How to become an Amazon Associate: Every step covered for 2022

Are you trying to figure out how to become an Amazon affiliate to make money from the Amazon affiliate program?

The Amazon Associates program allows you to earn a commission every time someone you refer makes a purchase on Amazon. This practice is called affiliate marketing.

If you’re reading this post, you probably already know the basics of how Amazon Associates works. But how can you actually become an Amazon affiliate to start earning from the program?

Well, Amazon Associates is a little bit More complicated than your average affiliate program, but it’s still pretty easy for anyone to become an affiliate on Amazon.

In this post, we cover everything you need to know to go from absolutely zero to successfully joining Amazon Associates and earning your first commission. As part of this guide, here’s everything we’re going to cover:

Ready to start making money with Amazon Associates? Let’s dig!

Who can join the Amazon Affiliate Program?

Amazon Associates accepts affiliates from all countries, so you can join the program no matter where you are.

However, you must have a valid platform for promoting Amazon products in order to participate.

There are three ways to join:

1. website
2. social media
3. apartment

Let’s go through them:

website

The most common way to join Amazon Associates is to promote products on your own website. If that’s your plan, Amazon Associates says your site must meet the following criteria:

• “Robust original content” – Amazon says a good rule of thumb is to have at least ten unique posts on your site, although this is open to interpretation.
• Current content – You must have posted new content in the last 60 or so days.
• Acceptable Content – Your content must not be illegal, hateful, false, defamatory, sexually explicit or have any other similar problem.

If you don’t already have a website, the easiest way to get started is to create a website using WordPress. We have detailed guides on how to start your own website:

Once you’ve added enough content, you can join Amazon Associates.

social media

In addition to a website, Amazon Associates also accept advertising through the following social networks:

• Facebook – Personal Facebook pages are not allowed when applying, but you can apply through a public group page or a Fan/Business Page. You can not However, apply with a closed or private group page or hidden followers page.
• Instagram
• Twitter
• youtube
• tick tock
• Twitch.tv

If you are applying with a social media profile, your page needs to be established and have a reasonable number of organic followers.

Amazon recommends having at least 500 organic followersalthough this again is open to interpretation.

Also, make sure you enter the exact URL to your social network profile/page when applying – not just “facebook.com” or “Instagram”. I will remind you of that in the step-by-step guide below.

apartment

Finally, you can also apply with a mobile app, as long as you can Complies with the Mobile Application Directive. For example, the app must be free to download and available from the official app stores (Google Play, Apple or Amazon).

How to become an Amazon affiliate – step by step

If you meet the above criteria, you can join the Amazon Associates program. In this section, we will walk you through the actual process of creating your account and applying, step by step.

1. Go to Amazon Associates and click Sign Up.

Begin, Click here to go to the Amazon Associates website and then click the Register Button:

If you already have an Amazon account that you use to shop, you can use it to join the Amazon Affiliate Program.

If you don’t already have an Amazon account, you need to create one:

2. Enter basic account information

Next, you will be asked to enter some basic account information such as: B. The contact details of the person to whom Amazon issues payments.

If you already have an Amazon account, Amazon should automatically import these details, but you can edit them if needed:

3. Enter your website (or social media/app) details

Next you need to add the addresses of the website(s), social media profile(s) and/or mobile app(s) where you want to promote Amazon affiliate products.

Remember, if you are planning to promote products on your social media profile or YouTube channel, you must provide the exact link to your specific page/channel. You can not Just type in “facebook.com” or “youtube.com”.

You have to advertise with at least one website/app, but Amazon allows you to add up to 50 different addresses if needed, which is useful if you plan to advertise products in multiple places.

For example, if you plan to promote products on both your website and YouTube channel, you should add the direct links to both:

4. Complete profile details

Now you need to enter some additional profile details.

First, you can choose your preferred affiliate ID. Your AssociatesID is the tracking code that is added to your regular Amazon affiliate links.

Usually you want to make it something connected to your website. For example, if I were to create an Amazon affiliate account to promote products on KCCSB, I would choose KCCSB as shop ID.

If you participate in the USA Amazon Associates program, Amazon adds -20 to the end of your shop ID in tracking links. For example – KCCSB-20.

Don’t worry too much about choosing the perfect Amazon Associates ID, as Amazon allows you to create additional IDs once your account has been approved. For example, you can create a unique ID for each website or platform where you promote Amazon products so you can keep your links separate.

After choosing your affiliate ID, you’ll need to enter some additional information about what your websites are about and the types of products you want to promote.

Don’t worry – you are not bound by it just Promote these products – it only gives Amazon an idea of ​​how you will promote them:

5. Enter traffic generation methods

Further down this page Amazon will ask you how you want to drive traffic to your website(s) (and consequently to your Amazon affiliate products).

You also need to answer some other questions such as: B. Your general monetization strategies, how you typically insert links into content, and how many visits your sites receive per month:

Once you’ve made that selection, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on it Finished.

6. Wait for approval

Now you are done! All you have to do is wait for Amazon’s approval. If your website meets the requirements and you filled out all the information correctly, you should get approval quickly.

It usually only takes about a day, but it may take longer or shorter depending on the situation.

7. Repeat for other Amazon locations

Amazon Associates is a bit odd in that you have to apply separately to each store in the Amazon region where you want to promote products. For example, if you want to advertise products on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.ukyou must apply separately for the Amazon Associates program on both sides.

To quickly find the Amazon Associates program for other regions, you can use the region selector in the top right corner of the main page of Amazon Associates:

How to make money with Amazon Associates

Once you have become an Amazon affiliate, let’s talk about how to make money from the Amazon affiliate program.

Add your payment methods

Once you’ve been approved for Amazon Associates, the first thing you should do is add your payment methods:

1. Click on your email address in the top right.
2. Choose Account settings from the drop-down list.
3. Choose Change payment method.

You may also be required to provide tax information at this time.

Amazon Associates offers the following payment methods:

• Direct deposit (bank)
• amazon.com gift card
• To verify

Amazon supports direct bank transfers in the US and over 50 different countries in Europe:

If your region isn’t supported, a common strategy is to use a Payoneer account to receive bank deposits in USD, which you can do from anywhere (including Asia).

Geniuslink has an in-depth article Explain how to set this up if you are interested in using this method.

Find Amazon products you want to promote

Once you’ve done the housework, your next step is to find some Amazon products to promote.

Personally, I think the easiest way to do this is to search Amazon as usual, rather than trying to use the Amazon Associates dashboard.

Generate affiliate links for these products

Once you’ve found the products you want to promote, you need to generate your affiliate link for those products. This ensures that you are credited for all traffic that you send to Amazon from your website.

One way is to use the search box in Amazon Associates to search for the product name. You can then click get link Button to generate the affiliate link:

If you use WordPress, an easier and more effective solution is to use a dedicated WordPress Amazon affiliate plugin.

For more details on link building, check out our complete guide to building Amazon affiliate links.

Create content on your website/profile that promotes this product

In order to drive traffic to the affiliate products you find, you need to create some type of content based on those products.

A common strategy is “best of” listicles. For example, if you want to promote some tents on Amazon, you can create an article called “8 Best Tents for Camping: Camping is intense in these tents.”

Or you could write a special review or even just include a passing mention in a relevant article. For example, if you write recipes and tell people to check the internal temperature of the meat, you can share an affiliate link that directs people to their favorite meat thermometer on Amazon.

In general, this is where you need to experiment to find the right type of content that:

1. Attract traffic from search engines and/or social media.
2. Convince people to click on your affiliate link and make a purchase.

Important Amazon affiliate rules to maintain your status

Learning how to become an Amazon affiliate and add links to your website is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to growing your relationship with Amazon.

If you want to keep your status as an Amazon Associate, that’s it absolutely necessary that you follow the rules of Amazon. Some common affiliate marketing tactics can actually get you banned from Amazon Associates, so don’t be in for a nasty surprise.

Here’s what to consider:

1. Make three sales within six months to avoid deactivation

If you wish to keep your Amazon Associates account, Amazon requires that you do so at least three sales within the first six months. Otherwise your account will be deactivated.

Because of this, you should wait to apply to Amazon Associates until your website is already seeing consistent traffic.

If your account gets deactivated for not making those three sales, don’t worry! Amazon allows you to reapply for Amazon Associates in the future – just wait until your site gets a little more traffic before doing so.

Also, do not attempt to fulfill this condition by placing orders through your own affiliate link, as this is against Amazon’s policies and will cause Amazon to disable your affiliate account (more on that below).

2. Add a prominent Amazon affiliate disclosure

If you participate in the Amazon Affiliate Program, Amazon requires that you prominently post this information on your website. This is also the law in many jurisdictions, such as B. FTC Requirements for Persons in the United States.

Amazon provides the following disclosure statement for use on your website:

I recommend creating your own page that includes this disclaimer. Then when you actually add affiliate links, you can add a smaller disclaimer like this and link to your full affiliate disclosure:

3. Don’t disguise Amazon affiliate links

Amazon does Not allow you to hide your Amazon affiliate links.

If you’re not familiar, you can use link cloaking to make your URLs “pretty.” For example instead of showing shrsl.com/sjkhjkhjhkwrere can you show yoursite.com/go/product-name.

There are no “ifs, ands or buts” here. Simply put, you should absolutely not disguise an Amazon affiliate link or use any type of redirect that hides the Amazon link and your affiliate code.

If you use an affiliate plugin to automatically insert affiliate links into your content, make sure you have disabled cloaking for Amazon links in the plugin’s settings.

Because the Amazon Associates program is so popular, most affiliate link plugins include special Amazon affiliate link handling features where you can hide all your other links but cannot hide Amazon affiliate links.

4. Only provide prices when using the Amazon Associates API

This is a really weird rule unique to Amazon.

If you’re writing about a product you’re promoting, do it Not allows to simply write the current price of the product in the editor. Amazon doesn’t like it when you do that because prices change often and Amazon doesn’t want people to spread inaccurate information.

If you want to get around this, you can use price references – e.g. B. “$” for low-priced products, “$$” for medium-priced products and “$$$” for expensive products.

If you want to display accurate prices, you must use the Amazon Associates API, which automatically updates the price when it changes on Amazon. The easiest way to do this on WordPress is to use one of the popular Amazon affiliate plugins, such as AAWP.

Additionally, if you display prices in a comparison format, Amazon requires that you display them both the lowest New price and the lowest Second hand Price.

5. Do not host product images you download from Amazon yourself

Amazon Associates is not only strict about pricing, but also very strict about using Amazon product images to promote products.

You can not Download a product image from Amazon and then re-upload it to your website (AKA hosts this image on your own server). But you can Include these images if you are providing them directly from Amazon or via the API.

For example, if you generate an “image + link” affiliate link through the Amazon website, you can have that image on your website as long as it is loaded from Amazon’s servers.

Or you can use an Amazon affiliate plugin to properly insert product images from Amazon.

You can Use other non-Amazon images to promote products e.g. B. Your own images or images directly from the manufacturer. If you do this, however, you cannot add an affiliate link directly to the image. That means you can’t get people to click on a third-party image and it takes them to your affiliate link.

However, you could add a button next to the custom image that contains your affiliate link.

6. Be careful when including affiliate links

If you only include Amazon affiliate links on your website, you don’t have to worry about anything here. However, if you plan to advertise elsewhere, it’s important to understand that you should never share your links in the following places:

• emails
• PDFs
• eBooks
• private groups (B. a Facebook group* with limited membership)
• Direct ads on Facebook

You can also post your links on your own personal or business Facebook pages publicly visible Facebook groups – just don’t share them in private groups. You may also include affiliate links on YouTube.

It should also go without saying, but don’t spam your Amazon affiliate link on other people’s websites.

7. Don’t buy from your own Amazon Associates link

This is a fairly standard rule for all affiliate programs, but it’s worth repeating that you are Not authorized to make Amazon purchases through your own affiliate links.

Any purchases you make will be disallowed and may compromise your Amazon Associates account.

Become an Amazon Affiliate in 2023

Even though Amazon has reduced its affiliate commissions, that can still add up to a lot of money, and there’s a reason the Amazon Associates program is so popular.

To get started, all you have to do is follow the steps in this article.

Then, to maintain your status, be sure to follow the rules and best practices we outlined above. Amazon has very strict rules when it comes to product details like pricing and images, so it’s important to abide by the program.

To help you integrate Amazon affiliate products more easily into your website, we recommend using a dedicated Amazon affiliate plugin. These plugins can help you add Amazon affiliate links to your website and include accurate product information and images through the API.

If you want to go even further, you can even create your own Amazon affiliate shop on your WordPress site and integrate WordPress with Amazon in other ways.