Making Money on a Blog: Amazon Associates

One of the best known affiliate programs is the Amazon Associates program. This program, which is free to join, allows you to generate links and widgets to showcase Amazon products on your blog and to collect a commission when people follow the links and buy from Amazon.

Amazon Associates has a short sign up page that requires you to provide a valid e-mail address, payment information (name, address, bank account) and the URL of your blog (make sure your blog already exists). Once your application is approved, you can begin generating links to display on your blog.

Single product links that fit into appropriate posts usually work best. Log in to your Amazon Associates account and from the front page click on Build Links/Widgets. A large variety of widget and link categories are displayed.



Product links are useful for linking to a single product. The search widget is useful for providing an Amazon search feature to your readers without having them leave your blog. Click the "Add to your Web page" button next to your desired type of widget. To create a product link, the first step is to search for the desired product on Amazon. Just key your search terms into the box and click "Go".



From the search results returned, find the correct product and click the "Get HTML" button next to it.



On the page below, select the appropriate options for your link. The preview area of the screen will change as you select options so you can see exactly how your link will look on your blog.



After copying the HTML code, go to your Blogger account and select the Page Elements sub-tab from the Template tab. Click on Add a New Page Element in the appropriate part of the blog and select an HTML/Javascript page element from the list in the dialog box. Paste the HTML code you copied from the Amazon site into the empty dialog box.



When you click the orange "Save Changes" button, the link will be displayed on your blog. When your readers click the Amazon link and follow it to Amazon, you'll receive a commission on any products that they buy.