Amazon has one of the largest affiliate programs, with tens of thousands of creators currently monetizing their content by promoting products they find on Amazon.
We live in a world where content is considered king, and content creators everywhere are looking for ways to make content while still paying their bills.
Affiliate programs have become a massive player in monetizing content, whether you are monetizing a podcast, a blog, or even a YouTube channel.
Naturally, Amazon has one of the most popular affiliate programs out there with their Amazon Associate’s affiliate program.
Let’s find out if you can join this program and how much it can help you.
What is an affiliate marketing program?
Affiliate marketing programs are set up by companies that allow people to help promote the company’s products or services and receive a small piece of the revenue that comes from their sales.
Have you ever seen a video or read a blog where the content’s creator is pushing you to a specific link to buy something or giving you a discount code that they have so that you can receive a certain amount of?
The odds are that these creators are affiliates of the companies that they are promoting.
Who can sign up for Amazon’s affiliate program?
Just about anyone with an Amazon can go and sign up to see if they can become a member of the Amazon Associates affiliate program.
The affiliate program is primarily designed for content creators, so when you sign up, you will be asked questions relating to your content.
These questions might be like how big a following you have or what the link is to your website or social platform.
As long as you are a content creator and have a plan for how you will use Amazon’s affiliate program, there shouldn’t be too much trouble trying to set up an account.
You do not need to be a big-name influencer on Instagram or have one million subscribers on YouTube to qualify. You need to be able to show some simple proof of your content.
What do I do once I become an affiliate for Amazon?
Once you apply for the program and get accepted, you will be able to start promoting products in your blog, podcast, videos, or whatever else you may have.
As an affiliate, you can promote nearly any product that is available on Amazon. Then you will receive a small commission for every item that is sold using your affiliate link(s).
Amazon will provide you with the tools you need to get links to the products on their page.
This process is straightforward. As an affiliate, you can browse Amazon like you normally would, and when you are on a product, there will be options to get a link to that product that you can share with your audience.
Amazon also provides you with different types of links, banner ads, and the like you can better fit your content.
How much does Amazon pay its affiliates?
Amazon pays its affiliates in a few different ways depending on what products are being sold.
The reason for that is to incentivize affiliates to promote products that will be more beneficial to Amazon in the long run.
For example, they are willing to pay a little more when you promote Amazon’s products rather than anyone else’s products.
The fixed commission rate structure for some products.
You will earn a fixed commission rate based on what type of products you are selling for the most part.
On Amazon, these rates tend to range between 1% for products like video games and 10% for Amazon products.
On average, you can expect 2-3%
Amazon Associates bounty events.
Another way that Amazon pays its affiliates is through what is called bounty rates.
Bounty rates are more often associated with Amazon’s own products and services, and you can receive a fixed dollar amount for each new signup you bring on with the affiliate program.
Typically these commissions will be right around $3.00 for something like signups for a free Amazon Prime trial, or they can be upwards of $15 for registrations for Amazon business accounts.
The scalability of the affiliate program.
The question of how much you can make being an Amazon affiliate is a hard one to answer because it is going to vary wildly depending on how many people you can actually reach and get to take action with your affiliate links.
There are blogs and YouTube channels out there generating upwards of $10,000 per month with the Amazon affiliate program, but then there are also much smaller creators that might be lucky to see $12 come through in their first month.
In most cases, the Amazon affiliate program will not be the main revenue source for content creators, even if they are getting the views, clicks, and likes to scale their affiliate sales.
This program is a fantastic revenue stream for creators to add to their arsenal, but 99 times out of 100 won’t be where a creator’s living is coming from.
Different content strategies to make the most out of your affiliate commissions.
The best thing about affiliate marketing is that it is designed for creatives to monetize their work, so you can actually get creative with how you promote the products that you are affiliated with.
Whether you are a blogger, a streamer, a podcaster, or all three, you can find ways to make plenty of extra cash by promoting affiliate products.
Affiliate marketing through blog posts.
Blogs have the opportunity to make money with affiliate links because they can be found in search engines and then put the customers that are clicking on the articles in alignment with the products that they are looking for.
For example, let’s say that you have someone looking to buy a new laptop because they are starting their freshman year of college soon, but they do not know anything about laptops or what would be their best option for school.
Now, if you have a tech blog and an article suggesting some of the best laptops for first-year students at university, there is a good chance that you would be able to get this person to find your article, click on one of your links, and pay for the laptop that they are looking for.
You would do this by writing an article that explains what the top five laptops are for students and why. With Amazon’s affiliate program, you can likely find affiliate links to every laptop that you mention and then embed those links into your blog.
There are five opportunities for your reader to click through one of those links and then purchase a laptop from Amazon.
Then you get a commission for that!
(P.S. even if they don’t buy the specific product that you sent them to, you will still be commissioned for any purchase that they make on Amazon, as long as your link is what led them to the site in the first place.)
Affiliate marketing with videos or podcasts.
Video creators and podcast hosts alike will also use affiliate programs to monetize their content. This works slightly differently through these mediums than through writing, but in essence, the process is the same.
In videos and podcasts, the products will be presented to the viewer or listener more in the form of an ad where the creator talks about the product, why you should buy it, etc.
That will lead you to a link in their description that you can use to learn more and/or make the purchase.
This provides a great opportunity for newer and smaller creators to start monetizing their content before they have the following to attract higher-paid sponsors.
Conclusion
To recap, Amazon’s affiliate program is one of the largest affiliate programs available, and it is a great option for content creators looking to monetize their content by promoting other products.
In the affiliate program, you have the opportunity to promote all of Amazon’s best selling items and services and receive some form of commission each time a new customer purchases or signs up with your link.
How much your commission will be varies based on the type of product or service that you are promoting.
You do not need to be a big-name creator with millions or even thousands of followers to become an affiliate. You just need to sign up for the program and answer a few questions that will show that you are, in fact, a content creator.
As an affiliate, you can earn commissions either in the form of a fixed-rate commission or what is called a bounty, which is a fixed dollar amount you earn for “bounty events,” like a new customer signing up for one of Amazon’s subscription services.
Lastly, the affiliate program works for bloggers, video creators, podcast creators, and all other sorts of creators. You can get creative with how you make the most out of your affiliate commissions!
