When you think of Amazon you might think of spending your money but did you know there’s a way to use the platform to make money as well?
The Amazon affiliate program is a great way to make some extra money. It’s a popular side hustle for many people whilst a lucky few even manage to turn it into their main source of income.
For all the success stories, however, there are thousands of people who never quite manage to get their Amazon affiliate business off the ground.
If you like the idea of starting your own Amazon affiliate business but don’t want to end up falling into that latter category then you’re in the right place. This article will talk you through exactly how you can create a successful and profitable Amazon affiliate business.
What is the Amazon Affiliate Program?
The Amazon affiliate program, known as Amazon Associates, is an affiliate program that allows people to make money by referring sales to Amazon.
Usually, the program is used by bloggers and website owners and allows them to recommend Amazon products to their audience via links. When a user clicks on these links and makes a purchase, the blogger or website owner earns a referral fee.
With the growth of blogs over the past decade, affiliate marketing has become a key feature of digital marketing strategies. It allows website owners to create bespoke links to products and gain a fee for each purchase that’s made on their recommendation.
The Amazon affiliate program works by allowing users to generate unique links to products that they can promote on their website or other platforms.
The commission rate for Amazon Associates differs depending on the category that the product falls into. For example, luxury beauty items can fetch a commission rate of 10% whilst toys or furniture will make you a commission of 3%.
Being part of the Amazon Associates program does come with certain rules and requirements. These include:
- You must disclose to your audience that you may make a commission from the links included on your chosen platform.
- You cannot make fake or exaggerated claims when recommending a product.
- You should avoid referring to direct prices as these change on Amazon frequently.
- You can’t use link shorteners on affiliate links.
- You shouldn’t use your affiliate links in emails, ebooks, or offline material.
So how can you get involved…and be successful?
Find Your Niche
One of the best ways to make sure your audience will click on your links is by finding a good niche.
Having a strong niche will ensure that your audience is actively interested in your content and in turn, the products that you recommend and link to.
When considering your niche, think carefully about what you can offer people. It’s no use creating a website on a topic that you either know little about or have next to no interest in. If you can find something that you’re both passionate and knowledgeable about then you’re on to a winner.
You also need to make sure that Amazon sells products that relate to your niche. There would, after all, be no point in writing about a certain topic and linking to unrelated products…
Create a Strong Website
Most of the time people will use a website or blog as the foundation for their Amazon affiliate business. A high-quality website is a great way to naturally feature your unique Amazon Associates links.
You may already have a website or blog that you’ve been growing for some time or you may be looking to create a new website with the help of a website builder. Once you’ve built your website, you can begin growing your audience and populating it with content.
A high-quality website focuses on offering a great user experience. This means you’ll need to think about things such as your page load speed, navigation, accessibility, and content quality when building your website.
If you’re starting your website from scratch then there are tonnes of different website builders that you can choose from to help you including WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace. All of these platforms have great blogging and content management facilities, making it simple for you to create content to naturally feature your affiliate links within.
You can also feature your unique links on social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook but wherever you want to promote them, creating a strong online presence is essential.
Set up your Amazon Associates Account
Once you’ve decided on your niche, you’ll need to set up an account on the Amazon Associates platform.
Setting up an account is super simple. All you need to do is navigate to the Amazon Associates page where you’ll need to input information such as your name, the accounts, and websites where you’ll be placing your links and website traffic stats.
It’s important to remember that you need to set up bespoke affiliate links, you can’t just use the normal URL for an item. To do this you need to navigate to the Product Links section of your Amazon Associates account dashboard.
Generate Content (and include your links!)
The key to creating a successful Amazon affiliate business is to ensure you’re placing your links across your chosen platform as naturally as possible.
You don’t want to risk alienating your audience by spamming them with affiliate links. An unnatural link placement may also lead users to question the quality of your review. Do you genuinely recommend the item or are you just trying to earn commission?
Natural link placements, such as within a relevant blog post or product review, won’t raise red flags to users.
You can create content specifically around a product you want to promote, such as an in-depth review, but make sure that the content provides a user with a value other than your link to the product.
When creating a content plan, think carefully about the type of content you produce. What types of content are the most likely to convert users into customers?
For example, a product review has a good chance of earning you a commission. If a user is reading a review of a specific product then this suggests they are already debating making a purchase, you just need to give them the final push.
A content-rich website will help you to build up a larger audience as you naturally begin appearing in search results and users find the content they’re looking for on your website.
Make sure that your links are easy to spot too. Use a relevant anchor text and consider using a different font color for links to help them stand out from the rest of the text.
Quick Links
- How to Boost Your Amazon Sales
- Top Ways to Analyze Competition On An Amazon Listing
- Riley Bennett On How to Start Amazon FBA Business From Scratch
Summary | How To Create A Profitable Amazon Affiliate Business in 2023
An Amazon affiliate business can be incredibly profitable and once set up, can often result in a passive income (e.g. something that earns you money with little upkeep required).
To be successful you’ll need to first build up an engaged audience. The more relevant visitors you can attract to your website by creating quality content and investing in your SEO, the more likely you are to convert users into customers.
Whilst a profitable Amazon affiliate website doesn’t require too much attention once up and running, you’ll need to be willing to put in the time and effort to get it going. If you do though, you could be earning commissions in no time.