Unsurprisingly, there are many more pros associated with Amazon affiliate marketing than there are cons. Let’s take a look at why this type of marketing should get you excited.
- It’s free to join and use. There’s absolutely nothing to pay to Amazon to make use of this program.
- The sign-up process is simple. If you already have an Amazon account, you’ll be taken through a straightforward five-step sign-up process. During this process, Amazon will ask about your business, your website(s), as well as how you intend to use the affiliate marketing program to make money.
- It’s extremely WordPress-friendly. As you’ll soon see, it’s very easy to add Amazon affiliate links to WordPress. If you decide that you want more than just the occasional link to appear within your content and you want to build an entire affiliate store, there are WordPress affiliate themes and plugins built specifically for Amazon Associates members.
- You get to hand-pick what you promote. Unlike display ad systems that typically choose which brands serve ads on your WordPress site, you have total control over this with Amazon affiliate links. You’ll never have to worry about a competitor’s link showing up on your site and the link will always be relevant to the content that it appears within or beside—which will improve its chances of getting clicked.
- You can build greater trust with visitors. When affiliate links are used properly, you’ll build even more trust with visitors. This means always directing them to Amazon products that are relevant to the topic at hand. Conversely, any attempts to deceive by pushing them to unrelated links or to untrustworthy products could hurt trust (and get you banned by Amazon), so be careful.
- Referral fees aren’t just for the products you recommend. Perhaps the coolest thing about the Amazon Associates program is that you receive credit for any sale associated with your affiliate link for 24 hours. So, if a customer visits the page of the product you recommended, but then goes on to purchase five more eligible items during that same visit, you will receive a portion of that entire sale.
- It’s a great way to make passive income. When I say “passive”, this doesn’t account for the time needed to spend building or maintaining your WordPress site. However, to have to promote these affiliate links, you can put in as much or as little work as you want to drive traffic to them. This makes this a great option for a passive income stream if you’re not in the business of e-commerce.
- Amazon customers are loyal. Beyond that, Amazon customers, especially Amazon Prime members, are more than happy to convert. According to a 2015 report, Prime members are said to convert at a rate 22 times greater than customers that shop with other top online retailers. So, if you can tap into that audience and appeal to their willingness to spend money with Amazon, you should see a good return on your decision to join the program.
- It has universal appeal. Unlike some types of marketing that work better for certain segments than others, affiliate marketing is really something that anyone can use on their WordPress site or e-commerce store. With millions of products available and categories covering a wide spectrum, you’re bound to find more than enough products worth promoting.
- You can open a store without the burden of managing inventory. One of the ways in which you can use Amazon affiliate links is to populate your online store with third-party products. This spares you from having to produce, store, or even manage inventory. That’s all handled by the manufacturers. You only need to worry about maintaining your online store.
- You can use affiliate links after the fact. You don’t have to decide upon building a WordPress site that you will optimize it with Amazon affiliate links. You can decide to down the road that you want to give affiliate marketing a try and, revisit old content, embed affiliate links within it, and start generating revenue that way—especially if your old content is finally starting to take off.
- Track your earnings with Amazon. Amazon collects all your affiliate activity in one place. Under Reports, you’ll be able to see information on your fees (for standard affiliate link promotions) and bounties (for Amazon services promotions).
You can also find out more about how well your links are doing in terms of the types of conversion (e.g. clicks, orders, etc.)
