An Added Benefit of Amazon Associates

There's more an author can get out of the Amazon program than a modest commission.

Hi Authors.

Most of you have probably heard about Amazon Associates (previously known as Amazon Affiliates). It’s a free program you can sign up for through your existing Amazon account to potentially earn some commission on products that people purchase through the Amazon website.

Basically, the feature lets you create a special “referral” URL, uniquely identified with your associate account, to an Amazon product. You can put that link on your website, in your newsletter, in your social-media posts, or wherever else you like. When someone clicks on it and purchases the item, you receive a commission for that referral from Amazon. You can also receive an indirect commission if a customer purchases other items through Amazon (if they were taken to Amazon’s website by your link).

You can learn more about the program on the Amazon Associates landing page, and there’s a good “how to” video for setting yourself up with it here.

I’ve been signed up with Amazon Associates for several years. Every Amazon link to my books on my website, in my newsletters, and in my social media posts uses a referral link. To tell you the truth, I don’t make an enormous amount of money from those links — nor did I ever expect to. Commission rates vary, but they’re typically less than 5%. And on a $15 paperback or a $5 eBook, we’re not exactly talking about a huge increase in revenue.

However, there’s another reason for authors like you and me to be using Amazon Associates: tracking data.