on Amazon is simply unbelievable. They have nearly every product that buyers could hope to purchase online. It is no longer about the books anymore. There are countless promotional options. Hence, most niches find something or the other that is appropriate for their audience.

How to Become an Amazon Associate?

Joining the Amazon Affiliate Programme is very easy. The first thing that you need to do is set up your own website or your own blog. Once you have done, you need to prepare a description for your website, define your target audience and document all the advertising or affiliate listings on your site.

The next step is to head over to Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. If you already have an account, then simply log in and click on “Join Associates”. You will be asked to enter your email address and select a password for your Associates account. As you proceed, you will be required to fill in personal details such as your name, address, city, contact information and zip code.

Before the creation of the account is finalized, you are advised to make use of the tools for potential Amazon Associates. Join the discussion forums, visit the Associates blog and resort to other help features to learn more about the Amazon Associates programme.

Once you have filled in details about your website, your Amazon Associates account will be officially created. You can then start posting Amazon links on your blog and begin earning commissions.

Final Note

As you may be aware Amazon offers different websites depending on where you are ie .com in the USA and .co.uk for UK plus other country variations.

Decide which market you want to be involved in and sign up with therelevant website. You may decide to offer you rservices in more than one country which then opens up your customer base massively.

If you are a beginner I would recommend Skimlinks for this. They automatically re-direct your customer to the site relevant to their own country so for example a customer in the UK clicks a link that is for a product advertised on the USA site, Skimlinks will re-direct them to the same (or similar) product on the UK site; and you still get commission!

They do take a small commission of their own for this service but it save you a massive amount of headache, at least until you know how to go it alone.