Lots of people are making serious money with the AMAZON AFFILIATE PROGRAM or AMAZON ASSOCIATES.
For bloggers, influencers, website builders, and young entrepreneurs, getting Amazon associate approval is becoming a little tougher than before since the competition is high now but nothing to worry about.
In this blog, We will discuss what is an Amazon affiliate program. and how to become an Amazon affiliate, especially for the cashback program.
The Amazon Associate program or Amazon Affiliate program is one of the most profitable affiliate programs across the globe.
Considering the scale and reach of an affiliate program, and getting approval, Amazon has laid out the rules and guidelines known as associate program policies. Before we start, let’s understand what is an Amazon affiliate program.
What is the Amazon Affiliate program? #
The Amazon Affiliate Associate program is a way for bloggers, YouTubers, social media influencers, and cashback website owners to make money through referral commissions. They do this by promoting products from Amazon.com using special affiliate links through various online channels. For example, YouTube, Blog websites, Social Media, Cashback Coupon portals, and many more.
What are the Amazon affiliate requirements? #
It’s completely free to be an Amazon affiliate. There is no fee or charge applied to promote Amazon products.
Amazon is most likely to approve these affiliate program applications from the following people and companies.
1. YouTubers #
Thousands of YouTubers promote Amazon’s products on YouTube and share affiliate links in their descriptions. These YouTubers can apply for the Amazon affiliate program.
If you’re looking for guidance on how to generate income through your YouTube channel, we encourage you to delve into our in-depth blog, where you’ll find professional advice and proven strategies.
2. Bloggers #
Bloggers write content on the website and promote Amazon’s products in different ways. It’s a very popular way to earn through Amazon affiliate programs. Blog categories starting with “Best”, “Top 10”, etc. are usually monetized with Amazon affiliates.
3. Social Media Influencers #
Influencers have a lot of traffic from their followers and social media groups are eligible to apply for the Amazon programs. Refer to this guide to know strategies for sharing Amazon affiliate links on social media.
4. Cashback Coupon Website owners #
Amazon does not approve all affiliate program applications from cashback and coupon sites. You need to gain the trust of Amazon and convince them you’re a legit business entrepreneur and help Amazon get traffic and scale up the business.
It’s worth putting effort into getting Amazon affiliate approval if you’re a cashback business owner. We’ll discuss it below.
Most of the cashback websites would like to offer cashback on successful purchases from Amazon. However, due to their terms, it’s not possible to offer cashback for all users.
The following links will take you to some of the Amazon associate program policies with Cashback clauses.
- Associates Program Policies – Point 6 (g)
- Associates Program Operating Agreement – Point 7
- Associates Program Policies – Point 6 (g)
It’s a misconception that our developed cashback website is not compatible with the Amazon cashback program. The fact is, the Amazon terms are such that it’s not possible to offer cashback.
For any cashback functionality implementation, it’s essential that the merchant or affiliate campaign supports at least one extra parameter/sub-id tracking along with the main transaction. This way, we can pass on the tracking parameters, click ID, and identify the user once the sale report is generated.
In the case of Amazon, the essential feature of extra parameter/sub-id tracking is disabled by default. So it’s impossible to identify the user who has placed the order and pass on the cashback.
If any developer claims to provide Amazon cashback integration out of the box without Amazon approval, it’s incorrect.
Amazon Affiliate Approval for Cashback & Rebates #
Please note that Amazon’s terms are responsible for passing on the cashback. That doesn’t mean, a cashback website can not promote Amazon offers.
In fact, we insist on promoting Amazon the most aggressively even when cashback is not possible to be able to earn a high commission.
In fact, you can balance it in such a way that, consider Amazon earnings as pure profit and pass on nearly 100% commission as cashback for other stores as you’re anyway able to be profitable.
Now the question is, how do Ebates–Rakuten, CouponDunia, Cashkaro, Topcashback get approval from Amazon and pass on the cashback to their users for Amazon? and this is a very valid question, we will attempt to answer.
As an affiliate specialist development company, we’re fortunate to work with industry-leading affiliate marketing companies. Hence, we are eligible to share insights about how did they make it possible.
Here is…
6-step guide to get an Amazon affiliate associate approval for the cashback program. #
- Complete the development of your affiliate coupon cashback website.
- Publish the website with rich content, offers, banners, and graphics for all major stores
- Promote your website/portal/app to get traction, and traffic.
- Continue to promote Amazon products/services, even when you’re not able to pass on the cashback – this creates a positive impression on your Amazon associate account.
- When reach a decent scale, contact the Amazon associate support team, and convey your business model. Communicate the essence of the rebate/cashback program for the success of your cashback business relies on the Amazon program and given that, it would create a healthy relationship that is mutually beneficial.
- Give confidence to the Amazon support team. Mention that you would not indulge in policy violations or shortcuts to gain an undue advantage. Assure them you will adhere to all terms laid by Amazon.
This is the process everybody has followed and got the approval to promote Amazon with cashback offers.
Now, you may feel this is a lengthy process with the ‘chicken & egg problem – to be successful, you need to get the Amazon cashback approval, and you need to have traction.
The truth is that there’s no other explicit way except this most cashback portals got the approval, unless, you’re a funded company with the VCs / investor firms having a connection with Amazon.
Even after you get the Amazon cashback approval, the way it works differs from the rest of the affiliate network/program as they do not provide sale data via API, but provide the data in a CSV / XML file on a scheduled basis that needs to be imported in the system with various formatting and verification.
Contact us to get the Amazon associate cashback program integration once you’ve approval from Amazon.
Resources that might help you:
