Perhaps the best known Affiliate Marketing program, Amazon Associates is one of the most popular ways to monetise a website. They make it easy to offer millions of products to anyone around the globe and their name is known worldwide as being synonymous with low prices and good customer service.
About Amazon Associates
Amazon Affiliate Marketing partners are referred to as “Associates”. They offer a variety of different ways to capitalise on their immense selling power and a number of ways to make money through commissions, such as providing unique content presentations, product display controls, and maximising conversion rates.
The company offers online Web Services and Application Programming Interfaces (API) to help you get started.
Setting up an Amazon Associate account is free of charge. After your account is activated, you can then decide on which way you want to market the company’s offerings.
Product recommendations, called Omakase Links, Recommended Product Links, or Product and Text Links are all different choices for your particular website.
Product Links
These links display a specific item from the Amazon catalogue and provide a link to order it via a “Buy from Amazon.com” button. With Product Links, you get to choose the exact type of products you are willing to promote.
The display includes price, image, and title. According to the company, personalised Product Links enjoy the greatest buy conversion rates.
Omakase Links
These refer to content that is relevant to each visitor to your site. These product advertisements are personalised while complementing the content that is already included on your web pages. Omakase Links are generated by Amazon, and the affiliate has no choice as to what products will be featured.
Product Previews
Visitors can preview product information with these links without being redirected to the Amazon URL. The visitor merely needs to hover over an ad and a pop-up window provides further information, such as a range of prices, customer reviews and availability.
Visitors can add the product directly to their own shopping cart, as well. For websites which focus on sales, this can be a convenient way to allow visitors to easily buy what they want without having to leave your URL.
Recommended Product Links
This is another option where Amazon selects the products to be displayed on your page. You get to choose the type of merchandise you want to offer and then Amazon automatically updates the listings based on specified categories or keywords. These links can also be customised to match the design of your website, a nice benefit for creating your own brand awareness.
Getting Paid For Affiliate Commissions
Again, Amazon offers some flexibility regarding payment options and the ability to change your choice monthly if you wish.
The Performance Fee Structure is automatically selected for new Associates. The rate is higher, between 4% and 15%, and is based on the products that are actually purchased. Certain products will qualify for higher commissions.
The Classic Fee Structure offers a fixed referral rate of 4%.
Regardless of the fee structure you choose, there are cap amounts on certain items, such as computers. The commission is available on products that are either sold directly by Amazon or through third parties who contract with the company.
The Amazon Associates Affiliate Marketing program has proven to be very successful for many website owners. It is a good place to start if you are new to affiliate marketing in general. Set up your Associates account today and you can begin making money from your website right away.
About Sean Rasmussen
Hi Sean,
Amazon has so many products to choose from to promote. I have in the past bought books from Amazon and like you say the service is excellent.
I have purchased from Amazon in the past.
I have setup an account but not utilizing it at present.
I’m still considering which is the best option
Hello Sean,
I have looked at Amazon before (David buys from them all the time!!) but have not used them as an affiliate. It seems silly that I am not an “Associate” because I love books, and rave about them all the time. If I am telling family/friends about books and they buy them from a bookstore, then I could easily refer on line shoppers to a great place to shop and get paid for it at the same time. Makes Simple Sense
Cheers
Lisa
It looks like from Sean’s post that we can affiliate to all the products on amazon and not just books. What a fantastic opportunity.
Hi Sean,
I really like the look of the Amazon Affiliate program. Amazon is a name that most people would recognize and feel they could trust that they will get what they pay for. There are a lot of great reasons to try them out.
Hi Sean
I will be signing up with Amazon for sure. I thought you had to have a blog up and running before
you could become an affiliate?
I have been buying books from Amazon for many years and they have always been a fantastic company to deal with. I have no complaints.
I found this article very interesting and informative, I have learned a lot to day thankyou.
I have looked at amazon a few times and joined their associate program but have found it a little confusing so haven’t done anything with it. I did notice on my squidoo lense that when I added the amazon widget it brings up topic related products for people to purchase so would this be omakase link? Thanks for clarifying a few things about the amazon affiliate marketing program.