To explain what the affiliate marketing is, we can start with an example.

Some time ago, I wanted to change my smartphone but I didn’t know which type of smartphone to choose - I wanted a smartphone with good performances but with a medium-low price. As I didn’t have too much time to spend to go around the city and search for the best offer, I started to search online, on Google and on some reviews’ blogs. Well, in such websites I found an article that talked about a smartphone model that I liked: within the text, I found a link that reminded me to the producer’s website. And I bought it from there! The person who “helped” me to reach the shop page on the producer’s website was obviously paid for my purchase. Such website - where I found the review - is part of an affiliation program. In a nutshell, it is another form of online advertisement where the producer gives to a blogger, or someone who has a website, the possibility to promote an item in exchange of money.

The subjects, in this case, are 3: the buyer, the blogger and the merchant.

The typologies of affiliation are 3, too:

• Pay per Click (PPC): when a user clicks on the banner or on a link in a blog or website, the blogger receives a fixed amount;
• Pay per Lead (PPL): when a user, through the website/blog, submits to a service (e.g. newsletter);
• Pay per Sale (PPS): when the blogger receives a percentage on the transaction.

It is not so easy to know the companies that are using this marketing strategy and, vice versa, it is not so easy to find someone to “affiliate”. For these reasons, there are websites called affiliation networks where companies and bloggers are put into contact. The main network in Europe is surely Zanox  and you surely heard about Tradedoubler and TradeTracker. Obviously, to use these networks, you have to satisfy some criteria imposed by the company: take a look at their websites to know which characteristics they need.

To take part in the world of affiliation you have to be good communicator, to know how to obtain qualified visits and, last but not the least, have perseverance and good will.

Do you want to start now with an affiliation program? Here below I suggest you one path to follow!

Amazon’s affiliate program

In addition to the affiliation programs I listed above, there is another one which is really simple and easy to use. Also, it does not require any prerequisite: I am talking about Amazon’s affiliate program. In my opinion, this is a program one should profit.

I started to use this program some time ago, in minor websites for the company I work for - made in WordPress, so even easier! - I joined the program and I started to publicize products. These are the elements I needed:

1. Website of my property
2. Account Amazon (also private, not necessarily the account of a shop)
3. Subscription to the affiliation program
4. Advertising links of the products I wanted to promote

Once logged in the affiliate account, you can choose immediately which products you want to promote and the shape of your Product Links:

• standard banners;
• link of a single product, textual or with an image (it can be personalized: you can choose the border, the text’s colour, the size of the image of the product);
• link to an entire category or subcategory of products

Once you chose the size you want, you can use the link or the html code to copy and paste in your website page. Easy, isn’t it?

Let’s now talk about the profits of this program :)  

The type of affiliation is a PPS, you will receive indeed a percentage on the purchase made by users. The advertising fees are divided according to the marketplace (if you are addressing to IT, ES FR,...). The fees for UK are:

As you can see, the fees are pretty good, the advantage is that you can gain for every purchase made after a click on your link, therefore not necessarily the product you were promoting. This is a big advantage because you know how many departments Amazon has?

When you will receive your money? At the end of the month Amazon will sum the fees you collected and, the next month will pay you by bank transfer.

How to do in order to optimize the conversion towards Amazon?

A good strategy to gain more with Amazon can be to take advantage of a precise technique to optimize the affiliation program.   

But what kind of technique should it be?

The choice of the shape of the advertising is important and you can do that from the menu “Product’s link creation”. The banner are the easiest to use but they are also the less productive. This is because the eye of the customer is getting used to see this type of advertising and, if not contextualized within the page, they appear to be annoying. Like this one:

The best solution is to use reviews: create reviews and add some affiliated links. You can also include the iframe (like this one, it includes many info about the purchase) that are likely to have bigger success. The link position is important: do not add link in a particular part of the page: try to arrange them with great regularity, then check which of them is receiving the highest number of clicks. Starting here, you can optimize the next pages as a consequence. This is a good way to improve one’s own advertising strategy.

What kind of product to link?

Apart from the choice according to the main subject of your page, Amazon gives you the possibility to use:

• Link to promotions and sales (e.g. new in, seasonal sales, new banner…)
• Link to Bestseller for each department/category
• Link to a selection of product made by myself with the Site Stripe option – that you find in Tools in your affiliate account - (take a look at this link: I created a selection of smartphones Huawei P10 with 4 or more stars and available in prime)

As you can see, the opportunities are many… Unfortunately you cannot forget about time! The incomes and gains will not arise immediately, you will need a period while the patience will be your strongest weapon.