As I am getting many questions about Amazon Associates and its integration with WordPress, I decided to write Amazon affiliate WordPress guide. I intend to answer most common questions about Amazon affiliate program, its pros and cons, give some tips and earning potentials.
Most bloggers will tell you that affiliate commissions are a great way to monetize a blog or website. It doesn’t have to be the primary monetization method, but it’s an extra weapon in your arsenal to maximize profits.
If you do commit to earning affiliate commissions, you’ll be interested in learning that the world’s most famous affiliate scheme is, Amazon’s.
Affiliates earn 4-8.5% per sale, but the main advantage is the volume of products available to promote and the well-respected Amazon name driving sales.
Amazon has optimized their site to present people with products relevant to them (based on previous surfing and buying habits), and over many years, they have tweaked their site to maximize profits.
As a result, people who visit Amazon site naturally end up buying something. The cool thing is that whether they purchase the thing you linked to or not, you still earn a commission!
Table of Contents
Amazon Affiliate WordPress Guide FAQ
Here are some of the most common questions about Amazon Associates affiliate program:
How hard is it to get into the Amazon Associates Program?
Registration is free, and Amazon Associates program is open to affiliates from all countries.
How many countries have an Amazon Associates Program?
Amazon currently has 12 locales. Those are United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, India, China, and Japan.
All of these countries have their own Associates program. Affiliate Programs in India, China, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico require you to have a bank account within each country.
If your visitors are from more than one country, you should consider joining all stores, as an affiliate, from which you receive the most traffic. Affiliate marketers have reported up to 40%+ increase in revenue after promoting products internationally.
If you would like to target more than one locale with a single link, Amazon has released its own tool which you can use to target multiple Amazon affiliate stores using one Amazon affiliate link. For more info check my tutorial how to set up Amazon OneLink.
How much commission can I earn per sale?
You can make from 4 to 10%, depending on many factors. Amazon Associate program’s advertising fee varies according to the category and the number of products you sold.
Certain product categories have fixed commission rates. The more you sell, the higher the rates. Please note that volume-based commission rates reset at the beginning of every month.
UPDATE: Amazon often changes its commission fees. To stay updated be sure to check my Amazon affiliate commission rate changes post.
How will I be paid?
Amazon.com offers three payment methods. Those are Amazon gift cards, Direct Deposit, and Check payment. However, payment methods vary according to country-specific stores.
For example, Amazon India only supports direct deposits (NEFT), which makes it mandatory that you have an Indian bank account to earn commission from them.
The commissions you achieved in (for example) January will be paid by late March. Non-US residents who opted for check payment will then have to wait another few weeks for the check to reach them and cash it.
But there is a solution to avoid this by opt-in for payouts via direct deposit even if you are not located in the US. That way you don’t have to wait nor pay a fee for check payouts.
Create an account with Payoneer. Payoneer helps receive funds from companies worldwide. They provide you with a US bank account information, which you can then use to receive payments.
Choose ‘Direct Deposit’ payment method on Amazon. Go to Payoneer’s US Payment Service page and use the bank details provided there to fill Amazon’s form.
Starting next month, you’ll receive payments right into your Payoneer account within 1-2 days. You can then make use of Payoneer MasterCard, or withdraw the amount directly to your bank account.
UPDATE: Best way to get Amazon affiliate commissions is using Payoneer.
Can I earn commissions for products I don’t promote?
The best thing about Amazon affiliate program is that you can earn commission for selling things you didn’t promote.
Thanks to Amazon cookies, you earn commission for all the purchases buyer makes within 24 hours of their arrival. In most cases, people make purchases for products other than the ones you promote.
How Amazon cookies work?
You earn advertising fee for every visitor you refer to Amazon, who adds a qualifying product to their shopping cart within 24 hours of their arrival.
If they fail to buy or add to their shopping cart in this 24-hour window, you will not earn commission from that visitor on any subsequent purchases.
Once the product is added to the cart, there is an additional 89-day window before the cart expires. You will earn the commission if the visitor completes the purchase within this time frame.
Keep in mind that Amazon won’t pay you until the visitor has purchased an item, accepted the delivery and made full payment to Amazon.
Can I use Amazon affiliate links and Google ads on the same page?
It is no secret that Google Adsense forbids publishers from using other contextual advertising networks on the same page. However, Amazon Associates is not a contextual ad network and is in perfect compliance with the Google ads.
Can I earn commission from other Amazon locales (storefronts)?
If the site has a link for a product which redirects to Amazon.com but buyer is from the UK and decides to buy from amazon.co.uk, you will not receive a commission. But you can use Amazon OneLink in which makes this possible.
Does it cost to become Amazon associate?
There is no charge to apply, and there is no minimum referral requirement or quota you must reach before earning referral fees with the program.
Does my website qualify for Amazon affiliate program?
All you need to join is a Web site that does not violate intellectual property rights or promote sexually explicit materials, violence, illegal activities, or discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age. You can participate with more than one website.
How Amazon tracks affiliate orders?
An Associates ID is assigned. Links from Associates websites to Amazon use a unique format that includes this code. Every time a customer follows one of those links, this unique URL tells which page to display as well as which Associate sent the client.
What products should Amazon affiliate focus on promoting?
Amazon Associates is most widely used affiliate network in the world. But their commission rates (starting from 4%) don’t look very attractive. So why anyone would even consider promoting inexpensive products for pennies? The answer lies in the compensation policy of Amazon Associate program.
The Amazon advertising fees are structured in a way so that it favors affiliate marketers who bring in more sales on a monthly basis. This means you earn double the commissions per product if you bring in hundreds of sales as opposed to one or two. The vast majority of product categories on Amazon follow this very same ‘volume based’ advertising fee rates.
Here comes the role of inexpensive products. As a $10 selfie stick is no difficult sell compared to a $500 worth product, the easiest way to crack into the higher tier of commission rates is to sell more of cheap products.
So the quick answer to this question would be to sell a combination of both cheap and expensive products. Make sure you promote the kind of product that sell easily. Not only does this help you increase the overall no. of products sold, but also bring in ‘accidental sales’.
People very often add several other products to their cart before checking out, and you could be the one earning all that commission! People most often end up buying more stuff than what we send them to.
Focus on expensive items too. But not the highest priced. Amazon has certain limitations on advertising fees for selected categories like Electronics.
They have commission cap of $25 per sale. This means that if you sell a gaming laptop for $500 or $1500, you are going to end up earning the same commission per sale. Taking that into consideration, it would be better to focus on the $500 worth product as it has more chance to sell.
Make sure you don’t get carried away by the products which are expensive. Not only are they tough to sell, but they might also be earning you the same bucks as the mid-ranged ones.
Amazon Affiliate WordPress Guide Tips
Here are some tips that could help you sell more and increase your earnings as Amazon affiliate:
1. Focus on buying keywords – Save your ‘product guide’ for later as it rarely converts. Make top lists, comparisons, top deals pages, and product reviews.
2. Use Native Shopping Ads – Amazon native shopping ads are the real deal among the two latest introductions from Amazon Associates. They return relevant product suggestions for the website and convert higher.
3. Always link your images to affiliate links – People tend to click on images more.
4. Focus on mid-range products – Not too cheap because cheap products bring low commissions. But not too expensive because Amazon has set a cap of $25 commission per sale on selected categories.
5. Sell large quantities of cheap products – Amazon follows a volume-based commission rate that favors the ones who sell more. So the combination of mid-range and cheap products is your best choice.
6. Start your article with an in-text affiliate link – Start your content with a sentence that mentions a product with a link to Amazon.
7. Don’t reveal product price on your website – Instead, add call-to-action buttons that say ‘Check Price.’
8. Target visitors from other locales – Amazon has dedicated storefronts in 12 countries. Sign as an affiliate to all storefronts you receive most traffic from and monetize international traffic using Link Localizers.
9. Optimize design to make it look trustworthy – Loyalty and trust convert. The only way someone is going to take your word for it is if you write great content and if your website looks like an authority on the subject.
10. Holidays bring most sales – No matter what you are selling, your sales are going to double on holidays (Christmas).
11. Pre-orders – Amazon sometimes creates pages for upcoming product releases, and this is your best chance of driving additional sales.
12. Use tables and comparison charts – Creating a product comparison grid for all of the products within your niche and allowing people to sort by various features is a great way to get some additional sales.
For more info be sure to check my Amazon affiliates WordPress guide and Amazon affiliate rules.
Amazon Affiliate Program Pros & Cons
There are drawbacks to becoming an Amazon Affiliate, as well as advantages.
The main problem with Amazon affiliate program compared to other affiliate programs is that they pay higher commissions, have higher value products and have more extended cookies.
CONS
- The commissions are too small.
- Most people on Amazon buy low-priced products, so it doesn’t add up to a worthwhile fee.
- People have to make a purchase within 24 hours. Otherwise, your affiliate cookie stops working.
PROS
- Amazon is a trusted brand. If someone is going to buy online, Amazon will be one of the first choices.
- Commissions on higher value products can be decent.
- When you send someone to Amazon, you earn a commission on whatever they buy.
- There are so many promotional options that most niches would probably find something relevant to their audience.
- If buyer adds the product to cart then leaves and returns anytime within the 90 days to make the purchase, you will receive your commission.
One of the greatest things about being an Amazon Affiliate is that all you have to do is get your reader to click the link and Amazon will do the rest.
When it comes to turning customers, Amazon is the master of conversion. They have fine-tuned their system to include their review section on their products along with images of products from all angles and compared pricing.
If you’re providing good information and are trusted by your readers, your conversion rate will be even higher.
To make money from Amazon affiliate you need to have these things:
- Profitable Niche – This is the topic on which you will be creating your website or blog, and you will be selling products related to this subject via the Amazon Affiliate program.
- Domain & Hosting – To create your blog/website on and host it at.
- A blog or a website – To write about the topic, and its related products. This is where your sales will come from.
- Quality Content – It is essential in order to get people to your blog/website and motivate them to make a purchase via your affiliate link.
- High rankings in Google – This will help you reach out to more buyers.
- Traffic which converts – People visiting your blog/website should purchase the product you are selling.
Amazon Affiliate WordPress Themes
WordPress has a wide range of affiliate oriented themes. Especially for Amazon affiliate program. You can kickstart your WordPress affiliate store in no time.
Building niche affiliate sites using WordPress theme can be very fast. You can make product review sites, coupon sites, price comparison or simple information-based websites.
Having some kind of Amazon store builder theme is not necessary if you blog and occasionally put affiliate links to Amazon products. But if you want to concentrate on creating niche site/s with the sole purpose of earning affiliate commission from Amazon, then it is worthy to invest in theme for Amazon affiliates. You can even use tool like FSB (check my Fresh Store Builder review).
Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugins
There are many plugins and tools that have Amazon affiliate integration built to help you easily place links in your blog posts. You can encounter a lot of problems when promoting Amazon products through WordPress website as an affiliate.
You have to manually add affiliate links for Amazon products. You need to add content, images, set up site, etc. That is a time-consuming process.
You can get rid of all manual efforts if you use WordPress Amazon affiliate plugin. Those affiliate plugins makes possible to enter Amazon API key and then you can pull links, products, prices, reviews, images, etc. from Amazon and add it to your site. If you get RequestThrottled error, you have most likely hit you API usage limit.
That way, you will save time and increase affiliate marketing revenues. I have made extensive post and compared most popular WordPress and WooCommerce Amazon affiliate plugins for Amazon associates so be sure to check it.
I highly recommend using plugin like Content Egg (see Content Egg review) or tool like Datafeedr (check Datafeedr review). For more info check Datafeedr vs Content Egg comparison.
Is The Amazon Affiliate Program For You?
I can’t answer that question for everyone. I won’t pretend that it works brilliantly on every blog. Blogs with a strong product focus can do quite well through the program if links to Amazon are well-integrated into posts.
I would advise moderation. Don’t place affiliate links in every post you write unless they are relevant. Links placed in genuinely helpful reviews do better than links and banners in sidebars. The best way to see if it converts is to give it a go.
Drawbacks of Amazon affiliate program represent the main obstacle for many bloggers. Low commission and only 24 hour cookie push away people to the higher commission programs.
It’s true that larger percentage of payouts and recurring commissions are much more attractive. But Amazon should be on your list of options if you’re looking to make money with your website.
Amazon is one of the most trusted names on the internet. There are people all over the world that shop Amazon regularly.
Tens of thousands of Amazon customers have already set up an account with them and have a credit card stored on file for speedy checkout. These people won’t give it a second thought when making a purchase.
DISCLOSURE: Posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, I might get a small commission, without any extra cost to you. Read more about it here.
Excellent web site!
I am new here.
I have a question.
In this topic:
https://www.kasareviews.com/amazon-affiliate-rules/
When you write an article “best products under $100,” all products prices must be under $100 at all times. These post types are very risky. Don’t use texts such as “check Best price on Amazon,” “check the cheapest price on Amazon” etc. If your prices aren’t the cheapest or best, you get a ban.
You warned us to mentioning price in above content.
But in this topic you told that we can use these (best price, cheap, buy…. along with product name) for post title and content.
If we don’t mention the price (in numbers);
Can we use “best price, cheap” for title and content and also “check Best price on Amazon,” “check the cheapest price on Amazon” as well?
One more thing can i use recommendation words in posts?
Thanks very much
Hi Mecra,
I wrote that you can use “best price, cheap, buy” for keywords you target, not in actual links when linking to Amazon. Those are different things but I see how it can be confusing. I have now deleted that section to not confuse others.
You can use “best price, cheap” for title and content but don’t use “check Best price on Amazon,” “check the cheapest price on Amazon” or similar phrases.
You are awesome.
Thanks you.
I am new in this sector and did not join Amazon affliate still.
I got a domain and set it up.
When i get enought hit, I will join Amazon.
You create high quality content.
Thanks again.
Hi Mecra,
If you have more questions, feel free to ask. I am glad I can help you.
hello kasa,
thank you for the great article,
you seem very knowledgeable about the program
is it allowed to insert amazon affiliate links into my own images ( not amazon product images ), e.g. image from a couple playing badminton on the beach and I put an Amazon link into the image to the product on the Amazon site.
I see my site visitors tend to click my images, but right now my images are just linking to the image file, i mean regular images, like people sitting at a table, playing on the beach, artistic images..etc..
is it allowed?
please let me know,
all the best,
Ral
Yes, it is allowed. That is pretty common to add affiliate link to image.
Thanks for this awesome guide for Amazon affiliates.
If you have any additional questions, just let me know.
Thank you for sharing this. What are your thoughts on posting to Instagram stories? I can certainly embed a link from Amazons affiliate linking. But how can I properly use an Amazon image to market an item I don’t have my own photo of?
For example, if I see an item within my niche that’s a Deal of the Day, it would be easy to take a screenshot and add my affiliate link on my stories. How can I get around that in a legal way?
Hi Sydney,
Most people use product images that are on Amazon so you should be okay. Of course, it is best to use your own images, but I never heard that some affiliates got in trouble for using seller product images.
I have been using a Amazon Theme and came across fresh ideas for product promotion after reading this blog post. I think promoting products used regularly by public on our website will yield better profits.
Hi Kasa,
Very nice and helpful article. I’ve been launching a few Amazon sites lately and it’s always been a huge pain to add images, create best tables, add links….
Glad this post was of help to you Emily.
If you have any questions feel free to ask!