Review of Amazon Associates – Verdict: a Must Have

By | December 9, 2015

Amazon Associates

The Amazon affiliate program is known as Amazon Associates and today I will be reviewing this program. If you have ever asked yourself, “How can I make money online?”, this article is for you.

Amazon Associates

Earn with Amazon Associates

Amazon is the biggest e-commerce retailer in the world with millions of products and tens of millions of customers. Amazon is a trusted brand and people feel very comfortable purchasing through Amazon. This combination of factors has led Amazon Associates to be one of the most widely used affiliate programs for internet marketers, bloggers and website owners.

Another reason is that Amazon has millions of Amazon Prime members who get a host of benefits including free 2 day shipping. Prime members are typically very frequent purchasers and are very likely to buy products from Amazon. We have Amazon Prime and it seems like we get boxes on our doorstep 2 to 3 times per week. This is mainly my husbands doing. His motto seems to be if I can’t get it at Amazon or Costco, I mustn’t need it. I’m more of a Neiman Marcus Last Call person myself, and yes, Neiman Marcus has an affiliate program! But that’s a review for another day.

So, anyone interested in affiliate marketing needs to be aware of Amazon Associates, how it works and how you get paid.

Why Wouldn’t People Want to Sell Amazon products?

  • The commissions are small, between 1% and 10%.
    • There are other affiliate programs that have 25% to 75% commission for each sale, but these are typically digital products like e-books, training courses and the like.
  • The majority of people buy  products that are inexpensive and thus commissions are small.
    • My rebuttal would be that you get lots more sales and lots more impulse buyers.
  • Once people click on the affiliate link in your blog or website, they have to make a purchase within 24 hours, otherwise your affiliate cookie will stop working and you won’t get credit for the sale.

How Much Does Amazon Associates Pay?

Amazon Associates pays a percentage of the item’s sale price based on the type of item it is.

Amazon Product Commissions

Product CategoryFixed Ad Fee Rates
Electronics Products4%
Television Products2%
PC Component Products2.5%
Kindle tablets, Kindle e-readers and Fire Phone4%
Amazon Fire TV and Echo7%
Amazon MP3 Products5%
Amazon Video Products5%
Game Downloads Products10%
Gift Cards Redeemable on Amazon.com6%
Gift Cards Not Redeemable on Amazon.com4%
Amazon Coins10%
Grocery Products (including Prime Pantry)4%
Video Game Console Products1%
Headphone Products6%
DVD Products4%
Industrial Products8%
Products Available on MyHabit.com8%
Handmade Products4%
Jewelry Products **10%
Table of Amazon Product Commissions

For items not listed the percentage varies by the quantity of items sold in a month.

Number of Products Shipped / Downloaded in a Given Month **Volume-Based Ad Fee for General Products
1 - 64%
7-306%
31-1106.5%
111-3207%
321-6307.5%
631-15708%
1571-31308.25%
3131+8.5%

Example of Fees

The fee for electronics is 4%. The cost of the iHome alarm clock (see below) that my son wants for Christmas is $59.95. So, if I bought this through your affiliate link you would make $59.95 x 4% = $2.40. But then I would probably buy the lightning cable since one doesn’t come with it, so that would be $9.99 x 4% = $.40. So, your earnings are up to $2.80. Many people however, don’t buy just one item. Let’s say while I am there I get my mother-in-law the $100 Kindle gift card we always get her for holidays. The fee on Amazon redeemable gift cards is 6%. So, $100 x 6% = $6. Now your earnings are up to $8.80.

If you grow your site to get one visitor like this per day, you would make $3,212 a year. What would happen if you had 100 product reviews all bringing traffic?

The point is small fees can add up to big fees as your site grows and brings in more and more traffic.

More Benefits

Another plus is anything that the person buys in the next 24 hours from Amazon earns you a commission. So, if within 24 hours they buy something completely unrelated to the item they originally clicked on you still get paid.

Why is this a great benefit?

It’s great because Amazon is very good at converting visitors into buyers. They know peoples history and display things people are interested in both related and unrelated to what brought them to Amazon. Back to using my family as an example for a minute. We eat a lot of healthy cashew butter and even more almond butter, probably 2 pounds per week. So, I am there looking at the clock radio from above and they show me the 3.5 pound tub of Kevala cashew butter we purchase regularly. I check the pantry and click another purchase is on the way. $37.68 x 4% for groceries = another $1.51 in your pocket.

Support

Amazon wants you to succeed at being an affiliate. They have a lot of support materials for affiliates. You can get product links for all the products on their site once you are an affiliate. Once you are an Amazon Associates you will have this toolbar and can easily get links for any product.

Amazon-Associates-Toolbar

Amazon Associates Toolbar

You can also get the HTML code for banners and images for any product.

Amazon Sample Product Link

Amazon Sample Product Link

It is all done for you. You can promote products will endlessly.

How to I Get People to My Site to Buy Stuff?

Many people are overly concerned about  and focused on making money from their site, but they have it backwards. The first thing you need to focus on is writing content that is quality content. By that I mean content that provides valuable information to the people that visit your site in a way that they find interesting and or entertaining. Take the time to write content that fits the topic and write meaningful product reviews. Do this and your readers will trust you, make purchases based on your recommendations and return to your site again. Mediocre reviews filled with product links and promotions will not pay dividends.

Find ways to build relationships with your visitors. Interact with them in the comments section, engage them through questions, offer them an e-book, something.

You also need to know how to drive traffic through the proper use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Keywords to name a couple. (More on this in my recommendation below.)

Another key is to promote quality products and products that are related to your niche and/or the article topic. I saw a site that was devoted to babies the other day. The person was new and had inserted an advertisement on their page from Google Adsense. So, right at the beginning of a post on homemade baby food or something was a big ad for Bosch power tools. Really. This has nothing to do with the topic and cause you to lose trust with your readers. Perhaps an ad for a food processor that grinds things to baby food levels of granularity of something, not power tools.

Recommendation: Very Positive

Amazon Associates is the 800 Pound Gorilla of Affiliate Programs. Anyone who wants to  build an affiliate business needs to at least consider this program for the reasons spelled out in this post.

I Don’t Know How to Get Started

If you need help with how to get started at no cost, please read my post that talks about my recommendation on how to start, where to get training and everything else you need to know.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below in the comments section. I always love to get feedback on how my articles can be enhanced to to explain something that wasn’t clear.

Sincerely,

Xin

11 thoughts on “Review of Amazon Associates – Verdict: a Must Have

  1. John

    Hi,
    I love games of all kinds, expecially on the Xbox and Wii. I was thinking of setting up a website. It sounds like Amazon Affiliates would be good for my site. Am I right?
    John

    Reply
    1. Xin Zhang Post author

      Hi John,
      I think it could be an excellent fit for your potential business. If you follow my link here you can see how to set up your website for free. Check out the post and let me know if you have any questions. I would be glad to help.
      Sincerely,
      Xin

      Reply
  2. June

    This is such a great article for people to use as a guide if they ever want to get into affiliate marketing. Anyone trying to get into the Internet Marketing scene will definitely benefit from this website.
    The lay out of your content is really easy to follow. I’ll definitely bookmark your site.
    June

    Reply
    1. Xin Zhang Post author

      Hello June,

      I an very happy to hear that you liked my article on the Amazon affiliate program. The deeper I looked into the Amazon program the more impressed I became with all the tools they offer to their affiliates. It is an excellent place for any new affiliate marketer to start.

      I just published another post on the ShareASale affiliate program that you may be interested in as well. That post can be found here.

      I am also happy that you were able to easily follow my content.

      Best Wishes,

      Xin

      Reply
  3. Alex

    I really love your article here. I read a few Amazon Affiliate program reviews and none of them have comprehensive information like yours. I really enjoyed your review on the Amazon Affiliate program.

    I think Amazon is really worth trying due to its reputation and popularity. I have seen other products which are quite similar to Amazon. Have you heard about ShareASale? Is Amazon much better than ShareASale?

    Reply
    1. Xin Zhang Post author

      Hello Alex,

      I think if you are going to be in affiliate marketing and sell products there is no reason not to join Amazon’s affiliate program. Amazon is the 800 pound gorilla of online sales and they have so many products, are so well known and trusted that it in certainly something you should avail yourself of moving forward.

      It is interesting when you look at reviews of ShareASale. About 40% of the reviewers give them 5 stars and 60% give them 1 star. Nothing in between. Also, quite a few of the positive reviews seem to be new affiliates. Very many people claim that merchants refuse to pay and that ShareASale does nothing. This seems to be for non trivial amounts, several were $500 plus for the month. I would not want to take all the time and energy promoting products, building traffic and seeing sales rise and then have the merchant refuse to pay. You don’t have that problem with Amazon.

      There are reviews from some longer term ShareASale affiliates that are very positive, perhaps it depends upon which merchant you are dealing with, but to me that throws up red flags. I personally wouldn’t want to worry about that type of issue.

      Hope this helps. I may just have to write my own ShareASale review after further investigations.

      Sincerely,

      Xin

      Reply
      1. Xin Zhang Post author

        Hello Alex,

        I have now published the ShareASale review I mentioned in my first reply. You can read the post here.

        Sincerely,

        Xin

        Reply
  4. Carlton Gonder

    Hi Xin,
    I enjoyed your review on the Amazon Affiliate program. It is the first programs I started with when creating my website. I am still using because it is so easy to integrate into your website for people to click and search for anything they want while browsing your site. In addition, if they need any help you are there to help them out with any issues.
    Yours Truly,
    Carlton

    Reply
    1. Xin Zhang Post author

      Hello Carlton,

      Glad to hear you liked the review! I agree that integration is easy and they offer all kinds of things to assist affiliates as I discuss in the post.

      Do you have any tips for readers that I may not have touched upon in the post?

      Sincerely,

      Xin

      Reply
  5. Glenn

    Hi Xin. I like your sites purity. It is very clean cut, with a wealth of information simply ozing out of it. I like your references to Amazon stats, and how you put it down in lay mans terms, even I get it! Your text is easy to read, and you do have a lot of content on all pages and posts. Well done. My only little niggle maybe more pictures? maybe? loving it though. regards Glenn

    Reply
    1. Xin Zhang Post author

      Hi Glenn,

      Thanks for your thoughts and kind words. I always like to hear what people think of my posts, good or bad. I will work on the aesthetics in general and see where additional pictures would make sense.

      Thanks again,

      Xin

      Reply

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