What are the pros and cons of Amazon affiliate program? Amazon is one of the most popular affiliate program and has been around for decades. In July 1996, Amazon.com launched the first widely used affiliate program on the Internet. See also when did affiliate marketing start? Since then, millions of people have attempted to make money using Amazon’s product range.
However there’s some down sides to using Amazon despite their huge range of products and widely accepted customer base.
Pros And Cons Of Amazon Affiliate Program
Amazon’s affiliate program is one of the most popular. Everyone knows the brand and studies show that 89% of consumers are more likely to buy from Amazon than another e-commerce website. Amazon is well trusted, so if you send someone to the site through your affiliate link, there’s less trust issues than with some other affiliate programs.
It’s fairly easy to join Amazon’s affiliate program too, although there are certain requirements. Once you have joined and your application is accepted, you can start using affiliate links from Amazon to direct your website visitors to certain products on the site.
One of the benefits of using Amazon is the ability to make extra commissions when your referrals place multiple items in their shopping basket. So at Christmas, for example, a referral could mount up to multiple commissions. You can earn from multiple items, even if you’ve only referred one of them.
Pros And Cons Of Amazon Affiliate Program
There’s literally thousands of products you can choose from on Amazon, too. This means that whatever topic your website covers, there’s probably a suitable product you can find on Amazon to monetise it with.
Amazon’s commissions aren’t the best though, so it’s worth having other income sources if you’re an Amazon affiliate. Amazon pays affiliates between 1% and 20% although most commissions fall between 1% and 10% with Amazon games taking up the 20% category. Here’s the breakdown of the UK commission structure for Amazon, although this is know to be changeable:
Amazon’s rep isn’t exactly good from the affiliates point of view. They consistently cut commission rates and make it more difficult for affiliates. So if you’ve spent years building content and linking to Amazon, they could easily change the rules and cut you off!
Although Amazon is international, they technically have programs for each country which you’ll need to apply separately to each one! See how to monetise international traffic on Amazon here.
Summary
Amazon’s a good idea if you want to add another income stream to your affiliate business. It lets you monetise a website in almost any topic because of the large choice of products on the site. More people are comfortable with buying from Amazon which means you don’t have to do so much pre-selling as an affiliate to make a sale. You can also earn from your referrals other purchases when they checkout if you’ve sold them an item.
There’s a few downsides to using Amazon though too. The main one is most products pay peanuts. Small items are hardly worth selling because they pay so little. So you’ll need to sell a lot of products to make a good amount.
Amazon regularly changes their terms and conditions and lowers commission rates for affiliates too. This is frustrating when you’ve built a tonne of content and suddenly the rug is swept from under you and you’re no longer eligible. So making Amazon your main source of online income is risky.
For better commission rates choose subscription affiliate programs and high ticket affiliate products which pay more and reward you for life.