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What do you usually need to get accepted by Amazon affiliate program?

by Altered State
7 replies
Hello!

1) I have half-launched my site (its online, desing almost finished, some articles publicated, but no promotion yet), and I want to start getting familiar with Amazon affiliates, so I want to know what are the requisites they ask for to accept you as an affiliate (since they request a site URL, I suppose that they will evaluate it).

2) Also, I would appreciate a list of all the amazon affiliate programs that exist and are worth joining for a website in english, since I will of course join each of them.
My target audience will probably be from anywhere around the globe, but is it really worth it join all of them?

3) I'm going to coordinate everything in my WP site with the plugin "Amazon Link"
I belive that if I do so, I just will have to put all my IDs and then when I insert a link, it will redirect the potential buyer to the most appropriated amazon site depending on their country.
But one question arises: What if in his country Amazon do not sell that item? It will redirect him to an amazon site like does?

Would appreciate feedback on these 3 questions.

Thank you very much
#accepted #affiliate #amazon #program
  • Profile picture of the author kilgore
    Before answering your questions, I should mention that while it's not exactly stimulating reading, the Operating Agreement and the Product Advertising API License Agreement (if you're using the API or a plugin that uses it) are essential reading for all Amazon affiliates. I also highly recommend picking up the phone and calling their Affiliate support number if you have questions.

    As to your specific questions:
    Originally Posted by Altered State View Post

    1) I have half-launched my site (its online, desing almost finished, some articles publicated, but no promotion yet), and I want to start getting familiar with Amazon affiliates, so I want to know what are the requisites they ask for to accept you as an affiliate (since they request a site URL, I suppose that they will evaluate it).
    Yes, they absolutely will evaluate your website. If you're website is visible and it looks like you're actually creating value for Amazon, it'll likely get approved even if it's not 100% finished (after all, what website isn't in some way a work in progress?) It certainly wouldn't hurt to apply for the program; if you don't meet their criteria, they'll tell you and you can adjust accordingly and reapply.
    Originally Posted by Altered State View Post

    2) Also, I would appreciate a list of all the amazon affiliate programs that exist and are worth joining for a website in english, since I will of course join each of them.
    My target audience will probably be from anywhere around the globe, but is it really worth it join all of them?
    Visit the Operating Agreement page referenced above and you'll find a pull-down to all the various country-specific Amazon sites that you can apply to.

    Is it worth applying to them all? I doubt it, but you'd know your customers and what you're selling better than I would. For instance if you'll only be selling Japanese-language books, my guess is that it doesn't make much sense to apply to the Amazon Germany program -- Amazon.jp might be enough for you.

    That said, it doesn't hurt to be accepted in programs that you're not using. I'm technically an Amazon Italy affiliate and I've never sold anything -- nor tried to sell anything -- through amazon.it. Basically it just means that I get a few extra emails in a language I only marginally understand. Regardless of what you do, I'd concentrate on getting accepted into one program before applying to others.

    Originally Posted by Altered State View Post

    3) I'm going to coordinate everything in my WP site with the plugin "Amazon Link"
    I belive that if I do so, I just will have to put all my IDs and then when I insert a link, it will redirect the potential buyer to the most appropriated amazon site depending on their country.
    But one question arises: What if in his country Amazon do not sell that item? It will redirect him to an amazon site like does?
    I don't know anything about your WP plugin -- we custom-built our Amazon integrations. But Amazon will definitely not redirect buyers to the most appropriate site. Here's an example:
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Altered State View Post

    What if in his country Amazon do not sell that item? It will redirect him to an amazon site like does?
    No ... you need to do that from your website.

    There are two different ways of doing this ...

    (i) Use IP-recognition software of some kind (possibly a WordPress plug-in?) built in to your site, which automatically forwards visitors to their local Amazon site whenever they click on a link ...

    (ii) Give three/four links for everything, yourself: "Click here to see this at Amazon US/UK/Canada/Wherever" with a row of little links (doesn't have to look as bad as I've just made it sound!).

    Either can do the job; but if you don't somehow do the job, you'll be losing money.

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author Altered State
      Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

      I don't know anything about your WP plugin -- we custom-built our Amazon integrations. But Amazon will definitely not redirect buyers to the most appropriate site. Here's an example:
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      i) Use IP-recognition software of some kind (possibly a WordPress plug-in?) built in to your site, which automatically forwards visitors to their local Amazon site whenever they click on a link ...
      That underlined part is what I think this plug-in is supposed to do. But I'm not a WP expert, so I would really appreciate that someone who actually uses WP and Amazon, can enlighten me about wether this work like I think or not.

      I suppose that the plug-in just could redirect the user to their country Amazon site.
      And in case that in that country the item does not exist or is not avaliable... You almoost completely lose the sell??

      How do you you do to fix this?
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      • Profile picture of the author kilgore
        Since no WP/Amazon user is jumping in, I'll provide what info I can.

        I looked up the "Amazon Link" plugin and it claims to do Geo-location if you also install ip2nation (I have never heard of that tool so your guess is as good as mine about it's accuracy.) The plugin also does localization, so your users should see the correct country's Amazon link if the plugin works as advertised. In other words, from a technical perspective, I think you're all set. If you have any further technical questions or concerns, I'd ping the plugin developers as they'll know best.

        That said, the technical side is only half of the battle. As I showed in the Amazon links above, the same product may or may not be available in different locales. Moreover, the same product may be available in different locales but under different ASINs. How much of a problem this will be depends largely on what you're selling. Books are nice because their ASIN is also usually (but not always) their ISBN, which is an international standard. But if you're selling lots of niche items from third-party sellers, you'll likely run into problems. Another thing to consider is that pricing can change dramatically between locales -- thus what might be a great product to recommend in one country might be a terrible product to recommend in another. Again, this largely depends on what you're selling. The point is that even if the plugin solves the technical side of the problem, there's still likely to be a bit of manual work to truly support multiple countries in a meaningful way.

        All that said...

        My advice is not to spend too much time worrying about the international components of your site -- at least at first. 2 1/2 years into our site, we are seeing decent sales in the secondary countries we target, but we still make the vast bulk of our revenue from the US. Having the international capabilities is nice, but you'll likely get a lot more bang for your buck developing your site and building your traffic. In other words, first get a winning and working business model, then worry about tweaking it to increase your revenue at the margins.
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        • Profile picture of the author Altered State
          Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

          Since no WP/Amazon user is jumping in, I'll provide what info I can.

          I looked up the "Amazon Link" plugin and it claims to do Geo-location if you also install ip2nation (I have never heard of that tool so your guess is as good as mine about it's accuracy.) The plugin also does localization, so your users should see the correct country's Amazon link if the plugin works as advertised. In other words, from a technical perspective, I think you're all set. If you have any further technical questions or concerns, I'd ping the plugin developers as they'll know best.

          That said, the technical side is only half of the battle. As I showed in the Amazon links above, the same product may or may not be available in different locales. Moreover, the same product may be available in different locales but under different ASINs. How much of a problem this will be depends largely on what you're selling. Books are nice because their ASIN is also usually (but not always) their ISBN, which is an international standard. But if you're selling lots of niche items from third-party sellers, you'll likely run into problems. Another thing to consider is that pricing can change dramatically between locales -- thus what might be a great product to recommend in one country might be a terrible product to recommend in another. Again, this largely depends on what you're selling. The point is that even if the plugin solves the technical side of the problem, there's still likely to be a bit of manual work to truly support multiple countries in a meaningful way.

          All that said...

          My advice is not to spend too much time worrying about the international components of your site -- at least at first. 2 1/2 years into our site, we are seeing decent sales in the secondary countries we target, but we still make the vast bulk of our revenue from the US. Having the international capabilities is nice, but you'll likely get a lot more bang for your buck developing your site and building your traffic. In other words, first get a winning and working business model, then worry about tweaking it to increase your revenue at the margins.
          Ok. Thank you sir, I will do that.
          I'll apply to programs in UK Canada and US (since the site is in English) and Spain (since I live in Spain).
          Plug-in and ip2nation installed, let's see how they work after my accounts get approved...
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  • Profile picture of the author attackdome
    Originally Posted by Altered State View Post

    Hello!

    1) I have half-launched my site (its online, desing almost finished, some articles publicated, but no promotion yet), and I want to start getting familiar with Amazon affiliates, so I want to know what are the requisites they ask for to accept you as an affiliate (since they request a site URL, I suppose that they will evaluate it).

    2) Also, I would appreciate a list of all the amazon affiliate programs that exist and are worth joining for a website in english, since I will of course join each of them.
    My target audience will probably be from anywhere around the globe, but is it really worth it join all of them?

    3) I'm going to coordinate everything in my WP site with the plugin "Amazon Link"
    I belive that if I do so, I just will have to put all my IDs and then when I insert a link, it will redirect the potential buyer to the most appropriated amazon site depending on their country.
    But one question arises: What if in his country Amazon do not sell that item? It will redirect him to an amazon site like does?

    Would appreciate feedback on these 3 questions.

    Thank you very much
    Whatever you decide to do, don't go with the black hat cookie stuffing method. I got banned from Google adsense because some troll was doing that to my ads.
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    • Profile picture of the author Altered State
      Originally Posted by attackdome View Post

      Whatever you decide to do, don't go with the black hat cookie stuffing method. I got banned from Google adsense because some troll was doing that to my ads.
      Can you explain a little further? I'm a noob and I'm not getting what you tried to express
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