The Amazon associate program is a popular choice when it comes to making money online, but it can also be a confusing place due to the sheer number of products and the company’s obscure rules. So before you find yourself in any difficult situation, here are 14 affiliate marketing strategies for beginners that can totally benefit your knowledge.
Note; All of these tips and training can be found within the Wealthy Affiliate community which I am part of. They are accessible for free within 7 days after signing up, so feel free to browse around. There are many successful Amazon associates here and everyone has come around to share their experience on what works and what doesn’t.
The strategies that I am about to show you are based on some common questions faced by newbies in the program. Some are quite general topics and some are more specific. Read on to find out which is the most relevant to you.
1 – Is the Amazon Associate Program Suitable for You?
If you are having second thoughts of joining the program, it’s probably because you have read about the short 24-hour cookie, the low commissions’ range and the massive competitions (affiliate marketers promoting the same products) out there.
While those facts are true and there’s nothing you can do about them, it doesn’t change the fact that the Amazon brand is like a magnet that triggers shopping behavior online. The pros certainly outweigh the cons in many ways. And to prove the point, Dom will show how he managed to sell more even with a lower commission and the feature he used to get more sales.
2 – How to Avoid Getting Banned from The Program?
Yes, that’s another cold hard truth. Many people aren’t happy when Amazon rejects their applications or worse, terminate their accounts without any advanced notice. The experience can be disappointing, especially when they don’t provide a valid reason for what could have caused that to happen.
In this article, Joe Yee explained in plain English to help you understand why some people get banned and how to improve your chances of applying for the second time.
Read the information carefully so that you can better plan your marketing strategies.
3 – How to Find a Profitable Niche?
Amazon offers a plethora of products and it can be very tempting to promote everything or, on the contrary, not knowing where to start. Many people start off with too broad a niche and as a result, they couldn’t find a targeted audience. That’s why it’s important to identify a niche that you have knowledge and interest so that promoting products feel more like a natural process.
In this 17-minute long video tutorial conducted by Kyle, you’ll learn how to find a profitable niche within the marketplace, how to narrow things down using product categories and how to discover niches OUTSIDE of Amazon. The last bit here should be helpful for those who are still finding their way into the program so be sure to watch until the end.
4 – How to Build an Amazon Niche Website?
Now, before you spend on ready-made websites, have you ever attempted building one on a self-hosted WordPress platform before? With today’s technology, you can easily launch a site in less than a minute and that’s what you’ll be learning from this short training.
Wealthy Affiliate provides domain registration and web hosting so it’s convenient to hook the two together with just one click. In fact, within the full membership, one is allocated up to 25 custom sites and that means, you can create up to 25 Amazon niche
websites for the price of one. For those who are interested in monetizing from mini-niches or flipping domains for profit, this provision will be an advantage.
Every site is preinstalled with All-In-One-SEO and the EWWW Optimizer which are some of my recommended WordPress plugins for affiliate marketing. If you like to have a tour of the back office to test the speed of hosting, simply create a free website using the tool below.
5 – How to Get Traffic to Your Site?
One of the huge advantages of having a WordPress website is that it can be optimized for SEO and get free online traffic. Generally, the more traffic you generate, the more sales commission you would make. Many people will try to offer you ‘free and super targeted traffic’ through cheap SEO services, but if you are serious about building a sustainable affiliate business, I would advise against using them.
In order to get good quality traffic, whether it’s free or paid, you need to learn keyword research and create helpful content regularly based on those terms. This will build a more engaging funnel system that offers more value to people before you try to ‘sell’ them anything.
Finding the right keywords for your niche is not a difficult process and in this 20-minute video, Kyle will show you a systematic way of doing it using an efficient keyword tool.
6 – How to Create Product Reviews?
The whole idea of writing a product review is to help potential customers make the best decision for their purchase. Is it worth their money? How can it help to solve their problems? Are there any setbacks to be expected? The more information you can provide, the review will have better quality.
Often times, it starts with something that you are already using. Familiarity with a product in and out can give your product a genuine tone. In this 18-minute video tutorial, Kyle will show you how to write a helpful review without sounding like a salesperson.
However, there are hundreds of products within a given niche and we know it’s impossible to try every one of them. So is it still possible to come up with reviews for products that you don’t own? Definitely and it’s totally legal. In this 6 part tutorial, Nathaniell will be walking you through how to do it ethically.
While we are on the topic, I would recommend using WP Product Review Lite plugin to give your post a nice finishing touch. It provides a summary that is easy for the readers to digest and also that extra boost of rating stars on the search result page. I am pretty sure you’ll like that.
7 – How to Use Amazon One Link?
For many years, US-based associates can only monetize from US traffic. Starting from July 2017 however, you can also earn from the UK and Canada traffic by using the One Link feature. Implementing this on your website will automatically redirect customers to their local storefront (Amazon UK or Canada) to complete their purchases.
It’s a free solution that works for all new and existing Amazon affiliate links, but can only be set up from a US associate account. In this 5 part tutorial, you’ll be learning from Jeremy on how to add a special code to your WordPress site to enable tracking and ultimately earning from other countries.
8 – How to Create Graphics for Your Site?
Besides textual content, graphic plays a big role in attracting new visitors and makes your website more appealing to read. Since most of us are not natural-born designers, using the right tool to create graphics in the shortest amount of time is crucial. Fortunately, there’s a free software called Canva that can do the job effectively.
It’s a great tool and I use it all the time to create graphics for my blog posts. If you are struggling with this area or haven’t tried it before, Jay will walk you through the array of features in this one hour plus video tutorial.
9 – How to Get Your First Amazon Sale?
Now for the million-dollar question. You have set up a niche website and wrote a couple of interesting posts and reviews. So when are you going to make your first commission? Beginners ask this all the time and it can be very annoying to have put in so much work but to get nothing in return.
If you are relying on SEO, it’s going to take some time, so before you hit the 180 days cut off point, learn from Dom on how to get your first sale legitimately without relying on Google for traffic.
10 – Should You Be Using Ads?
We commonly see ads on blog reviews and they exist to benefit online branding and business relationships. It can be a controversial topic though. Some marketers like it for the extra income, yet some people don’t because they find it distracting for their readers.
If you’ve just started, should you be placing ads on your blog then? This comprehensive tutorial by Dom will shed some light on the much debatable subject matter.
11 – Amazon Affiliate Experience – A 12 Month Case Study
Things can get very exciting after earning your first sale on Amazon, but remember, you are in this for the long haul. We are talking about months to years of growing an online business and potentially creating a passive income online.
So, what should you be expecting in the next 12 months to come? While many successful affiliate marketers show off their income report, I want to give you a realistic picture that it didn’t start out like that for many of us. The first few months are the most trying periods.
You might want to switch to a different niche or give up altogether, but before doing that, take a look at how Josh scales his Amazon site from zero. The income generated from this one site is nothing to rave about, but the core message from this case study is something you shouldn’t overlook.
What’s The Secret to Online Business Success?
When starting out as an affiliate marketer, there’s a tendency among us all to treat the idea as a side project. However, if you stay in that type of mentality forever, you’ll probably never reap any rewarding results.
One of the most crucial affiliate marketing strategies for beginners is to treat it like a business. Learn to invest time and money on the right platform and organize your daily routine to achieve a certain goal every single day. Over time, the effort will turn vision into realities and one that will someday make you a successful online entrepreneur.
To gain access to all the 11 training mentioned above, simply register for a starter account at Wealthy Affiliate. Hope to talk to you soon.
Daniella says
Hi Cathy, I found this article to be very useful.
When I started, I was lucky that I had lots of content on my website, so they accepted my application right away. Anyway, I have been banned from Amazon because I’ve mentioned the prices of the products I was promoting. The thing is that I didn’t take the time to read their policy and that’s what happened.
I sent them a message saying that I didn’t know about it and I did put the price by pure ignorance. The same day I received a mail from Amazon support saying that they are reactivating my account. I was thrilled 🙂
Just wanted to share my story with you:)
I think it’s very important for whoever starts with Amazon that taking screenshots and mentioning prices are forbidden.
Cathy says
Hey Daniella, thanks for sharing your experience with us 🙂
Paul says
Wow, what an extensive post indeed! I thoroughly appreciate the research and believe that this post is going to be very helpful for many beginners.
I am an Amazon Associate and to be honest, I struggled for the last 2 to 3 months – not even one sale 🙁 Your post provided me with great insights and answered many of my questions. One read is not enough and I need to read it again to take in all the valuable information.
I’ve always wondered about the “One Link” feature so I’ll definitely check out Jeremy’s tutorial.
Martin Burt says
Amazon is truly a great site for affiliate marketers, but can be a bit daunting. I love how one can access all the training posts and videos on Wealthy Affiliate. It is certainly a great place to start your research, even as a free member. Would you recommend upgrading the membership?
Cathy says
Certainly Martin. There are a lot of advantages when one choose to become a Premium member in WA.
1) You get access to weekly live webinar that covers a variety of online marketing topics.
2) You get to build up to 25 niche websites, all hosted within WA for the price of one.
3) In terms of website security and stability, you get free SSL certificates, spam blockers and improved speed technology applied to each site.
4) In terms of content building, you get a basic keyword tool to use without additional fee and can also boost readers engagement through the commenting system within the community.
All these features can lead to faster website loading and higher authority within your niche so they are certainly helpful for anyone who’s into building an Amazon affiliate business.
Babsie Wagner says
Wow, just a ton of information packed into this article – it’s amazing! Amazon is the name I keep hearing about, as well as Wealthy Affiliate. I almost feel like the two together are a recipe for success with affiliate marketing. I mean what doesn’t Amazon sell, right? It must be heartbreaking to get banned from Amazon after spending so much time building a website. I guess following all the rules is key in keeping your agreement in place. Thanks for compiling all the wonderful information on exactly how to do this.
Edwin IBU says
Amazon associate is one of the best affiliate programs available on the internet. So it’s cool to have profitable and wining strategies especially if one is a beginner.
One of the downside of Amazon is the ban rate and low commissions coupled with termination of accounts without notice. Also the strategies that resonate with me is how to drive traffic and creating a product review.
Graphical sites have been proven to be more successful and interactive for costumers. Overall, the strategy for me is to treat the affiliate site as a business for it to thrive. This tutorial is a must read for anyone who wants to be successful partnering with the Amazon brand.
Ciara says
Cathy, this post could not have come at a better time.
I literally had three windows open trying to pinpoint how to be successful at Amazon Associates. I quickly became an associate and part of me wished I had waited. There are so many rules (as you stated) and I have yet to sell anything and I only have 90 days to do so before they close my account. I cannot wait to dive deeper into this and explore what Dom and Josh have to offer.
Thank you so much.
Cathy says
Hi Ciara, I am glad it helped! 🙂