In this post, we’re going to cover everything that you need to know to go from absolutely zero to successfully joining Amazon Associates and earning your first Amazon affiliate commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udcda Table of contents<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amazon Associates accepts affiliates from any country, so you can join the program no matter where you’re located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, you need a valid platform for promoting Amazon’s products to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three options for joining:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s go through them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most common way to join Amazon Associates is to promote products on your own website. If this is your plan, Amazon Associates says that your website must meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don’t have a website yet, the easiest way to get started is to create a site using WordPress. We have detailed guides on how you can start your own site:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you add enough content, you’re ready to join Amazon Associates.<\/p>\n\n\n In addition to having a website, Amazon Associates will also accept promotion via the following social networks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re applying as an Amazon associate with a social media profile, your page must be established and have a decent number of organic followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amazon recommends having at least 500 organic followers<\/em><\/strong>, though again, this is open to interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, make sure to enter the exact URL to your profile\/page on the social network when you apply – don’t just put “facebook.com” or “Instagram.” I’ll remind you about this in the step-by-step guide below.<\/p>\n\n\n Finally, you can also apply with a mobile app<\/a>, as long as it meets the mobile application policy<\/a>. For example, the app must be free to download and available via the official app stores (Google Play, Apple, or Amazon).<\/p>\n\n\n If you meet the above criteria, you’re ready to join the Amazon Associates program. In this section, we’ll take you step-by-step through the actual process of creating your account and applying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To begin, click here to go to the Amazon Associates website<\/a> and then click the Sign up<\/strong> button:<\/p>\n\n\n If you already have an Amazon account you use for shopping, you can use that to join the Amazon Associates program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don’t have an Amazon account yet, you’ll need to create one:<\/p>\n\n\n Next, you’ll be prompted to enter some basic account information, such as the contact details of the person to whom the Amazon affiliate program will issue payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you already have an Amazon account, Amazon should import these details automatically, but you can edit them if needed:<\/p>\n\n\n Next, you’ll need to add the addresses of the website(s), social media profile(s), and\/or mobile app(s) where you plan to promote Amazon affiliate products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, if you’re planning to promote products on your social media profile or YouTube channel, you need to enter the exact link to your specific page\/channel. You cannot<\/strong> just put “facebook.com” or “youtube.com.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to apply with at least one website\/app, but Amazon will let you add up to 50 different addresses if needed, which is useful if you’re planning on promoting products in multiple spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if you’re planning to promote products on both your website and your YouTube channel, you should add the direct links to both:<\/p>\n\n\n Now, you’ll need to enter some additional profile details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, you get to choose your preferred Associates ID. Your Associates ID is the tracking code that will be added to your regular Amazon affiliate links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, you’ll want to make it something associated with your website. For example, if I were creating an Amazon affiliate account to promote products on Themeisle, I would choose If you’re joining the USA Amazon Associates program, Amazon will append Don’t worry too much about choosing the perfect Amazon Associates store ID because Amazon will let you create additional IDs once your account is approved. For example, you can create a unique ID for every website or platform that you promote Amazon products on so that you can keep your links separate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you’ve chosen your associates ID, you’ll need to enter some additional information about what your websites are about and what types of products you plan to promote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t worry – you aren’t locked in to only<\/em> promote these products – it just gives Amazon an idea of how you’ll be promoting them:<\/p>\n\n\n Once you’ve completed these sections, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Finish<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n Now, you’re all set! From this point on, there’s no special demand on how to get accepted to Amazon Associates. All that’s left to do is wait for approval from Amazon. If your site meets the requirements and you filled out all the information accurately, you should receive the Amazon affiliate program approval quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically, it only takes around one day for the Amazon affiliate program approval, but it may take longer or shorter for your specific situation.<\/p>\n\n\n Amazon Associates is a bit weird in that you need to apply separately to every Amazon region store where you want to promote products. For example, if you want to promote products on both Amazon.com<\/strong> and Amazon.co.uk<\/strong>, you’ll need to apply separately to the Amazon Associates program on both sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To quickly find the Amazon Associates program for other regions, you can use the region selector in the top-right corner of the main Amazon Associates page<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n Once you’ve become an Amazon affiliate, let’s talk about how you can start making money from the Amazon Associates program aka earning Amazon affiliate commissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you get the Amazon affiliate program approval, the first thing you’ll want to do is add your payment methods:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You also might need to provide tax information at this time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re wondering how does Amazon pay their affiliates, the Amazon Associates program offers the following payment methods:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amazon supports direct bank deposit in the USA and 50+ different countries in Europe:<\/p>\n\n\n If your region isn’t supported, a common strategy is to use a Payoneer account to receive USD bank deposits, which you can do from no matter where you’re located (including Asia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geniuslink has a detailed article<\/a> explaining how to set this up if you’re interested in using this method.<\/p>\n\n\n Once you’ve got the housekeeping out of the way, your next step is to start finding some Amazon products that you want to promote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Personally, I think the easiest way to do this is just by browsing Amazon like you usually do, rather than trying to use the Amazon Associates dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n Once you’ve found the products that you want to promote, you need to generate your affiliate link for these products. This ensures that you get credited for all the traffic that you send to Amazon from your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The easiest option is to use the search box on the regular Amazon website to search for the product’s name. Make sure to be logged in with the same account that you use for the Amazon affiliate program. You can then click on Text<\/strong> under Get link<\/strong> to generate the affiliate link:<\/p>\n\n\n If you do not know where to find Amazon affiliate ID, you can either click on the drop-down arrow next to Tracking ID<\/em> when you generate affiliate links (as seen in the picture above) or access your Amazon associate account and select Manage Your Tracking IDs<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n Or, if you’re using WordPress, a simpler and more effective solution is to use a dedicated WordPress Amazon affiliate plugin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more details on how to create links within the Amazon affiliate program, you can read our complete guide to creating Amazon affiliate links<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n In order to drive traffic to the affiliate products that you’ve found, you’ll need to create some type of content based on those products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One common strategy is “best of” listicles. For example, if you want to promote some tents on Amazon, you could create an article titled “8 Best Tents for Camping: Camping is Intense in These Tents.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, you could write a dedicated review, or even just include a passing mention in a relevant article. For example, if you write recipes and you tell people to check the internal temperature of the meat, you could share an affiliate link that takes people to your favorite meat thermometer on Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, you’ll need to experiment here to find the right type of content that will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learning how to become an Amazon affiliate and adding links to your site is only part of the puzzle when it comes to growing your relationship with Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to maintain your status as an Amazon affiliate, it’s absolutely essential<\/strong> that you follow Amazon’s rules. Some common affiliate marketing tactics can actually get you banned from Amazon Associates, so you don’t want to be in for a bad surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s what to pay attention to after becoming an Amazon affiliate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to maintain your Amazon Associates account, Amazon requires that you make at least three sales within the first six months<\/strong>. Otherwise, they’ll deactivate your account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason, you might want to wait to apply to Amazon Associates until your site already has steady traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your Amazon affiliate account does get deactivated because you haven’t driven those three sales, don’t worry! Amazon will let you reapply for Amazon Associates in the future – just wait until your site has some more traffic<\/a> before you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, don’t try to meet this condition by placing orders using your own affiliate link, as that is against Amazon’s policies and will cause Amazon to deactivate your affiliate account (more on this below<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n If you’re participating in the Amazon Associates program, Amazon mandates that you prominently disclose that information on your website<\/a>. This is also the law in many jurisdictions, such as FTC requirements for people in the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example of a disclosure statement would be something like:<\/p>\n\n\n I recommend creating a dedicated page that holds your disclaimer. Then, when you’re actually adding affiliate links, you can add a smaller disclaimer such as the following and link to your full affiliate disclosure:<\/p>\n\n\n Amazon does not<\/strong> allow you to cloak your Amazon affiliate links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re not familiar, link cloaking<\/a> lets you make your URLs “pretty.” For example, instead of showing There are no “ifs, ands, or buts” here. Simply put, you should absolutely never cloak an Amazon affiliate link or use any type of redirect that hides Amazon’s link and your affiliate code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re using an affiliate plugin to insert affiliate links automatically in your content<\/a>, make sure that you’ve disabled cloaking for Amazon links in the plugin’s settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the Amazon Associates program is so popular, most affiliate link plugins include special features to handle Amazon affiliate links where you can cloak all of your other links but leave Amazon affiliate links uncloaked.<\/p>\n\n\n This is a really weird rule that’s unique to Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you write about a product that you’re promoting, you are not<\/strong> allowed to just write the current price of the product in the editor. Amazon doesn’t like you doing this because the prices are often changing and Amazon doesn’t want people to promote inaccurate information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to get around this, one workaround is to use price references – e.g. “$” for low-price products, “$$” for medium-price products, and “$$$” for expensive products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to display exact prices, you must use the Amazon Associates API, which will automatically update the price if it changes on Amazon. The easiest way to do this on WordPress is to use one of the popular Amazon affiliate plugins,<\/a> such as AAWP<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, if you’re displaying prices in a comparison format, Amazon requires that you display both<\/em> the lowest new <\/em>price and the lowest used <\/em>price.<\/p>\n\n\n Recap<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Who can join the Amazon Affiliate program? \ud83e\udd14<\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/amazon-associates-0.jpg\")
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1. Website<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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2. Social media<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3. App<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How to become an Amazon affiliate – step-by-step \ud83d\udcdd<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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1. Go to Amazon Associates and click “Sign up”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Click](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-become-an-amazon-affiliate-1.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Log](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-become-an-amazon-affiliate-2.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n2. Enter basic account information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"First](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/First-step-to-register-for-an-Amazon-Affiliate-Program-account.webp\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n3. Enter your website details (or social media\/app)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-become-an-amazon-affiliate-4.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n4. Finish profile details<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
themeisle<\/code> as the Amazon Associates store ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n-20<\/code> to the end of your store ID in tracking links. For example – themeisle-20<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Third](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Third-step-to-register-for-an-Amazon-Affiliate-Program-account.webp\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n5. Wait for approval<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. Repeat for additional Amazon locations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-become-an-amazon-affiliate-7.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\nHow to make money from Amazon Associates \ud83d\udcb8<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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a) Add your payment methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Add](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-become-an-amazon-affiliate-8.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-become-an-amazon-affiliate-9.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nb) Find Amazon products that you want to promote<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
c) Generate affiliate links for those products<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/amazon-associates-get-link.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"where](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/tracking-id-on-amazon-associates.png\"){kind=tracking}
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nd) Create content on your website\/profile that promotes that product<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Key Amazon affiliate rules to maintain your status \u26a0\ufe0f<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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1. Make three sales within six months to avoid deactivation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Add a prominent Amazon affiliate disclosure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Don’t cloak Amazon affiliate links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
shrsl.com\/sjkhjkhjhkwrere<\/code> you can display yoursite.com\/go\/product-name<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n4. Only include prices if you use the Amazon Associates API<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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