[Ultimate Guide] How I Make $1,000+/Month with the Amazon Influencer Program – Unlock Serious Onsite Commissions

Amazon Influencer Program

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After recording 120 video reviews, my Amazon influencer storefront is earning over $1,000 per month. This opportunity is unbelievably cool and realistic for anyone who has a camera and owns things that are sold on Amazon. 

Interested? Well this article spills the tea on what the program is and how to start making serious money with it. 

Let's dive in...


Amazon understands the power of word-of-mouth advertising. Although they didn't invent affiliate marketing, (it was patented in 1989 by William J. Tobin, who used it for his online company, PC Flowers & Gifts), they were one of the first to implement it at scale, and they remain the leader in the space today. (Source

Recently, they've taken their word-of-mouth advertising tactics a step further by introducing a new influencer marketing program called the Amazon Influencer Program.

There has been a lot of confusion about how the new Amazon Influencer Program differs from the existing Amazon Associates program, so let's explain those differences here.

You will also get...

  • A complete A-Z guide for making money with the Amazon influencer program.
  • Answers to the biggest questions that new influencers have. 
  • Quick tips that will reduce the obstacles between you and the earnings you want.

Before I get into things further (in very deep detail) let me start with explaining how I view the program for 99% of people who will be using it. 

My Philosophy on the Amazon Influencer Program

The word "influencer" is keeping a lot of people from joining the program at all. They assume, "well I don't have a large audience to promote my links to," so it won't work. 

That is such a shame because anyone can make money with this program. Yes, even if you currently have 0 followers on social media (you will just need to spend a couple of weeks building up a following to get approved). 

All you need to do is get approved and then crank out 60 second + videos on popular products. Your reviews will "ditch the line," of the traditional affiliate program and appear on Amazon product pages. 

If someone purchases that product OR a related product after watching your video, you get a commission! Yes, it's about 50% less than the commission you'd get through the traditional Amazon associate program BUT it's 100X easier to get traffic. You get to piggy back on existing product pages. 

For example, I reviewed this wallet that I bought a few months ago.

In November, I realized that that review that I’d published and forgot about had earned over $100 in 5 months.

Amazon Influencer Program Earnings

You can watch the actual video here (warning, it’s bad).

Yes, that's not a huge amount of money, but let's crunch some numbers to see why that one video got me so excited. 

I recorded 3 videos and one was the big winner. It was earning $18/month. 

I’m assuming that I’m going to learn things along the way that will make each video more profitable.

Amazon influencer earning potential

Keep in mind, this was with...

  • No experience on the program. I can surely do better reviews that convert at higher rates.
  • A low ticket product. You can review items that have much higher payouts. For example, mattresses, appliances, tools, etc. 
  • No fancy editing or lots of work. I use an iPhone, snip out some parts and then upload. I also make thumbnails, but many people don't and I have yet to see if they truly matter or not. 
  • No expenses. You don't need to buy the products you review, you just need to have them on hand. I did purchase this on Amazon though previously, but that was a sunk cost I had made anyway. 

Trust me, as someone who has been on Amazon and in affiliate marketing for over 10 years (I wrote the book on affiliate marketing by the way) the Amazon Influencer program is a true cheat code to affiliate commissions for anyone at any experience level. 

What Is the Amazon Influencer Program?

The Amazon Influencer Program allows content creators with engaged followings on their social media accounts to recommend and promote various products on Amazon to their audience. They can create video reviews (the biggest part of the program), lists or image posts that promote items. 

Like I said earlier, the biggest benefit, by far, is the ability to have our review videos show up on Amazon listings. When your video reviews appear on an Amazon product page, you get a commission. 

The value of this cannot be overstated. We're getting a free pass to show our affiliate links to Amazon customers. If we review an item that is getting a lot of page views already, we get to be put front and center in front of those viewers, many of whom will buy after viewing our videos.  

The influencer can then share the store link with their followers via social posts and stories across their various platforms. These influencers can also earn from a new medium called "onsite commissions." Amazon may feature product reviews created by their influencers who will then earn commissions (about half the rate of the commissions for the associate program) if the customer purchases an item after viewing the video.

Myths about the Amazon Influencer Program

Here’s why I think people have slept on the opportunity (or are at least not talking about it as much).

Myth #1 You Need to Make Long, High Production Value Videos

Not at all.

A smartphone and something to edit out any mistakes you make is plenty.

In fact, I have good reason to believe that lower production value may lead to better results. It feels more authentic and less commercial and salesy.

Although some people make extremly long videos, my winning video was barely over 2 minutes and it seems that many other reviews are that length or shorter.

Myth #2 You Need to Be a Huge Influencer to Get In

1,000 subscribers or followers on TikTok seems to be the baseline for getting approved in the program.

If that seems like a ton, you probably haven’t really tried to grow their.

I've seen folks get approved with far less than that though. It's mostly about engagement. If you have 500 subscribers but each post you make is getting 10+ comments, you'll likely get approved. 

Just one marginally popular video will drive hundreds or even thousands of followers.

You can also apply up to 3 times.

Myth #3 You Need to Be a Huge Influencer to Make Sales

Also wrong.

In fact, that’s what I love so much about this program. It’s the ability for the average Joe with a very minimal audience to put their reviews on extremely high traffic pages with high buyer intent.

Forget the influencer part, what excites me is the onsite traffic we’re getting.

This is where I think Amazon is getting the marketing wrong on this program. They are selling it like it’s your place on the internet to bring your audience to buy stuff. That’s great for them, but it’s far from a reason for people to get excited. Building a website of their own, after all, is cheap and easy (and they probably already have at least a LinkTree page set up with their recommended products).

Myth #4 You Need to Buy All the Products on Amazon

Although I do now buy items to review them if I know they will make me my money back or at least help me offset the cost of an item I wanted anyway, you don't have to. 

Although the easiest way to do the reviews would be from items you’d recently purchased on Amazon, the only criteria is that the items ARE on Amazon and you have access to the same item (it’s important they match perfectly in terms of model; year, etc).

You do not need to purchase every item you review, from Amazon or anywhere else for that matter.

“…the only criteria is that the items ARE on Amazon and you have access to the same item… You do not need to purchase every item you review.”

If you have things at your house, you have things to review.

If you look around where you're sitting or standing right now, I guarantee you'll find at least 5-6 items you can review immediately. If you look even harder, I bet you can find dozens more to get started without buying a single new product.

How Much Does the Amazon Influencer Program Pay?

Let's compare the commission rates and structure of the Amazon Influencer Program vs. Amazon Affiliate Program.

Amazon Associate vs Influencer

Read closely, as it appears the internet has answered this question incorrectly several times. 

The commission rate will be the same for traffic that you send to your affiliate links or to your influencer storefront, emphasis on traffic "you" send. There is another type of traffic Amazon Influencers have that pays a different commission rate.

If you send someone directly to a product through an affiliate link (shown below), or they purchase a product after they visited your Amazon Storefront, you will be paid the same fixed rate commission that varies based on the product. 

Fixed Commission Rates on Amazon Example
Amazon Influencer Storefront Commissions

Here are the current rates. 

Amazon Fixed Commission Rates ----

You can view the most up to date fixed commission rates for the Amazon associate program here.

Now, let's talk about the big difference of the Amazon influencer program: onsite commissions. 

One benefit of the Amazon Influencer Program is a new source of potential affiliate commissions.  Amazon puts the videos from select Amazon influencers on product pages and will pay creators who turn their views into sales of the product. 

You've likely seen these if you do any shopping on Amazon. Go to a popular product and scroll down to the section that says "Videos."

It looks like this. 

Videos for Onsite Commissions

Some of these videos will be from regular customers, while others will be from Amazon influencers who will get paid if someone buys a product immediately after viewing their video

This is a beautiful thing because it brings a new level of organic traffic potential for affiliate sales. 

If your video review appears on a popular product, you will get tons of free organic exposure and potential commissions. 

We can see who is an Amazon influencer by looking for the "Earns Commissions" tagline next to their username.

Earns Commissions Image

Another giveaway that a review is from an Amazon influencer is a fancy thumbnail graphic. Regular reviewers don't create these. 

Here is the link to the most up to date onsite commission rates, but I've added them below as well. 

Amazon Category

Fixed Onsite Commission Rate

Luxury Beauty, Luxury Stores Beauty, Amazon Coins

5.00%

Furniture, Home, Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden, Pets Products, Pantry

4.00%

Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business & Industrial Supplies

3.00%

Outdoors, Tools

2.75%

Digital Music, Grocery, Physical Music, Handmade, Digital Videos

2.5%

Physical Books, Health & Personal Care, Sports, Kitchen, Automotive, Baby Products

2.25%

Amazon Fire Tablet Devices, Amazon Kindle Devices, Amazon Fashion Women's, Men's & Kids Private Label, Apparel,
Amazon Cloud Cam Devices, Fire TV Edition Smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV Devices, Amazon Echo Devices, Ring Devices,
Watches, Jewelry, Luggage, Shoes, and Handbags & Accessories

2.00%

Amazon Fresh, Toys

1.50%

PC, PC Components, DVD & Blu-Ray

1.25%

Televisions, Digital Video Games

1.00%

Physical Video Games & Video Game Consoles

0.50%

Gift Cards; Wireless Service Plans; Alcoholic Beverages; Digital Kindle Products purchased as a subscription; Food
prepared and delivered from a restaurant; Amazon Appstore, Prime Now, Amazon Pay Places, or Prime Wardrobe
Purchases

0.00%

All Other Categories

2.00%

Notice that the commission rates are about 50% lower than the regular Amazon associate commission rates. That's reasonable, since we are getting free exposure and views from Amazon.

Remember, influencers still get the traditional commission rates, just not on the onsite commission sales that come from their videos appearing on product pages. 

How Do I Get Approved for Amazon Influencer Program (Onsite Commissions)

This is the million dollar question. Every forum, Facebook group etc. about the Amazon influencer program is flooded with people asking this question, so let's dive into it. 

There are two approval processes you will need to complete to earn the type of money I'm talking about in this blog post. 

#1 Initial Approval into the Program - You can be approved for the Amazon influencer program and have a storefront where you showcase products you've reviewed, but you can't show up on Amazon product pages just yet. So you need a second approval...

#2 Onsite Approval - This allows you to appear on Amazon product pages, which is where the best money is. 

To get started, head over to the Amazon influencer home page and start signing up for the initial phase. Even if you don't have a large audience yet, if you have some followers, it's ok to try to get approved now. 

If you're serious about getting into the program, start creating TikTok videos 2-3x per day. Do this for a month and you'll be shocked by the results. It will likely be enough to get you approved. 

Be sure that you're on the right page before proceeding. You don't need to sign up for the Amazon associate program and many people do this by mistake when they meant to join the influencer program. 

Clicking the link above will get you to the right spot, but just to be safe, here is what they look like. 

Amazon influencer sign up not associate

If you aren't approved right away, spend a few weeks growing your audience and apply again once it's grown a bit. 

It is currently easier to get approved for the Amazon associates program than it is to get approved for the influencer program. 

Amazon Associates Program Eligibility Requirements: An active website, blog, app, or YouTube channel.

Amazon Influencer Program Eligibility Requirements: Amazon is unfortunately vague about what they're looking for in applicants. They say they want influencers with a "substantial following on social media." This following can be from platforms like TikTok, YouTube, SnapChat, Instagram, and Twitter. Users seem to believe that the requirement is somewhere over 1,000 followers on a legitimate social platform, and the audience needs to show signs of engagement. A channel with lots of followers but no engagement may not be approved.

Since the Amazon Influencer program is an extension of the associates program, if you're already an Amazon associate, you will still have to apply to be approved for it.

For videos to appear in a product review area on a page (onsite commissions), the influencer who made them must have at least 3 video reviews published already. 

You will need to publish 3 videos for Amazon to review. This process can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks. 

Amazon Onsite Commissions Approval

Here are some tips for getting approved. 

#1 Publish 3 videos and then wait for approval

If you have more than 3 videos published, Amazon will review all of them before approving. This increases the amount of time it takes as well as the chance that you'll get denied because of a violation 

#2 Follow the video rules perfectly

I explain the rules for publishing in greater detail later in this article. 

#3 Make sure your videos have quality audio

Although it isn't in the rules, poor audio is going to decrease your chances of approval. Recording your videos with a smartphone should produce good enough audio, but be sure to review it for clarity and volume. 

#4 Don't rush it. You will have just 3 chances to get approved for onsite commissions. If you are denied 3 times, you will have to start everything from scratch. 

#5 Only submit 3 videos. Submitting more than 3 videos will only slow the process down and will increase the chances of you doing something that causes a rejection.

It took me 2 business days to get approved. Once you're approved, you'll see a notification on your Amazon influencer page that looks like the image below. 

It took me 2 business days to get approved. Once you're approved, you'll see a notification on your Amazon influencer page that looks like the image below. 

Amazon Influencer Program Approval

Got it? Let's move on. 

Amazon Influencer Program vs. Amazon Affiliate Program: The Main Differences

The traditional Amazon associate program pays for sales that are made after someone clicks on one of your Amazon affiliate links.

The Amazon influencer program pays you when people purchase an item from your personalized Amazon storefront (paid at the same commission rate as the Amazon associate program) OR from a video review you've left on a product (paid at a lower "onsite" commission rate). 

We can share our storefront more easily than we can share associate links, so the ability to scale our earnings is much higher with the influencer program. The great news is that you can do both!

Think of it as the Amazon associates program but with your own storefront URL (called an Influencer Storefront) that allows you to showcase the products you recommend and content that shows why you like them. You also have the added benefit of having your content (possibly) shared on existing Amazon pages and getting paid when people buy after clicking on them. 

For an example, you can check out my Amazon influencer program profile here. 

My vanity URL is simply amazon.com/shop/entreresource

We're able to customize our storefronts to make them fit our brand.

Here's what a well made influencer storefront looks like.

Good Example of Amazon Influencer Storefront

We can change the profile picture, background banner, bio, as well as add our socials. 

Visitors can follow creators and receive updates when they post new content or go live.

How to Create Videos That Convert

If you just whip together quick videos with little thought or effort, you're likely going to underachieve in influencer marketing. 

When I say effort, I'm not referring to fancy editing, catchy scripts, or any expensive effects. 

Effort refers to taking the time to see what people want to know about the product you're reviewing, so you can answer it and make them feel as comfortable with their purchase as possible.

For example, in the competitive landscape of the influencer marketing firm in Philadelphia, success hinges on more than just quick video production. It's about understanding your audience's needs, addressing their concerns, and guiding them toward confident purchasing decisions. 

You might think that the best way to make a sale is to show people the cool features of a product, but that's just part of it, and frankly, not the biggest part!

Answer shoppers' biggest questions, and you'll get more sales. Period.

How answering questions leads to sales

Sprinkling in the cool stuff is great, and you should absolutely do it, but be sure you're answering the questions.

But what are their questions? How do we know what to include?

For most products, everything we need is already on the Amazon product page.

Amazon Influencer Video Components

Amazon is an amazing source for sales copy material.

Here is where you can get the information that you need about your product. 

#1 The Product Description

The seller of the product has likely done a lot of work and research into optimizing their listing. The features and benefits that they highlight are a good place for us to look for inspiration in our video reviews. 

#2 The Customer Reviews

We can get a lot of insights by reading the customer reviews for a product. 5 star reviews aren't all we're looking at. In fact, negative reviews actually tend to include some of the most helpful information. 

We can take the negative points and address them in our review. We won't lie about them, but if we don't agree with them, we can state our experience.

#3 The Customer Questions

This is a gold mine for things we can answer in our video reviews. Even better, we can see which questions and reviews were the most helpful. These are the ones that we should prioritize. 

We could/should answer these questions as talking points in our video.

Amazon used to show questions and answers for products toward the bottom of the page but they recently hid that.

Luckily, there is a secret URL we can use to find all of the Q+As for an Amazon product.

#4 The Other Influencer Review Videos

If there are influencer review videos, watch them. This will give us a good idea of what others are doing. We don't want to do the same thing. We want to make a video that outsells theirs. 

Then, finally, your own experience with the product. Things that you found that may or may not have been covered on the product page in the description, questions, or other reviews. 

Video Recording Gear You Might Want as an Amazon Influencer 

I can't stress this enough, but your smartphone is plenty to be an Amazon influencer. The only things you might want to consider getting are the following. 

#1 Tripod

Anything that can stabilize your phone. This is the one that I use. It also includes a bluetooth action button that starts the recording for me, hands free. This saves me from needing to edit out parts from the front of my videos. If done properly, I can do reviews that require no editing at all and can simply be uploaded as is. 

#2 Ring light (optional)

I don't use one for my reviews often. I do use professional lighting for my YouTube videos always, but that is different. Production value means more there. If you want one, they can make your videos look more appealing. You can get a super small one for under $30. 

#3 Lavalier mic (optional)

If you're doing recordings that require you to step far away from the camera, a small microphone can come in very handy. You can get a nice bluetooth one on Amazon for under $100. If you're recording outdoors a lot, you might also consider a wind protector. 

03/27/2024 07:43 pm GMT Lasso Brag

You might notice that I don't recommend a fancy camera for your Amazon influencer channel. That wasn't by accident, I don't think they are necessary given the level of video quality we can now get on most new smartphones. Your smartphone is more than enough to create stunning videos.

That paired with the fact that uploading videos from your phone, or uploading directly from your phone via the Amazon app (they have an influencer page management area if you haven't looked before) makes having a nice camera seem like a drawback rather than a benefit. 

Header


Extra Cost

$300-$3,000+

$0*

Ease of Use/Transfer

Hard

Easy

Video Quality

4K or Higher

4K 

Extra Features

Too Many

More Than Enough

For editing software, you can keep that simple as well and use a simple app like CapCut on your mobile device or computer.

For thumbnails, Canva is the best option. If you're on the premium plan then you can upload your own fonts to Canva, but if not then there's plenty available in the free plan.

How to Upload Content to Your Amazon Influencer Storefront

We have several types of content that we can add to our Amazon Influencer storefronts. We can make posts with video or photos. We can also make idea lists and livestream. 

Here is an example of a video post, and here is an example of an idea list.

Create Content Amazon Influencer

I've created a quick step by step tutorial for the tech side to uploading your video reviews. You can click through it below. 

Next, I made one for creating a basic idea post.

When I originally wrote this blog post, it was extremely long and I think it was somewhat daunting. Much of the content is not as important as the things you've already read. So, I've tidied up the remaining content into drop down boxes. Just click on any that you want to learn more about and the text will appear. 

As I said at the beginning, 99% of the program is the video reviews and the onsite commissions. The following are outside of that scope and can be useful to some, but not most, at least not at the beginning. 

How Do You Promote Your Amazon Storefront?


Onsite commissions are great, but it's important to understand what we can and cannot do with our Amazon storefront.

The rules for promotion are the same as the Amazon associate programs.

We still cannot share our links via direct methods like email or text message. 

We can, however, post our links to our social platforms as long as they are publicly visible. 

Amazon created a suggestions page for promoting your storefront links, but here is a quick summary. 

 
Where to Promote the Amazon influencer Promotion

Instagram:

  • Add your influencer page link in your bio and reference it in product-specific posts.
  • Direct followers to your link for shopping featured products.
  • Utilize Instagram Stories to engage followers and showcase your personality.
  • Use the Stories highlight feature to pin stories to your profile.


Facebook:

  • Place your influencer page link in the "About" section.
  • Use Facebook Stories to engage and showcase personality.
  • Set up the "Shop Now" button to link to your influencer page.
  • Include product-related posts with your vanity URL.


YouTube:

  • Add your influencer page link in the "About" section.
  • Include links in video descriptions, mentioning your URL and featuring a banner ad.
  • Share specific product links mentioned in your videos.


Twitter:

  • Place your influencer page link in your Twitter bio.
  • Tweet about your page, including the vanity URL or direct followers to the bio link.


Website & Blog:

  • Consider your audience when creating content.
  • Regularly update with new content, linking to specific products and your vanity URL.

Snapchat:

  • Use Snapchat Stories to tease your Amazon shop and feature favorite products.

Podcasts:

  • Mention your Amazon shop in your podcast or other audio content to inform listeners.

It's important to make sure that your storefront vanity URL is easy to remember and type. 

What You Need to Know about Amazon Influencer Live Streams

Livestreams may or may not be something that you want to do in your Amazon influencer journey. It seems to me that the most successful influencers are going live quite a bit, but they are also outliers. 

Visit amazon.com/live to see what other influencers are doing with their live shows for inspiration. 

Amazon Live Example

There are several benefits to doing livestreams.

Amazon categorizes influencers into three tiers for livestreams (read more about the livestream tiers here).

The Amazon Influencer Program Livestreams has three tiers: Rising Star, Insider, and A-List.

#1 Rising Star:

  • Stream using Amazon Live Creator app.
  • Share links, earn commissions, and have followers receive notifications when going live.
  • Livestreams appear on Amazon Live site and Influencer Storefront.

#2 Insider:

  • Includes all Rising Star benefits.
  • Livestreams appear on product detail pages and top of Amazon Live site.
  • Insider Review Guidelines: original content, product discussion, and display; 75% of products physically on hand; personal knowledge; high-quality video and audio; shopping-focused content; viewer interaction; engaging content; unique thumbnails; longer streams; and compliance with Community Policy.

#3 A-List:

  • Includes all Rising Star and Insider benefits.
  • Special access to events, priority support, and livestreams eligible for Amazon.com homepage.
  • A-List Review Guidelines: original content, product discussion and display, 100% of products physically on hand, personal knowledge, great video production quality, engaging and entertaining content, consistent voice and brand, consistent schedule, at least one-hour streams, sales performance, growth of average concurrent viewers, product selection, use of Amazon Live features, high chat rate, high follower count and growth, marketing streams, and compliance with Community Policy.

You need to apply for tier increases, and if you're not approved, you can reapply after 30 days with.

All statuses can be revoked for violation of policies at any time. 

To run a livestream, you can do it directly from your computer as long as you have a mic and webcam, but there is also an Amazon Live app that allows creators to create their livestreams from their smartphones. 

Other Questions

Here are some other basic questions regarding the Amazon influencer program. 

How Many Products Should I Be Reviewing?

There are two schools of thought on reviewing items. 

Method #1 Go Broad and Review a TON of Products

On paper, more reviews should mean more exposure, which means more sales. It plays out that way in real life as well. I highly recommend this approach to beginners.

Method #2 Go Broad but Research Products Before Reviewing (What I Do)

I use a tool called Fluencer Fruit to inspect items before I review them. It shows me insights into the products and their potential profitability based on several factors like competition, video placement potential and commission rates and total payouts.

Fluencer Fruit

Method #3 Niche Down, Review Fewer Products but of Higher Quality (Not Recommended for Most)

This typically involves niching down and become an expert on one specific topic. If you already have an audience, you likely already have a niche that you could target. Your existing followers will buy from you more if you review the products that you know interest them, but as I said in the beginning, the real potential in this program is the onsite commissions for all products, not just ones your audience already wants. 

This method, in my opinion, is not efficient. In fact, I think it's better to just review these products on your own platforms and use your regular Amazon associate links and get the higher commission rates. 

What Are the Rules for Videos with the Amazon Influencer Program?

Here's a brief summary of Amazon's rules for videos on your influencer storefront

  • Do not link to external sites, but you can promote your social media channels.
  • Ensure products are accurately tagged, relevant to the video content, and are shown in the review.
  • Do not request unsupported actions in the Amazon video player, like leaving comments.
  • Avoid including prices, promotions, discounts, or time-sensitive information in videos.
  • Do not ask for positive customer reviews.
  • Disclose any non-Amazon products that are reviewed and gifted by a brand.
  • Get written consent before using Amazon's intellectual property.
  • Keep private information out of videos.
  • Do not post defamatory or derogatory product reviews.
  • Ensure videos are free of excessive grammar issues and misspellings.
  • Content must not be directed at children or contain inappropriate material.
  • Do not make false medical claims or advice, and avoid any outlandish claims that could be harmful, such as guaranteeing weight loss without following a healthy and balanced diet. For instance, losing more than 2lbs per week with a weight loss product.
  • Avoid references to excessive or irresponsible drinking or disparagement of abstinence.
  • Do not infringe on intellectual property or proprietary rights.

Amazon provides an influencer education hub that covers how to succeed with the program in a bit more detail. It's worth checking out. 

How Can I Get Approved for the Amazon Influencer Program if I don't Have Many Followers?

The answer is that you just need to go out and get those followers and earn some engagement!

You can try to buy them, but I never suggest gray hat tactics like that. Also, if the followers aren't engaging with your content (purchased followers don't) you will still likely be disapproved. 

Remember, the easiest way to make money with any affiliate program is to have your own following, so you should do this anyway. . 

One tip I will give you though is to start with TikTok to quickly get your first 1,000 subscribers.

It is by far the easiest channel to grow on. You can create a ton of content very quickly, and TikTok doesn't penalize new creators when they're starting out like YouTube and Instagram do.  

Early on, there were users who reported getting approved while having far below the 1,000 subscriber mark. You can try to apply at any time, and apply as many times as you want, but your best bet is to get those 1,000 subscribers in a white hat way. 

How Does Amazon Decide who Gets a Commission for Onsite Commissions?

Amazon's associate program and the Amazon influencer program work on a last click basis. This means that the person who sent the last click or had the last video view before the item is purchased gets 100% of the credit. 

This is a bummer since the buyer may have viewed 5 other review videos before making a purchase, but at scale, this balances out. The best videos will still make the most sales. 

If I Leave a Regular Product Review, Can I Receive Onsite Commissions?

There's a difference between leaving a basic customer review and doing an Amazon influencer video or photo post. 

If you leave regular reviews on Amazon items, you will not earn commissions on them. You will only earn commissions from the videos you create that you publish to your Amazon influencer's storefront. 

Do I Need to Be Approved for the Amazon Associates Program and the Amazon Influencer Program?

If you've been approved for the Amazon associates program, you are not automatically approved for the influencer program. You will need to apply manually. 

If you've been approved for the Amazon Influencer program, you are automatically enrolled in the Amazon associate program, so you do not need to enroll in both. 

Do My Videos Need to Be Unique and Published Only to Amazon?

Nope! You can use videos that you've already created for other platforms like TikTok or YouTube in your Amazon Influencer storefront. You can also take the videos you've made for Amazon's influencer program and upload them to your other socials. 

Amazon Influencers video cross post

Just keep in mind, you can't use the copyrighted sounds from other platforms. If your TikTok video has the Office background music playing, you will need a version of it that doesn't have that. Video only, no music or copyrighted media. 

Pro Tip

The TikTok shop affiliate program is working very well for TikTokers. The program is similar to the Amazon influencer producer. You create videos about products and they appear on viewers feeds. If they click your link and buy, you earn a commission. 

The beauty here is that many products in the TikTok shop are also available on Amazon. This means you can create one review video for both platforms are monetize them in two ways. Very cool! Again, just be careful not to use TikTok sounds and music in your Amazon videos for copyright purposes. 


How Do I Log In to My Amazon Influencer Storefront?

You can access your Amazon influencer storefront in a couple of ways. First, you can find it inside your Amazon associates dashboard. 

Amazon Influencer log in

As a reminder, that area is found at https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/.

Another way to log-in to your storefront is to just find and open your Amazon storefront URL once you've logged into your connected Amazon.com account. 

Amazon Influencer Log In Example

Your storefront URL will be formatted like this https://amazon.com/shop/yourname.

How Do I View My Amazon Influencer Earnings?

Your Amazon influencer earnings will appear in the Amazon associate program dashboard.

From the Amazon associate's dashboard, click on "Reports" and choose either "Consolidated Summary" or "Earnings Report."

See your Amazon influencer program earnings

You can also get to this same Earnings Report area by clicking "Reporting" when viewing your own Amazon storefront. 

See Amazon Influencer Reporting

Thankfully, Amazon uses two IDs, so we can see our earnings from the links we generate and traffic we drive to Amazon vs the content that Amazon features onsite.

You do not need to do anything with your Onsite Store ID; it is only for tracking and reporting. 

What Are Amazon On Site Commissions?

I've explained this quite a bit so far, but just so we're clear, let's cover Amazon onsite commissions one more time. 

Onsite commissions are what we get paid when someone buys a product from us after watching one of our product reviews or seeing one of our posts on Amazon. 

Amazon onsite commissions

These are paid out at commission rates that are about half of the rates Amazon pays for "off site" commissions. 

Onsite Commissions = Sales made from sellers already on Amazon.

Offsite Commissions = Sales made by sending traffic directly to Amazon.

Offsite commissions typically comes from blog posts or social media platforms that link directly to a specific Amazon product. 

Do I Need a Large Following to Make Real Money as an Amazon Influencer?

No, but it helps.

In influencer marketing, there's certainly a strong correlation between following size and earnings. Having a large following will help you drive more direct sales through your storefront (which are paid out at the higher commission rates), but thanks to Amazon's onsite commissions, you can still make a lot of money without having a huge following.

Also, if you're able to tier up your livestream status, you can reach Amazon's customer base and drive sales that way. 

Many people send little to no traffic of their own but still earn a substantial amount of money thanks to onsite commissions from their video reviews. 

Do Amazon Influencers Get Free Products?

There is nothing about the Amazon influencer program that expressly suggests that influencers will receive free products for providing reviews. 

The Amazon influencer program is NOT the same as the Amazon vine program. The Vine program involves Amazon hand selecting top reviewers to receive free items from Amazon sellers for review. 

However, Amazon still has stringent review policies, and creators cannot provide free goods in exchange for a positive review. The Amazon influencer program still needs to abide by the rules. 

Amazon influencers might receive products from brands, but they cannot come with any stipulation that they need to leave a positive review (or a review at all).

Since Amazon influencer videos are not allowed to be disparaging, it  would suggest that it is against the terms of service for product creators to tempt influencers to review their products on their storefronts because that suggests that the review must be positive. Since it cannot be negative, this is a clear conflict and likely violates the terms and conditions. 

Amazon influencer program logo

overall 

4.8/5

The Amazon influencer program is a new variation of the existing Amazon associates program. It pays smaller commission rates, but gives creators a collection of features that are unprecedented. The biggest value is the new "onsite commissions," that allow creators to have their video reviews of products appear on Amazon product pages. When someone views a video and purchases the item or a related item, the creator earns a commission of the sale. 

Pros

  • Can earn money almost immediately
  • Requires minimal skill
  • "Hustling" wins
  • Costs literally nothing to get staretd
  • Can realistically scale to 5 figures per month 
  • Exponentially easier than the associate program
  • Actually quite fun at times
  • Can justify purchasing products you might not have

Cons

  • Approval can be difficult for smaller influencers
  • Long term future of program is murky
  • Competition will grow
  • You don't "own" your account and can lose everything if you become banned.

Time to Results

Difficulty

Cost to Start

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