What is the Amazon Affiliate Program?

The Amazon Affiliate Program, also called 'Amazon Associates,' is one of the largest affiliate programs online, allowing content creators, publishers, and bloggers the opportunity to monetize their content. After signing up for the free program, creators receive links they can publish and promote to their followers. When a sale is made through their individualized link, the affiliates may receive a commission up to 10% from qualifying purchases and programs, depending upon product category.

Why Did Amazon Create the Affiliate Program?

As the online environment has become increasingly utilized for shopping tips and reviews, individuals are turning to their favorite celebrity, influencer, or blogger for advice. Amazon created the Amazon Affiliate Program to incentivize content creators and influencers to promote products on its platform.

How do Affiliate Links Work?

Affiliate links are super easy to use! Once you sign up for the program and create links, you can publish them to your various sites, blogs, channels, and social pages.

After being accepted into the program and your links have been used to purchase products, Amazon will pay you in one of three options: deposit, gift card, or check.

Direct Deposit

To be paid from the direct deposit option, you must have earned a minimum payment of $10. To be paid in this manner, you will have to provide Amazon with your banking info (bank name, account number, and other identifying information). Once these steps are complete, Amazon will send over your compensation.

Gift Card

To receive payment via gift card, you must earn a minimum payment of $10. When you reach this benchmark, Amazon will send the gift card to the email address you provided during the application process.

Check

If you prefer receiving a check payment, you must earn a minimum payment of $100 and then pay a $15 check processing fee. For this payment type, provide Amazon a mailing address and you are good to go.

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate

One of the benefits of the Amazon Affiliate Program is that it's open to creators across a wide variety of categories! The program is not restricted to one social media platform or type of creator, but rather allows flexibility for many demographics to join.

To become a part of the Amazon Affiliate Program all you need to do is:

  1. Have a website, blog, social media page, or YouTube channel that you can upload your links to
  1. Sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program via the Amazon Affiliate page
  1. Enter your account info
  1. Enter your web address, social media pages, and/or YouTube channel (you can add up to 50!)
  1. Specify your preferred Associates Store ID (what you want your page to be called), what your listed pages are about, and categories your links will include
  1. Explain the marketing tactics you use for your pages
    • Do you use paid search ads? Do you use social networks? What about lead generation? Here is the space to share that information!
    • This portion will also ask you to explain how you currently use websites/apps to generate income, how you usually build links, how many unique monthly visitors you get to your website/app, why you want to join the Amazon Associates Program, and how you heard about the program
  1. Choose how you want to be paid

You are now ready to become an Amazon Affiliate! From here, all you need to do is wait for Amazon to accept your application and then start creating links using your desired ASINs.

Amazon Affiliate Program Rules & Requirements

Amazon has a few rules and requirements you must follow in order to be allowed in the Amazon Affiliate Program. Before you start posting links, read through Amazon's Affiliate Program guidelines in order to mitigate the possibility of getting banned for unknowingly violating a rule.

Some of the stated rules include:

  • You must fully disclose that you may receive compensation for your product recommendations
  • Promote products authentically, making sure you do not lie or make false claims in your recommendations
  • Do not state exact prices in recommendation, as prices are likely to vary on Amazon
  • Do not shorten affiliate links

To see the full list of Associate Program Policies, click here.

What Sellers Need to Know About the Amazon Affiliate Program

For Amazon Affiliates to link to your products, you must first become a registered seller. After taking this step, you'll pay monthly seller fees in addition to various other costs, like referral fees and fulfillment fees.

Referral fees are where the Affiliate Program comes in. These specific fees can run from about 3% to 45% of the product cost, depending on the item sold. While you will not be paying the affiliates' commission directly for the sale of your product, the fee that Amazon charges you will be used to pay them.

Why Amazon Sellers Use the Affiliate Program

As a seller, the Amazon Affiliate Program can be a great tool for growing brand awareness and capturing additional sales. By referring your products to their followers, affiliates affirm your products' credibility and establish a line of trust between their audience and your brand. It's word-of-mouth marketing for the digital stage. Through this marketing tactic you can create long-term customers built on trust.

To incorporate the Affiliate Program into your marketing strategy, we recommend partnering with influencers who promote Amazon products. Ideally, they should be already enrolled in the program or you can require them to join the program when they partner with you. By working with influencers who already include product highlights in their content, you ensure that any promotions will not come as a surprise to their followers.

Our goal as marketers is to reach a relevant audience who will genuinely enjoy and benefit from our product. We also want our brand to be represented by someone who aligns with our brand values - such as high-quality, luxurious, or family focused - so it's vital that we choose our influencers with care.

How Sellers Can Find Influencers in the Amazon Affiliate Program

To find influencers, you can utilize influencer platforms like Activate (which we use here at Kaspien) or you can manually search for them on social channels like Instagram or TikTok.

Using influencer platforms to connect yourself with individuals within your target demographic is the best and most time-efficient way to craft your influencer marketing strategy. Using these tools will save you the energy of searching through Instagram or TikTok, only to find influencers who may not be as committed or may not create as high-quality content as those on influencer platforms. Platforms like Activate also allow you to narrow your search and requirements as you hire influencers, effectively guiding you to the right candidates.

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Elizabeth Redmond
Copywriting Internat Kaspien, Inc.
Since joining Kaspien's Inbound Marketing department in 2019, Elizabeth has served both as the Copywriting Intern and as the Social Media Intern. If she is not at work or attending class at Gonzaga University, she is likely found skiing, doing yoga, or catching the sunset.
Latest posts by Elizabeth Redmond (see all)
  • Amazon Affiliate Program: What Sellers Need To Know about Amazon Associates- August 31, 2021
  • How to Craft Your Influencer Marketing Strategy by Product Category- August 26, 2021
  • Why You Need an Influencer Marketing Strategy for Amazon- August 17, 2021
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Kaspien Holdings Inc. published this content on 31 August 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 15 September 2021 08:21:02 UTC.