Setting up an Amazon Affiliate Account is easy to do and much can be gained from becoming an affiliate of the Amazon Associates program.
Although this post refers to ‘Amazon Affiliate’, the correct terminology is Amazon Associate.
To clarify the terminology: Amazon Associates are paid an affiliate commission for the sale of products displayed on an Amazon website.
Amazon.com is without a doubt one of the most popular Market Places for online shopping. Therefore the Amazon programme is a great place for affiliate marketers to commence, and continue, earning an income.
As an Amazon Associate, you will never run out of products to promote.
Amazon’s Vast Range of Products
One of the great facts of being an Amazon associate is that you never need to fear a lack of products to promote.
Amazon is known to promote huge ranges of essential and interesting products.
This is valuable not only for you as an affiliate marketer, but it also provides online shoppers with the opportunity to choose a variety of items from the same online store. So very convenient for the purchaser in multiple ways, including shipping of goods to the purchaser’s home.
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An Example of the Enormous Number of Items Available in One Department
It is a fact that every Department within Amazon’s stores provides a wide range of products, all available for online sale.
Having a wide choice of products within an Amazon Department usually provides for a price range to suit prospective buyers.
For instance, I’ve just searched ‘Electronics for Kids’ to find over 30,000 items are available on the Amazon site, including a wide price range.
All of these items and thousands more wonderful products to choose from, and promote on your affiliate marketing website.
How great is that? You will never get bored or run out of ideas for growing your affiliate marketing website.
Something of great value is when a visitor moves from products promoted by you, to other Amazon products while remaining on your website.
This means that if your visitor is on a shopping spree and decides to buy a collection of different items, maybe toys, clothing, shoes, handbags, you will be paid for commissions on all those sales as long as they are purchased at the one visit to Amazon.
So What Do You Have To Do To Become an Amazon Associate?
Firstly, you will need to set up your FREE account with Amazon
To do this log in to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
Then – click on the ‘Sign Up‘ Button
A new page will open and an image, such as the one below, will appear.
- Click on Create your Amazon account
- This will open to another page where you can create your account.
When signing into your newly created account you will be asked to provide information such as:
- the name of your website
- what your business is about
- your interests.
My advice is to follow through the questions and provide the information that Amazon requires.
Learn about your Amazon Associates account by clicking on the Help tab, as it appears in this image.
When the Help tab has been clicked, 6 titles that contain important information will appear. This is where you will gain the information Amazon Associates require so as to abide by Amazon’s rules.
Other information such as Links & Banners and Product Advertising API can be found by clicking on the Tools tab appearing near the Help tab.
Amazon Affiliate Commission Rates
Earlier this year, April 2020, commission rates for affiliate earnings were reduced significantly. As to be expected, there was considerable dissatisfaction among some Amazon associates. This was understandable. However, I do believe that Amazon associates still have the opportunity of continual earnings, depending on their efforts.
My reasoning is based on the huge variety of products available within the various niches. As mentioned previously, you may be promoting garden tools, as an example. A visitor decides that while they’re online (on your website) to take a look at products from a different niche. Maybe car tyres, linen, hair care supplies – a range of products; who knows what they may search and purchase. When they make the purchase before leaving your website, you will receive the commission.
I do not know of any other affiliate programme that provides such chance of absolutely unexpected commissions.
Continual Focus on Your Amazon Site is Essential
Getting traffic to your website is essential to earning commissions. Commissions will not eventuate until such time people are regularly visiting your website, seeking information about products you are promoting.
Also, if commissions have not been earned within the first six months of your Associate’s membership, Amazon will advise that your account has been closed. In the event of this happening to you, I recommend continuing to add quality content to your website. I’ve known of website owners who have re-applied to Amazon’s Associate’s programme.
It can be expected that with regular publishing of quality content, the number of visitors to your website will increase. The greater the number of visitors to a website, the greater opportunity for sales resulting in commissions from those sales.
When you feel confident that your site is receiving adequate visitors, it will be time to re-apply to Amazon’s Associates programme
I trust that this information will assist you to join Amazon Associates and become an affiliate.
To learn exactly how to be an affiliate of any program check out Wealthy Affiliate’s FREE 7 Day Course and enjoy the benefit of 2 Free websites together with Free Hosting for your websites.
Should you have any questions regarding your Amazon Associates account please leave a message in the comments below.
Thank you for this informative guide, Valerie. I have been thinking about what I should use to monetize my niche website, and I have figured that the Amazon Associates affiliate program would be perfect for my website as you can literally have success within almost any niche through the affiliate program from Amazon alone.
As a wealthy affilaite member, I definitely can agree with you that it is the place to learn about the ins and outs of affiliate marketing.
Something I particularly like about Amazon is that they continually improve the Associate’s platform by adding new features. For instance within the last 12 months they have added the ‘One Link’ feature which I am enjoying. Very recently they have upgraded their ‘Native Ads’. I haven’t used the upgrade feature yet, but I will do so as we move into 2018.
Thanks very much Jacob for leaving your comment. I trust you will enjoy the Amazon Associates program as much as I do.
I have just set up an affiliate account with Amazon and I’m totally stuck with my next steps because it’s all a little overwhelming.
This article is just what I was searching for because especially the last part has helped me to understand some of the tabs in my Amazon affiliate backoffice.
Thank You very much, and now I feel more comfortable with exploring Amazon’s tools and features 🙂
Neil
Hi Neil
Thank you for leaving a comment.
I am so pleased that this article was of help to you in completing the setup of your Amazon affiliate account. You will now be able to enjoy all the wonderful features and tools that Amazon provides for their Associates.
I wish you much success.
Valerie
Thanks Lee for leaving a comment on my site. I am pleased that you found the information you needed to become an Amazon affiliate.
To answer your question about whether it is essential to have your own website to be an affiliate, my response is that you do need to have your own website. I have heard of people doing affiliate marketing without a website but I certainly do not know how that works.
However, it is extremely easy to set yourself up with your own affiliate marketing website by signing up as a Starter member of Wealthy Affiliate. When you become a Starter member you have access to 2 Free websites with Free hosting for those websites. You also would get access to 7 days of Free training. Should you decide to take advantage of the Starter membership I recommend that during those 7 days concentrate on building your first website and continue adding content over time.
You may find it helpful to read my review at http://affiliatemarketerssuccess.com/wealthy-affil…
I trust this information is of assistance but if you have further questions please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Best wishes
Valerie
Thanks for the step-by-step walkthrough Valerie. I was trying to sign up to become an affiliate for Amazon yesterday and found it quite confusing to be quite honest.
All sorted now, so thanks.
I noticed at the end of the article you recommend training that includes two free websites. Can I ask, is it essential to have your own website to be an affiliate?
If so, this could be a problem for me as I don’t have one?
Amazon is one of the best affiliate programs to get into. They offer a wide range of products. Also people are familiar with them, and likely already shop on Amazon, so there’s no question of whether they can trust this company.
Unlike other programs Amazon is one of the easiest to get into. They approve just about anything. The one downside, though, is once you’re in you have 160 days to make your first sale, otherwise your account is closed.
Thanks Chris for your comment.
I’m pleased to learn your thoughts on Amazon’s affiliate program. Like you, I think the program is great and I love the ease of accessing so many amazing products.
Thank you for mentioning the fact that unless sales are made within 160 days of acceptance into the program the affiliate account will be closed. I actually wasn’t aware of that fact and so I have today had it confirmed by Amazon Support. I will now include that information into my website.
Best wishes
Valerie
Hello there,
Great post, and very clear description for how to create an amazon affiliate account, how long it take to accept me in their program? and is there is any affiliate programs paying high commission than Amazon? and also i heard that may be they close the account if you didn’t make any sales for them is that true? Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your comment Ehab
I’m pleased to know that you enjoyed my post about creating an Amazon account.
To answer your questions:
1. You should be accepted by Amazon immediately after creating your account.
2. Yes, there are affiliate programs paying higher commissions than Amazon, such as ClickBank. Products promoted on ClickBank are digital, such as ebooks and video training and so they are in a different category to Amazon products. The great thing about being an Amazon Associate is the vast selection of products available to promote and therefore, it is easy to find a niche with related niches to build your website around.
3. It is not true that Amazon would close your account if you didn’t make any sales.
I hope these answers help and perhaps encourage you to become an Amazon Associate and get pleasure from their amazing range of products to work with.
Best wishes
Valerie
Dear Valerie,
This has been a topic of interest for me for quite some time as I often wondered how easy or difficult it would be to get into the Amazon Affiliate Program.
Would you say that Amazon is a lot easier to get into rather than in Ebay?
How are the commission rates here versus what would be at Ebay? Which is better?
As far as Amazon goes, if you don’t make a sale during a specific number of days, would they then remove you from partaking in their program ever again?
Thanks in advance for helping answer my questions. 🙂
Thank you so much for taking something I thought to be complicated and explaining it in much more simpler steps Valerie. 🙂
Wishing you all the best with your online success above and beyond the horizon,
~Angel
Dear Angel
Thanks so much for visiting my website and leaving a comment.
Regarding your enquiry about Amazon being easier than Ebay, I believe that Amazon is more effective than EBay.
In saying that, I can’t really speak with authority about Ebay because although I have considered selling on Ebay I haven’t done so as yet. From research, I found that Ebay takes approximately 12 per cent of the earnings from sales, which includes the cost of shipping along with their fee.
My way of thinking is that Amazon is great with their enormous range of products.
And, thank you for asking the question about whether Amazon would remove you from their program if you didn’t make a sale in a specific number of days.The answer is – no, you would not be removed from their program. Your membership would continue.
I hope that these answers are helpful.
My sincere thanks to you Angel for your time and interest in visiting my website.
Best wishes
Valerie