Amazon is the largest retailer in the world. In the U.S. alone, it’s responsible for nearly 40 percent of all online sales. Anyone can access a share of the retail giant’s profits — all you need is a website or social media presence and sign up for the Amazon affiliate program.

Amazon’s affiliate program, or Amazon Associates, is an affiliate marketing program that allows users to monetize their websites, blogs or social media. Amazon affiliate users place links to Amazon products on their site, and when a customer makes a purchase via one of their links, the site owner receives a commission.

Amazon Associates is a referral program that pays a commission to referring websites. When you send a customer to Amazon through a link on your website, you get a percentage of the sale of whatever they purchase within the next 24 hours. Commissions vary though depending on what type of item a customer purchases.

The percentage of the sale you receive isn’t the only factor in your commission; conversion rate also matters because it reflects how many people are actually clicking an affiliate link and making a purchase after visiting your site.

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who make a purchase through your affiliate link out of the total number of visitors to your site. i.e. If your website receives 5,000 visitors and 10 of those visitors made a purchase after clicking on your affiliate link that would be a conversion rate of 0.2 percent (averages rate is 0.5 percent to 1 percent). However, it’s possible to have much higher conversion rates.

You can earn more revenue from products that you don’t specifically advertise. If you run a beauty blog that features affiliate links to luxury beauty items, which have a fee rate of 10 percent, you may get 10 percent of the purchase of a high-end moisturizer, but also 8 percent of the cost of a box of dog treats if the customer also purchases biscuits, since the customer came through your link.

To earn a commission from Amazon purchases, a customer must place an order within 24 hours of arriving at Amazon.com from your affiliate link. Once that 24-hour window closes. However, if the customer returns to Amazon via one of your affiliate links, a new 24-hour window opens, and you’ll again be eligible to earn fees based on the customer’s order.

If a customer arrives at Amazon from one of your affiliate links, adds an item to their shopping cart and leaves Amazon without completing their order, you can still earn a percentage of that sale, as long as the item was added to the shopper’s cart within that 24-hour window, you’ll receive the referral fee if the order is placed before the shopping cart expires (90 days).

It may sound like a no-brainer, but there are a few things to consider before becoming an Amazon affiliate:

Pros:

• You can register and start sharing affiliate links in just a few minutes.
• Amazon is an ecommerce authority, a trusted, well-known brand, so affiliates find it easy to reach customers with a familiar brand.
• Huge variety of products to advertise; With more than 3 billion items for sale, in addition to services like Prime Video, there’s no shortage of products to promote via affiliate links.
• Earn income from products other than the ones they link to. When you send traffic to Amazon via an affiliate link, and that user makes a purchase, you get a percentage of everything they purchase within 24 hours.

Cons:

• Commissions at Amazon are very low in some categories. While the Amazon Associates program has a commission rate of up to 10 percent for some items, such as luxury beauty products, others, such as video game consoles, are as low as 1 percent.
• Commissions at Amazon are very low in some categories. While the Amazon Associates program has a commission rate of up to 10 percent for some items, such as luxury beauty products, others, such as video game consoles, are as low as 1 percent.
• Creating a website with product reviews or other suitable content that would be a good fit for affiliate links can require a lot of time, effort and upkeep.

Conclusion

Just because you don’t have a personal blog or a website with product reviews doesn’t mean you can’t become an Amazon affiliate. You can launch a website that includes affiliate links to products you endorse and continue to add content and links over time. You can build your website or blog in time, while keep adding more content and reviews for the products you promote, products you use and love. Promoting products you know and love is powerful word-of-mouth marketing, and friends and family may be more likely to take your recommendations because you’re a trusted source.

Amazon affiliate links can also be shared on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, making the affiliate program a great option for anyone who’s active on social media. You don’t need a large following to benefit from using such links.