Mistakes to Avoid to Become an Affiliate Marketer for Amazon

Becoming an Amazon marketing affiliate can be a lucrative path to take. Some earn a welcome $100 per month on the side, while others make a six-figure annual income through the program.

Before you begin thinking of any financial rewards, however, it’s essential to know how to utilize Amazon Associates properly. Mistakes are easy to make when you’re just starting out. Yet for those that are too haphazard, it might not just result in struggling to reach set goals – it can even lead to being banned from the platform.

To prevent that from happening, here are common mistakes to avoid when becoming an Amazon marketing affiliate.

Knowing the Difference Between Amazon FBA & Amazon Associates  

First of all, it’s essential you have a full understanding of the Amazon Associates Program and what it offers. When starting out, it can be easy to get confused about the different Amazon services available – such as Amazon FBA. 

Amazon FBA, which stands for Fulfillment by Amazon, is where a business first sends its products to the retail giant. Amazon, as the name suggests, will then take care of the rest. They store the product, pick and pack them, and deliver them to customers. Businesses also benefit from Amazon’s renowned customer service and Amazon Prime.

Also, note you can utilize both Amazon FBA and Amazon Associates together. Some people make the mistake they cannot use affiliate links for their own products, but this isn’t the case. The only issue is if you try to purchase products from Amazon through your own affiliate links, whether they’re your products or those listed by another seller. 

To learn more, make sure to take our Amazon FBA course. Now let’s get back to the affiliate side of things.

Don’t Provide Links to Family & Friends

This is a quick point, but one that is worth mentioning. You have to avoid sharing any affiliate links with friends and family. Now you might think this is an easy way to earn from qualifying purchases, particularly when starting out, but Amazon doesn’t appreciate this approach.

In fact, it could spell the end of your Amazon marketing affiliate journey before it even begins.

If you’re not banned outright due to what Amazon views as an indiscretion, any sales generated from affiliate links won’t be counted. Plus, don’t believe you can fool Amazon – they will know if your links are shared with family and friends.

Disguising Affiliate Links

Sorry for being superficial, but Amazon affiliate links are not pretty. These links are long and structurally ugly. As a result, it’s no surprise that marketers want to try and disguise them in some way. One method of doing this is with a link shortener tool.

Link cloaking in this way, however, is frowned upon by Amazon. Other affiliate programs allow you to do it, but Amazon is different. They don’t want you to promote Amazon on the sly; they want potential visitors to know exactly where they are going before clicking on the link.

On the plus side, you are still able to truncate those long, unsightly links with Amazon’s own tool (amzn.to).

Not Using Images the Right Way

You know the importance of visual content when it comes to marketing. Yet there’s a right – and wrong – way to go about using images from Amazon. Downloading images or taking screenshots and then incorporating them into your website content is the wrong way. 

So, what’s the right way? Well, through your Amazon Associates account, you are able to grab image links or codes via a dedicated service under the dashboard. With this, you are able to legally add images to your content.

Referencing Product Prices

With affiliate marketing, Amazon is perhaps the last platform where you want to start referencing product prices. You likely won’t get in trouble for doing it. Instead, the problem is that, due to its sheer size and dynamic approach, prices are liable to change at any moment. 

The result: if you mention the price in blog posts, the data can quickly become outdated. One day it’s accurate; the next, it becomes misleading. Fortunately, there are plugin options available to help you avert this issue. AAWP is a WordPress plugin, for instance, that keeps information up-to-date automatically. 

Using Amazon Customer Reviews

You know the importance of visual content when it comes to marketing. Yet there’s a right – and wrong – way to go about using images from Amazon. Downloading images or taking screenshots and then incorporating them into your website content is the wrong way. 

So, what’s the right way? Well, through your Amazon Associates account, you are able to grab image links or codes via a dedicated service under the dashboard. With this, you are able to legally add images to your content.

A Lack of Sales

Obviously, you want to rack up as many sales as possible with your affiliate marketing Amazon campaign. Yet sometimes, this isn’t possible. You might even hit a lean patch where you don’t generate any sales over a sustained period of time. 

This can be problematic. If you fail to make three sales within 180 days, you could lose your affiliate account. Yes, you can reapply, acquire a new account, and gain a brand-new affiliate ID. You’ll also have to go back and change those now-broken links to include your new ID info. 

That’s the type of task nobody wants to do.

Limiting Promotional Methods

You require great marketing skills to be a successful affiliate seller. Part of that is ensuring you don’t limit your promotional methods. You can place a greater focus on, say, running a Facebook group compared to other avenues, but you need to spread your reach as much as possible.

For instance, a dedicated website with SEO, blog posts, social media content, YouTube videos – the list goes on and on. While some of these might involve extra cost from the start, they can pay dividends if you’re able to effectively advertise the right Amazon products.