If you are looking for a way to earn passive income online, you might have heard of Amazon Associates and affiliate links. But what are they exactly, and how do they work? And more importantly, how can you use them to make money with your website, blog, or social media?

In this blog post, we will answer all these questions and more. We will explain what Amazon Associates and affiliate links are, how they work, how to join and use them, and how to optimize them for maximum earnings. We will also share some examples and personal preferences related to this topic.

By the end of this blog post, you will have everything you need to know about Amazon Associates and affiliate links, and how to use them to monetize your online presence.

What are Amazon Associates and affiliate links?

Amazon Associates is an affiliate marketing program that allows website owners and bloggers to create links and earn referral fees when customers click through and buy products from Amazon.com. It’s completely free to join and easy to use.

Affiliate or associate marketing programs like Amazon’s are basically arrangements in which an online merchant like Amazon pays affiliate websites a commission to send them traffic and/or sales. Affiliate sites link to the merchant site and are paid according to the program’s agreements.

Affiliate links are special links that contain the affiliate’s ID or username. When a customer clicks on an affiliate link, a cookie is stored on their device that tracks their activity on the merchant site. If they make a purchase within a certain period of time (usually 24 hours for Amazon), the affiliate gets a commission.

For example, let’s say you have a website about gardening, and you write a blog post about the best tools for gardening. You can join Amazon Associates and create affiliate links to the products you recommend, such as a shovel, a rake, or a hose. You can then insert these links into your blog post, so that when your readers click on them, they are redirected to Amazon.com. If they buy any of the products you linked to within 24 hours, you will earn a commission.

How to join and use Amazon Associates and affiliate links?

Joining and using Amazon Associates and affiliate links is very simple. Here are the steps you need to follow:

  • Sign up for Amazon Associates: Go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ (or https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/ if you are in the UK) and click on Join Now for Free. You will need an Amazon account to sign up. You will also need to provide some information about your website, such as its name, URL, topic, audience, etc.
  • Create affiliate links: Once you are approved as an Amazon Associate, you can start creating affiliate links. There are several ways to do this:
  • Use the Product Link tool: This is the easiest way to create affiliate links. Simply go to your Amazon Associates dashboard and click on Product Linking > Product Links. Then search for the product you want to link to by its name or ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). You can then copy the HTML code or URL of the link and paste it into your website.
  • Use the SiteStripe toolbar: This is another easy way to create affiliate links. Simply go to any product page on Amazon.com while logged into your Amazon Associates account. You will see a toolbar at the top of the page called SiteStripe. You can then click on Text, Image, or Text+Image to generate different types of links. You can also click on Shorten URL with amzn.to to get a shorter version of the link.
  • Use the Product Advertising API: This is a more advanced way to create affiliate links. It allows you to access Amazon’s product catalog programmatically and display dynamic content on your website. You will need some technical skills and knowledge of web development to use this method. You can learn more about it here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/Welcome.html
  • Insert affiliate links into your website: Once you have created your affiliate links,
    you can insert them into your website wherever you want. You can use text, images, buttons, banners, or widgets to display your links. You can also use plugins or tools that help you insert affiliate links automatically or manually into your website.
  • Track your performance: You can track your performance as an Amazon Associate by logging into your Amazon Associates dashboard and checking your reports. You can see how many clicks, orders, shipped items, and earnings you have generated from your affiliate links. You can also filter your reports by date range, tracking ID, product category, or link type.

However, these reports are not very detailed or user-friendly. They don’t show you which of your blog posts or pages are driving the most clicks and sales, or which products are getting the most returns or cancellations. They also don’t show you how your affiliate links are affecting your SEO, bounce rate, or user experience.

That’s why you might want to use a third-party tool to track and optimize your Amazon affiliate links more effectively. Some of the tools you can use are:

  • Affilimate: Affilimate is a tool that helps you track and optimize all your affiliate links in one place. It integrates with Amazon Associates and other affiliate programs and platforms and shows you how much revenue each of your blog posts is generating. It also shows you which products are selling well, which ones are getting returned or cancelled, and which ones are not converting at all. You can also use Affilimate to monitor your link health, fix broken links, and improve your SEO and user experience.
  • Geniuslink: Geniuslink is a tool that helps you create smart links that automatically redirect your visitors to the best Amazon store for their location and device. It also helps you track and optimize your Amazon affiliate links by showing you detailed analytics on clicks, conversions, commissions, and more. You can also use Geniuslink to A/B test different products or landing pages, and to comply with Amazon’s disclosure requirements.
  • Pretty Links: Pretty Links is a WordPress plugin that helps you create short and branded links for your Amazon affiliate links. It also helps you track and optimize your Amazon affiliate links by showing you how many clicks each link gets, where they come from, and what keywords they use. You can also use Pretty Links to replace keywords with affiliate links automatically, and to cloak your affiliate links for better SEO.

How to optimize your Amazon Associates and affiliate links?

Creating and tracking your Amazon Associates and affiliate links is not enough. You also need to optimize them for better performance and higher earnings. Here are some tips on how to optimize your Amazon Associates and affiliate links:

  • Use high-intent keywords: High-intent keywords are keywords that indicate a strong interest or desire to buy something. For example, “best electric toothbrush” or “electric toothbrush reviews” are high-intent keywords, while “electric toothbrush” or “how to brush teeth” are low-intent keywords. Using high-intent keywords in your blog posts and affiliate links can help you attract more qualified traffic and increase your conversion rate.
  • Match the search intent: Search intent is the goal or purpose behind a search query. For example, someone searching for “how to make money online” might have an informational intent, while someone searching for “best laptop for blogging” might have a commercial intent. Matching the search intent of your audience can help you provide more relevant and valuable content and affiliate links that meet their needs and expectations.
  • Add value and context: Adding value and context to your affiliate links can help you build trust and credibility with your audience. Instead of just dropping a link in your blog post, explain why you recommend the product, how it benefits the user, what features it has, how it compares to other products, etc.

In this blog post, we have covered:

  • What Amazon Associates and affiliate links are, and how they work
  • How to join and use Amazon Associates and affiliate links
  • How to track and optimize your Amazon Associates and affiliate links

We hope this blog post has given you everything you need to know about Amazon Associates and affiliate links, and how to use them to monetize your online presence.

If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing and how to grow your online business, check out our other blog posts on related topics:

  • How to Start a Successful Affiliate Marketing Blog in 2023
  • How to Choose the Best Affiliate Programs for Your Niche
  • How to Write Engaging and SEO-Friendly Affiliate Product Reviews

Thank you for reading, and happy earning!

How to get an Amazon affiliate link with the Amazon affiliate program

Watch the video

Watch the video on how to create an Amazon Affiliate account if you don’t already have one.

Step 1 – Create Your Amazon Associates Account

amazon affiliate program

Step 1 – Create Your Amazon Associates Account

The first step is to create your Amazon Associates account. To do this, go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ (for US users) or https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/ (for UK users) and click on “Join Now for Free”. You will need to sign in with your existing Amazon account or create a new one if you don’t have one.

Next, you will need to fill out some basic information about yourself and your website, such as your name, address, phone number, website name and URL. You will also need to answer some questions about your website’s content and audience. This will help Amazon determine what kind of products and programs you can promote on your site.

Once you have completed this step, you will receive an email confirmation with your unique Associates ID. This is a code that identifies you as an Amazon affiliate and tracks your referrals and commissions. You will need this ID later when creating your links.

Step 2 – Product Links

amazon affil

Step 2 – Product Links

The next step is to find products that you want to promote on your site. There are two ways to do this: using product links or using site stripe.

Product links are tools that allow you to create customised links for specific products on Amazon. To use product links, go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/home/productlinks/find (for US users) or https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/home/productlinks/find (for UK users) and search for products by keyword or browse by category.

You can also filter your results by price range, customer rating and availability. Once you find a product that you want to promote, click on “Get Link” next to it.

Step 3 – Product Search

This will take you to a page where you can customise your link according to your preferences. You can choose between text-only link (which displays only the product name), text plus image link (which displays both the product name and image), image-only link (which displays only the product image) or add-to-cart link (which adds the product directly into the customer’s shopping cart).

You can also change the colour scheme of your link and add tracking IDs if you want to track different sources of traffic separately. Once you are happy with how your link looks like, copy it from the box below.

amazon affiliate link

Step 4 – Getting Your Link

Now that you have copied your link, you can paste it anywhere on your site where you want it to appear. For example, if you have a blog post about books that inspire creativity, you can paste a text plus image link for one of those books at the end of your post.

Alternatively, you can use site stripe instead of product links. Site stripe is a toolbar that appears at the top of any page on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk when you are signed in as an associate. It allows you
to quickly create links for any product on Amazon without leaving the page. To use site stripe, simply go
to any product page on Amazon, and click on “Text”, “Image”, or “Text+Image” under “Get Link” on the site stripe. This will generate a link for that product that you can copy and paste on your site.

amazon affiliate program

Step 5 – Building Your Link

5.

If you want more control over how your link looks like and what information it contains, you can use SiteStripe’s advanced features to build your own custom link.

To do this, click on “Build Link” next to “Get Link” on SiteStripe’s toolbar. You will see a new window with different tabs for different types of links: Text Links, Image Links, Text + Image Links and Native Shopping Ads.

Text Links allow you to create simple text-only links with customizable anchor text.
Image Links allow you to create image-only links with customizable size and alignment.
Text + Image Links allow you to create links that combine text and image with customizable layout.
Native Shopping Ads allow you to create dynamic ads that display relevant products based on keywords or categories.

For each type of link, you can customize various settings such as color scheme, tracking ID (if you have multiple websites), background color (for image links), title (for text + image links), etc.

You can also preview how each type of link will look like on different devices such as desktops, tablets and mobile phones.

To copy your custom link code, click on “Highlight HTML” at the bottom right corner of each tab and then press Ctrl+C (or Command+C for Mac).

amazon affiliate link

Step 6 – Finishing Touches

6. You can also continue onto this screen below and create a banner to place on your website:

amazon affil

Step 7 – Getting The Code

7. As you can see, I have changed the link color to Red as it suites my website. I have also selected the Text and image banner option. Once I am happy, I can scroll down and get my banner code:

amazon affiliate

Step 8 – Using The Code

8. Now all you need to do is copy this code and place it on your website wherever you want it to go:

So, it displays nicely after pasting the code into the website and the link is easy enough to get after signing up for the Amazon Associates Program.

amazon affiliate

That was easy enough, if you need any help with How to get an amazon affiliate link then please do not hesitate to contact me by signing up to my email.

Thanks for reading my articles, please check out https://lewis-anderson.com/about to learn about my journey on this path, and then read some more of my blog where I document how my journey is going.


lewis-anderson
lewis-anderson

Welcome to the world of Lewis Anderson, your gateway to life’s most intriguing mysteries. Lewis is a devoted parent of three wonderful children and an accomplished IT Technician since 2013. He has embarked on a transformative journey, exploring spiritual teachings since 2008 and unraveling life’s deepest enigmas. As a true Renaissance man, Lewis possesses an extensive array of fascinating interests – from Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics to Astrology, Autonomy, Quantum Mechanics, and the mesmerizing realms of consciousness and human experience. Driven by his insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge, Lewis shares his remarkable insights through his engaging blog. Lewis Co-Authors his content with AI. With a thriving online presence on Twitter and other social media platforms, Lewis has cultivated a warm and inclusive community for those who share his passions. So why not connect with Lewis and become part of an inspiring, ever-growing audience? By staying on this website, you’re embarking on a remarkable adventure with Lewis and unlocking a treasure trove of captivating content that you won’t find elsewhere.

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