Tuesday, April 14, 2020

How to Build an Amazon Affiliate Store on WordPress

Interested in launching an e-commerce store, but dont have a ton of capital that you can use to buy inventory? Heres what you can do consider setting up an Amazon affiliate store on WordPress, as opposed to a regular e-commerce store.With an Amazon affiliate store, you dont need to worry about (or invest in):Product development.Shipping.Customer service.Or other operational tasks. (For inspiration, check out this Amazon affiliate store, which made $40k+/month without relying on paid traffic, or this store, which was acquired for a cool $33 million.)Ok, were not actually promising you that youll be a millionaire  right away. But Amazon affiliate stores are definitely a viable way to make money on the  Internet.Ready to learn how to build your first ever Amazon affiliate store on WordPress? Lets get started!Amazon affiliate stores vs traditional e-commerce storesThe beauty of Amazon affiliate stores on WordPress is that they allow you to get started with e-commerce, without quite committing.With traditional e-commerce stores, you need to go all in. This means sourcing your products, importing them, packaging them, and then shipping them out when youve received an order.With Amazon affiliate stores, all you do is  publish content which will drive sales on Amazons website.Heres a demo of an Amazon link that achieves that:Your visitor browses through your site, and when they see something they like, they can click on your affiliate link and be redirected to Amazon.Because your visitor is now browsing Amazon through your affiliate link, Amazon can track their purchases and attribute them to you.If your visitor makes a purchase on Amazon within the specified time period (this can range from 24 hours to 90 days), youll get a commission.Sounds easy enough, right?Signing up for Amazons Affiliate ProgramThe first step to creating your own Amazon affiliate store on WordPress is to sign up for Amazons affiliate program.You can do that by clicking on this link!Once yo uve submitted your application, youll need to wait for Amazon to approve your profile. In the meantime, you can get started on selecting the products to feature in your store!Tips on choosing products for your Amazon affiliate storeHere are a few things to keep in mind when deciding what items youd like to promote on your Amazon affiliate store.First, you shouldnt be promoting anything thats too cheap.Theres no hard and fast rule, but I like to  stick with items which are $50 and above.  This gives you a way better margin than if you were to promote, say, a pair of socks which costs $5.Secondly, try and go with products which are high in demand.There are several ways you can gauge demandFirstly, there are tools (such as JungleScout!)  which enable you to filter products on Amazon according to demand, estimated sales, seasonality, and more.Alternatively, Google Trends  is a free tool that allows you to look at past trends and predict demand pretty accurately.Now that you know what items you want to feature on your store, lets jump into the next section getting your store up and running!Building an Amazon affiliate store on WordPressThere are a few ways to go about building an Amazon affiliate store, but the easiest (and cheapest!) way is to use WordPress.In short, youll need to set up your WordPress site,  then use a plugin to add Amazon products to your store. This link  will teach you how to do the former; once youre done, read on for the latter!Adding products to your store using the WooCommerce pluginHeres where the fun starts! Youll need to install the free WooCommerce plugin and start adding affiliate products to your store. WooCommerce Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 3.7.1Last Updated: October 9, 2019woocommerce.3.7.1.zip 92%Ratings 77,312,503Downloads WP 4.9+Requires First, navigate to your Plugins page on your WordPress dashboard.Search for the WooCommerce plugin, and install and activate it.WooCommerce will now prompt you to set up your store.Fill in all the required information and once you reach the last step, youll see the Create a product button. Go ahead and click on it:Youll be taken to an Add new product page where you can input your product name, product description, and more details.Heres the important bit:Make sure you specify that this is an External/Affiliate product, instead of a regular product.Once you choose the External/Affiliate option, youll see new Product URL and Button text fields.To get your product URL, youll have to navigate to the dashboard on your Amazon Associates account. Search for the product in question, and click on the yellow Get link button. Then copy the URL, and return to your WordPress page to paste the URL in.You can experiment with your button text  further down the road, but whilst youre still getting started, I recommend sticking with something safe such as your standard Buy now or Shop now.Directly below the Button Text field are your Regular price and Sale p rice fields, which you can ignore. Amazons affiliate program policy states that affiliates should not manually enter price information, so just leave this blank.Two more steps, and then youre done:First, add your product image and product gallery images.Theres no hard and fast rule when it comes to your key product image you can either use a product shot with a white background (if youre going for a clean, minimalist look), or a lifestyle shot which features your product in a particular context.Next, add a short description for your product.This will be displayed on your stores front page, as well as its search results.Thats basically it hit the Publish button, and youll have added your first product to your Amazon affiliate store!Now, rinse and repeat till youve gotten all your products up, and youre all set.A final word on Amazon affiliate storesBecause you can get Amazon affiliate stores on WordPress up and running in no time, these are great for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to try their hand at e-commerce, but arent quite ready to quit their day job just yet.Itching to set up your first Amazon affiliate store on WordPress? Go ahead and sign up for Amazons affiliate program  now.Is there anything thats still a mystery when it comes to these Amazon affiliate stores? Feel free to ask in the comments. How to create an #Amazon #affiliate store on #WordPress