Here’s an exciting niche opportunity for those who are into books, more specifically listening to audiobooks. The Audible affiliate program not only offers some of the best selling titles but also allows you to earn from recommending their subscription service. In today’s post, I will walk you through the benefit of this program, details of the commission structure and how to promote this service effectively through your blog.
Audible Selling Key Features
Even though there are many other audiobook companies, Audible seems to stand out from most of them, especially after Amazon bought over it in 2008. The acquisition reassures consumers of the product quality/service and likely the driving factor behind the booming sales.
While the membership fee and average cost of books aren’t the cheapest in the industry, there are many benefits when signing up to Audible.
- There are about 180,000 book titles to choose from (others only have about 100,000)
- It’s not just the numbers, but their titles are more popular and current to the reading niche.
- The audiobook app integrates very smoothly with mobile devices which makes it convenient listening to a book while on-the-go.
- With 24/7 support, live chat and even telephone assistance, they have one of the best customer services out there.
In case you’re wondering, here’s a list of other audiobook companies that one can compare with Audible. Some have affiliate programs, some don’t. Some are old-timers and some are fairly new to the market.
- Playster
- Audiobooks.com
- Downpour
- AudiobooksNow
- Scribd
- AudiobookStore
- Simply Audiobooks
- Nook Audiobooks
- iTunes iBooks
If you are interested in sharing hard-covered books instead, check out my top 12 bookstore affiliate programs. Now that you have a general idea, let’s see how you can get started with Audible.
How to Become an Audible Affiliate
One of the crucial steps to become successful in any affiliate business is to set up a personal website so that you can take advantage of blogging and increase earnings steadily.
By that, I am referring to;
- Purchasing a custom domain (not using a subdomain or microblogging sites like Tumblr).
- Publishing the site on a self-hosted WordPress platform.
Posting affiliate links on social networks and forums without a site is commonly seen as an act of spamming and usually results in poor sales conversion or no sales at all. Based on demographic research, we know that people usually buy audiobooks based on website reviews over social media promotion.
After you’ve established a site, go over to the main page of the Amazon marketplace, scroll all the way to the footer and look for the associate link. Follow through the signup process that I’ve outlined on this page and you’ll be able to access the affiliate dashboard shortly after. Inside the resources, there are text links, product images, widgets and banners that can be used as promotional tools for your blog.
Understanding the Commission Structure
Unlike other merchants, affiliate commission by Amazon is referred to as an advertising fee. Here are the fees for Audible products.
As you can see, there are 3 types of offers and understanding the value of each can help you help your readers choose what is best for them.
1) Audible Audiobook
A purchase of an Audible product can mean two things. Buying an audiobook at retail price OR buying an additional audiobook while being a member. In both situations, you’ll make 50 cents in commission.
2) Audible Free Trial Digital Membership
This free trial offer is the ad that most of us have seen online. It’s the most common way to attract new users and the selling point is that people get to try an audiobook without committing to a paid plan.
For 30 days, customers can listen to whichever book title they choose – for free – and also get a 30% discount on an additional purchase. Even if they don’t wish to continue with the subscription after the period is up, the book is theirs to keep and you still make $5 in referral fee.
3) Audible Gold Digital Membership
After 30 days, if a customer is interested in signing up, there are 3 types of membership to choose from; Monthly Gold, Annual Gold or Annual Platinum.
The main benefit here is that with higher plans, the average cost per book is lower and one gets more credit points that can be used to purchase additional audiobooks without using cash. For affiliate offers, we know that you’ll earn $10 in commission for Gold membership subscriptions, but it’s unclear what you will get for the Platinum subscription.
However, I am in the opinion that a commission will still be rewarded for $10 (if not more) because if you can earn from Gold, you should be able to earn from Platinum too, right? Either way, $10 per referral is a very good deal and that’s an advantage promoting digital products versus physical ones.
How to Recommend Audible Through Blogging
With all the information that we have gathered, the best way to introduce Audible is to find out what phrases people are using when searching for audiobook related topics online. These search terms (also known as keywords) are usually descriptive and makes human sense.
Have you ever noticed that when you searched for something on Google, other predictive phrases will automatically roll out on the bottom?
These are popular keywords that your targeted audience is using. Now, if you scroll all the way down to the result page, there are more phrases. These are also keywords related to a particular niche.
To find the values of these keywords (whether they are worth using as a blog topic or not) is where a keyword tool is needed. One like Jaaxy Pro can show immediately the number of searches and competitions for each phrase when you are constructing your articles.
Using long-tail keywords (one with high searches and low competitions) can have a lot of benefits.
- It guides you to write articles that people are interested in reading, especially one that helps them decide on a purchase.
- Your blog becomes more authoritative in the reading niche, hence it will rank higher on the search engines.
- The one keywords that you target will generate more relevant keywords and your blog will eventually rank for other search terms as well.
When an article encompasses all these qualities, it becomes informative and engaging and thus, makes more sense to purchase through your affiliate links than anyone else’s.
The Outlook For The Audiobook Industry
The emerging trend for audiobooks clearly reflects two things; more people are becoming digital savvy AND are interested in ‘book listening’. With 55 million users (and counting) in the US and other parts of the world, the audiobook industry is set to grow in years to come.
Even institutions are training young people to become narrators, which seems like a lucrative career in the near future. But here’s the good news for affiliate marketers. The industry needs you now more than ever.
Based on the excerpt above, there’s a general lack of audiobook review websites, which means there is plenty of room for you to make money with the Audible affiliate program. With a huge market demand and fairly low competition, now is the best time to leverage from this niche.
Having a sound website presence using the techniques that I’ve outlined will help you to stay ahead and become a key player in this profitable industry. So if you are really for that challenge, head over to my recommended training platform to see how you can start an affiliate business for free.
Do you have any experience using or recommending Audible online? What do you think about audiobooks as a business idea? We would like to hear your comments below.
Great Info Cathy,
I hadn’t thought about using Audible for an affiliate program but I use it myself and really like it. It makes perfect sense for me to promote as I can really talk about it from a personal perspective. Do you happen to know if there are any residual commissions for renewals that occur?
Hi Kevin, it’s not stated in the fine print so I am guessing there’s no residual commissions to be earned here. Please check out with the Amazon team if you want more clarification.
The Audible affiliate program is actually one I have been thinking about for my site due to the fact that a lot of prepping and survival is educating yourself, so it seemed like a good product choice for a blog. Your post is very informative and well put together. It helps me to understand the program much better before I decide to go with it.
I can see that rather than reading, which becomes a bit of a chore, it is best to listen to something being read as the true atmosphere of the story can be relayed better. I can see why this could be a great niche to explore as audio books are becoming quite popular and people can listen to them anywhere.
I knew about audiobooks but I didn’t know that they were becoming so popular nowadays. I guess it does make sense for people who like reading books but have long commute times. I am a bookwork, so if I had to go to university and could’t read while being stuck in traffic, that would be me, listening to the audiobook of the book that I was currently reading.
This is quite a nice affiliate program too and it would be great if Amazon can disclose the commission for platinum membership. It may encourage more people to sign up. I have a question – do you have to be a paying member in order to become an affiliate? Thanks for the info.
Hi Reyhana, you don’t need to become any paying member – although it wouldn’t hurt if you are because that will give some insights about the subscription service. Joining the program is the same as becoming an Amazon Associate. You just need need to sign up from a link on the marketplace, get verified and you are good to go. Hope this helps.
The audiobook industry seems to be growing in popularity. I think it is understandable that this industry has caught plenty of interest as it contains vast information on anything you can think of, from self-help audio books to popular novels. The choices are endless, just like the keywords associated that are associated with this trend.
Plenty of opportunity to tap in this niche and I highly recommend anyone with strong interest to sign up for the Audible affiliate program.
I also noticed you used Jaaxy for your keyword research. Would you recommend this as the primary keyword tool?
Yup, Jaaxy is easy to use even for someone who’s new to keyword research. It’s fast and doesn’t have all the fluff when it comes to data interpretation. I am always discovering new keywords while doing my research and it allows me to save them in a list for future references.
Try it for free and you’ll know what I mean.
Cathy, thanks for the this post about Audible. I didn’t know that the app could be accessed through Amazon. I think it’s worth a closer look for me. Even though I have a blog, I’m not signed up with Amazon at all. Been avoiding it because so many others are using the program. I’m just contrary that way. Anyway, this information is good to know.
Yeah, it’s true that many bloggers are Amazon associates, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get better products elsewhere. If you are searching for potential affiliate programs outside of the giant eCommerce, you could try other brands/merchants on the ShareASale and/or Rakuten Linkshare network.
I have been a Kindle reader for a long time and also an Amazon affiliate. However I do noticed lately with the new updates of the Kindle app, there is an option button on there to listen to books for an extra price. This post just gave me the idea of offering an audible book if it is available for my niche. Thanks very much for sharing the information, Cathy.
Exactly Oneil. Even if you are recommending physical products, you can also leverage from the Audible affiliate program to promote books related to your niche. It’s a great way to empower your audience with knowledge by using the audiobook technology.
Hi Cathy. I am a vivid reader of eBooks though never thought much about audiobooks until now. It’s a good concept for busy people as it frees up time. With the huge demand of people for audio, one can truly make money thru this affiliate program. Thanks for showing yet another another way to earn extra income online.
I’m a big fan of the audio book revolution. I don’t personally read very many books, but listening to them is a fair bit easier (though it’s a bit more difficult to retain all the information through just listening). That is exactly why I would be more than happy to recommend the service to others. So, to find out now that Audible actually has an affiliate program is a great opportunity for me.
Do you believe that it’ll be a lot easier to get affiliate sales if I have an audience first?
Most definitely Amhil. Write some blogs based on targeted keywords in this niche and get some engagement going first. Once you create that traffic momentum, you may have higher percentage of visitors converting into buyers.
Wow! I never thought of recommending books as a way to create income in my life. I definitely prefer audiobooks compared to the hard copy so even better. In this day and age when everything is moving so fast, I think a lot more of us would read if we had more access to audiobooks.
As an affiliate, did you already have a site and an audience when you became an audiobook affiliate or is that something you build on your own?
Hi Courtney, you certainly want to build your own audience first before signing up for the Audible affiliate program. In other words, you want to create a lot of content relating to audiobooks, optimized your posts and get some engagement going. When you have some decent traffic coming to your site, it’s easier to promote Audible and convert them into subscribers.