How To Make Money On Amazon With the Amazon Affiliate Program [2020 Edition]

In this article, we are going to teach you how to make money on Amazon with the Amazon affiliate program. There are many people making money on Amazon and if you want to earn money through the Amazon Affiliate Program, this page is for you.

This how to page is part of our how to make money online series featuring several different ways to establish a viable career online.

I think two of the best programs to make money online are through the Google AdSenses program and the Amazon affiliate program.  I provided all my Adsense tips and strategies and, in this post, I am delving into the Amazon  affiliate program.

On this page, we will first look at the big picture about making money on Amazon as an Amazon Affiliate. Following that, we will introduce some sample scenarios on which you can earn money through the Amazon Affiliate program and then point you to videos and resources to help you get started.

Making Money on Amazon: The Big Picture

Imagine for a moment that you are the owner of a hot product. How would you go about selling this product?

Ideally, it would be placed in all of the shopping centers, outlet malls, and any other place that people would be willing to buy it. Essentially, the more people that you have selling your product, the more your product will sell.

Such is the nature of affiliate programs. As we looked at in the post how to make money on eBay, companies embrace the idea of affiliate programs because it extends their sales force exponentially.

And the Amazon Affiliate Program is one of the best, and most popular, in the business. This is a good news, bad news story.

The bad news first. Since the Amazon Affiliate Program is one of the most popular, the competition can be ferocious. You are literally competing against hundreds of thousands of people to sell products.

However, there is plenty of good news.

I will start off with what I believe to be the best news: Amazon sells way more than books.

This may not be news to you but it IS news to millions of people. Many people still assume that Amazon is simply a place to go to buy books. However, Amazon now sells just about everything under the sun at the most competitive prices on the market.

For example, did you know that you can buy refrigerators online at Amazon?

And here are the last 10 items that I sold on Amazon:

We have ball bearings, audio/video products, jeans, and…Disposable Face Masks?  Yep, you can sell just about anything on Amazon.

This breadth of product is important because Amazon has already established the most important component of selling online: Trust.

People trust Amazon because they have been there before and, for the most part, everybody has had a pleasant experience. This built-in trust with Amazon is crucial. They trust not only the Amazon.com name but they trust that they will be given the best price on Amazon.com.

And so, while there are many competitors, this growing market is still ripe for those who want to make a part or full time career online through the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Let’s now take a look at how the systems works.  How can you actually make money through the Amazon Affiliate Program?

Making Money Online As An Amazon Affiliate

The concept of making money online as an Amazon Affiliate is fairly easy.

It works as follows:  You place a link to an Amazon page on your website and, when someone clicks through AND buys that product, you receive a commission based on a percentage of the sale.

The commission varies depending on what type of product that it is.

For example, a luxury beauty good currently pays a fixed rate of 10%, which is great!  However, a new LCD television, which people buy a lot of, only pays 2%.

The fixed rate fees can vary depending on what Amazon is trying to promote at the time.  Here is a look at their current fixed rate program.

You can check this Amazon page to see the latest updates.

Sell More, Make More [Amazon Variable/Volume Rate No Longer Available]

The Amazon Affiliate program use to have what they called a variable commision rate.  Basically, the more you sold, the more you earned.

It looked more like this:

I liked that program and remember checking my Amazon account to see when I reached the next commission levels. It was great and you typically earned more under this old program.

Sadly though, it’s gone and why dwell on the past?

Let’s focus on the good things we have!

Making Money As An Amazon Affiliate: An Example

Let’s take a look at a real world example. You are reading this page because, presumably, you are interested in making money online. Thus, suppose I wanted to refer you to some resources on that particular topic. I may say something like:

Be sure to check out ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income which I find to be one of the best books on how to make a living online.

Notice the link in that quote above. This is a link to an Amazon page which sells the book. This link includes a little code (which Amazon provides) that indicates that the link came from this site.

Thus, if you buy the book, I would receive a commission. (PS: I am not recommending this book because I have not read it.)

Amazon provides many other ways that you can link to an object as well. Above, I just included a text reference, but I could put a graphical icon which displays the picture and price instead of just text, like this:

Sometimes, graphics such as this provide more visual appeal for visitors to click.

Now, as I mentioned, I am not trying to sell that book right now because I have not read it (though I have frequently visited the site Problogger and find it to be immensely informative) .

But what if I were trying to sell that book? How would I go about it? Would it be worth it?

Well, if I earn just $1 from the sale of one book, I am not going to get rich you might think. However, you cannot think small. You need to think BIG, just like when I wrote about earning $1,000 an hour with AdSense.

You need to ask the question: How can I sell 1,000 of these books and earn $1,000 in the Amazon Affiliate Program?

Let’s answer that question. That booked popped up on Amazon when I typed in “make money online.” It is the bestselling book on Amazon for the topic “make money online”. We can then presume that it sells quite a bit and that selling 1,000 of these books might be possible.

Now, you need to think about how people may search for this book on google. For example, many people will want reviews and type in something like: Problogger Book Review. Or, Darren Rowse Book Review. Or, Six-Figure Income Book Review.

So, what will you do?

You will write an honest review of the book implementing solid on-page SEO techniques and promote the heck out of it on every website that you know.

Your goal will be the number one spot on google when anybody types in ProBlogger Book Review. If you clicked that link, you can see that someone has done exactly what we are talking about.

Now, continuing with the idea of thinking big, suppose you did the exact same thing with a laptop.

In this case, you will earn not $1 per sale, but 2% of the value of the laptop according today’s commission structure.  Perhaps $20?

Suppose you sold 1,000 laptops through your Amazon Affiliate Link? Are you getting the idea?

We still have not gotten to the absolute best part of the Amazon Affiliate program.

It’s probably the reason to become an Amazon Affiliate.

And, that is…

Amazon Affiliates Get Commissions on Everything in a 24-hour Period

Did you see above the list of the last 10 items that I have sold on Amazon?

Well, some of these are because I linked directly to the items from posts like connecting your TV to your PC.  In this post, I feature a lot of cables that people buy.

But cables cost practically nothing, you say?

True.

But, and this is the best part of the Amazon affiliate program, I receive a commission on everything that individual buys when they go to Amazon for a 24 hour period.

In that list above, you see that I sold Amazon jeans, ball-bearings, and disposable face masks.

Did I write about, or link to, any of these things?

Nope.  But I get a commission for them!

And that’s my favorite part of the Amazon Affiliate program.

Are you ready to sign up as an Amazon Affiliate now?

Steps to Become An Amazon Affiliate

For those interested in making money on Amazon, the steps to become an Amazon Affiliate are actually very simple. You can begin right away with these two steps:

Step One: amaz.

Step Two: Create a Website. This is actually easier than most people think if you use free services. Two good, free ones to begin with are WordPress.com or Blogger.com, which is Google’s Free Blog Platform.

However, I would probably recommend setting up your own website to make money as an Amazon Affiliate over the long haul.

Here’s a good page to begin with.

Making Money on Amazon: How To Videos

The videos below are the best that can be found on How to Make Money on Amazon.  Below each, I have provided a short, personal review.  Simply click the play to launch the video.

Videos Summary: In the videos above, we have seen real people who make real money from the Amazon Affiliate Program. There are literally hundreds of videos out there about how to make money on Amazon but most of them are trying to sell you a product.

Beware…you do not have to pay to make money as an Amazon Affiliate…you just have to work hard.

How To Make Money On Amazon: Conclusion

In this article, we have presented an overview of the Amazon Affiliate Program and how you can benefit from it.

There are literally thousands of people making money with the Amazon Affiliate Program and the time is still great to begin.

Some people are still just realizing that Amazon sells more than books. In fact, they sell practically EVERYTHING. Though it is difficult to figure out how to make money fast with Amazon, it is certainly possible to supplement your current income and, over time, become a full time earner online.

But you must know one thing; it takes a lot of time. Though they DO exist, there are not many overnight millionaires, but there are many who work hard everyday to make a solid income online.

And you can be one of them. This page has shown you the general and specific steps on How To Make Money On Amazon with the Amazon Affiliate Program. Now, it´s up to you.

Do you have what it takes to earn your income online?