How to Become an Amazon Affiliate (Step-By-Step Guide)

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate (Step-By-Step Guide)

It's no surprise that many people want to know how to become an Amazon affiliate. The marketplace has a stranglehold on the ecommerce space — 92% of shoppers say they're more likely to buy from Amazon than other ecommerce sites.

Amazon offers many benefits to affiliate marketers, including:

Flexible commission rates

Broad access to products

Easy integration with your website or blog

In this guide, you'll learn the ins and outs of how to get started with Amazon Affiliate Marketing, from signing up to promoting your links.

• How to Become an Amazon Affiliate
• Sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program
• Configure your account information
• Enter your website and application
• Add Associate ID of your choice
• Add traffic and monetization methods
• Include your payment details
• Verify your account identity
• Create Amazon Affiliate Links

What is the Amazon Affiliate Program

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate, The Amazon affiliate program, Amazon Associates, is the most popular affiliate program in the world. According to our Affiliate Marketing Statistics page, 58.5% of affiliate marketers use Amazon to monetize their content.

Anyone with a website or app can join the program and promote Amazon affiliate links — unique referral URLs directing potential Amazon customers to specific landing pages or product pages.

Offering over 350+ million products with marketplace sellers and Amazon's own inventory, it fills virtually any niche allowed. However, it shines in the B2C segment such as:

• book
• fashion
• Health and beauty
• Electronics and accessories
• Home and garden

How the Amazon Affiliate Program Works

Amazon's affiliate program works as a relationship between three parties:

amazon affiliate marketing

Amazon sells products and rewards affiliates for referred sales

Affiliates share product links with their visitors through their website or app

Customers click on those product links and (hopefully) buy something within the 24-hour cookie window, earning the affiliate a commission.

Commissions vary between product categories, from 1% on groceries to 10% on luxury beauty and 20% on Amazon games (at the time of writing).

Amazon Affiliate Commission

Before signing up, review the commission rates of your desired category to analyze your earning potential

Pro tip: Amazon can change commission rates at the drop of a hat. For example, in April 2020, it reduced the Amazon Associates Program commission on furniture and home improvement products from 8% to 3%. Don't build an affiliate business around one Amazon product category — diversify across multiple categories and/or join multiple affiliate programs.

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate, Amazon has a limited cookie window, so you'll be paid if a visitor buys within a day of clicking your link. Amazon Affiliate cookies expire after 24 hours, but you can still earn commissions for all products purchased within that time frame.

Amazon Associates 24 Hour Cookie

So how do you drive the traffic and clicks you need to make money as an Amazon affiliate? Successful affiliate marketing strategies include:

Content creation. The basics of affiliate marketing. How-to guides, buying guides and product reviews help you generate qualified search traffic and give you a natural place to add affiliate links.

Social media promotion. Different networks offer different benefits to affiliate marketers. TikTok has excellent organic reach and a young, highly engaged audience. Instagram is good for shopping inspiration, helping you reach people in the mood to buy.

Email marketing. Once you build your marketing list, email becomes a very cost-effective channel. However, be aware that Amazon prohibits affiliate links in emails — so you'll need to direct readers to your blog post or a bridge page.

Amazon Affiliate Program requirements and rules must be followed

To be accepted into the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program, you must…

Meet the minimum requirements

Have a website, blog or app (that's right — you can't do Amazon affiliate marketing without a website)

Create original content

Have a valid email address

Have a bank account

Avoid prohibited activities

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate, No cloaking, hiding, spoofing, or otherwise obfuscating links

Do not use any link-shortening tools, buttons, or links that obscure that you are linking to an Amazon site.

No products can be purchased (directly or indirectly) through your affiliate link.

Do not use bots or software programs to generate artificial clicks or impressions

Does not redirect or block traffic from other Amazon partners

No affiliate links are posted on Amazon sites (such as in customer reviews or wish lists).

Do not share your Amazon affiliate link via email

(NB A full list of Amazon's prohibited activities can be found here.)

Clear prohibited content

Any content that promotes violence or contains violent content

Dissemination of any false or defamatory information

Not to promote hateful or discriminatory content

Not for children under 13 years of age

Does not include Amazon trademarks or variants/misspellings of the Amazon brand

Follow Amazon's authorized disclosure requirements

To meet associate program requirements, you must:

Include a legally compliant affiliate disclosure with your links.

Identify yourself as an Amazon Associate as described in Amazon's Operating Agreement

Additionally, to comply with Federal Trade Commission regulations, your approved disclosures must:

Be specific, such as adding a social media hashtag like #ad or #CommissionsEarned.

Conspicuous, meaning it should be near any affiliate links or product reviews, a spot customers will easily notice.

Here's an example from Grow a Good Life:

Example of Amazon Publishing

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate, To learn more, see our guide to affiliate publishing.

Hit Amazon's 180-day sales goal

Once you apply, you have 180 days to refer a sale through one of your Amazon affiliate links (remember, they can't be self-referrals).

If you mention three qualifying sales within the 180-day window, Amazon will take a closer look at your application and return with a decision within a day or two. If you do not reach the sales target, your application may be withdrawn.

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate

First, to join Amazon's affiliate program you need an online presence, in the form of an app or (possibly) a blog or website. It doesn't need to generate huge traffic volumes - it just needs to exist. If you tick that box, follow these steps to join the Amazon Associates program:

1. Sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program

The first step in creating your Amazon Associates account is also the easiest. Click the Signup button on the Amazon Associates homepage:

2. Configure your account information

Hand over your name, address and contact information. If you already have an Amazon account, your details will be pulled automatically, so you'll need to make sure you're the primary account contact:

3. Enter your website and apps

Tell Amazon about all the top-level websites and/or mobile apps you'll use to promote affiliate links, up to a limit of 50 sites or apps. Copy-paste your URL into the address bar then click "Add":

Amazon Affiliate Website Apps

Amazon asks you to ensure that none of your sites or apps are primarily directed at children under the age of 13.

4. Add Associate ID of your choice

Next, enter your preferred Store ID, which Amazon uses to generate your unique Associate Store ID.

Associate Store ID

Note that your ID should be different from what you typed (eg "mywebsite" could be "mywebsite-20"). There is no way around it, so you have to live with it!

5. Add traffic and monetization methods

Understandably, Amazon wants to know about the content you create, including:

What can users do on your website?

Who is it for?

What kind of products do you want to promote?

Add this information to the free text field. When we tried it, the field had a character limit of 1,022 characters, so you won't run out of space. You are also asked to select the category that best describes your content…

Content type

…and reveal how you first heard about the Amazon Associates program. Finally for this step, read and agree to the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement.

Congratulations, you've signed up! You will be sent an introductory email detailing the steps required for full acceptance into the program:

Amazon Affiliate Account setup is complete

Here are some useful links and resources to help you get started on your Amazon affiliate marketing journey:

6. Include your payment details

How to Become an Amazon Affiliate, You can add your payment and tax information later. But there's no time like the present, right?

First, payment details: Amazon offers three payment methods:

Direct Deposit

Amazon gift card

check

If you want to pay by direct deposit, click the "+ bank account" button and add your account information (IBAN, BIC, account number, sort code):

amazon affiliate payment setup

Then use the drop-down menu to select your preferred payment method:

amazon affiliate payment method

You can also choose your minimum payout threshold (the amount you need to earn to trigger a payout in the next commission window). It's automatically set to $10 for gift cards and direct deposits, and $100 for checks

However, keep in mind that Amazon won't pay you until you also enter your tax information. To submit it, click the button at the bottom of the page:

Tax Information for Amazon Affiliates

Then click on “View/Submit Tax Information”:

Amazon Associate Tax Information Setup

You will be asked for slightly different information based on your location and whether you are a business or an individual (including a sole proprietorship or single-member LLC where the owner is an individual).

7. Verify your identity

Finally, Amazon will confirm that you are who you say you are by sending a verification code to the email address and phone number associated with your Amazon Affiliate account.

It will ask you to provide a phone number for two-factor authentication - this can be the same number you provided when configuring your account information.

How to Create Amazon Affiliate Links

Amazon offers four ways to build your first affiliate link:

Sitestripe Tool

Mobile GetLink tool in the Amazon mobile shopping app

Amazon Idea Hub

Amazon Associates Native Shopping Ads Editor

We will explain each of those methods here:

Building Amazon Affiliate Links with Sitestripe

The easiest way to create an Amazon link is through the SiteStripe tool, as you can create links from any page without going to Amazon Associates.

The SiteStripe toolbar automatically appears on every Amazon page, if it's enabled and you're logged in to Amazon Associates. To check that you have turned on SiteStripe, log in to your Amazon Associates dashboard and click SiteStripe on the Tools menu:

amazon associates sitestripe

On the next page click "Learn more" and make sure SiteStripe is enabled and the boxes next to "Get links" and "Share" are checked:

amazon sitestripe display settings

Now, when you navigate to any page on Amazon.com, you'll see the SiteStripe bar at the top of the page.

Amazon Sitestripe Bar

Use SiteStripe to create affiliate links in three different "flavors":

Text Links: Simple hyperlinks for linking words in your blog post or pasting into social posts or comments.

Image Links: Clickable product images that take people to relevant product pages.

Text + Image Link: A product image with product name, price, Amazon branding and now CTA.

Alternatively, you can instantly share the trackable link on Facebook or Twitter.

To create your desired link type, visit a product page and follow the steps below:

Create text links with SiteStripe

1. Click the "Text" button on the SiteStripe toolbar:

Amazon Text Links with Sitestripe

2. If you have multiple tracking IDs, choose the correct one from the drop-down menu.

3. Choose between a full or short link. Short links are (obviously) short, so they look nice. But it's generally better to use full Amazon affiliate text links because they're easier to bulk-edit if you want to insert a new affiliate ID, whereas shorter links have to be changed individually.

4. Copy-paste the link into your blog post or social post.

1. Click "Image" on the SiteStripe toolbar:

2. Select your Store ID and Tracking ID (NB Amazon automatically chooses the last used Tracking ID).

3. Choose your image size from Small (110 pixels), Medium (160 pixels) and Large (250 pixels):

4. Copy-paste the generated HTML into your blog post editor.

1. Click "Text + Image" on the SiteStripe toolbar:

2. Select your Store ID and Tracking ID

3. Choose whether you want the image to include a border and/or open in a new tab:

4. Copy the HTML and paste it into your website editor.

Share instantly on Facebook and Twitter

The easiest way to create and share affiliate links is to click on the Facebook or Twitter icons in the SiteStripe menu:

amazon sitestripe link sharing

It instantly generates a Facebook or Twitter post that includes the product title and a trackable link:

Tweet with Amazon link

Creating Amazon Affiliate Links with Mobile Getlinks

Mobile GetLink lets you create an affiliate link from within the Amazon Shopping app, which can be downloaded from the Android app or the Apple App Store.

Note that the app must be compatible with the Amazon affiliate program you signed up for (for example, if you join the Amazon.com affiliate program, you'll need to download the US Amazon shopping app). And you need to sign in using the same credentials as your Amazon Associates account

To start generating affiliate links, go to any product page and click the "Share" button:

amazon getlink

If the product is eligible for commission, you can choose your Store ID and Tracking ID, then click "Copy Associates Link":

amazon getlink option

Finally, paste the link into your blog or social media post.

Creating Amazon Affiliate Links through Idea Hub

Idea Hub showcases Amazon's latest promotions, events, and trending product categories, helping you find products to share with your audience (and monetize your product recommendations by creating affiliate links). Find Idea Hub through the "Promote" menu in Amazon Associates:

amazon-idea-hub

Use it to search for product ideas using content type, category, star rating and sorting by filters. For example, Content Type lets you search by options such as:

Find interesting

hidden gem

Seasonal produce

Browsing Amazon Idea Hub

See something you like while browsing the results? Click "Get Link" to create an affiliate link, then copy-paste it into your content.

Get the Amazon Idea Hub link

Creating native shopping ads

Native Shopping Ads come complete with dynamic product recommendations, Amazon branding and built-in affiliate links. They come in three varieties:

Recommendation Ads: Automatically display relevant product recommendations from Amazon based on your page content and visiting users.

Search Ads: Let your visitors take advantage of search results from Amazon directly on your website.

Custom Ads: Choose the products you want to promote and place relevant ad units within your blog post

To create them, log into Amazon Associates and click on "Product Linking" > "Native Shopping Ads".

Amazon Native Shopping Ads

Then follow these steps depending on the ad you want to create:

Create recommendation ads

Select the "Recommended Ads" tab, then click "Create Recommended Ads":

amazon recommendation ads

Give your ad a name — something that will help identify you when you've created dozens of different ads — and choose the correct tracking ID:

The name of the Amazon recommendation ad

Choose one or more product categories you want Amazon to prioritize (eg if you're writing about the best men's jeans to wear with trainers, choose "Clothing & Accessories"):

amazon recommendation ad category

Optionally, you can choose a "fallback" search keyword, if Amazon doesn't find any relevant product matches:

amazon recommendation ad fallback

If you want to improve, you can also:

Choose whether to display personalized or targeted ads

Choose to display a responsive ad or a custom ad size of one or two rows

Advanced settings for Amazon recommendation ads

Finally, save your ad and click "Get Code" to generate the necessary HTML to paste into your website editor

amazon recommendation ad code

Amazon also asks if you want your ad to load asynchronously (independently of the page content) or synchronously (with the page content). Selecting asynchronously helps speed up page loading.

Create search ads

Select the "Search Ads" tab, then click "Create Search Ads":

Amazon creates search ads

Next, select the correct tracking ID and choose your preferred ad format: grid, list or strip. Amazon should display what each type looks like on the adjacent preview screen, but it can be a bit static.

amazon search ad preferences

Choose a default search category that matches the content of your niche website or blog post, or set it to "All Amazon." Then enter a default search term to display the results and edit your ad title so that it describes the products displayed:

amazon search ad settings

In advanced settings, you can choose:

Whether to display responsive ads or custom ad sizes

Whether to display the search bar

Whether the search bar should appear above or below the search results

Finally, click the highlighted code to copy the HTML, then paste it into your affiliate site:

amazon search ad code

Create custom ads

Select the "Custom Ads" tab, then click "Create Custom Ads":

amazon custom ads

Select the correct tracking ID, then choose your preferred ad format: grid, list or strip. Now, search and add at least four products using the search bar:

amazon custom ad search bar

Give your ad a title that describes your product selection. And, if you want, use the Advanced Settings menu to choose whether you want:

Your ad must be responsive or a custom size

To display an Amazon search bar in your ad

After you make your choice, Amazon will display your newly designed ad in the preview section:

amazon search ad preview

When you're happy with the results, click "Highlight Code" and paste the HTML into your site.

How to Promote Amazon Affiliate Links

The best way to promote Amazon affiliate links is to create a niche website as it allows you to take advantage of multiple promotional channels including SEO, social media and email marketing.

For example, BabyGearLab targets commercially focused keywords in their niche (like “best high chair”) to generate qualified organic search traffic.

7 Amazon Affiliate Website Examples

Searchers are looking for recommendations for the "best" products in a given category, so they're likely at the bottom of the buyer cycle — giving you a great opportunity to convert them.

But Amazon affiliates have many other promotional strategies, such as sharing links on Twitter and creating product review videos on YouTube.

For more tips, check out our guide on how to make money with Amazon Associates.

Amazon Affiliate Tools

Being a successful affiliate marketer takes a lot of hard work. But these tools make life easier:

AMZ Guard

amz watcher features

Detects broken and unavailable Amazon links and affiliate tags

Notifies you when products are unavailable

Check out AMZ Watcher

affiliate

Affiliate Features

Create comparison tables, product boxes, and other affiliate-friendly elements for your blog posts

Imports product details directly into your table

Check Affiliatable

Geniuslink

geniulink feature

Localizes your Amazon product links, sending visitors to the right product in the relevant Amazon store

Automatically adds your affiliate ID to any Amazon link

Check out GeniusLink

AAWP

getaawp feature

Automatically updates pricing and other Amazon product information

Generates affiliate links containing your affiliate ID

Sends visitors to their local Amazon store

See AAWP

the lasso

Example of lasso affiliate table

Create product displays that match your website branding

Detects meaningless links (even in old blog posts)

Bulk-updates link URLs, titles, ratings, and other details across your site

Check out Lasso

Conclusion

Amazon Affiliate Program is one of the most reliable ways to monetize a website.

Amazon is highly trusted, stocks an incredible range of products in hundreds of categories, and offers tons of useful tools and resources to help you drive clicks and conversions. And while its commissions aren't what they used to be, they're still pretty generous in certain categories.

But before you start dreaming of commissions, you need to build a high-converting, search-friendly affiliate site.

Fortunately, we're here to help.

Sign up for our free training to discover seven expert tips for building a high-converting affiliate site, including how to find profitable hidden niches.

FAQs

Is it free to be an Amazon affiliate?

Yes, you can join the Amazon Associates program for free and start earning commissions on eligible purchases and programs.

Is it hard to become an Amazon affiliate?

No, becoming an Amazon affiliate is easy and fast. You just need to sign up with your existing Amazon account or create one and follow the simple steps to register your website or app.

How Much Do Amazon Associates Earn?

There is no fixed amount of how much you can earn as an Amazon Associate. Your earnings depend on several factors, such as your niche, traffic, conversion rate, and the products and programs you promote.

What are the requirements for Amazon Associates?

To become an Amazon affiliate, you must have a functional website or app that meets Amazon's standards and policies and agree to their operating agreement.

Can you become an Amazon affiliate without any followers?

Yes, you can be an Amazon affiliate, even if you don't have many followers, you need to generate traffic to your website or app and build trust with your audience to earn money from your referrals.

How long does it take to become an Amazon affiliate?

After you register your website or app, it usually takes up to 5 business days to review and approve your application.

How are Amazon affiliates paid?

You can choose from three payment methods: direct deposit, Amazon gift card or check The minimum payment threshold varies depending on the method.

When do Amazon Associates get paid?

Amazon pays its affiliates approximately 60 days after the end of each month for the commissions earned that month.