Have you been searching for a way to monetize your WordPress blog or website? Then Amazon Associates is a program you should look into.
Amazon is an absolute behemoth in eCommerce, and they have hundreds of millions of products that you can promote as an affiliate.
Yet, if you go down the affiliate marketing path, you’ll need to learn how to add Amazon affiliate links to WordPress, easily and efficiently.
While that may not seem like much at face value, the process can be more complicated than it seems.
For one, Amazon product links tend to go on forever:
That’s quite a bit of text to add to a social media post – and that’s not even factoring in your Amazon Associates Tag – your unique identifier, and the cookie Amazon uses to track your sales.
If you fail to include this tag, you won’t receive credit for any sales made through your links – which is a huge bummer.
That’s why we’re here to dispel the confusion surrounding adding Amazon links to WordPress. There are two ways to go about it:
- The hard way: Manually enter affiliate links into your site.
- The easy way: Use the AmaLinks Pro® WordPress plugin to automate the process and save tons of time.
With the help of a plugin, you can drastically cut down on the time it takes to generate an affiliate link, which can help you earn more in commissions. Stay tuned to learn more about both methods.
Which Section Do You Want to Read First?
- What is Amazon Affiliate Marketing & Why is It Important?
- Why Add an Amazon Affiliate Link or 2 in WordPress?
- 5 Things to Avoid Like the Plague
- 5 Excellent Benefits of the Program
- Option 1: The Manual Way to Insert Amazon Affiliate Links (5 Steps)
- Option 2: AmaLinks Pro®, the “Easier + Higher Commissions” Way to Adding Amazon Affiliate Links (3 Steps)
- Final Thoughts: How to Add Amazon Affiliate Links to WordPress
What is Amazon Affiliate Marketing & Why is It Important?
Amazon Associates is one of the oldest affiliate marketing programs on the internet, started in 1996. It was an incredible foresight, as affiliate marketing has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, and Amazon continues to lead the fray.
It’s important because the program remains one of the most reliable ways to make money online.
Amazon sells everything under the sun, from books to health products and more. As a result, they’re bound to have plenty of products that relate to your niche.
For this reason, Amazon Associates is a favorite of bloggers, eCommerce store owners, and social media influencers.
The program gives you the chance to monetize content that you were already going to create anyway, which is a big part of its appeal. Once you get the hang of adding affiliate links to your content, you can start raking in the commissions.
Another plus of Amazon Associates is that you will get a piece of every purchase that a customer makes when they go through your link.
For example, let’s say that you’re blogging about your dog, and you include an affiliate link to your favorite dog food brand on Amazon. An engaged reader sees it, clicks on the link, and proceeds to buy dog food, a dog bowl, and a squeaky toy.
In that scenario, you would receive a commission for all products, not just the dog food you were promoting.
That’s great news for you, as you get to leverage Amazon’s incredible sales funnel, one of the highest converting sites on the internet.
From the time a customer clicks on your affiliate link, they’ll have 24 hours to make a purchase for it to count as a commission for you. While this cookie window is noticeably shorter than other affiliate programs (the average is around 3 days) – Amazon’s website is so effective at converting that it often doesn’t matter.
Also, if a customer adds a product to their cart within the 24-hour window but doesn’t make a purchase, they’ll have until the
Shopping Cart expires to checkout – which is usually 90 days. If they checkout within that 90-day period, it will still count as a sale made through your affiliate link.
Why Add an Amazon Affiliate Link or 2 in WordPress?
You may be asking yourself why it’s worth adding affiliate links to your WordPress site.
Well, it turns out that there are many reasons why it makes sense to add affiliate links to your content.
Are you a blogger?
If so, it never hurts to try monetizing your content to at least cover the cost of your domain and hopefully make a profit.
As stated before, you’re already creating content by blogging on a regular basis. By becoming an Amazon Associate, you get the chance to make money off that content by adding relevant product links that add value to your readers.
Do you run an e-commerce store?
Then why not create affiliate links on your site to earn even more money? In addition to selling your products, you can make extra cash by promoting Amazon products that complement yours.
Of course, you never want to promote products that could replace what you’re selling, but instead, make your products even stronger. As an example, if you sell camping tents through your online store, you can promote camping accessories through Amazon.
Those are just a few examples of how to insert Amazon affiliate links to WordPress is worth your time and effort.
It’s a nearly passive way to generate income that will support your existing money streams. If you’re in a niche that features lots of high-ticket items or one that sells lots of low-ticket items in high volume, the Amazon Associates program is a perfect fit.
Sign Up for Our “Amazon Affiliate Masterclass” Course
The early days of being an Amazon Associate are always the toughest. You’re still getting used to the lay of the land, and you have to land 3 sales within 180 days to keep your Amazon Associates account active. You also need those 3 initial sales to gain access to the API.
That’s why you need a secret weapon to give you an edge in the beginning.
Right now, we’re offering our Amazon Affiliate Masterclass free to anyone reading this blog post. It’s a comprehensive course that covers everything you need to know to master the Amazon affiliate program – so don’t wait to sign up today.
5 Things to Avoid Like the Plague
Like anything else, there are specific things that you want to avoid as an Amazon Associate. Here are the top 5 things to steer clear of:
- Bad products will hurt your brand. As a rule of thumb, don’t go promoting every product that you come across on Amazon. Even if a product relates to your content, you should vet its reviews thoroughly first. The last thing you want is to develop a reputation for promoting lousy products.
- Some product categories don’t pay well. Amazon’s commission structure is always changing, and some areas fare better than others. For example, video game sales only pay out 1%, which usually only amounts to a pittance in commissions.
- Products don’t promote themselves. To find success as an Associate, you need a steady flow of traffic to your website. If you don’t have that, your earning potential diminishes significantly. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme that will earn you millions overnight; it’s a serious way for established businesses and individuals to earn commissions through genuine promotion.
- Carefully go over their policies. Amazon has some strict operating policies, so you’ll want to go over them with a fine-tooth comb before getting started.
- International sales are tough. If you provide a US-based Amazon link to someone in the UK, they won’t be able to use it or buy your product. To sell internationally, you’ll have to sign up for the Amazon Associates program in every geographical region and utilize link localization, which can be a mess.
5 Excellent Benefits of the Program
Despite a few setbacks, there are far more benefits to Amazon Associates than downsides. They include:
- It’s free for anyone to join and use. If you’re curious about becoming an Amazon affiliate, you can try the program out at no cost to you.
- Millions of products to promote. No matter what you’re blogging about or selling, there are always plenty of related Amazon products you can promote. That makes it incredibly easy to monetize your content, including your existing posts.
- Amazon has an extremely loyal customer base. The people that use Amazon really love to use it, and that’s especially true for Amazon Prime members. In fact, they convert over 74% of the time they’re on the website.
- You can open an Amazon affiliate store. If you take a liking to Amazon Associates, you can even create an entire store dedicated to it. That means you can promote products and earn money without having to manage inventory or operate physical locations.
- Your affiliate link will count all products customers buy. Something unique to Amazon is the ability to earn a commission for every product a customer buys through your link. That can lead to higher commissions than you thought, which is always a nice surprise.
Try AmaLinks Pro® for More Conversions & Faster Launch
You can expand your income earning potential by using AmaLinks Pro®, our Amazon affiliate WordPress plugin.
It has a ton of time-saving features, such as the ability to automate link creation. You can use Amazon-approved titles, descriptions, and images in your links as well.
Do you want to convey how superior your product is to competitors?
Then you need to use our comparison table builder. You can quickly and easily create engaging tables showing off the features of your product as compared to a competing product. It’s another way you can boost conversions by using AmaLinks Pro®.
There are several plans available, each for varying budget levels/organization sizes. Check out our pricing plans to see which works best for you.
Option 1: The Manual Way to Insert Amazon Affiliate Links (5 Steps)
Okay, now it’s time to learn how to add Amazon affiliate links to WordPress. We’ll start with the manual way, which is longer and a bit more convoluted. Still, it pays to know how to enter links manually:
- Step 1: Create an Amazon Associate account and enter at least one active website as well as how you intend on monetizing and promoting products.
- Step 2: Locate your Amazon Associates Tag (or create a new Tracking ID) found in the upper right-hand corner of the WordPress dashboard. It will end in a -20 if you’re in the Americas.
- Step 3: Find a product you want to promote and get the product link for it by clicking ‘Get Link.’
- Step 4: Remove the referral code at the end of the URL (starts with ‘ref=’) and replace it with your Associates Tag.
- Step 5: Copy the affiliate link to each page on your blog or WordPress website.
Option 2: AmaLinks Pro®, the “Easier + Higher Commissions” Way to Adding Amazon Affiliate Links (3 Steps)
That was a rather complicated process that involved a lot of steps. Compare that to how effortless it is to generate an affiliate link with AmaLinks Pro®:
- Step 1: In your WordPress Post/Page, place the cursor where you want to insert a link then open up the AmaLinks Pro® interface (button in Classic editor or widget in Block editor).
- Step 2: Select your Tracking ID and enter the product you want to promote either by keyword or its ASIN.
- Step 3: Choose your link type. You’ll have the option to create a text link, image link, CTA link, or product showcase. Simply follow the on-screen prompts then click the button to insert the link into your editor.
As you can see, creating affiliate links with AmaLinks Pro® is intuitive, automated, and incredibly easy. You can drastically speed up the link generating process and can even include image links, CTAs, and showcases to lead to higher commissions.
Final Thoughts: How to Add Amazon Affiliate Links to WordPress
There are really only two ways to add Amazon affiliate links to WordPress. The manual way certainly works, but it’s time-consuming and very easy to mess up.
Remember, if you don’t format the link properly, you won’t get credit for the sale.
That’s why it’s best to let AmaLinks Pro® handle the nitty-gritty details. It will automate affiliate links for you so you can quickly create impressive links that were built to convert. If you’re ready to save time and boost your conversion rates, don’t wait to demo AmaLinks Pro® today.