No ACTIVITY! Amazon Associates Account?

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Updated 8 years ago

If you are a newbie to the whole online affiliate business thing, or maybe to the Amazon Associates Program? At any rate, as a marketing affiliate, you've landed here because you want a little clarity about your status with Amazon. Likely you received a seemingly psychologically-disturbing email and now you are all worried about not having referred any sales and the possibility of being rejected from amazon.

Here I'm going to detail a few things about the Amazon affiliate program requirements, so it'll almost seem like an Amazon Affiliates Program Review, but that was not my intent in writing this. I just wanted to provide a little help where I could.

Okay, so here's how it goes in a nutshell...

So when we're talking about affiliate sales, Amazon is one that most everyone knows about and what happens? Newbies rush to join-- and honestly it feels quite nice to say, "I'm doing affiliate marketing with Amazon..." But there's a fly in the ointment here. You're not making money with ads on your website!

Obviously you have a your site up and running, and whether you actively participate in blogging or just want to make money with ads on your website, your content has to be on point (e.g. great, has keywords that makes sense and offering solutions to peoples problems), that is, if you expect to make any sales by having visitors redirect to links to your amazon affiliate website, amazon affiliate store, Adsense in google, affiliate programs or sales landing pages for some of your other products.

Why? Because if your content isn't GREAT, then you will not get adequate traffic to drive business (by having enough folks to click your ads).

Just as a refresher before I get into the details of your Amazon Email... Here's A Quick Outline of How To Create Great Content:

At the top of the list is making sure that you have at least 15 keywords in your post
Ensure that your article is answering a question for folks- providing a solution
Ensure that your article isn't B-O-R-I-N-G! Ask your neighbor to read it for you and get feedback from them.
Don't make your content too long. People will not want to read it if you do! >>>***This is something that I struggle with, but I am working on it. Lol.***<<<
Include shareable stuff in your post like recipes YOU like and links to FREE stuff
Communicate with your reader so they can feel a natural connection with you. Simply ad a silly story about something that happened to you (but make sure it somehow relates to what you are posting about)
Engage your visitors. Use a quick 1 or 2 question poll or quiz. Another great way to engage your visitors is to ask them to comment about some of their stories.
Include links to your other FUNNY or otherwise INTERESTING posts
Include maybe one external link to somewhere like Wikipedia, a .gov or .edu site
Add photos and a video/vlog here or there to your articles to build connection

These tips will definitely help with maximizing your traffic potential.

Now About That Email You Received From Amazon

In the email, it states that you must have made a referral to your amazon affiliate website. Side Note: Some people get it confused with your amazon affiliate store, although you actually have to build your amazon affililiate store with products you promote that are related to your different niche websites. Ideally one amazon affiliate store per niche website; however, many bloggers who make a living through affiliate business opt for just NOT BUILDING A STORE and simply redirect to links for products. That's what I prefer to do. Frankly because it takes too much time to build a store and from what I've read online, the conversions aren't nearly as great as with basic linking.

I digress.

Now again, the email you got it also probably said something along the lines of being rejected from Amazon if you have not made an actual sale from your links within 180 days.

It then goes on to explain a few things you can do to increase probability of referring a sale (e.g. SEO, paying for advertising, increasing traffic, etc.) and they detail how you can close your account now as an option, though I wouldn't do that if I were you. I'd just push harder to get my site some traffic and get it ranked in Google. Kinda like motivator-juice.

I suppose this is why all of the experts and online marketing affiliate gurus all encourage newbies to make sure they have enough content up and have had their site up for at least six months before applying for any affiliate programs.

I believe that this email isn't nothing major to worry about. Why? Because Amazon also gives you the option to re-apply for the affiliates program if you're ultimately rejected from amazon. But again, don't worry. If you worry, you will likely get discouraged and feel like your efforts up to this point have been futile. BUT YOU ARE DOING GREAT! Even reading this far down right now show that you are dedicated to your online success.

That said, just reach out to some folks in the blog-o-sphere who know about your online journey (maybe even some whom you've supported in the past) and ask them to help you out by visiting your blog post and making a purchase. You'd be surprised by how many people will respond willingly to help you if you just ask. Sales 102. Kindness 101.

Getting Paid When You Make Money As An Amazon Affiliate

Remember that in order for you to get paid through the Amazon Affiliate Program, your sales have to be at $100.00 (USD) and for each $100.00 Amazon will deduct a $15.00 processing fee (not to be confused with the Amazon FBA fees for those of you who are Amazon FBA sellers-- which is an entirely different post for another day).

Take the extra step to calculate your payout amounts and if you want to hold off until you accumulate more than $100, so you don't keep dishing out $15 here and there, in processing fees.

A Final Word

If there is one thing that I want you to get from this post is to value your time, because when it's gone, it's gone! Since you are a member here at Wealthy Affiliate, TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE of the step-by-step Affiliate Bootcamp courses. You and I both know that each of them is short enough in duration so you won't lose interest and the detail is far greater than anything you've randomly googled and searched in YouTube.

And ask away! If you've got a question, someone on here will provide you an answer, so there's absolutely no reason why you won't have more than enough traffic, at the very latest within 180 days! Yeah, but that's so long as you are doing your part. Success doesn't come easy, you know?

If you stick with that, your EASY button will be well within reach. That's when the money will start to flow like the Nile River.

You can make money with ads on your website, and doing so with Amazon is realistic, so long as you have enough traffic!

Hope this helps someone.

Best of luck,

Nerissa S.

P.S. Here's the link to the Amazon Affiliate Program Requirements. No where does it mention your sales within the first 90-days. Go figure.

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operatin...

#20MinutesOfMeTime Vlog, #OnlinewithNerissaS.