*Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure for further information.
Even though I joined the Amazon affiliate program I was sleeping on it. I didn’t believe I could fit it into my niche which is business and blogging. I didn’t really promote affiliate links for it.
But I learned that regardless of your niche, you can make Amazon work for you. Keep reading to find out how!
Table of Contents
What is the Amazon Associates Program?
According to Amazon, The Amazon Associates Program is a way for bloggers, content creators, and publishers to monetize their content. It’s basically Amazon’s affiliate program.
If your visitors click on the link and buy you earn a commission. The commission rate for each category varies. I would recommend visiting Amazon to find out what they are.
How does the Amazon Affiliate Program Work?
The Amazon affiliate program works just like any other affiliate program. You earn a commission when people click on the link and buy something.
You pick the products you want to promote to your audience. It’s like you’re curating a list of recommended products just for your audience. It saves them the trouble of doing it themselves.
How do I sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program?
To sign up for the program click here. The signup process is different than most affiliates.
Once you’ve actually filled out your application and submitted it, you’ll be able to start promoting. But you have to make 3 sales within 180 days.
If you don’t make those 3 sales within the time limit, you’ll be booted out of the program. If you don’t make the sales requirement, you can sign up again and try again. That’s what I did.
It was during my second trial that I made the sales requirement. This is the book that helped me make my sales requirement. I highly recommend it if you’re just starting out.
What is the cookie duration?
The cookie duration for Amazon is short. It’s only a 24-hour cookie. You really have to target people who’re ready to buy. It’s not for those who’re just browsing.
1) Get them to sign up for an Amazon Prime trial offer
You get paid whenever anyone signs up for a free trial of Amazon Prime. Amazon has an exclusive deal for students.
If they have .edu email from their school they can get prime for free for 6 months. Then after that, they can purchase a subscription at a discount.
You can write a blog post about Why they need prime, how prime saves you money, etc. The sooner you write this post the better.
The holidays are around the corner. People will want that free 2-day shipping so they don’t have to go into stores.
Plus, Amazon offers a discount on the monthly fee for Prime if you’re an EBT card user. If your audience carries one you can tell them about it.
Related: 7 Tips to Improve Your Amazon Affiliate Earnings
2) Write an Amazon Prime Day Deals Blog Post for Your Niche
You can write a roundup post of the best deals for your niche. You save them the hassle of searching themselves. Your audience will love the convenience.
Because of the pandemic, more people are interested in money-saving deals. Plus they are less hesitant about shopping in-stores because of the pandemic. More people will be interested in it this year than ever before.
Then a few days before the deals go live let your audience know that you’re publishing a blog post about it. Let them know that your post only has the best deals specifically for them.
Then the day of, send them an email in the morning. But only put a link to your blog post in the email.
Don’t add any links from Amazon. You can also create a social media post about your blog post. Remind your audience to bookmark the blog post.
If you want to learn more about being successful with Amazon, recommend the Money Makers Bootcamp course from Caroline&Tracy.
I bought this course myself. It taught me a lot about affiliate marketing, roundup posts, and email marketing.
3) Write a Black Friday and Cyber Monday Post
This is another good way to make money as an Amazon affiliate. You can write a roundup post of the best black Friday deals on Amazon.
You can write a roundup post about Cyber-Monday too. This will save your audience so much time.
Then you can schedule it to go out on those days. Usually, retailers will let customers know a few days ahead of time what’s going on sale.
Amazon is no different. Let your people know that you put together a post of the best deals on Amazon for those days.
Related: Amazon Mobile Getlink-An Easy Way to Skyrocket Your Affiliate Earnings
4) Promote Amazon Links on Social Media
Yes, you can promote Amazon affiliate links on your social media accounts. But there are some rules you have to follow.
You have to let your followers know that it’s an Amazon affiliate link. You can’t hide the fact that it’s an Amazon link.
You can share these links on your Facebook page too. The easiest way is to use the share feature on the Amazon stripe bar at the top of your Amazon account.
However, you cannot share your Amazon links on Pinterest. That means no pinning Amazon links to Pinterest.
How to share your links legally
An important thing to remember about Facebook is you cannot use ads to promote your Amazon affiliate links.
Whenever you post your link on social media you must add your disclosure before the link. You need to post two of them. One for the FTC and one for Amazon. To satisfy the FTC requirement post #ad, (ad), #sponsored,(paid ad), (sponsored).
But when it comes to Amazon you have to use a separate disclosure on your blog and social media sites.
To satisfy the requirement for Amazon state that as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
But I’m not a lawyer. I recommend you do your own research and get professional legal advice.
Just to be on the safe side don’t cloak your links. Some say you can but others say you can’t. I say it’s better to be safe than sorry. I wouldn’t use them just to be safe. So, no pretty links or bit.ly.
5) Write a Gift Guide
This is how I made met the Amazon sales requirement. Now is the best to write a Christmas gift guide. Gift guides can fit any niche.
Don’t think that you can’t write one because of your niche. You can use tools like Pinterest trends to see what gift ideas people are searching for.
Or just use good old-fashioned Google. Just start typing in the best gift ideas. Then you’ll see a ton of answers pop up.
If you want to learn how to write content that sells, I recommend this eBook. You’ll learn how to write blog posts that attract not just readers but buyers too.
6) Display Amazon Ads and Banners
This is something I didn’t think to do for so long. But it’s an easy way to get those clicks.
I think it’s easier to display an ad or banner sometimes. The graphics are created with the sole purpose of getting people to click.
With Amazon native shopping ads, they only display products that are highly relevant. So, there’s no guesswork involved. Just put the ads at the end of your blog posts.
7) Amazon Influencer Program
I think the easiest way to promote your Amazon affiliate links on Instagram is through the Influencer program.
You’re basically creating a page filled with your product recommendations. Amazon calls this page a store.
Instead of linking to a blog post or individual product you send them a link to your store. You post your store link in your bio and the swipe-up feature. If you don’t have the feature, just tell people to click the link in the bio.
The link in the bio tool I recommend is Smart Bio from Tailwind. With Smart Bio, you can add a link to individual posts.
My clickthrough rate drastically increased once I switched to Smart.bio. If you want to find out more read my blog post.
A Few Things to Remember
Here are a few things you must remember about being an Amazon affiliate. First, you can’t promote Amazon directly in your emails. You can promote your Amazon influencer store link in emails.
Nor can you promote them in eBooks, pdfs, or freebies. You can’t promote Amazon affiliate links in forums, groups, replies, or comments.
You have to have a privacy policy on your blog or website in order to be an Amazon affiliate. Plus, you need to disclose that you’re an Amazon associate. You need a separate affiliate disclosure for the Amazon affiliate program.
Another thing too is you can’t create your own buy buttons for Amazon links. You’re only allowed to use the ones Amazon provides their affiliates. These are the important rules you need to follow.
Must-Read Blog Posts
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The Best Free Affiliate Marketing Courses for Bloggers
10 Creative Ways to Make Money Blogging
Conclusion
I hope these Amazon affiliate tips helped you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or not.
You can make the Amazon affiliate program work for you. It took me two tries to make the sales requirement but I did it. I’ve made additional sales after that too. Yes, it is possible to still make money with Amazon.
Definitely download my new freebie! It includes a cheat sheet on how to make your first Amazon affiliate sale!
