What is affiliate marketing? This marketing method, which is becoming more and more popular, is a way to make money online. In fact, it has generated billions of sales in the UK alone. It’s no wonder that more and more beginner affiliates also want a piece of the pie and are joining the experts to make a profit by building a niche site. Well-known papers, such as the Sunday Times, have also recognised the trend and have already jumped on the affiliate bandwagon. It is, after all, a better alternative to other display advertising campaigns for turning content into profit. The digital media company BuzzFeed has also made extensive use of affiliate marketing. So it’s no coincidence that Amazon affiliate program has generated about 40 per cent of the company’s revenue.
Get Started as an Amazon Affiliate: A basic guide to the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program
As an affiliate, your task is to promote one or more Amazon products and try to attract potential customers to the merchant’s offer – for example via social media sites or content marketing on your blog.
You must always keep an eye on the latest products on the market by regularly browsing the Amazon website. This will give you a better idea of which products are the most popular in each category, how they are promoted, and what their product descriptions entail. The information you collect will help you in your product selection and, of course, in your presentation.
Despite the negative news about the Amazon’s working conditions, the company enjoys an otherwise positive reputation and is associated with a trusted platform – good service and fast delivery. When it comes to payouts, Amazon is also reliable and straightforward. Other benefits include the large product selection and the booming Christmas sales, the stringent structure of the products and the corresponding links – which you can quickly browse through as an affiliate. Last, but not least, it should be mentioned that you will benefit from every purchase the customer makes through your link. So if the customer places several products into their shopping cart, you can look forward to receiving a higher commission, which consists of the total amount of purchases made. However, since the Amazon cookie duration is for only 24 hours, you cannot expect to receive a commission from the decision-making buyers who, for example, clear their cache of cookies or remove the product from their cart after 2 days. Your customer must, therefore, buy the product within 24 hours after going to the Amazon website through your link.
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Promote other people’s products and get a share of the profits – that’s the motto. But let’s take a look at what affiliate marketing is all about. Here are some facts at a glance:
It would be a lot more exciting to find out how the whole thing works in practice. But since affiliates do not want to fall behind their competitors, most of them refrain from revealing their tips and tricks – especially if their affiliate websites are performing well.
Earn money online: Types of income
There is the active type of income and the passive income. You can earn an income by offering your knowledge on a topic – for example, on a blog – in order ultimately to draw attention to you and your services.
The advantage of passive income is that it is scalable. Once you have a corresponding system up and running, it can pay off for many years to come. Your affiliate links can be clicked over and over again and continue to generate sales in the background without any extra effort on your part. It is best to say goodbye to the idea that affiliate marketing works on a set principle and that it’s a way to get rich quickly and easily. Rather, it is those who put a lot of effort into this type of money-making business and continue learning from it, in addition to having lots of patience, will be the ones who are successful in the longer term.
What makes niche sites so promising for affiliates
Product review sites can add real value to online users by providing them with tangible tips and solutions. The added advantage? You do not have to fork out any money on the advertising costs – this is thanks to the commissions you receive for the work, and you can achieve a lot with little effort – in other words, with the right SEO strategy you will soon be able to achieve great results. If your offer is also a niche, you have one more reason to be happy: Optimisation measures are relatively easy, because there is hardly any competition. And best of all, your startup costs will be minimal with regards to hosting expenses and you’ll have access to low-cost or even free optimisation and analysis tools.
Your Role as a Long-tail Publisher
The long-tail theory relies on niche products, whereas top publishers – influential portals, such as larger newspapers – represent top visitor numbers. This is because they are able to reach to a wider audience and, therefore, are in a better negotiating position with a lot of room for manoeuvre towards the merchants. Long-tail publishers, on the other hand, are more specialised, often more credible, and can promote products more effectively. This could be your advantage over the broad-based top publishers. But keep in mind that as a long-tail publisher you must always remain competitive. And of course, you should only work with those merchants whose portfolio fit your topic and communication – not just to expect higher sales. This will ensure that your ads are perceived by the readers in a more effective manner.
PartnerNet – the Amazon Affiliate Program
Partner networks offer many affiliate programs and it is here that affiliates can use their customer services, which gives them a certain sense of security and belonging. In addition, the technical software such as tracking tools are already provided. For the merchants or shop owners, it is more convenient since they have less paperwork to deal with, for example, when it comes to billing.
If you’re looking for affiliate marketing tips, you’re bound to find plenty of articles online. Most of the time you will automatically land on Amazon’s website, which brings us back to our topic: there is no other online retailer quite like Amazon. Think about it, it’s like someone in your circle of friends or acquaintances who does not have an Amazon account. This online platform is not only ideal for buying a guide book or any other product one has in mind, but it’s also perfect for marketing purposes. Countless affiliates use the Amazon partner program, PartnerNet, since whatever product you’re referring to on your website is most likely to be on Amazon. This is what makes your affiliate business so promising here – provided, of course, you follow the rules.
So it makes sense to integrate the online giant with your innovative e-commerce strategies as part of your online money-making project. But how will you make your Web page compatible with Amazon? What you can do, just like Amazon does, is to always get as close to your customer as possible and always ask yourself how they perceive you. The goal should be to use your product portfolio to provide the right solutions and focus on them instead of the product itself. This will help you inspire your customers and, ideally, attract them to your website.
Step-by-step instructions to get you started with Amazon PartnerNet
How it works:
1. You probably already have an account with the giant retailer and are familiar with the website’s basic features. After signing up on the Amazon home page, you’ll be taken to the affiliate program landing page.
2. In order to be able to see the matching offers, you enter the URLs of your website as well as your social media feeds in your website profile.
3. Now you’re in the comprehensive partner section, where an introductory tour, reports and best practices are waiting for you. Once you become familiarised with everything, you can get started right away.
4. You do not have to wait for your blog or page to get established, but you can place the Amazon products in your first post. If the older items with the Amazon links are well-listed, after a while, it is quite possible to make good money with them as well.
5. From simple text links to widgets and slideshows: In the partner area of Amazon, you are spoiled for choice when it comes to the type of advertising method you can use. It should be noted that the affiliate marketing business is extremely fast paced so there is never an end to the learning and optimisation process.
6. When processing affiliate links, you will have access to a handy toolbar for creating single links. If you are logged in, it will be displayed at the top of the browser and allow you to easily integrate and share it – whether via a widget, your own Amazon Store or social media site.
7. What you must do is to emphasise that you are an advertising partner of Amazon according to the current terms and conditions (See point 10).
8. In order to be able to measure your success and become visible or identifiable as an affiliate associate, a separate tracking IDis recommended for each niche page. This is the only reliable way to determine how many sales you have actually generated.
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Quality over quantity: An effective affiliate marketing trend
Regardless of the fact that high-quality products are generally worth more because of the higher commission, you should only promote what you believe in and only present the products with which you can identify yourself. After all, no-one would want to buy a poor quality product just because it has positive reviews-– this will only annoy the users and your credibility will be tarnished. For you as a publisher, it is also advisable to rely on high quality content for the following reason: You will not receive any commission if a purchased product is returned. Thus, write an honest product review that’s relevant to the potential buyer and specific to the target group. This is also the main difference and advantage in contrast to traditional advertising, which is often difficult to measure.
Mobile devices and Millennials: Affiliate marketing challenges
More and more people are making their purchases from mobile devices. This is mainly true with Generation Z, whose focus is on film and music and is reluctant or cynical about intrusive advertising methods, such as banners. Instead, the focus is shifting towards posts in social networks, so what is needed is authentic marketing based on credible content.
However, the difficulty with these social media networks – let’s take Instagram as an example – is that this app poses a major obstacle for affiliate marketing. The image descriptions can not be designed as a clickable link and thus cannot be provided with an affiliate link. It’s only in screenshots, which many influencers in the fashion industry are using through an affiliate shopping app, called LIKEtoKNOWit, that is it possible to direct the user to the actual shop.
Amazon advertising: What has changed
Amazon’s search function plays an increasingly important role. If you opt for the Amazon Marketing Services, you can still advertise quite cheaply based on the Google AdWords principle. Amazon’s ad division is growing at around 139 per cent year-on-year. The whole thing is gradually becoming more and more professional, so it is not surprising that Amazon will soon discontinue its CPM ads. This was a welcome opportunity, especially for smaller publishers who are part of the PartnerNet. The CPM or cost-per-mille refers to the advertising costs per thousand ad impressions, an important indicator with regard to the efficiency of the advertising post, so that the ad costs of the post can be compared with each other. These CPM ads will now be replaced by the Unified Ad Marketplace and the Native Shopping Ads. This will support the affiliates who promote products using high-quality content as the main focus or topic, rather than those who rely on quantity and display dozens of products. This development is due to the increasing customer demand, and as a result, the cost-per-order advertising, which is primarily at the publisher’s risk, is becoming increasingly popular with advertisers. If you want to display your ads on Unified Ad Marketplace or the Native Shopping Ads, it’s always worthwhile exploring the algorithm of Amazon SEO and optimising your content accordingly.
Amazon appears to want to conquer the ad world and is preparing to keep up with competitors like Google, with the possible creation of a retargeting ad program. Retargeting ads work like online shop window displays by reminding the customers about the brand over and over again, and taking advantage of the fact that very few users tend to make a purchase on their first visit. By targeting such ads to the indecisive users, they are more likely to convince them to buy the product, thus achieving a high conversion.
Practical plugins in Amazon PartnerNet
The Amazon plugins for WordPress are continuously optimised to include, for example, attractive single or multiple product boxes or newly released and bestseller lists that can be integrated via Shortcode. They also offer the option of downloading the product images from the Amazon server – to integrate the products into your sidebar, widgets can also be used to assist you. The Amazon plugins are fully compliant with GDPR. However, the text and image combo link don’t work on WordPress.com, unless you host it yourself.
Is the Amazon Affiliate Program worth it?
The remuneration for the world’s largest affiliate program depends on the total sum of customers’ purchases. The advertising fee reimbursement – which is called a commission – is between 5 and 12 per cent.
A commission of five per cent may sound small, but even if you choose cheap, top-selling products, it will be worth it. You will be able to quickly move up to the next higher commission tier. Considering that you can’t get much commission from expensive products, you won’t necessarily fare better if you opt for high-priced goods – especially since the commission rate of 1 per cent for smartphones and tablets is very low. In order to continuously improve its service and get expert tips from other affiliates, Amazon has set up a resource centre .
Our Conclusion:
Affiliate marketing is all about marketable content. Basically, anyone with a Web presence can become an affiliate by placing the products of an online retailer on the advertising space of his or her website. In order for the visitors to stay on the website for longer, you as an affiliate – whether as a partner of Amazon or another network – you should definitely make sure that your affiliate links generate traffic, offer real added value, and thus send the right signals to Google. The advantage of networking is, in addition to making a serious impression, which is conveyed to your consumers immediately, it also acts as a kind of intermediary function between you and the merchant. Earning a passive income, or better yet, making money while you sleep, or while staying in London, Barcelona, or even Bali as a digital nomad may sound great, but behind all the clever affiliate marketing tactics lies much more than numerous links and subsequent commission earning. The bottom line is that the Amazon PartnerNet is a good and relatively transparent way to earn money as an affiliate in the big world of Internet.
Are you still looking for convincing content to market your Amazon products with?
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