Amazon affiliate program

Have you discovered the Amazon affiliate program yet?

You've bought their books, now how about selling them?

There can't be many people in the world who haven't yet tried out Amazon's regular services, they're pretty hard to miss.

Originally they were known mainly for books, but there's virtually nothing you can't buy on their website these days.

So why not tap into that vast online store and start selling some of their products for commissions?

A reminder about monetization

Find your online business niche first - then research your profitable keywords - after that it's time to generate content and lots of it.

Only when that's right and you're getting a decent number of visitors to your site every day do you start to monetize.

However, that doesn't stop you having a quick peek at the Amazon affiliate program now and seeing if it fits into your longer term monetization plans.

How it works

As with all things Amazon-related, this is quick, painless and simple.

Next you need to create a named account.

This might be part of the name of your website, particularly if your long term plans involve adding more websites, or if you just intend to stick with the one online business, just use your name.

Your account will be called something like webwonder-32 or fredh-21.

One of the things I really like about the Amazon affiliate program is the ease with which you can manage multiple website accounts via the one simple interface.

I run over 10 websites now, and believe me it's essential that things are kept simple as a person can get mightily confused with that many sites to manage.

The Amazon affiliate program works just like any other scheme, offering a variety of ways of selling the company's products.

How Amazon helps you to sell

Links and banners

You can literally pick any of the products that Amazon sells and embed it into a banner or text link which gives you a commission on each sale made via your website.

Here is how Amazon manages each option:

Product links: select any product, Amazon creates a link with your unique seller's code embedded in it. You can choose 'text & image', 'text only' and 'image only' options. Amazon generates the HTML code for you to embed on your web page.

Banners: select from an extensive range of categories (music, clothing,DVDs etc)and Amazon presents you with a number of related banners and size options. You cut and paste the required code onto you web page, every time someone clicks your ad, and a sale is made, you take a commission.

Site stripe: you can now add the 'site stripe' to your regular Amazon page so that any time you see a product which would work well on your site, you can 'grab' the HTML code straight away.

Amazon widgets

A widget is an interactive mini-application which sits on your web page, adding useful functionality to your site.

Here's an overview of the widget options you're given with the Amazon affiliate program:

Deals widget: showcase Amazon's latest deals and offers.

Search widget: your website users can find and explore interesting products from Amazon without leaving your site.

Favourites widget: recommend and comment on products from Amazon.

Carousel widget: choose products and add them to an online spinning carousel without having to do the HTML coding work.

Slideshow widget: make nice product slideshows for your web pages without needing to know about HTML coding.

Product cloud widget: a cloud of clickable product titles.

Wish List widget: share your Amazon wishlist as a widget on your website. A useful alternative to a Paypal 'Donate now' button.

aStore widget: include links to products in your Amazon aStore (more on these below)

Recommended products widget: automatically feature products based on categories or keywords.

Self optimizing links widget: a bit like Google Adsense, Amazon automatically brings in products based on page content and what your website users are looking for.

Search box widget: allows your website users to search the entire Amazon catalogue via your pages.

Creating an Amazon aStore

It allows you to create a fully customised store for your website, using products which are completely tailored for your online niche.

If you run a gardening website, you can add gardening books, DVDs and tools to your shop.

If sport is your thing, you completely customise for sporting interests.

You can even embed the store under you website banner so that it actually looks like it's a part of your website.

Amazon Associates reviewed

In addition, if you're serious about the website game like I am, it's easy to administrate multiple websites via the one admin panel ... not all affiliate schemes offer this option.

There's plenty of assistance available too as Amazon provides help sections, discussion boards and a blog, so the answers are at your fingertips if you really want to make this affiliate option work for you.

Return from Amazon Affiliate Program to Best affiliate programs

Return from Amazon Affiliate Program to Home Internet Businesses homepage