Amazon

Amazon is an online shopping platform and cloud computing platform. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994. It started out as an online book retailing company that functioned out of Jeff Bezos’ garage. Amazon tried its best to reach a worldwide audience by invoking people’s love for reading. Amazon started out with a meager budget and a meager premise, and worked its way to the top using what little resources it had.

Amazons’s Referral Program

Prompted by the restraints of their budget, they began their marketing online through the Amazon Affiliate program known as Amazon Associates. When it was launched in 1998, it started on a small scale and had to rely on books as their only product. Now, however, the products featured on Amazon are so vast and varied that their affiliate program has become much easier. It works on the basis of referrals. Sales made through referral award a commission to anyone who has helped make the sale. This serves as a profitable model for both Amazon and its affiliates who can make profits off of sale volumes.

Other features of the referral program

The pros of becoming an affiliate with Amazon are that it is free to join and Amazon has a credible and reliable reputation as far as eCommerce goes. In addition, it has such a diverse and extensive range of products that sales can be made at some point or the other for sure. This makes it a relatively easier affiliate program for people aiming to make a home-based income. However, the drawback is that the rate of commission is low. It starts from 1% and goes up to 10% percent at most. This makes for meager returns which can be compensated by the number of sales that can easily be made due to its vast product range.

Amazon Associates Pros and Cons

The Amazon Associates has some pros as well as some cons like most affiliate programs.

Pros (Good)
Wide variety of products
Easy to sign up
Trustworthy platform
Cons (Bad)
Very strict and vague TOS
Low Commission Rates
24 Hour Cookies
Tools For Affiliates
Links and Short-links (for every product)
View Earnings Summary (earnings reports)
Product Links (image, enhanced, and text)
Banners (wide variety of sizes and shapes)
Seasonal Promotion Banners
Product Advertising API
Detailed Affiliate Reports
Earnings
Orders
Payment History
Tracking ID Summary
Conversion Rates
Link Type Analysis
Daily Trends
Associates Commission Breakdown

The following list gives a detailed commission breakdown for a wide variety of products. Please visit the “Advertising Fee Schedule” page on the Amazon Associates website for a more detailed version.

Luxury Beauty, Amazon Coins (10%)
Home, Furniture, Pets, Garden (8%)
Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business Supplies (6%)
Outdoors, Tools (5.50%)
Digital Videos and Music, Grocery (5%)
Baby Products, Books, Personal Care, Sports, Kitchen (4.50%)
Kindles, Apparel, Echo Devices, Watches, Jewelry (4%)
Amazon Fresh, Toys (3%)
PC, PC Components, DVD (2.50%)
Televisions, Digital Video Games (2%)
Physical Video Games, Video Game Consoles (1%)
Gift Cards, Alcohol, Wireless Service Plans (0%)
All Other Categories (4%)