Amazon affiliate is big business. Its simple structure, prompt monthly payments, and easy-to-follow reports make it popular with marketers across the world. On paper, being an Amazon affiliate is easy. You find a product, generate a link and then paste it onto your website, all in a matter of minutes. Being a successful affiliate is a far more complicated process, though. Getting it right (and converting those clicks into all-important sales) takes time and effort, but it all starts with a great website that’s optimized for affiliate links.

4 Tips For Building A Successful Amazon Affiliate Website

#1 Find your niche

It seems obvious, but too many Amazon affiliate marketers adopt a scattergun approach. Their websites are vague and general, and their content follows a similar theme. One day they’ll be advertising expensive tablet computers, and the next, they’ll be pushing kid’s soccer goals. This mishmash of products puts users and customers off. Your website should have a laser-sharp focus on its niche. That gives customers confidence that you’re a specialist in your area, making them more likely to follow through on your recommendations.

#2 Avoid free web builders

Free website building tools are attractive. They’re quick and easy and can have your website up and running in under an hour, all for free. Unfortunately, free websites are also often glitchy, slow to load, poorly optimized for mobile, and generally look unprofessional. If you’re trying to encourage a customer to follow through on product recommendations, you need to appear like a specialist. 

Putting time and effort into your website boosts buyer confidence and legitimizes your recommendations. Better still, hire a specialized IT management firm to provide cybersecurity, analyze your strategy and tailor your online infrastructure towards your affiliate goals. 

#3 Use SEO to your advantage

Search Engine Optimization is myriad and complex, but the general principle is to adopt practices that make your site appear higher in Google search engine results. The benefits of this for an affiliate are obvious, but getting there is more difficult. Correct keyword usage is the most well-known aspect of SEO. Research your product’s niche, find the most popular keywords but also include some less popular, secondary words. Useful links to relevant sites boost your search engine ranking, too, all of which equates to more eyes on your site and more clicks on your affiliate links.

#4 Purchase your own domain

Purchasing your own domain name is an upfront cost and one that must be offset against future profits, but it’s always worth it. Websites with extensions like .com rank much higher in searches than sites with free domains. It’s always best practice to choose a top level domain. Once upon a time, websites could supercharge their ranking by including relevant keywords in their domain names. Those days have gone, but it remains important (perhaps more so than ever) to buy a domain. 

Even aside from ranking, users are more likely to trust the recommendations of a site that looks official rather than one with a free domain extension. Reliability, trustworthiness, and professionalism all boost clicks, which, of course, lead to conversions.