Amazon affiliate program review

The Amazon affiliate program is probably one of the most well known programs, alongside sites such as ClickBank, eBay or even Walmart. Especially when it comes to books, digital products or physical products. 

For years it was the holy grail of affiliate marketers, with many making specific niche sites or building entire YouTube channels focused around it. 

But, it has transformed a lot over the last few years, so is it worth the time and effort to get started with it? Today we run through the Amazon Affiliates review, to try and help answer some of those questions for you. 

What Is The Amazon Affiliates Program?

As the name suggests, it is a program run by one of the biggest eCommerce sites (at least in the West), offering anyone who signs up and gets accepted a % of Amazon checkouts.

The Amazon Affiliates program, or Amazon Associates as it's also known as is a per website based program, allowing you the ability to promote and earn from the large amount of products, offers and even platforms that Amazon own themselves. 

An associated can earn on; 

• Products found on the Amazon Marketplace (Commission)
• Amazon Prime (Bounty)
• Audible (Bounty)
• Amazon Music (Bounty)
• Amazon Kindle (Bounty)

And many variations on the prime offerings.

Bounties vs Commissions - What Is The Difference?

Amazon offers two types of earning potential, depending on what you decide to promote. An affiliate can earn on both, and you are not stopped or blocked from promoting one, or the other, though there are some limitations depending on what Amazon program you have signed up for. A little more on that later. 

Bounties

The Amazon Bounty program is usually offered for Amazons' Prime or Audible Programs, instead of offering a % based, as they are subscription services. 

The payments are usually fixed at around £3/$6 per sign up to any of the Bounty programs, though some of the new ones such as Amazon Prime Wardrobe offer lower bounties of £1.5 / $3 per sign up. 

Commissions   

The standard program, sometimes called Amazon SiteStripe, the commission based payment plan differs depending on the category of the products you are promoting. 

The Amazon Marketplace you are promoting can also offer different commission amounts, so it's worth reading up on the particular program you are looking at joining. 

Pretty much every product on a marketplace can be linked, and in turn promoted via your affiliate links, resulting in a commission if someone purchases via your link.

For example, if you happen to promote the Espresso Maker, on the UK Marketplace it sells for £529 (currently), as it's in the indoor or Kitchen category, you as an affiliate would currently earn around 8% in commissions if someone purchases it. This would result in you getting roughly £40. 

You can also earn a commission based upon other products found within the basket, if the same person happened to then spend £100 on coffee pods, or coffee, you would then earn another % of that, resulting in maybe another £6 or £7 in commission. 

Is The Amazon Associate Program Worth Signing Up For?

I would always say it's worth looking into affiliate programs if they fit in with what you are promoting or doing. 

For example, I know plenty of streamers, gamers and Instagram accounts who have signed up to one of the Amazon Associate Programs, as it offers them a secondary, and even passive income, simply by having links added to descriptions or bios. 

The commissions are often seen as quite low these days, nearly half of what they used to be, but the trust level and overall basket values can be a lot higher, so even out quite well. 

If the products are on Amazon and you can link to them, plus have an audience who would want to buy said products, then it really is worth signing up. 

I would say if you are running a website, such as an Amazon Niche Site, or your own blog, then you could find the same products on other places such as ShareASale or Walmart etc if you feel that might work better. But it's still worth keeping the Amazon Program in mind.

How Do You Sign Up for The Amazon Affiliates Program?

It really depends on the program, but as far as I am aware, they are all linked at the bottom of the homepage of the Amazon Marketplace you want to promote. 

You can also sign up for other programs by simply changing the marketplace locality within any of the programs you sign up for. 

Each program requires an application form, and you may be asked a number of questions and the support team might reach out to get more information from you. So be prepared to answer questions about promotion styles, audience and what products you want to promote. 

Who Can Sign Up For The Program?

As far as I am aware, anyone can apply for the program, though not everyone will be accepted. If you have a solid idea on how you will be promoting products, who you will be promoting too and your audience size etc, then you should have a better chance. 

How Can You Promote Amazon Affiliate Program?

There are a number of ways to succeed with the program, and a near infinite number of styles in which to promote products.

For example you may want to go down the blogging route, a personal favourite of mine (as many people know). There are so many different niches and categories that can be spoken about, creating a niche site focused around them. 

You can also check out this article, that focuses on a number of different free traffic methods. 

What I Enjoyed About The Program?

I of course usually build sites around niches, so I love the fact there are so many different categories, products and items that can be promoted and written about. With a near endless amount of products to promote, I can feel confident I will always have something to find. 

The trust levels that come from Amazon are also really good, which means the conversion rates from promoting Amazon products are a lot higher than other platforms. I also find that the total basket size is a lot higher than other marketplaces such as Walmart or even individual stores, because they offer so many different products, people will usually fill their baskets with stuff they wouldn't usually buy. 

There are a large number of markets to deal with, from Italy, to India, US or UK. So you can promote local variations of products to those nationalities, without worrying about not be able to ship too them etc. 

What Didn’t I Enjoy About The Program?

It is a real pain having to sign up and apply for each different platform individually. 

For example, for me to promote products to both the US and UK audiences, it requires 2 separate applications, which result in separate tracking ID's, reports and even no real way of knowing if the product you are promoting can be purchased by the 2 separate groups of people. 

They do offer a tool called 'OneLink' that is supposedly a way of linking products across all the different Amazon marketplaces, but it's buggy, doesn't really work and requires an Amazon US to even get started. It was so bad I ended up using a tool called GeniusLink to be able to deal with all the different marketplaces, audiences and even products. 

The other glaring issue, is the commission structure, it has taken a beating in the last few months, with some Amazon Associates being cut in half, and as low as 1%, which on a £10 product, or £5 product basically gives you £0.10p which is basically nothing. 

Amazon Affiliate Program Review - Conclusion

The Amazon affiliate program is a decent affiliate network to have in your metaphorical arrow quiver, possibly as a secondary network, or as an additional money maker. 

Due to the recent reductions in commissions, and the fact it can be so difficult to promote products across multiple countries, it isn't a great program to focus all your efforts on. 

FAQ’s