How To Make Money With The Amazon Affiliate Program

By Skip McGrath

It is amazing but a lot of people have no idea that Amazon will pay you between 4% and 15% of sales when someone refers a customer to the Amazon website and someone buys something.

This may be the greatest business in the world:

• You can get started with minimal investment –under $10
   
• You can access over 100,000 book titles and 40,000 products in hundreds of categories and subcategories.
  
  
• You can sell thousands of products yet - You have no inventory.  You take no photos.  There is nothing to ship and…Amazon takes all the risk and collects the money for you.
   
• You have to do some work –but once it’s done, you literally make money while you sleep.

Why Become an Amazon Affiliate?

I have ten good reasons why the Amazon Affiliate program is a good choice:

1. Amazon is a trusted Brand – According to Nielson Research, Amazon is the most trusted brand and the number one most popular shopping destination on the web (they just passed eBay this year). Buyers know Amazon –and trust it.  And, they spend more money on Amazon on average than any other shopping site.

2. People Buy More than One Item – the great thing about Amazon is that you don’t just earn a commission on the product that you send people to, but anything that they buy once they’re at Amazon. You earn a commission on anything a person buys within 24 hours of you sending them to Amazon. One out of every four shoppers buys more than one item per session.

3. Easy Setup – There are more and more WordPress plugins and third party tools and website builders that have Amazon Affiliate integration built into them.  This means you have a choice of automated tools that mean little or no work for you. You can even put Amazon links in your Twitter and Facebook posts.

4. Choice of Payment – Amazon pays their affiliates in a number of ways. You can elect to receive an Amazon gift card, check in the mail or direct deposit to your bank account.

5. Commissions – Amazon uses a sliding scale of commissions that start at 4% and go as high as 15%.  (Sell just 4 items per month and your commission jumps to 6%).  They have a volume formula so the more items you sell per month, the higher your commission.  Most months I am at the 7% level. That doesn’t sound like much but someone bought an $2100 gun-safe one month.  My commission on that sale was $126.00.  I know one lady who runs an Amazon affiliate website that reviews expensive sewing machines ($250 to $2,000). She gets dozens of sales per month.

6. Small Payments Add Up – See above and do some math.

7. Holidays are huge moneymakers – Its not just Christmas.  I always see a big jump in sales on other holidays such as Valentines Day, Mothers and Fathers Day, Halloween and so on.

8. Huge Array of Products -- What initially attracted me to Amazon’s Affiliate program was the breadth of products that they had in their system. This is a great thing if you’re niche is narrow or quite obscure as many niche marketers find it difficult to find affiliate programs to match their niche focus.  Even if your niche is so narrow you can’t find products, at least there are books about it. Not counting books, movies and music, Amazon has over 40,000 different products for sale in hundreds of categories and sub-categories.

9. Amazon now sells streaming movies –Amazon recently entered the market of streaming video downloads –they will shortly begin selling movies in competition with NetFlix.  This can add a whole new revenue stream.

10. Amazon gives great support – Unlike other online shopping and auction sites, Amazon loves their sellers and associates and gives them great support. Stuck with a problem? Amazon will call you on the phone and talk to you in less than 5 minutes after requesting a call.

How Much Money Can I Make as an Amazon Affiliate?

Before I discuss this I have to point you to the disclaimer at the bottom of this page. The Federal Trade Commission has new rules we have to follow when talking about moneymaking products, so please read –and heed the disclaimer. It is there for your protection.

I have seen Amazon affiliate sites that were so poorly done they made nothing or maybe were lucky to earn $20 to $30 per month.  And I have seen some that make well over $1000 per month.  But if you speak with experienced Amazon affiliates they will tell you that the average is probably somewhere around $300 to $500 month, per site, which is why most of the pros have ten or more sites.  I will show you how to set up an Amazon site quickly –in less than one hour and even a system that will set them up for you (if you are willing to pay them), but if your goal is to make $1000 a month or more, you will probably need several sites.

Here is a look at my orders summary for the first week of April.

Week 1, April 2011

That is not many orders, but look at the conversion rate. That is a phenomenal conversion rate for the Internet.   Several of the products sold that week were in the over $200 price range.

When I met with Amazon folks last year they told me off the record that they have hundreds of affiliates earning over $100,000 per year, and thousands earning between $500 and $5000 a month.  But they also have thousands who have signed up and done nothing –or just earn the occasional ten dollars or so. (Just keeping it real!)

The bottom line on this question is that it’s up to you.  If you have some imagination and can follow instructions, you will make some money –but there is no way I can forecast how much.  Some folks would be happy to do this and earn $100 a month, while others really need the income and they will work harder and earn much-much more.

What Will I Learn About Being an Amazon Affiliate?

First of all we will teach you how the program works.  How to sign up and explain the rules you must follow.  Then I take you step-by-step through:

• Finding a niche –or several niches
   
• How to select the best niche
   
• How and which products to select within a niche to maximize conversions
   
• How to set up a website or blog that attracts traffic (don’t worry – there are no technical skills required)
   
• How to create your affiliate links
   
• How to use Amazon widgets (powerful selling tools)
   
• How to maximize commissions
   
• Quick & Easy website Builder
   
• Driving free traffic to your site
   
• How and where to find free content for your site
   
• Using social networks to promote your affiliate links
   
• How to create your own Amazon Store loaded with affiliate commission generating products
   
• And much-much more…..

So that is just some of the information we will cover in the book.

How much time will I have to Invest as an Amazon Affiliate?

This is one of those businesses where the time you spend is directly related to how much you earn.  It typically takes about 1 or 2 hours to create an Amazon affiliate website or blog.  One website or blog can earn anywhere from $10 to a few hundred dollars, or even $1000 or more per month.  The key to making more money is to have more than one website.  Some of the largest professional Amazon affiliates  --the ones who make a six-figure income, have dozens of these sites.  But the average guy or gal like us probably has anywhere from three to ten.

If you work full time and this will be a very part-time endeavor, you could spend two hours a week and build one website or blog per week. After ten weeks you would have ten sites generating income.  If you don’t work, you could accomplish the same thing in two or three days.

I Have Very Little Computer or Internet skills –Can I Really Do This?

If you can type, point and click, I will show you how to quickly and easily set up blogs and/or websites that require no technical skill, programming language or advanced internet skills.

The real answer to this question is another question:  Are you willing to be patient, follow simple instructions and stick with it if you get frustrated?  If so then literally anyone with an at least average IQ and high school level writing skills can do this.

How Much Does It Cost And Is There Any Other Investment?

The cost of this course is $27.00 and it comes with my No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee.   There are some free sites where you can get started if you have no money at all, but I don’t recommend them.  Most people will set up a hosted blog or website that will cost between $7 and $10 a month for hosting.  There are also a few tools I recommend that you may want in invest in –but those can wait until you are generating enough income to cover the cost.

What do I get for my $27.00?

The basic course is delivered as an eBook (approximately 65 pages). The eBook contains step-by-step instructions with screenshots that walk you through all aspects of the program.  We have some bonus items and reports.  So here is what you get:

• eBook course – How to Make Money With The Amazon Affiliate Program
  (if you don’t like eBooks that is OK. My eBooks are set to allow printing. You can print it out on your computer printer, or you can email the file to Kinkos or any print shop and they will print out and bind a copy for you).
   
• Lifetime Updates and more bonus items as we create them
   
• Bonus Report - Twenty Interesting and Profitable Amazon Niches.  In the book I show you how to research profitable niches.  In this report, I have done the research for you so you can just pick one  (or more) and get started right away.
   
• Bonus Report - Beyond Amazon  Learn about adding Buy.com and Wal-Mart to your affiliate blogs and websites
   
• Bonus Report - Using Top Selling Products To Find A Profitable Niche on Amazon
   
• Bonus Report - Full Disclosure Sample language for a disclaimer statement on an affiliate site
   
• Bonus Report - Affiliate Workaround for Residents of Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina and Rhode Island
   
• Bonus - Link Building Training Video

Just Click on Buy Now  to order your copy  from our secure server. NOTE: Residents of Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina and Rhode Island - Amazon does not offer their affiliate program to residents of your state because they have insisted that Amazon collect sales tax on sales by affiliates, so Amazon pulled out of those states. We have a bonus workaround report for folks in those states but it requires you to open an account in another state. If that does not work for you we will happily refund your purchase.

P.S.  I've Got Another Bonus For You

One thing that every affiliate marketer struggles with is content. It's content that attracts traffic to your site. And there are some days you are just too busy or too tired to create content. So here is one more super bonus.

• 1,241 copyright free articles on dozens of different niche topics
• The articles are between 400 to 500 words each
• The content of the articles fall into 15 categories (NO Internet marketing or "make money" subjects)
• The right to use the content of those articles however you wish - you can even rewrite, update or put your name as the author

Here are the categories:

And one more bonus…

For the first 100 buyers, once you create your sites, email me the link and I will review your site and give you a short critique and some tips. Once I have sold 100 copies of the book this notice will disappear.

My books sell quickly, so don’t wait. Click here to get your copy now.

90-Day No Risk Guarantee

Remember there is no risk. I have transferred all the risk to myself. You have a full 90-days to decide. If you are not happy with your purchase for any reason, just contact me and I will refund your full purchase price.

New Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations effective in January 2010 require that if I state any amount of money I have made, or someone using these methods has made, then I have to state the “average” amount of money that everyone who bought this book made.  Well, as you can imagine, I would have no way of knowing that!

So to comply with the law, let me say that although myself and other people have made differing amounts of money with these methods:  “The ‘average’ person who bought this book made less than one-cent ($0.01).”

No-Questions-Asked, Unconditional, 90-Day, 100% Money Back Guarantee