Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Monetizing with Amazon Associates and Other Affiliates
Another way to monetize your website is with Amazon Associates. The way the Amazon
Associates program works is you put your specific Amazon Associates affiliate link any-
where on the Internet, and anytime anyone clicks on that link they are redirected to the
Amazon website (to a page of your choice). You will receive a commission on anything that
person buys off of Amazon in the next 24 hours (anywhere between 4% and 8%, depending
on how many products you've sold that month).
Once you have a regular readership that trusts you, Amazon Associates becomes an incred-
ible monetization technique. You can promote products on your blog posts explaining why
you like them and recommend them, link to those products on Amazon, and when people
buy them, you make money! This is why trust is such an important factor in making money
from your blog (and why you can't abuse that trust once you have it).
For example, if you have a tech blog with a regular readership, you can put up posts like
“tech gadget reviews”, “my favorite electronics”, “top 10 gizmos of the year”, “best tech
Christmas presents”, etc. all linking to Amazon with your affiliate link. See how this can be
such a money maker?
And not only will these posts make money the day you put them up when your regular audi-
ence reads them, but they will continue to make money from new blog visitors from search
engines who find old blog posts of yours. This is why blogs make more money year after
year: because each year your blog grows in content and traffic. And as always in this busi-
ness, more content = more traffic = more money.
To sign up for the Amazon Associates program, first visit
https://affiliate-pro-
gram.amazon.com/
and register for an account. Once you are registered and logged in,
whenever you visit Amazon, you will notice a new gray toolbar along the top of your web
browser. With this toolbar, you can get your Amazon Associates affiliate link to any page on
Amazon.
For example, type in a product like “toaster ovens” into the search bar and click on one of
them. At this product page, you can now click on the “Link to this page” button on the top
left, and get your affiliate link HTML code. The link they give you will connect to that toast-
er oven page with your affiliate information. It's that simple!
