There are policies in place that you must follow when you participate in the Amazon Affiliate Program. Today I’m excited to share with you some best practices for keeping in Amazon’s good graces.
Within 180 days of joining, you need to make at least three sales.
In order to complete your affiliate process sign-up, this step is crucial. Amazon Affiliate program works by allowing anyone to sign up for an account and start promoting Amazon products immediately.
If you don’t make your first three qualifying sales, your account will not be activated and fully approved.
If you were to get removed from the affiliate program, don’t forget to get rid of all of the links in your content. You can reapply and incorporate new links if reapproved.
Your old links won’t actually earn you commissions or count towards your new goal if you continue to use them. Consequently, make sure you replace all of your old Amazon affiliate links with new links.
Use the Correct Amazon Affiliate Program Disclosure
Another important aspect of being allowed to participate in the Amazon Affiliate program is using the correct affiliate disclosure.
You are usually welcome to include a general affiliate disclosure on the blog posts, pages or content where you feature affiliate links.
On the other hand, Amazon is a little more specific, requiring you to state that you’re an Amazon partner and that you earn from qualifying sales.
At the very least, you will need to include language such as “As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”
Promote Relevant Amazon Items
This is essential if you want to make money as an Amazon affiliate.
There is no need to put links to every single random product available on Amazon on your blog, just because Amazon sells everything.
Choose products and offers that are relevant to your content and specific to your audience + the problem you’re solving for them.
Do Not Shorten or clack Amazon Affiliate Links
As far as things that will get your Amazon associates account banned go, make sure you don’t do this one last thing Amazon absolutely hates! When creating Amazon affiliate links, avoid using shortened or redirect links.
Don’t Entice People to Use Your Links for Purchases
Affiliate marketers sometimes get creative and add a humanizing tone to their disclaimers since you can usually adjust your disclosures to fit your blog.
This is not against the rules. However, Amazon is very strict about the language that encourages your audience to click on your link.
You cannot use any incentive (like giveaways, bonuses, or personal pleas) in conjunction with your Amazon links, including cute disclaimers such as “if you buy through my link, you help support my blog and feed my cat.”.
Neither ask or Tell Your Family and Friends to buy Through Your Links
Think twice if you think using your own affiliate links to make purchases or asking your friends and family to do so from their accounts is an easy way to earn money! Once again, this is against Amazon’s terms of service and could lead to your termination. In addition, Amazon knows because of tracking algorithms and those sales won’t count.
How to Improve Your Affiliate Link Placements and Strategy
You can place Amazon affiliate links and banners randomly on your blog without violating any rules. However, it won’t help you earn consistent affiliate revenue from the Associate’s program.
Instead, you need to learn how to include Amazon affiliate links in different formats intentionally and strategically so that they are visible and useful to your audience.
Promote Amazon’s Bounties and Offers
To boost your Amazon affiliate income, you can also promote Amazon bounties and offers as an affiliate. Currently, you can earn:
- Each Audible free account receives a $5 bounty
- The 30-day trial of Amazon Prime is worth $3
- Each Audible Plus account will receive a $10 bounty
- Bounty of $3 per free Wedding registry
- Each Amazon Business account will receive a $15 bounty
- For the latest offers and promotions, be sure to check out the Promotion > Bounty Program tab.
- Each offer will also include your affiliate link.
Offline Displays of Your Links is not Permitted by the Amazon Affiliate Program
It’s up to you where you want to include your Amazon affiliate link, widgets, and banners. In no case should you include any of those “offline” or on private pages, where Amazon can’t track the location.
You CANNOT include affiliate links for Amazon in:
- PDFs
- emails
- eBooks
- Online courses available only to students
- Online conversations that are private
- Facebook groups that are private
- Private password protected website pages
This is probably the most common mistake new Amazon affiliates make, so be extremely careful where you share your links.
You are Allowed and Encouraged to Share Your Personal Experience with Amazon Products
Sharing products you love and sharing how they helped you is a best practice Amazon likes. By incorporating your real-life experiences and feedback, you can market their products more authentically and eliminate the spammy feeling that can sometimes come with affiliate offers.
This would be the same as sharing a product with your best friend.
Don’t Mention the Prices of Amazon Products
Amazon does not allow their affiliates to embed a product’s price when they promote it.
The price of products cannot be mentioned in blog posts, product comparison tables or anywhere else. If the price of the product drops or goes up, this will help avoid confusion.
I love these two Amazon approved plugins:
With the Lasso affiliate plugin, you can create particularly beautiful Amazon product display boxes, showcasing product prices, features, and even the Prime badge!
The Amazon affiliate plugin, AmaLinks, allows you to create attractive boxes, buttons and comparison tables to earn more from affiliates.
They also have many other great features that work in line with Amazon’s rules and regulations and will make your life a whole lot easier! Additionally, they will improve your conversions.
I’m confident this post has helped you learn a little more about the Amazon Affiliate Program and how to use it to add a good revenue stream to your blog.