When people ask me if Affiliate Marketing is a legitimate way to make money online, I usually respond, would Amazon have an affiliate program if it wasn’t?
Amazon, a leading online retailer, has an affiliate program called Amazon Associates. I’ve been a member since 2013 and have promoted Amazon products since I joined.
If you’d like to learn how to drive traffic and make money with Amazon Associates or any other affiliate program, check out Wealthy Affiliate.
There’re many different opinions on the Amazon Associates program, but today I’d like to share why I use the program and why it’s probably a good option for you too.
4 Reasons I Use Amazon Associates
1. Everyone Trusts Amazon
By far the #1 reason I use Amazon is they’ve built so much trust with their shoppers. Almost anyone online today that visits your affiliate link will know what Amazon is and most likely has made a purchase before.
To be honest, in most niches, you can probably find an affiliate program that pays more, but from experiences, people are more comfortable making a quick purchase at a site they trust like Amazon.
2. Commissions Aren’t Really That Low
Depending on your niche, some of the fixed commission rates aren’t that low compared to other affiliate programs in that niche. For example, Amazon pays a fixed 4% commission on all electronics. Most affiliate programs in that niche pay 1%-3% and usually have a lot of restrictions on what items they pay commissions on.
Besides the categories with fixed commission amounts, you can raise your 4% all the way to 8.5% based on your volume of sales.
I do not promote many Amazon products on this blog, but I can easily reach 6.5% each month and occasionally hit 7%.
You can learn more about Amazon’s set commissions categories and volume bonuses on their FAQs.
3. Wide Variety Of Products (add-ons)
On this blog, I only promote a few products available on Amazon, but I’d say 95% of my sales come from products I do not promote and are completely unrelated to my niche.
The great thing about Amazon is they have products in almost any category. When you start to promote Amazon products, you’ll find that if you link to a cool set of headphones people may buy those headphones, but they’ll also buy a new pair a shoes or baby clothes. You’ll also find that most of the time, they will not purchase the item you promote, but will buy items in other categories.
The reason I think this is a significant advantage is that it leads to more sales. When you’re promoting another affiliate program in your niche, they usually only have items related to your niche. If visitors decide they don’t want those headphones but are in need of an entirely unrelated product, they’ll visit another site, and you just lost a sale.
4. Just Generate Clicks and Let Amazon Work!
Amazon is a master of turning visitors into buyers. When you send your readers to Amazon, they already trust the site and know that they can get any product they want.
Even if they don’t buy the product you promote, Amazon works to suggest related products and other products that most people purchase at the same time.
With Amazon Associates, you need to generate as much traffic (clicks) to Amazon as possible. Then sit back and let Amazon turn them into sales and commissions.
How To Join Amazon Associates?
It’s completely free to join the Amazon Associates program, so watch out for scams that send you an invite in exchange for a fee.
They are not very picky when it comes to who they accept, so most people get accepted. If you’d like to learn more or join, visit AmazonAssoicates.com.
As mentioned, almost everyone gets accepted to Amazon Associates, but if you can’t drive traffic to Amazon, you’ll never make any money.
I recommend building a website or blog and promoting Amazon products throughout your site. To learn more visit My #1 Recommendation, or Learn 7 Ways To Increase Your Blogs Income Overnight!
What’s your thoughts on the Amazon Associates Program? I’d love to hear more in the comments below! 🙂
I need to give Amazon Associates another try. I did try it around the time I started my website and I didn’t have a lot of content then and so I eventually got kicked out of it when I didn’t get a sale in the 90 period they give you.
Now that I have much more content and more traffic then when I started, I’ll give it Amazon Associates another try as I think I’ll have much more success this time around.
Hey Brain, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Funny to see that your site is on PS4. I just sold one a few weeks back and received a huge $1.90 commission…. I don’t know what affiliate programs you’re currently using, but Amazon might not be the best option. It would be very interesting to see if the trust of Amazon could outway the commission rate in that category.
Feel free to share thoughts and results.
Brok