How to become an Amazon Associate: A step-by-step guide

Learning how to monetize your audience is crucial to making it as a full-time content creator.

Luckily, you don’t need to amass an enormous following or earn brand sponsorships to turn a profit. Amazon’s affiliate marketing program monetizes your traffic through affiliate links, earning you a commission every time someone clicks and buys the product from your link. Whether you’re a self-care aficionado or a tech genius, you can sprinkle Amazon links throughout your content to earn an income.

Read on to learn how Amazon’s affiliate marketing program works and how to become an Amazon Associate.

What’s an Amazon Associate, and how does the program work?

Amazon’s affiliate marketing program – Amazon Associates – allows content creators and bloggers to monetize their traffic by recommending Amazon products and earning a commission when people purchase.

Creators, called Amazon affiliates, recommend products through blog posts, custom links in their bios or visual content like TikToks. Customers who click on affiliate product links go straight to Amazon.com to complete their purchase. Products don’t cost more than they normally would while shopping. All they have to do is click the link and purchase the product, and Amazon sends a percentage to the associated creator.

Keep in mind that when someone clicks on your link, the affiliation lasts only 24 hours. If someone waits longer than that to make a purchase or clicks on another affiliate link during that time, you’ll no longer earn a commission. This is because Amazon stores the cookies from the person’s interaction with your link for only 24 hours.

How much does the Amazon affiliate program pay?

The commission affiliates earn on each product depends on the product’s price and type. They can earn up to 10% commission on qualifying purchases, and for high-cost items, that adds up.

Pros and cons of becoming an Amazon affiliate

Amazon runs one of the most extensive affiliate programs in the world, with millions of opportunities for any content niche. But every affiliate program has pros and cons, so let’s break down Amazon’s affiliate marketing program to determine if it’s right for you as a creator:

Pros

• You gain access to an extensive global marketplace with millions of products
• Amazon is a well-known platform and people generally see it as trustworthy
• You can be paid by direct deposit, check, or Amazon gift cards
• You can earn commission on products beyond what you’ve promoted if a customer purchases other Amazon products from your affiliate link within 24 hours
• You’ll get detailed reports to understand the performance of your links.

Cons

• The short cookie window purchasing period of 24 hours could affect your commissions
• Commission rates might be considered low compared to direct brand programs (4%–10%)
• You can’t promote links through email, which means you can’t take advantage of your subscriber list or newsletter.

Amazon Associates eligibility criteria

To become an Amazon Associate, you first need to have an active Amazon account and ownership of the account or website on which you’ll be promoting your affiliate links. Once you’ve become an affiliate, you must abide by specific rules and regulations to maintain your status.

Here’s a breakdown of the Amazon Associate requirements for implementing Amazon’s affiliate program on any website, social media platforms, and or mobile apps that belong to you:

Website or blog

• You must have ownership over the platform you’re promoting links on
• You must have a minimum of 10 original blog posts
• Recent content must be from within the last 60 days
• Content has to be publicly available (without paywalls).

Social media

• You must have an active Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, or Twitch account
• You must have at least 500 organic followers on the account you’re promoting links on.

Mobile app

• You need to be the original creator of the app
• The app has to be available for free through the Apple, Google Play, and Amazon app stores
• The application has to function differently than the Amazon shopping app and provide a unique experience for users
• The application needs to produce original content
• You must ensure the application complies with the Mobile Application Policy.

The Amazon Associates team will review your application to ensure you follow all rules and regulations before you can start. Along with these standards, remember that you must complete at least three sales within the first 180 days of your participation in the program.

Here are several rules you’ll need to follow to ensure you’re abiding by Amazon’s ethical promotion policy:

• Disclose on your platform that you’re eligible to earn commission from recommended product links
• Avoid referring to prices, as product prices often change
• All product claims need to be accurate and from your point of view
• Avoid inappropriate, harmful, and explicit content
• Only use affiliate links on platforms you have ownership of (websites, social media, or mobile apps).

How to become an Amazon Associate

If you have one or multiple platforms that suit Amazon’s standards, you can start the process of becoming an Amazon Associate. Once you visit the signup platform, here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Double-check that your website or social media accounts meet Amazon’s standards
2. Enter your account information, which includes your name, address, and the name of the person Amazon will be paying
3. Enter your website’s address, which will be your blog’s URL, app’s URL, or links to your social media pages
4. Enter your store ID, which will be the name of your accounts or your website
5. Provide an explanation of how you drive traffic to your website
6. Select your preferred payment method and tax information

How to create an Amazon affiliate link

Once Amazon has accepted you as an associate, you can start creating and sharing affiliate links for individual products. Then you can promote them to your audience.

Amazon’s SiteStripe tool is the best and easiest way to generate links. When you’re logged in, it appears on each product page you visit so all you have to do is click it to make a new link.

Follow these steps to create an affiliate link with Amazon’s SiteStripe tool:

1. Log into your Amazon Associate account and visit your dashboard
2. Navigate to Product Linking on the top banner and click or tap “Product Links”
3. Tap the “Text” button next to “Get Link” on the SiteStripe at the top of the page
4. Choose between a short or full-length link
5. Once you’ve generated the link, you can copy and paste it into your content or clipboard for later use
6. Add the links to your content

4 tips to boost your Amazon Associate marketing strategies

Becoming a successful affiliate takes more than generating and implementing links. If you want to earn enough commissions to fuel your income, you’ll need to attract an audience and drive sales.

Here are a few Amazon Affiliate program tips to maximize the impact of your product links:

1. Produce consistent content

You’ll need to create content with plenty of linking opportunities to increase the likelihood of customers clicking your links. But don’t spam your audience by filling each piece of content to the brim with links. It won’t feel authentic. Instead, produce consistent content and evenly spread out your links, adding them where they make the most sense. You can also reference them in content and let followers know they can find the link in their bio.

Try posting one link-focused piece of content weekly. Make sure it’s a watchable video or interesting blog post so your audience interacts with it even though linking is the goal. To increase your traffic, consider learning SEO basics and implementing top-ranking keywords to optimize your content’s organic reach.

2. Create niche content

Working within a niche is an excellent way to build a loyal community of people with shared interests. When you choose a niche, such as cooking, automotive care or gardening, you can implement your links naturally without appearing pushy or deceptive.Become an expert in your niche to earn your audience’s trust. Recommend products that you genuinely like and know will be of value to their lifestyle. If you usually create beauty content but suddenly want to talk about an expensive vacuum, your audience might feel like you’re just trying to sell them something, which won’t lead to clicks.

3. Create content on product reviews and recommendations

Crafting blogs and social media posts reviewing products is a great way to appeal to your audience on a personal level. Instead of claiming the product is perfect, give an honest review touching on what the product does and your thoughts. Customers are likelier to click on your link and purchase the product if they feel you’re being genuine.

Product review readers might already be considering buying the product, so you don’t need to go overboard. Cover the basics, include enticing imagery, and highlight the benefits that set it apart.

4. Market your content effectively

Your affiliate strategy won’t grow if your accounts or blog posts aren’t growing too. With proper marketing, your content can more easily reach its intended audience and earn more link clicks. Try investing in a mix of pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google and Facebook and working on your organic reach through the best SEO practices.

Amazon Affiliate FAQ

Before diving into a new business venture, you should know what you’re getting into. Here’s a list of Amazon Affiliate FAQs to help you decide if you want to move forward and become an affiliate:

Does it cost anything to become an Amazon Associate?

Becoming an Amazon Associate is completely free, and you start earning right away.

Can I use my affiliate links on more than one platform?

Yes, you can use your affiliate links on multiple platforms. But if you want to track the performance of each platform separately, you’ll need to contact Amazon’s associate customer service to request unique tracking IDs for each website.

How does Amazon track purchases made from my affiliate links?

Each affiliate link is associated with your unique Associate ID. This tells Amazon where the customer came from so that the company can compensate you.

Can I become an Amazon Associate if I don’t live in the United States?

Yes, you can become an Amazon Associate if you live outside the United States. However, you’ll need to join the affiliate program on your country’s respective Amazon website to link to that site’s products. If you want to link in both your country and the United States, you have to apply for each program individually and link separately.

How often are Amazon Associates paid?

Amazon Associates are paid monthly. However, Amazon will pay you 60 days behind. If you start linking in May, you’ll receive your May earnings in July.

What happens if a customer cancels or returns their order?

If a customer cancels their order before it ships or returns it, you will not receive a commission.

Become an Amazon Associate to monetize your content

Learning how to become an Amazon Associate is just one way to monetize your content and make money online. There are countless affiliate marketing programs for new content creators you can try out to find the perfect fit.

If you’re a PRO Linktree user, you can join Amazon’s Influencer Program (AIP) and integrate your storefront with your Linktree account. This way, you can bring all your favorite Amazon products to your followers’ doors and optimize your link in bio.