Amazon Affiliate Program Overview — What is the Amazon Affiliate Program? How to Sign Up, and More

Amazon operates one of the leading affiliate marketing programs — the Amazon Affiliate Program — attracting over 900,000 affiliate partners.

This program allows individuals and businesses to earn commissions by promoting Amazon products through their media channels. But here’s a new catch: this program recently revised the commission rates, impacting affiliates’ workflow.

For that reason, I’ll walk you through the exact details on what is Amazon affiliate program is, the updated commission rate list, how to sign up, strategies to maximize earnings through this campaign, and more.

What is Amazon Affiliate Program?

The Amazon affiliate program, also known as Amazon Associates, is an affiliate marketing strategy that allows website owners, bloggers, social media influencers, fashion influencers, and more to earn money by promoting Amazon products.

But have you wondered how the whole process of affiliate marketing works? How can you possibly earn from this? Let’s unwind this secret most straightforwardly.

Affiliate users simply place the links to products on their website, feed, wish links, or others, and when a customer purchases one of their provided links, the user receives a commission. In simple words, this is how affiliate marketing works.

How Does the Amazon Affiliate Program Work?

Amazon Associates is a referral program that pays commissions to the affiliate users associated with it. If you’re enrolled in such a campaign, you’ll get a percentage of whatever your followers purchase.

But did you know the commission rate for every category is different? Supposedly, if you are a beauty influencer and promoting beauty product links, you’ll get a fixed commission rate of 10%, but conversely, if you’re a general influencer and promoting home decor and stuff, you’ll get between 5% and 10%. 

Therefore, here’s a helpful table for the updated commission rates; have a look –

Product Category	Commission Rate
Luxury Beauty	10%
Music & Digital Video	5%
Physical Books, Kitchen, Automotive	4.5%
Amazon Devices, Jewelry, Handbags, etc.	4%
Toys, Furniture, Lawn & Garden, Headphones, Instruments, etc.	3%
PC, DVD, and Blu-ray	2.5%
TV and Digital Video Games	2%
Amazon Fresh, Physical Video Games & Consoles, Health & Personal Care	1%
Gift Cards, Amazon Gift Cards, Digital Kindle Products, etc.	0%
All Other Categories	4%

Amazon Affiliate Program: Advantages and Disadvantages 

Earning money through the Amazon affiliate program is a straightforward procedure, but is this information enough for you to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program?  

Well, when it comes to referring something to your audience, one should be extra careful. So, get your hands on the pros and cons list below.

Amazon Affiliate Program: Advantages	Amazon Affiliate Program: Disadvantages
Consists of well-known brands, minimal chance of illicit activity.	Low affiliate commission, starting from 4% and going up to 10%.
Highly supportive and thoughtful.	Amazon remembers the cookie only for 24 hours, whereas others follow the 30-day minimum.
All-in-one platform (you can find all products here, from beauty to home essentials—everything).	Amazon doesn’t accept PayPal.
Extended benefits (royalty programs for loyal users).

How to Sign Up for Amazon Affiliate Program?

Registering for the Amazon affiliate program is quite a simple process, but as a beginner, even figuring that out can be tough. So, here are the steps mentioned to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program.

1. To begin, visit amazon.com (affiliate program) and click on ‘Sign-up.’

   

2. Complete all four steps in one go, starting from Account Information, followed by Website and Mobile App List, Profile, and Start Using Associates Central.

   

3. Enter your account information, including name, address, phone number, and whatever else is required.

   

4. Further, add website and mobile app URLs.

   

5. Next, write your preferred store ID and provide information about your websites or mobile apps.

   

6. After that, tick the boxes under the ‘How do you drive traffic to your website(s)?

   

7. Submit the form, and fill in the OTP that you’ll receive.

8. Finally, you’re now a member of the Amazon affiliate program.

Steps to Create Product Links With Amazon’s Product Link Tool

Once you’ve registered, go to your Amazon Associates dashboard; there you’ll see an option to view your analytics, earn revenues, and an option to create affiliate links—Product Link Tool.

The Product Link Tool is the most common way to create an affiliate link. Here are the steps for the same:

1. Tap on the top of your Amazon Associates dashboard, navigate to ‘Product Linking,’ and select ‘Product Links.’

   

2. It’ll take you to a screen where you can search for any product, and you can be a little more specific, like Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones.

   

3. Once you’ve entered the query, search results will appear with the link beside them.

   

4. A box will pop up with your affiliate link; you can copy the link and spread it wherever you want—feed, personalized DMs, and more.

   

Strategies to Maximize Your Earnings from Amazon Affiliate Program

Now that you’ve registered yourself as an Amazon affiliate member, it’s the perfect time to learn how to maximize your earnings through the Amazon affiliate program.

Choosing your niche is one of the most important steps in affiliate marketing, whether it is Amazon or any other platform. Pick something that matches your interests, knowledge, and your audience’s point of preference.

Additionally, another benefit of taking your audience’s interest into consideration is that it lets you find out things that have high demand but low competition, higher chances of your audience actually buying that thing, and more.

You’ve a handy list of things to refer to your audience, but have you decided on the platform yet? Don’t overlook its importance. Some top choices include YouTube, Product Comparison Sites, Amazon Affiliate Website, and more.

A platform like YouTube streamlines the whole process for both brands and affiliates by seamlessly connecting them, providing tools, and more.

The Amazon Associate’s dashboard is the highlight of the entire program. You can keep track of your purchases, conversion rate, and what your audience is mainly buying.

For instance, if you are promoting 10 products, you can go to the dashboard and particularly see which is the most bought product, the most clicked product, and so on. Therefore, utilize it fully!

Circling back, as I mentioned in the first point, decide your niche and top it up with deep research about the current trends.

Conduct deep research, and figure out if there’s a new product that has taken over the internet. Figuring out these trends helps you pick the best products for your audience and also maximizes the chances of welcoming new audiences to your page.

Try creating helpful content featuring products you find convenient. Suppose you found a product for your kitchen that made cooking a lot easier; try creating content featuring that product, because if it helped you, it could be helpful to someone else, too.

You can create blog posts or write product reviews that effortlessly include the product without looking like you’re forcing it.

Is Amazon Affiliate Program a Reliable Source of Income for Influencers?

Considering what this program is, and with its pros and cons in hand, it’s fair enough to say that it is a good source of passive income for influencers as well as for common individuals.

Renowned influencers are making a decent amount of money through this program; they simply put up a bomb outfit and link the products. Now, whoever buys it from that link, the influencers will receive some commission from it.

Are you also wondering how a common individual can take advantage of this? Well, for a person like me, who often buys certain things because they’re cute and pleasing. Honestly, sometimes they turn out to be helpful. So, I try to create a blog post out of it, and the best part is more people like me read it, save it, and buy it. 

For instance, last summer I bought a small handy fan and created a blog post for that. People read it, saved it, and bought it, and that’s how I made some money.

So, the verdict to this question, in my opinion, is YES!  The Amazon affiliate program is a reliable source of passive income for common individuals and, obviously for renowned influencers and marketers.

Final Words—Getting Paid by Amazon Affiliate Program

Overall, the Amazon Affiliate Program in India presents monetization opportunities through diverse strategies. But at the same time, it also comes with different disadvantages that an affiliate must know how to navigate.

There is no standard numerical earning figure, but considering the advantages and the commission rate on products, one can earn a decent amount of money from this program.