Make Money With The Amazon Affiliate Program
It is amazing but a lot of people have no idea that Amazon will pay you between 4% and 15% of sales when someone refers a customer to the Amazon website and someone buys something.
This may be the greatest business in the world:
You can get started with minimal investment –under $10
You can access over 100,000 book titles and 40,000 products in hundreds of categories and subcategories.
You can sell thousands of products yet - You have no inventory. You take no photos. There is nothing to ship and…Amazon takes all the risk and collects the money for you.
You have to do some work –but once it’s done, you literally make money while you sleep.
Why Become an Amazon Affiliate?
I have ten good reasons why the Amazon Affiliate program is a good choice:
1. Amazon is a trusted Brand – According to Nielson Research, Amazon is the most trusted brand and the number one most popular shopping destination on the web (they just passed eBay this year). Buyers know Amazon –and trust it. And, they spend more money on Amazon on average than any other shopping site.
2. People Buy More than One Item – the great thing about Amazon is that you don’t just earn a commission on the product that you send people to, but anything that they buy once they’re at Amazon. You earn a commission on anything a person buys within 24 hours of you sending them to Amazon. One out of every four shoppers buys more than one item per session.
3. Easy Setup – There are more and more WordPress plugins and third party tools and website builders that have Amazon Affiliate integration built into them. This means you have a choice of automated tools that mean little or no work for you. You can even put Amazon links in your Twitter and Facebook posts.
4. Choice of Payment – Amazon pays their affiliates in a number of ways. You can elect to receive an Amazon gift card, check in the mail or direct deposit to your bank account.
5. Commissions – Amazon uses a sliding scale of commissions that start at 4% and go as high as 15%. (Sell just 4 items per month and your commission jumps to 6%). They have a volume formula so the more items you sell per month, the higher your commission. Most months I am at the 7% level. That doesn’t sound like much but someone bought a $2,100 gun-safe one month. My commission on that sale was $126.00. I know one lady who runs an Amazon affiliate website that reviews expensive sewing machines ($250 to $2,000). She gets dozens of sales per month.
6. Small Payments Add Up – See above and do some math.
7. Holidays are huge moneymakers – It's not just Christmas. I always see a big jump in sales on other holidays such as Valentine's Day, Mother's and Father's Day, Halloween and so on.
8. Huge Array of Products -- What initially attracted me to Amazon’s Affiliate program was the breadth of products that they had in their system. This is a great thing if you’re niche is narrow or quite obscure as many niche marketers find it difficult to find affiliate programs to match their niche focus. Even if your niche is so narrow you can’t find products, at least there are books about it. Not counting books, movies and music, Amazon has over 40,000 different products for sale in hundreds of categories and sub-categories.
9. Amazon now sells streaming movies –Amazon recently entered the market of streaming video downloads –they will shortly begin selling movies in competition with Netflix. This can add a whole new revenue stream.
10. Amazon gives great support – Unlike other online shopping and auction sites, Amazon loves their sellers and associates and gives them great support. Stuck with a problem? Amazon will call you on the phone and talk to you in less than 5 minutes after requesting a call.
How Much Money Can I Make as an Amazon Affiliate?
Before I discuss this I have to point you to the disclaimer at the bottom of this page. The Federal Trade Commission has new rules we have to follow when talking about moneymaking products, so please read –and heed the disclaimer. It is there for your protection.
I have seen Amazon affiliate sites that were so poorly done they made nothing or maybe were lucky to earn $20 to $30 per month. And I have seen some that make well over $1000 per month. But if you speak with experienced Amazon affiliates they will tell you that the average is probably somewhere around $300 to $500 month, per site, which is why most of the pros have ten or more sites. I will show you how to set up an Amazon site quickly –in less than one hour and even a system that will set them up for you (if you are willing to pay them), but if your goal is to make $1000 a month or more, you will probably need several sites.