Amazon Affiliates: The Formula To Make Money On the Internet All large web portals of a commercial nature, that is, sale of products or services, have their corresponding affiliate program.
And many of the not so great ones, too.
Amazon, the eCommerce giant of physical and digital products, was not going to be an exception.
In this article I tell you what the Amazon program for affiliates consists of, what are their strengths and what are the weak ones...
What is the Amazon Program for Affiliates?
It is the system through which Amazon pays a commission to all those websites or Internet users (affiliates) that promote a sale of products from its website.
And it is a system of its own, with resources and infrastructure from Amazon, unlike some large sites such as TripAdvisor or El Tenedor, which use other affiliate marketing platforms, such as Awin
How much does Amazon pay and in what concept?
Before referring to how it works, what are its advantages and others, what really matters to an affiliate is knowing how much they are going to pay for the sales they favor.
In the following list we show you in detail the commission percentage you pay for transactions made in the Spanish version:
A 3% commission for sales of gift certificates, any version of the Kindle tablet and for all products that do not fall into the following categories.
3.5% for sales in electronics products: computer, photography, audio, mobile phones, televisions, software and the like
5.0% for sales in different categories: supermarket, including beer, wine and spirits, home (cooking, DIY, tools), audiovisual material (cinema, series, music) and musical instruments, among others
7% for sales in sports, toys, office and stationery, baby, car and motorcycle or beauty and health. This commission is also paid for its most famous content: books and electronic books for Kindle
10% for sales in fashion, shoes, clothing, jewelry and in general everything that appears in BuyVIP. It is the highest commission available
These commissions are calculated in relation to the tax base of the sale, without counting the VAT.
And they are the only method to establish the amount to be paid by Amazon to the affiliate, since a controversial point was eliminated a few months ago: the limit for the commission was € 10 per product, so that if the member favored a sale of 800 €, the commission was not € 80 but € 10.
Luckily for those who start now, this is no longer the case.
These fees are charged at the end of the month, with the amount corresponding to the sum of all of them.
How This Program Works
To join this program you will need two basic requirements.
On the one hand, be an Amazon user.
And on the other hand, have a web page.
The latter is necessary because the main way to generate sales is advertising.
That is, Amazon makes a series of banners available to affiliates and these add one or more to their website.
From that moment, when a visitor to the page clicks on the banner, he is redirected to the Amazon product page, at the same time that a cookie is deposited in his browser.
If you consummate the purchase, the affiliate will receive the corresponding commission.
There are different designs available to the affiliate, which can be used and customized slightly so that it fits better with the style of your website.
Some of the options are a simple image of the product or a format framed with image, text and purchase button.
A third possibility is Only text, in which the chosen words will be shown, which will act as the anchor text of the link.
Actually, it does not necessarily have to be a banner, but also a simple word or phrase within a text.
For this, it will be necessary to use a link generator, which will formulate a personalized URL with the ID of the affiliated user in order to track that eventual operation.
How to register
It is a simple process of just three steps: the user confirms the information of his account (if he has it, and if not, he has to create it), he contributes the data of his web page and confirms the registration in the program.
Among the data that must be provided on the affiliate's website is the name, the URL, the subject, its type (blog, niche website, coupons website, etc.), how it attracts visitors and how it is monetized (other affiliate programs, ads, subscription, etc.).
Amazon will also ask the affiliate how many unique visits his website has per month.
It is not an exclusive fact but rather it is requested for statistical or informative purposes.
Therefore, having less than 500,000 unique visits per month should not imply Amazon's rejection of the user's registration in their program.
Benefits of the Amazon System for Affiliates
The most important advantage of joining this Amazon affiliate program is that you are benefiting from the prestige and confidence of the company.
Who else who has least made a purchase on the portal or at least knows it.
And you know, therefore, that orders are sent efficiently, with a flexible return policy and a completely secure web environment.
This means that the banners that Amazon offers affiliates are, more than an advertisement, a seal of quality.
Talk about a certain product on your website and then include a button that says "Available on Amazon" will give credibility to that product and instill confidence in the user.
Another benefit that you can take advantage of is the commercial pull that some of the products sold on Amazon have.
Mainly, the Kindle tablet or eBook, in its different versions.
It is an article that sells very well online, so if the affiliate's website is related to that article and is well assembled it can generate interesting sales.
Another advantage that can be cited is the gratuity.
In reality, practically no affiliate platform charges money to its affiliates, but its benefits (in the case of third-party companies) are collected from a 'commission of the commission'.
In the case of Amazon, its economic benefit is direct: to more affiliates, more potential sales and more income for it, so it would be meaningless anything that would create obstacles to it.
Finally, the simplicity of operation can be mentioned.
As expected, it is full of technicalities typical of affiliate marketing, but the overall experience is intuitive
Disadvantages of Amazon Affiliates
Of course, not everything was going to be positive aspects.
And it is also worth mentioning the negatives.
The main disadvantage of the Amazon Affiliates program is that the commissions are low.
A 10%, which is the maximum, does not mean 'throw the house out the window' by this eCommerce giant, far from it.
But that becomes more evident in electronics products, probably those with the best level of sales, which remain at a modest 3.5%.
The second and last disadvantage that we will indicate is that the cookie of the link only remains in the user's browser for 24 hours.
Let's understand it with an example: a user clicks on the link in question, reviews the product of the page to which it has been redirected but does not buy it at that time but two days later, after having compared prices on other pages.
And when you buy it, it does not go through your website again, but it goes directly to the product page to which it was redirected.
Well, in that case, there will be no commission, because the cookie that tracks the purchase will have disappeared from your browser.
By way of comparison, you can keep in mind that other commercial websites and other affiliate platforms often offer a month as a period of validity of the cookie.
Tips to Improve Performance
If you have already decided to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program, you can take a look at the FAQs, where the company solves doubts and gives certain operating tips.
Among those that will interest you most are those of improving the performance of the links.
To do this, Amazon gives these recommendations, which each affiliate can follow or not depending on their preferences and type of page:
Give more visibility to the link: if it is in a paragraph of text, it can be highlighted in bold so that it stands out. It is also important that it is located at the top of the page, that is, that the user does not need to scroll to find it, as this reduces the possible impact and, therefore, the number of clicks it receives.
Generate confidence to the user through useful tips on the product or the purchase process. The Amazon image itself can also be a method to build trust, as indicated above.
Test or analyze the links continuously: that way you can know which ones are already having a good clicks performance and which ones should be improved.
Vary the text of links and linked products: if they remain fixed forever, a visitor who arrives a second time will perceive it as advertising. But if you see different texts and links each time, you will perceive them as recommendations instead.
Properly select the products: and for that you should think that the most suitable products are not the ones you want to sell, but the ones that your users would like to buy.