How to make Money with the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program

Do you want to learn how to make money from the Amazon Associates affiliate program?

My name is Dale and I’m the founder of Blogging Her Way. After much trial and error with the Amazon affiliate program, I finally figured out how to consistently earn from it as a blogger.

If you have ever wondered how to make money from affiliate marketing as a blogger, and especially from the Amazon affiliate program, read on for my best tips! And if want to learn all the steps to make money with the Amazon affiliate program, sign up for my full course!

Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission to fund my coffee-drinking habit if you use these links to make a purchase. You will not be charged extra. So it’s a win for everyone! Please note that I won’t link any products I don’t believe in or don’t resonate with my blog site. Thank you!

What Is Amazon Associates?

Amazon Associates is the name of Amazon’s affiliate program.

If you aren’t already familiar with affiliate marketing it’s an arrangement where a company pays commission to affiliates who drive sales for them. In this case, Amazon pays commissions to bloggers who drive sales to Amazon through affiliate links on their blogs.

The Amazon affiliate program has actually been around since 1996, making it one of the longest-running affiliate programs on the Internet. And it’s a great option for bloggers in any niche since Amazon sells just about everything you could imagine!

For example, if you have a craft blog, you might link to craft supplies from Amazon on your blog. If you have a travel blog, you could link to travel gear and essentials from Amazon. And when someone clicks your unique affiliate link, you earn a commission on everything they purchase.

How Much Can You Earn?

The Amazon affiliate program pays affiliates a percentage commission on all sales that they generate through their unique affiliate links.

The commission rate depends on the product category, but it ranges from 1% to 10%. While this is lower than the commission rate for many other affiliate programs, you can easily make up for it in sheer volume of sales. Amazon is the number one retailer in the world, after all!

You also earn a commission on everything someone buys after clicking your affiliate link, not just the item they originally clicked on. So let’s say someone clicks on your link to a coffeemaker, but they end up buying the coffeemaker and some coffee pods, and a new winter coat. You would earn a commission on their entire cart, not just their coffeemaker.

One thing to note is Amazon only has a 24-hour cookie window, which means someone needs to make a purchase within 24 hours of clicking your affiliate link in order for the sale to be tracked and for you to earn a commission.

This is generally not an issue, since Amazon does a good job of converting visitors to sales, and most people make a lot of “impulse buys” on Amazon (instead of big purchases they might deliberate on for a long time).

How to Join Amazon Associates

To join the Amazon Associates affiliate program, you can apply here.

You will need an active blog already. If you have not already started a blog, this guide will show you how to get started today.

In order to get approved, it’s recommended that your blog is already somewhat established. I recommend having at least 10 high-quality blog posts already published. You should already make sure that you already have the necessary pages on your blog, including a contact page, privacy policy, and affiliate disclosure.

While it’s not required, I also recommend waiting to apply to the Amazon affiliate program until you are already getting some traffic to your blog. This is because you are required to make three affiliate sales within your first 180 days as an affiliate to stay in the program.

If your blog is too new and not receiving any traffic, you may have trouble generating those first three qualifying sales. And if that happens, you will have to start all over and reapply and change all your affiliate links, which can be a big hassle.

I waited until I was getting a minimum of 5,000 pageviews a month to apply on my first blog. Once you have applied with one blog, you can create separate tracking IDs within your affiliate account if you would like to add another blog to your account.

How to Get Your Affiliate Links

Once you have signed up for the Amazon Associates affiliate program and your account is approved, you will be able to log in to your affiliate account.

You can enable something called SiteStripe, which will appear at the top of every page on Amazon. This is the easiest way to grab affiliate links to insert into your blog posts. When you’re on a product page, you can simply copy and paste the link from SiteStripe into your blog post.

From SiteStripe, you can also grab an image link for the product that allows you to insert a clickable image into your blog posts.

I typically include a text link and an image link in my blog posts, although sometimes I will just use a text link.

You can also find additional affiliate links under the “Bounties” section of your affiliate account. As an Amazon affiliate, you can earn additional “Bounties” for actions like getting someone to sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime. This is a great way to boost your affiliate earnings because you can promote a free trial and still get paid.

The Importance of Buyer Intent

Now that you know how to sign up for the Amazon Associates affiliate program and where to get your affiliate links, let’s talk about how to actually use them!

Through my experience over the years with the Amazon affiliate program, I have found that there are certain types of blog posts you can write that will lead to more traffic, more clicks, and more affiliate sales.

The biggest thing to consider when writing affiliate content is buyer intent.

You want to write content that is targeting readers who are already planning to make a purchase.

Let’s say you’re a food blogger and you want to link to a blender on Amazon. If you do this in a blog post about smoothie recipes, you might think this is a logical choice, because people need a blender in order to make a smoothie.

But someone searching “smoothie recipes” on Google or Pinterest probably already owns a blender if they’re ready to make a smoothie right now.

On the other hand, someone searching “best blender for smoothies” or “Vitamix blender reviews” is more likely to be in a buying mindset.

So if you wrote a blog post about the Top 10 Best Blenders for Smoothies, or wrote a product review of the blender you own, that is the type of content that is going to convert better and lead to more affiliate sales for you.

Once you understand buyer intent, it becomes a lot easier to write content that actually generates affiliate sales, instead of throwing affiliate links into your blog posts at random and hoping somebody clicks and makes a purchase.

Best Types of Blog Posts to Write

I’ve already given some ideas of types of blog posts you can write in order to generate more affiliate sales as an Amazon affiliate.

But let’s take a closer look at the three best types of affiliate blog posts you can write, plus examples so you can understand exactly what I mean.

The Gift Guide: Gift guides are one of my favorite types of blog posts to write. This can be for any holiday or event, and it works for any niche.

• 25 Best College Graduation Gifts for Her
• Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Travelers
• 15 Great Father’s Day Gifts for New Dads

The List Post: Similar to gift guides, list posts are just big lists of products. This type of blog post also works for any niche.

• 30 Essentials for Your First Apartment
• 7 Best Personal Finance Books Everyone Should Read
• 25 Best Books for Influencers to Read This Year
• 15 Must-Haves to Pack for Disney World

The Review Post: Finally, review posts are great for capturing readers who already have a very high intent to purchase. You can review a single product, or multiple products, or compare similar products.

• Why I Love the Vitamix 5200: Vitamix Blender Review
• Top 5 Best Yoga Pants for Women
• Chi vs. Dyson Hair Straightener: Which Hair Straightener Is Best?

These are the best types of blog posts you can write to make more affiliate sales!

It’s also important to remember that some niches are more seasonal than others. For example, if you have a blog about hiking and camping, interest is naturally going to wane in the winter months. In that case, you might want to think about ways to keep traffic up in the winter, such as writing a Christmas gift guide for hikers, or a list of the best cold-weather hiking gear.

By following these tips, you can increase your traffic and sales as an Amazon affiliate!

Learn how to make money with the Amazon affiliates program from a pro

If you really want to learn all the necessary steps you need to take to become a successful Amazon affiliate and want to learn how to make a good income out of it, please sign up for my course Amazon Affiliate Affluence here! In this course, I’ll teach you how to crack the code of Amazon affiliate marketing and how you can take your blog from just a hobby to earning a nice income in a short amount of time!

Dale