Dropshipping and affiliation are very related concepts that must be taken into account for online entrepreneurs, related to the sale of products through online stores.
What is an online affiliate store?
The business model of online affiliate stores is one of the simplest, as it requires little initial investment and has great advantages such as:
✅ You can have a larger product catalog.
✅ You can adapt to the seasonality of the product/service.
✅ They are easily scalable.
✅ You can sell anywhere in the world.
✅ No shipping or ordering required.
✅ No need to worry about after-sales service.
✅ You don’t need a payment gateway.
✅ You don’t have to pay suppliers or advance money.
✅ You don’t need to have stock or warehouse.
What is Amazon Affiliates?
Amazon Affiliates is an online system whereby you get customers for Amazon and the program pays you a commission for those customers’ purchases.
In other words: you are in charge of sending people to the Amazon website, and if they buy, Amazon pays you a commission. This way you win both: Amazon gets customers, and you get a percentage of those sales.
Incorporating this system into a website or store is very simple. All you have to do is add some links that Amazon provides to the products you are recommending.
If someone clicks on that link, it will go to the page in question Amazon. If you buy, Amazon will know that sale was thanks to you and will give you a percentage. For practical purposes, you can recommend anything in the Amazon catalog, such as books, food, video games, drones, clothing or home accessories.
This system requires very little initial investment and can become totally passive: you leave the web assembled and it works for you even while you sleep.
You just need people to visit it, click on those Amazon links and buy something. And that doesn’t require you to intervene in anything else.
Expenses and work
During the first three months if you spend an average of two hours a day, the next ten months about 4 hours a week and a year later I was spending about 4 hours a month. In total 384 hours of work in two years, an average of just over half an hour a day.
On the economic side, my investment during the first two years was as follows:
- Domain= 15 euros/year x 2 years = 30 euros
- Hosting = 5 euros/month x 24 months = 120 euros
- WordPress templates (optional) = 70 euros
- Writing articles (I hired some writers when I didn’t have time to write) = 50-75 euros
- Creation of links = 300 euros
Total costs = 570 euros in two years, which makes an average of 24 to 35 euros per month.
With bycomercial, you can start with up to 100 products at no cost. But as we have already indicated in other articles you can use the sale by catalog or online sale of other products.
Creation of the bycommercial shop of affiliation step by step
If you compare it with a physical store, the low initial investment required and the simplicity of day-to-day operation, makes it one of the most attractive options.
Because once the affiliate online store is set up, all it requires is that every 1 or 2 days you spend some time looking for articles or services according to the profile of your customers.
Then you include them in your catalog, configuring them in the same way and with the design of your own store.
You should also invest that time in attracting traffic to your affiliate store because, after all, is the only task that requires this type of portal:
No storage of merchandise
Does not ship
No payment gateways available
Doesn’t take orders or calls
Etc.
Advantages
1. The economic investment is very low
To earn money with Amazon Affiliates, all you need is a website.
a) Today, that means spending between 10 and 20 euros a year on the domain, and if you want a professional hosting where to host (which I highly recommend), add about 5 euros more per month.
b) Buy a professional design for your website (although there are plenty of free), spend money for other websites to link to yours and get more visits (although as you’ll see below you can get it for free), and even pay people to write the content for you (although I discourage and then explain why).
c) ByCommercial
2. Requires little maintenance…or nothing
Apart from the necessary updates to keep the products you recommend up to date, you won’t need much more, and you can take advantage of that to start other new projects.
Although at the beginning you will have to spend many hours writing the contents of the web, once you have them you can practically leave it on autopilot.
3. Amazon is a selling machine
This is what makes this affiliate program a real money-making machine.
More and more people are buying online at Amazon, and their website is perfectly optimized so that virtually no one can leave without buying something. It recommends products according to your preferences, has very low shipping costs and it is possible to find some of the best prices on the market.
4. Amazon gives you a commission on everything the customer buys
Another great advantage is that not only will you earn money for the product you recommend, but for as long as the cookie lasts (this is how Amazon identifies that customer comes from your website), you will receive a commission for everything the customer buys.
In fact, it is very common to earn commissions for products that have nothing to do with your recommendations, as people often take advantage of being on Amazon to buy more things.
Disadvantages
Cookies only last 24 hours
Every time someone clicks on one of your affiliate links, Amazon automatically installs a cookie on your browser. This way it identifies that it is you who referred it to a customer.
This is how the vast majority of affiliate programs work, but in the case of Amazon that cookie disappears after 24 hours, so that if the user visits Amazon but does not buy until after 24 hours, you will not be counted the sale.
Other affiliate programs offer cookies that last up to a month or even longer. In this way, if the customer hesitates or prefers to wait a little before buying, you get the commission anyway.
2. The commissions are low
Amazon commission percentages range from 3 to 10%, slightly below other popular affiliate programs.
A couple of years ago they were higher, but there was a sales limit of 10 euros. In other words, if you sold a 1,000 euro product and your commission was 5%, instead of earning 50 euros you only got 10. That’s why very few people used Amazon Affiliates to recommend expensive products.
Now there’s no limit, which means you can take advantage of the opportunity and earn money by recommending high-priced products.
3. Amazon rules
Amazon may change its operating agreement at any time, lower commissions, or even terminate your account for malpractice (hiding links or tricking users into clicking on them). You have every right to do so.
But don’t worry. If you do things right and your website receives traffic, there will always be other affiliate programs to monetize it in the unlikely event that Amazon decides to cancel its program.
Affiliate Registration
The choice of affiliate companies must be careful and thoughtful.
Do not go to the most juicy options that can squeak, but to companies that are serious and committed to their payments and products. Because there are quite a few companies that offer commissions to online stores and then everything stays in promises…
Larger companies like eBay, Amazon or AliExpress have their own affiliate system, but you can also find affiliate platforms that act as intermediaries (Shareasale, CJ, Clickbank, Impact Radius, etc.).
Usually companies are not very selective when it comes to accepting or not participants in their affiliate program; registration forms are usually short and are filled out quickly.
Realize that having affiliates is something that benefits them greatly, as they multiply their reach by reaching more target audiences.
The good thing is that on the Internet you can find quite a few companies or lists of affiliate programs. And it is convenient not to focus only on one, since this way we will have more variety in our catalogue and more diversified commission collection options (in the case that problems arise when paying).
Catalog Configuration
The catalogue will be the only thing in our store for the selection you make expressly for it thinking of the target audience. And the way these products are displayed must be very careful.
The images must be optimized (with the best quality and the least possible weight), which will help in the loading speed of the page and will also contribute to a better user experience during navigation.
If the photos used come directly from the retailer’s pages, check that they are optimized.
Using a descriptive text with the characteristics of each article is essential. Depending on the type of audience we are addressing, this text can be more or less original to give freshness and a casual touch, as long as the audience allows it.
