How to Get Started With Amazon Affiliate Program: A Beginner's Guide

Amazon affiliate program is also widely known as Amazon Associates. It is a great method of monetizing your site. And the best part, the approval isn’t hard like it is for Adsense.

In fact, all you have to do is just sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program and get approved almost instantly.

Though we will be discussing this in detail below, first let me sum it up here once. Someone buys from your links to the products on Amazon, you get a commission fee.

When your earnings reach a certain limit, the amount will be credited into your bank account, or whichever mode of payment you select.

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About the Amazon Affiliate Program and How it works

It is just like any other affiliate program. The difference is that Amazon is a quite a reputed and huge online store which is trusted by many.

So, if people don’t purchase from your links, it won’t be because of trust issues at all.

Also, if someone lands on the Amazon site from your link and buys something else, you still get the referral fee.

The viewer can buy anything from the site and you will earn a commission as long as they reached the amazon site from your affiliate link.

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Is Amazon Associates free?

YES! It is absolutely free to sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program. Anyone who has a site can do it.

You’ll have to create affiliated links which have your code embedded into them. In layman’s language, affiliated links help Amazon track which purchases are made from your site’s links.

Also Read: Keyword Research – Short, Medium And Long Tail Keywords In Simple Words

How much does Amazon Affiliate pay?

There are fixed advertising rates given to each type of product ranging from stationery to electronics.

Here is a brief list of the fixed advertising rates,

Product Category
Kindle Devices & eBooks
Consumer Electronics & Accessories (excl. Data Storage Devices)
Mobile Phones*
iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus
Mobile Accessories*
Televisions
Apparel & Shoes
Health & Personal Care
Books
Music, Movies, Video games and Software
Cars, Motorbikes and Industrial Products
Toys and Baby Products
Watches
Jewellery (excluding Gold and Silver coins)
Gold and Silver coins
Home and Kitchen
Personal Care Appliances
Fire TV Stick & other Amazon devices
Luggage and Bags
Sports, Fitness and Outdoors
Office and Stationery
Musical Instruments
Grocery and Gourmet
Data Storage Devices
Major Appliances
Pantry
Tyres, Bicycles & Heavy Gym Equipment
Others

Fixed Advertising Rates
10%
4%
2.5%
2.5%
4%
4%
9%
8%
8%
5%
8%
9%
9%
8%
0.2%
9%
8%
10%
9%
9%
8%
8%
8%
2%
5%
8%
2.5%
10%

Amazon Affiliate Program Sign-up Procedure

Create your own website or blog (MUST)

This is kind of obvious. You need a website or a blog where you can put your affiliate links.

It is recommended to have or create a site that has valuable content and some degree of authority beforehand. Because people will only make purchases when they trust your recommendation.

If you crowd your site with posts selling products, it will look spammy and make viewers bounce off.

Visit the Amazon Associates homepage

After creating your website, the next step is to apply for the Amazon Affiliate Program.

If your target audience is in the US, go to this link to sign up for the program. If your target audience in India, go to this one.

You will have to create an Amazon account if you don’t already have one.

Fill in details to complete your Amazon Associates profile

You will be asked to fill in details about yourself and your website in the upcoming steps. Following are the things you’ll have to enter:

Basic account information: Your name, address and contact number
URL of your site: Enter the URL of your site on which you will be using the Amazon Affiliate links. If you have a YouTube channel, add that too.
Choose your Store ID: Usually, people keep their ID the same as the name of their website. Type a description of your site and explain what it is about. Select the categories of product that best suit your niche.
Traffic sources: Details like how will you drive traffic to your site and how many visitors you get every month
Verify using four-digit-code: Enter your phone number, press “Call Me Now,” and wait for the immediate call from Amazon. They’ll ask you to input a four-digit code, and once that is complete, your account will be approved.
Choose a payment method: Enter your card details. You can skip this for now, if you wish so.

How to get Amazon Affiliate Link

When your account is approved, you’ll be directed to your Amazon affiliate dashboard.

Here you can track your performance including metrics like an earnings overview, monthly summary, and total clicks.

There are many ways through which you can make use of your affiliate account.

You can place widgets on your site, place image or text links between the posts, etc.

I would strongly recommend installing the Amazon Associates site stripe on your browser.

With site stripe installed, you can simply go to Amazon site and open the product you want to link to. From the bar at the top, you can get a text, image or text+image link.