Can You Make Money As An Amazon Affiliate?

One question I get asked often is Can You Make Money As an Amazon Affiliate?

That’s a legitimate question because Amazon is one of the biggest online retailers in the world.

If you are a brand-spanking “newbie” I have found that ONE of the best affiliate programs for beginners is Amazon.

Also, for seasoned marketers, Amazon has proven to be profitable as well.

What many marketers have done is find a great platform that will allow them to build a blog or a website populated with Amazon products.

Can You Make Money As An Amazon Affiliate Even If Amazon Is Flawed?

Of course, their affiliate program, Amazon Associates, isn’t perfect.

You don’t have to look far to find common complaints and criticisms.

The cookie is only 24 hours long and the commission percentages are low.

Comissions are too low for many markers to be bothered with.

Also, some products are excluded from earning commissions.

However, there are some high ticket items on Amazon that provide a decent amount of commission per sale.

You only need to sell 2-3 items, in some cases, to actually make $100 – $150 dollars a day.

With all of the factors I’ve mentioned above, some marketers choose not to do business with Amazon.

However, there are many others who make good money as an Amazon affiliate.

Basically, what you need to do is decide if you are OK with the low commissions and referrals (cookies) that last only 24 hours.

If that’s something you’re able to deal with, then you may want to give Amazon a try as an affiliate.

Amazon Gives Beginners a Way to Make Money Online

Amazon still remains one of the best programs out there for beginners.

Since Google Adsense stopped paying out the big money it used to, Amazon certainly is a viable option to those who are brand new to online marketing.

Even if you’re not a beginner, Amazon is still a great opportunity for affiliate commissions.

If you have Amazon affiliate links on your blog pages, it’s a great way to earn additional revenue.

The reason this post is catered to beginners is because it’s beginners who need the most direction.

I want you to help start you on the right path.

So why is Amazon a great way for beginners to make money online?

Amazon Products Sell Themselves

A lot of people start out with the belief that all they need to do is get traffic, and they’ll make money.

Once traffic comes, they think, all they need to do now is get more traffic.

The reality is that sometimes all the traffic in the world won’t make you any money.

What you need to be able to do is convert that traffic into sales. The traffic MUST CONVERT!

One of the reasons Amazon affiliate links convert well is because of the worldwide familiarity with the Amazon brand.

People are so familiar with Amazon that as soon as they land on the site, they switch into shopping mode.

It doesn’t matter if you did a great job or a poor job describing the product they’re searching for.

You can have a downright crappy website, but if it’s linked to Amazon products, you can still make sales.

People see the Amazon logo or brand, they click it, Amazon takes over.

You Get Sitewide Commissions

When somebody clicks on your link and gets that Amazon cookie in their browser, you earn commissions on almost anything they buy within that 24-hour window.

How many times have you gone to Amazon and bought more than one thing?

From October through January there is a huge spike in ordering from Amazon.

That spike can contribute to you earning double or even triple during the holiday shopping period.

In some niches, as much as 50% of your Amazon commissions could come from products you didn’t even promote.

Somebody goes to Amazon, and then the billions of dollars they’ve invested into conversions kicks in.

If the customer buys multiple products, then you still get a commission!

Even if a consumer doesn’t buy the product you linked to, but buys something else, you still get paid.

Your job as an Amazon affiliate is presenting people with different purchasing options for them to click on.

Amazon is Great for Beginners

Now, those two reasons described above should be enough to make you realize the potential.

Amazon commissions might be lower, but for a “newbie” starting out, I’d rather get 5% of 100 sales than 0% of 0 sales.

Although the commissions are lower, and the cookie length is shorter, you don’t need to do any selling.

Your website visitors will buy products based on the Amazon brand alone.

If you’re a beginner, this is huge.

As beginners you don’t need to complicate your marketing by focusing on selling.

What you need to focus on is content – writing relevant content that adds value to your readers lives.

That’s the main thing you need to give attention to.

I’ve written a detailed post designed to help with the process of writing good content: “Tips on Writing Website Content That Will Make You Better.”

Don’t fall into the trap of building one-page Amazon sites dedicated to Amazon products without using good content.

Google loves content!

Amazon affiliates build successful money-making blogs and websites around content-driven solutions.

When you’re more competent, exploring other available affiliate programs or creating your own digital products are options that can skyrocket your income!

You don’t have to rely on just promoting Amazon.

How Do You Actually Make It Work?

What most people do is build a site around a sub niche or product in Amazon.

They build a site around a product.

Now, if I told you to do this, I would be doing my readers a disservice!

That is the WRONG approach for long-term success.

You need to start your affiliate marketing business with a clearly defined problem that needs to be solved.

Build your business solving problems, not promoting a product.

The advantage of this kind of site is that you’re going to get a lot of organic, free traffic.

Also, along with the informational content, you can build your site out to be an authority..

You Can’t Go Wrong With Good Content

Furthermore, building a website with good content presents opportunities for you to put Amazon links in it.

People will be more inclined to click through at a high rate because you’re not just selling stuff.

You’re helping them solve a problem!

Big difference!

So please remember: build an Amazon website or blog with lots of content.

Help people solve problems!

You CANNOT start making serious money online until you earn the trust of your target audience.

You want to become their niche expert they go to for answers.

Affiliate marketers who are six and seven-figure earners have proven one thing:

Publishing accurate, highly actionable, and useful content that solves problems is one of the best ways to make exceptional money online.

Make every blog post a sincere, comprehensive, and caring answer to your audience’s pressing questions.

An outstanding online marketer makes it his/her personal business to addresses the most common questions of their audience.

They also take the time to answer them one by one in their blog posts.

What’s The Best Way To Promote Amazon?

Do the smaller Amazon product sites still have their place? Yes, they do

However, smaller sites filled with affiliate links don’t work as well as they did years ago.

Years ago, Google would allow you to market these one-page websites; there were all over the place.

Today and moving forward, Google is not friendly to these types of sites because they don’t provide good content.

Building larger websites or blogs with a lot of content is the way to build a long-term, sustainable business.

Just Build A Normal Site And Put Amazon Links In It

You don’t have to go all-in on Amazon.

You could build any site and just put relevant Amazon links in your content.

After you research the products that are available, you can use Amazon to fit the needs of your niche or website.

Whether this is through a “best of” or “review” or “top 5” post, or just a post dedicated to something you’re really interested in, it’s fine.

Even When Promoting Amazon, You Still Need Good Content

The wonderful thing about Amazon is that whatever your niche is, you can find products you can link to, and offer on your website.

Many online marketers lament the difficulty in finding good products related to their niche.

With Amazon, this ceases to become a problem.

Let me say this again: Regardless of the niche you’re promoting, don’t underestimate the need for good content on your website in order to draw potential customers.

Additional Resources On Writing Content

• Can You Make Money With A Blog?
• Tips On Writing Blog Content – How To Make Money Blogging

Look At Your Business the Right Way

Short-sightedness or failing to have a long-range view of your business is a common mistake most “newbies” seem to make.

“Newbies” are quick to catch “Shiny Object Syndrome” by virtue of their inexperience.

They are always attracted to easy and quick cash-making methods instead of focusing on building a long-term business.

Amazon provides neither quick and easy cash nor can you rely on it as a long-term business solution.

You Must Have the Right Viewpoint About Amazon

In conclusion, can you make money as an Amazon affiliate? The answer is yes.

However, don’t rely solely on Amazon Associates’ income. Why?

Google algorithm changes and the ever-present potential of Amazon cutting commissions and even banning commissions on some products make relying totally on Amazon affiliate commissions unrealistic.

If you view Amazon as one part of your business and not rely on it totally, it can contribute to higher overall affiliate commissions, which means that ultimately your total earnings will be higher.

As I said earlier, Amazon affiliate sites rely on so many external variables that it’s foolish to depend solely on it as a monetization method.

Building an Amazon affiliate site that is really successful takes a lot of time and hard work.

However, even if you’re a beginner it’s a great way to learn the fundamentals of working online.

I hope the steps above will give you a good start in creating your very own website and in using Amazon.

Also, if you want to build your own website in order to feature Amazon products on it, check out my detailed review of the Wealthy Affiliate platform.

Wealthy Affiliate is one of the best platforms available to help beginners learn how to build a profitable online business.

My review will show how ordinary people have learned how to make extraordinary incomes using this recommended platform.

Now it’s time to get to work!

Remember, success will only come with consistent and sustained effort!

You Can Do This!

Talk Soon,

Howard

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