Amazon Affiliate Program Review 2024: Is It Worth Applying?

Did you know that Amazon customers often make quick decisions? 28% of purchases are completed in 3 minutes or less, and a whopping 50% are done in under 15 minutes!

Just imagine the power of promoting an affiliate program that can turn casual visitors into paying customers so quickly.

If you’re looking to promote a trusted brand with millions of users, the Amazon affiliate program is perfect for you.

In this Amazon affiliate program review,  you’ll learn;

• How to create a free account with Amazon Associates
• Pros and cons of the Amazon affiliate program
• Cookie duration, commission structure, and more

So are you ready? Let’s get started!

What is the Amazon Associates Program?

Amazon Associates is an affiliate program that allows publishers to promote Amazon products.

As an Amazon affiliate, you can create referral links and promote ANY product from Amazon. You’ll earn a commission whenever customers click through your links and buy products from Amazon.

Amazon Associates is completely free to join and easy to use.

Amazon Associates Cookie Duration

Typically, Amazon Associates cookies last for 24 hours.

In a few cases, the cookies can last up to 90 days because your referred customer may add a product to their cart but doesn’t purchase it immediately.

In rare cases, if a visitor has their cookies disabled in their browsers, they won’t be tracked, and you won’t earn a commission.

Amazon Affiliate Program Commission Rate

Here’s an Amazon Affiliate program commission structure chart you can see (to find how much commission you can earn).

As you can see above, you can earn up to 20% commission through the Amazon affiliate program and most of the categories can fetch you a 4% standard commission.

So what are you waiting for?

Pros & Cons of Amazon Affiliate Program

Amazon’s Affiliate Program is a popular choice for website owners. Here are some of the key advantages and disadvantages of joining this program.

Pros:

Here are some of the BIGGEST benefits of promoting the Amazon affiliate program.

1.  Good conversion rates

Amazon Associates offers excellent commissions on their products. You can earn up to 20% commission on several categories. The commission ranges between 1 to 20%!

The best-paying Amazon products are Amazon games, beauty, music and physical books.

2. A trustworthy brand with a loyal customer base

Amazon is a well-known and trusted brand with over 310 million active users worldwide.

If you’re looking to promote an affiliate platform that sells products at a competitive pricing, and offers a convenient shopping experience – Amazon is for you.

3. You can promote virtually anything you need

Whether you’re a small business owner or an individual trying to sell physical books, you can promote virtually anything you need on Amazon. 

According to AMZScout’s Product Database from Amazon, there are currently over 600 million products listed on the Amazon marketplace. It means, you can promote anything from physical goods to digital content.

Cons:

Here are some of the major drawbacks of Amazon Associates.

1. No Link Cloaking

Amazon does NOT allow cloaking affiliate links as per their terms and conditions.

Link cloaking simply means shortening the ugly and lengthy affiliate links to shorter URLs. Affiliate link cloaking is not allowed on Amazon and it can lead to your affiliate account being suspended or terminated. 

2. Amazon cookie duration is only 24 hours

Amazon’s affiliate cookie lasts for only 24 hours. This means you have a very short period of time to make a sale after a visitor clicks your link.

If a visitor doesn’t purchase the product within this timeframe, you’ll lose the commission. 

However, if someone clicks your affiliate link and adds the product to their shopping cart (within 24 hours), you can still earn a commission even if they don’t complete the purchase immediately. This is because the Amazon cart typically remains active for 90 days.

3. Limited availability

Some products can go out of stock within a few days or weeks, ultimately affecting your sales. 

For example, let’s assume you’re promoting “Top 10 Best Laptops for Writers” by linking to 10 value-for-money laptops that are available on Amazon. 

If you’re not careful, one or more of these laptops might be sold out by the time your audience clicks on your links. This not only leads to missed sales but can also damage your reputation as a reliable source of product recommendations.

How to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program? (aka Amazon Associates)

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program in 2024.

Step 1: Click on this link to create an Amazon account for free. Once you’re on their website, click on the Sign-Up button to continue.

Step 2: Once you’re on the sign up page, follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll be asked to provide basic information about yourself and your website.

Step 3: Now, choose the website or  mobile app where you plan to promote Amazon products. You’ll need to provide the URL of your website.

Step 4: You’ll be asked to provide your preferred associate store ID information and the type of content you create.

Step 5: That’s it, submit the application and you’re done! It may take a few days for Amazon to review and approve your application. Once approved, you can start promoting Amazon products on your website or app.

Important Note: To keep your account active, you must generate at least 3 qualifying purchases within the next 180 days.

7 Best Practices to Make Money from Amazon Affiliate Program

Are you looking for the best practices and tips on how to make money from the Amazon affiliate program? Here are a few PROVEN ways to increase your Amazon Associates commissions in 2024.

1. Sell low-ticket products when starting out

One of the best ways to increase your Amazon affiliate sales is to sell cheaper products in the beginning and then refer to higher-priced products.

Refer products with lower price tags (such as eBooks) to increase your volume every month to increase your overall average commission from Amazon associates. 

Let us explain this in a simple example.

Amazon gives you a 4% commission per every product you sell if you are selling 1 to 6 products from Amazon associates each month. 

If you’re selling high-priced products, you may not be able to make more than 5 sales each month being a beginner. So you’ll earn not more than 4% on each product you sell that is highly-priced.

But if you first sell the products with less price tag, you can increase your overall average commission, then if you can make a handful of high-priced products, you can easily hit 6% commission. 

Here’s the percentage referral fee is given by Amazon associates (volume-based commission for general products).

So if you’re selling 5 cheap products on average and 2 or higher priced products, you’ll be getting an average commission of 6%.

2. Write genuine product reviews

The surefire way to increase your Amazon associate earnings is to write reviews about the products you promote. 

Writing unbiased product reviews can help your readers to better understand your products.

Why write product reviews?

They can help you educate your audience about the products you promote.

Make sure to write reviews that offer value. List out all the pros and cons along with the alternatives.

If you show the benefits of the products you promote, your audience will engage more. If they see value in your products, your Amazon associates income will increase. Make sure to test out the products before you promote them from your product reviews.

Few product vendors offer free trials (especially software vendors). So you can ask for a product demo and share the pros and cons of the products from product reviews. This will give you an edge in converting readers to buyers to boost your Amazon affiliate sales.

Here’s an example;

We use Semrush (#1 SEO tool) almost daily and we partnered with them to provide a to give a 14-day free Semrush trial to our users.

Although the above product is not available on Amazon Associates we’re showing an example of how you can use special deals, discounts, etc to promote products effectively.

Here’s the thumb rule: offer a special coupon (or discount), write an amazing product review and you’ll see a growth in your Amazon commissions.

3. Use the Amazon bestsellers page to your advantage

Amazon has a bestsellers page where it frequently updates the page with the trending products that are popular and products that sold out quickly. 

Here’s what it looks like;

As you can see above, you’ll find the best-selling products across all the categories including electronics, music, software, books, and more.

You can use a free tool like Helium 10 to find top best sellers in your market with their revenue potential & other metrics. It is a dedicated tool for Amazon sellers available in many savings offers.

You can pick your niche or industry-related products and see the best sellers, and start promoting the same products on your blogs to earn more money.

Dive into our expertly curated list of the most profitable niches in 2024. Here.

Besides promoting the best sellers on Amazon, make it a habit of smart linking to other products.

Why? Contextual linking is the top way most bloggers make money from Amazon associates. 

When you’re writing product reviews, link to other products that are relevant. It helps with link juice and overall conversions.

While writing product reviews or giving product suggestions to your readers, make sure to use words like “click here to check out the easiest tool to solve your problems” etc to increase click-through rates.

If you can convince your visitors to click on Amazon links, even if they buy other products (within 24 hours), the sale is counted and the commission will be sent to you.

Pro tip: If you are using images of particular products from Amazon associates, make sure to use clickable image links (use your affiliate links in your images of the products). And make sure to open all your affiliate links in new tabs.

4. Use promos to skyrocket your sales

One of the easiest ways to increase your Amazon affiliate sales is to promote your products by offering “product promos”. 

Almost every product manufacturer on Amazon affiliate gives away their stuff for a 50 to 80% discount during the holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc.

So be prepared for special days and write product reviews in advance so you can rank for those keywords in Google when the deals go live.

If you promote your products the right way during these holidays, your readers will not only get a high discount on the products they love but you’ll also increase your Amazon affiliate earnings.

5. Build an email list

Whether you agree with it or not, an email list is the most effective asset you can have to grow your Amazon associate income. 

If you are a beginner who wants to make more sales from Amazon associates, we strongly suggest you start building an email list.

According to Hubspot,  email marketing has a HUGE ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. 

So start building an email list from day one if you want to make money from Amazon affiliate marketing. 

Send sequential newsletters to create awareness about the products you promote. 

Creating awareness among your readers or subscribers is the simplest way to boost your Amazon product sales because if they know the benefits of the products you promote, they often end up buying them. 

6. Compare similar products  

First things first: comparison of similar products work like a charm.

For instance, you can compare the Apple iPhone 13 Vs Apple iPhone 13 PRO version and list out all the pros, cons, features, and pricing to make your comparison reviews interesting.

List out all the benefits of each of those products and help your audience which product suits their needs.

Comparing two or more similar products on the same blog post or page is the surefire way to increase Amazon associate earnings.  

If possible, create a video comparison of two or more similar products as comparison videos often tend to convert well.

Launch a YouTube channel, make comparison videos, and include Amazon links in the descriptions. Make sure to properly optimize your YouTube videos for specific keywords to get more views and sales.

7. Product relevancy matters a lot

What if the products you promote are completely different from the topics you cover on your blog? You will get no sales. 

That’s why product relevancy matters especially when you’re promoting Amazon products. 

If you want to increase your chances of making more money from Amazon associates, make sure to promote the products that are relevant to your blog audience.

For example, if you’re running a fitness blog or website, it’s a good idea to promote only those Amazon products that are totally related to that niche such as fitness bands, home gym equipment, supplements, etc. 

Are you getting it?

Also, make it a habit of promoting your products through blogs, social media sites like Twitter, and Facebook, and your email list.

Educate your audience about the products you promote and you’ll generate more sales. 

Remember, it takes time to see decent sales from Amazon affiliates. So don’t look for shortcuts and don’t quit if you don’t see a huge number of sales within a few months. 

Analyze your competitors, pick the RIGHT products and educate your audience about the products you promote. That’s how you succeed with the Amazon affiliate program.

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Final thoughts on the Amazon affiliate program

Making money from Amazon associates is similar to making money from any other affiliate program but your payment commission will largely depend on the number of sales you make every month.

So if you want to get a higher average commission, start selling cheaper products like eBooks quickly and then refer to high-priced products to increase your average commission sales (usually 6%).

Then, you can start suggesting better recommendations to your blog audience to increase your Amazon Associates sales. Instead of making your blog an ad place, choose a “few products” that are worth paying every penny.

So what do you think about the Amazon associate affiliate program? Did you like our Amazon affiliate program review? Have any more questions? Let us know in the comments.

FAQs | Amazon Affiliate Program Review

Here are some of the frequently asked questions about the Amazon affiliate program.