A couple of months ago I heard about the Amazon Affiliate Program. I’m familiar with similar programs from back when I ran a CrossFit Gym and received monthly checks from protein powder sales (man, those days are gone). Essentially for every person who clicks a link through and purchases from the site, you receive a commission from a percentage of the sales. Also known as passive income from affiliate site referral.

If you’re wanting passive income, I wouldn’t expect to get rich from it. It takes effort in messaging, promotion and positioning to call people to purchase from your site. If they go direct, guess what, you don’t make the commission.

Back to Amazon. I was super interested as it seems like everyone has Prime and shops on the site pretty often from electronics to paper towels. So there was already an interest and comfort with the site.

I clicked on the “Become an Affiliate” link at the bottom of www.amazon.com and hit the “Join” button. The process was relatively easy. The ask about your website traffic and industry. The one catch is you must have a purchase from your link within 180 days to be an approved affiliate partner and purchases made by your account do not count.

On my site I’m referring inspirational books and equipment for DIY podcasting, video, and photography since that’s what most of my clients ask about.

There are awesome ways to shorten the code to include in emails without making it look like spam and you can just include an image without all of the Amazon branding and “Buy Me Now” feelings.

To date I have made a whopping… wait for it…. $13! And yes I’m super excited about it.

Feel free to check it out and let me know if you have any questions on how to best implement it.