Can You Really Make Money As An Amazon Affiliate or is it Not Worth Your Time?

What is Amazon Associates?

Amazon is currently the most popular e-commerce site in the entire world, and with that they’ve obviously established an extremely reputable brand. Their associate (affiliate) program is widely used by affiliate marketers and can convert quite well if you know how to market properly. As long as you live within an approved state or country (residents of Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, and Rhode Island are not allowed to participate) they aren’t very picky about accepting people into the program.

Beware of SCAMS from people claiming to work with Amazon!

NOTE: If you found this page because you’ve been contacted by a sales rep to become an Amazon Associate for a fee (ranging from $100 – $1,000’s) then read this post here. Those people are scam artists and do NOT work for Amazon. My review here is in reference to the real program and has no association to those types of scams.

Easy to join? Why some people may have problems getting accepted

The first thing you need to make sure you do before you try joining Amazon’s program is to have a relevant website. Amazon requires a website for their application process. My recommended training will get you set up with a website if you don’t already have one.

I don’t work for Amazon, so I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes when they approve or deny applicants, but as long as you fit their guidelines and have a semi-developed website with a privacy policy or disclosure you shouldn’t have an issue with getting in. Actually, they’re probably one of the most lax programs when it comes to accepting people as affiliates.

However, if you find yourself denied to the program make sure you are adhering to their terms and conditions. Usually it’s either because you’re violating their agreement (Amazon doesn’t approve websites with sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination, or ones that promote illegal activities) or because your site isn’t developed enough. When first starting out in affiliate marketing, many people get anxious and start applying for affiliate programs left and right, before they even have a solid foundation for promoting the material.

You can always wait and reapply after you’ve tweaked or added more content to your site. They welcome applicants to reapply at any time, so not getting in on the first attempt isn’t the end of the world.

But once you’re accepted, is it realistic to expect to make money as an Amazon Affiliate?

You can definitely make money using Amazon’s program, but the amount of income you make is going to be highly variable. There are right and wrong ways to market online; posting Amazon’s affiliate links around your website and social media isn’t going to be enough to make money. Sure, you may get lucky and get the odd sale here and there  – but if you’re not providing value to your readers, there’s no reason for people to buy from your link.

Another huge chunk of the equation is the types of products you are selling from Amazon. Their commission rates are generally lower than average, so if you’re promoting a $5.00 product at 4% base commission, that’s only 20 cents per sale! You’d have to make a lot of sales to even earn anything worth while, and it probably isn’t worth it.

The key is to promote higher priced items – ones that earn you at least $4 or $5 a sale, but preferrably above $15. Keep in mind the more you can make per sale, the less sales you have to make to earn money; which ultimately comes down to less work for you.

Amazon isn’t a “way” to make money online, but it’s a tool you can leverage to help you out with the battle.  The program only will “work” for you if you put in the effort to make it work. It takes proper training and guidance to get started no matter what affiliate program you’re using.