If you’re looking for a relatively easy way to make money from home and have considered affiliate marketing then the world famous shopping site Amazon may be your answer. Becoming an “Amazon Associate” is surprisingly easy to do and whether you are a seasoned affiliate marketer or a beginner it is possible to experience great success when advertising products from this site.
Why Choose Amazon
- With Amazon, if a customer clicks your link and chooses to buy another product, even if it is completely unrelated to what you advertise you will still make the standard affiliate commission. This can be really good if you direct a customer who buys multiple things in one shopping spree.
- The commission paid to you starts at 5%. This then increases on an upwards scale to 10% once you start attracting more customers. Bearing in mind that your site should cost you next to nothing to operate the reasonably generous pay can make this a worthwhile project.
- Stating the obvious, Amazon is a huge site with many products to choose from at very competitive prices. Because of this you are free to choose almost any product in the world and decide where you wish to target your SEO efforts. Choosing the right product is one of the most important decisions you will need to make and you must make sure that you can effectively compete in your chosen market.
- Amazon is a very trustworthy site and this is a great selling point when getting customers to part with their money. For customers who may not trust your personal site or blog or are simply reluctant to buy on the Internet, when re-directing them to Amazon they will appreciate that it is a trustworthy place to shop.
- On the same theme, you can be rest assured that Amazon is a trustworthy company to work with. Unlike other affiliates they will adequately track your customers with no slippage and they will always pay you on time!
Only a couple of downsides to mention
- The Cookie that the user gets only lasts for 24 hours, meaning that the client has to place an order within 24 hours or you won’t receive any commission. When compared to some other affiliate sites where the cookie can last up to two weeks this is unfortunately a negative point.
- Payments are issued on a monthly basis but are paid 60 days after the month of the transaction. This does unfortunately mean that you will have to wait a while to receive your commission.
Easy to set up and get started
Out of all the affiliates, the registration process for Amazon is probably the easiest to set up. There are no pre-selection requirements, you don’t need to have a really good website and unlike other affiliate programs you don’t need a minimum number of daily visits. To get started you just need to open an Amazon account, fill out a simple form and you should be approved within 24 hours.
Once the account is set up you can then navigate through the site, a persistent tool-bar allows you to select the products for your site. When seeing a product you like, simply click “Link to this Page” and the link will automatically include your tracking code. Amazon also provides handy widgets to help you display pictures and prices, etc. so you can simply copy and paste the information to your site.
You are also provided with a great easy to use Admin panel. The reporting system is very good and allows you to export all the information in Excel spreadsheets and monitor your campaigns in a variety of different ways.
Summary
Affiliate marketing can be a great method of receiving income whilst working from home. This can be an ideal solution for someone wishing to start an Internet business and also a good passive income If you don’t have much time. You will have to use your SEO capabilities to bring your products to the customer but as with most affiliate schemes it won’t cost much to set up, you won’t have to talk to customers or deal with returns and you won’t need to set up your own payment system. If you select the right products and drive traffic to your site then with redirecting your customers to Amazon this should provide you with a good conversion rate and a decent commission.