Amazon affiliate marketing for beginners
After my recent unplanned success with selling Amazon affiliate products l decided to put together a brief amazon affiliate marketing for beginners guide. In this amazon affiliate program review l will share with you how l went about it, screen shots of earnings and a few tips.
l prefer using reverse engineering. So l will start with pointing out a few DON'TS of Amazon affiliate program.This way you will start of the right footing. l actually started making money first then went back to read the terms and conditions. It is not worth the risk, your account can get banned.
1. Amazon does not allow affiliate to cloak links - just use them as they are or take advantage of Amazon's own link shortner.
2. No offline promotion of products - this actually surprised me, you are not allowed to share '... any Special Link in connection with an offline promotion or in any other offline manner (e.g., in any printed material, mailing, SMS, MMS, email or attachment to email, or other document, or any oral solicitation)'.
Even telling your friends by mouth to visit your website and click on affiliate links when purchasing products on Amazon... lol. Again, those who think money is in the 'List', sorry not with Amazon!
3. You must let visitors to your website know that you are an affiliate of Amazon and you will earn a commission if they make purchases through your links. l personally included a disclosure at the bottom of each page and included a link to the main TOS page. Just including the disclosure inside your About Me or TOS page is NOT sufficient.
'This is not in any way legal advise, you must read the terms and conditions by yourself before you start promoting Amazon products'.
How to promote Amazon Affiliate products.
Now, you are wondering what is the best way to promote Amazon products. Well, you can use paid advertising or create your own website on which you will promote Amazon products. l will only explain the latter, because that is the method l am using.
The very method that is taught inside Wealthy Affiliate for free.
My own interest is in reviewing 'make money online programs' while separating the good from the bad. It was never my intention to promote Amazon products on such a website. Not until l realized that visitors to my website were asking each other about where they can buy the reviewed program products or alternatives. So, l decided to place Amazon affiliate products inside the reviews.
Can you make money with amazon affiliate program?
The answer is a resounding YES! Of course, if you have the traffic visiting your website. l placed Amazon affiliate links during Mid July and l earned $17 and $117 in August, 2016. l then added the affiliate products to 5 more reviews and l am looking forward to an almost 100% increase in earnings this month.
l know the results are not typical because l already have traffic frequenting my reviews which is an added advantage over a total newbie. It however shows that one can earn money with Amazon affiliate program.
That is the beauty of affiliate marketing. l will be earning an extra $300 per month without adding any content to my website and only spending less that 15 minutes posting Amazon affiliate links. If l want to earn $ 600 a month, l need to write 5 more product based program reviews (just thinking aloud). What if l write one review per week of 1 000 words or less?
What about 1 per day for the whole year? (365/5) x $300 = $21 900/month --- HUH!
Tips on making money with Amazon affiliate program.
These tips are only accordance to my own experience and based on my opinions. The advise is no way the best.
1. Concentrate on writing content - content will drive traffic to your website. With traffic you can literally sell any related products to your website content.
2. Target low value products - most products l am promoting are below $20 each and most people would buy without thinking much about it. l am not sure if it is beneficial to promote high value product which people would not ordinarily purchase within 24 hours (life span of an Amazon cookie). Would you read a review of a product valued at $2 000 just by reading a single review then clicking on a link to purchase? In any case, if your referral purchases a high value product you are credited with the sale.
3. Optimize your links - Links to Amazon products placed inside content and banners in widgets are so far the worst performers in terms of conversions (below 1%). Amazon's native and recommended adds have the highest conversions (above 8%). Also use Amazon product pictures instead of generic stock photos or screen shot pictures. Visitors naturally click on pictures.
4. Amazon commission rates - they increase as you sell more products e.g ship 120 more products and your referral commission will increase to 7.5 %. Electronics have the lowest commission rates, around 4 %. You will need to put more effort and sell high priced items. (Amazon has since reviewed its commision rates and is now paying fixed rates).
5. Do not leave money on the table - l wrote most of these reviews 5 months back and never inserted Amazon affiliate links. l hope you will not make a similar mistakes.
6. Don't be salesy - l did not write my reviews with the intention to promote Amazon products.There is no-where in the review where l direct visitors to Amazon or implication on 'where to buy .....'.
7. Disclosures - One sure way of getting your account banned is by not placing Amazon affiliate disclosures on your website. l placed the disclosures after some warnings from visitors and it did not in anyway affect conversions.
8. Google Adsense vs Amazon - I have both on my site and disabled Adsense on posts with Amazon affiliate products. Amazon seems to out perform Adsense. l am still to carry out a controlled AB testing.
That's all folks. Making money with amazon affiliate program is possible. You need to place the offers in-front of visitors' eye balls and Amazon will do the rest.
If you are new to affiliate marketing and you want to learn how to go about it you have come to the right place. Join Wealthy Affiliate for free and learn how you too can earn money with Amazon Affiliate program.
Share your opinion or experience with Amazon Affiliate marketing in the commentary box below? l like will not hurt.
Recent Comments
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You have presented an excellent and simple model to follow. Like you I have spread myself too thin and need to focus on becoming an expert in one set of variables.
Thanks for the honest, open blog.
I have reread this post and it is an amazing tutorial for us novices to use and start reaping the benefits. Thak you for sharing this important information.
Regards,
Can you register for the amazon affiliate program before your site is officially up and running. i.e. before you have any real traffic? As I need the product images for the reviews. Stock images wont work as when reviewing power tools (my niche) you are reviewing a brand of tool.
Yes you can. In most cases they will accept you too. The registering process asks how much traffic you get, be honest.
Take note that once you make your first sale through Amazon as an affiliate, it triggers a review of your website. If your website does not have 'enough content', your application will be rejected. Amazon does not specify how many posts and how long they should be. Having 10+ long posts (1500+ words) including informational posts 'What is ----' and guides 'How to----' can make a difference. Also make sure your disclaimer is visible on from every page. Find attached an example of a rejection letter a friend of mine received.
Thank you so much. So best way is to wright all the content and then apply. If approved just add the images? Would that be a fair approach?
I use Amazon links almost exclusively as they have a way better conversion. It is the brand recognition I think that helps.
l totally agree with you, Amazon is well optimized for conversions. Already building exclusive Amazon affiliate websites. The earnings surpassed other programs by far.
Thank you for this, easy to understand as a total novice, now to find out the next step :D
Brilliant tips, made me see where im going wrong(very wrong) have 98 clicks this month(as l write this) with NIL conversion.
On my way to improve things,thanks so much l really appreciate.
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Hey I am new with WA . With what is better to start?
Hi Hermina,
You can start by promoting WA products following the Affiliate Bootcamp Course. That is the easy way to get started.
Go through the get started training and you will get so many ideas on which direction to take. Getting Rolling! . All the best.