How to make money with Amazon Affiliate: Everything to know about the program

If you take a look at TikTok, there are all sorts of videos about making money online sharing your favorite Amazon products. This is through something called Amazon Associates, which would make you an Amazon affiliate.

Is it really possible to make money? Well yes, but you need to do it correctly. There are claims that you can quit your day job by being an affiliate marketer, but that isn’t something you can do right away. It takes time to figure it out and build up your income.

You’re doing something called affiliate marketing, so you get a commission for products that you promote and people buy. There’s a knack to it if you want to succeed by making thousands of dollars per month.

What is Amazon Associates?

Amazon Associates is the affiliate program. You can make money through your own social media platforms, a blog, or your website. You’ll need to sign up for an Amazon Associates account (it’s free to do!) and then get your affiliate code for various products you recommend. When people click and buy those products through your link (or really any product as long as they’ve gone through your link and cookies have been saved), you’ll get a commission for the recommendation.

The cost doesn’t go up for individuals. Amazon pays you the commission out of the amount they make.

There are a few rules about where you can post the link. It has to be somewhere that Amazon can see it to track it, which means your email lists aren’t an option.

How much commission do you make?

Not all products will get the same commission. For example, you can get 20% commission for sales of Amazon Games products, but you’ll only get a 2% commission for Televisions and Digital Games. DVD and Blu-ray sales will give you a 2.5% commission, and you can get a 4% commission for Amazon Fire Tablets and other devices.

It’s worth checking out the Amazon Associates page to see how much commission you get. This does change regularly.

There are also Amazon Bounties, where you get a flat rate for certain subscriptions that people buy through your link. This includes for things like Audible and Prime Video.

Who can become and Amazon affiliate?

Amazon has some rules about who can join. If you find that you don’t meet the rules just yet, don’t worry. You can build up to the point where you can get an account.

If you’re getting an account for your social media accounts, you need to have “substantial” engagement. It’s not all that clear what that means. You will also need:

• An active and public social media account
• At least 500 followers

When it comes to a website, you will need to:

• Have a minimum of 10 original blog posts
• The most recent blog post published within the last 60 days
• Be a public website and not behind a paywall

You can also get an account if you have a mobile app. The content you provide must be original, public, and free. It cannot look like Amazon. You cannot make it look like you are endorsed by Amazon in any way.

You need to make three sales within the first 180 days of having your Amazon affiliate account. If you don’t do that, the account is automatically closed. You can’t buy the products yourself, and you shouldn’t ask friends and family to buy for you.

It’s essential that you are clear that you make money through affiliate marketing. Amazon expects you to have a disclaimer on every page of your site and on your social media posts.

How to actually make money with Amazon affiliate

You’re not going to get rich quick with affiliate marketing, whether you choose Amazon or another affiliate company. It’s important to work at this, building it up as a business of your own.

The best thing to do is share links to products that you recommend. Do you write reviews about books that you read? Share an affiliate link to that book. What about movies that you watch? Share an affiliate link to that?

Did you recently buy a TV or a desk? You can add a link to that as you share what you love about it. People want to see genuine content. They’re not going to buy if something looks salesy. Make it genuine and from the heart.

Of course, you’ll want to look out for the types of products people are looking for. Then you’ll need to create compelling content for it, which means looking at SEO trends and figuring out the best way to write your content. It takes time, but it is worth it.

Sign up for your own Amazon Associates account.