At the moment, our main source of income comes from Amazon’s affiliate program.
This means that when we review items on Amazon, they send us extra cash for each sale that happens while we talk about it.
It’s a passive way to earn some money without having to go out and spend hours trying to find new people on social media whom you can talk up your products with, or pay for advertising on Instagram.
As you probably know, the more reviews you have of an item on Amazon, the better your chances are of convincing other people to buy it.
Here’s the article Macl Edge about how to get paid by amazon reviewing.
What can you expect from Amazon’s affiliate program?
If you have a website, what you have to do is register with Amazon’s Affiliate Program , choose a niche and then start adding links to Amazon of items that you like that are relevant to your site.
When someone buys an item through your links, Amazon will pay you (at least) 4% commission of whatever the total price of the item was.
And if someone buys multiple items from Amazon, say an e-reader and a case for it, or a phone and charger for it, or whatever – they’ll pay 4% on the first item and 9% on the second (additive).
It’s a really great deal for people who have product relevant blogs, or even for someone who writes about general topics and needs something to link to in their articles.
What sort of sites can you promote?
The sky’s the limit, really. We promote items from Amazon’s warehouses only right now.
But if you find successful products on other websites too, try contacting them with your affiliate links.
Offer them the best price they’ll get anywhere else if they let you promote their product using one of your affiliate links.
You can even write them yourself – if you’re creative enough it’s often worth it! This page explains all the different ways that you can use Amazon’s affiliate program .
What does Amazon’s affiliate program pay out?
The minimum that Amazon will pay you is $0.005 per click .
They can also pay you cash when people buy through your links, which is typically around $0.04 per sale, depending on the country of the person who made the purchase.
You may get your money in a check or in Amazon gift cards, but it’s difficult to say before-hand what form it will take if they decide to send it to you.
Luckily, Amazon’s affiliate program can last up to 12 months, so if your site is doing well for a while you should have some money coming in over that time.
How are Amazon’s affiliate links different from regular links?
Amazon has its own domain name (.amazon). When someone clicked on it for the first time, they were taken to Amazon.com where they’d normally go to buy something.
Instead of being registered on Amazon’s regular system, the same person is still being tracked on their own platform while also being registered on Amazon’s platform too.
This means that when someone buys an item through one of your links it’ll only count towards the sale towards your commission-share if it was bought through your affiliate link.
In this way, you can link to any website that supports affiliate programs, as long as it’s not a bad one – you’ll still be paid.
So what about strict independent bloggers?
Having your own website is good – it means that you’re your own boss rather than dependent on a blog network or affiliate program.
You can set-up your own affiliate program, which will help you to get more commission on the sales that you get while you promote other people’s products.
But if you aren’t confident in your writing skills, or if you don’t have time for it, don’t let it hold you back.
You can boost your sales by talking up the same products to the same people over and over again.
If there are multiple products that you like, promote them all at once. If no one has bought them yet, then try to get other sites using your affiliate links (like this one) to link back to yours.
How often should you promote?
The more relevant the affiliate link is, the more people will click on it.
So if you’re promoting a specific product that your readers have been looking for, then go ahead and link to that specific product page.
If they’re not buying it, try promoting another item from the same brand or category!
If no one buys through your links over time, return to the situation described above and start promoting a new one according to how relevant a new item is compared with what you already have going.
