Some links here are affiliate or referral links. I may earn a commission if you buy or sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
This is the Amazon piece of a getting-started map. I'm still learning Associates. Nothing here is a report of what I've earned, and it is not legal advice. If the Operating Agreement is stricter than this summary, the agreement wins.
The overview, and the links to the other posts in this batch, are in the main article.
Want the map first? Read How to start affiliate marketing in 2026.
In this article
- What you need before the application means anything.
- The three qualifying sales, and why your own orders don't count.
- The Site sentence, and where this page prints it.
- Product links, prices, shorteners, and places Amazon doesn't want the link.
- Audible and Kindle Unlimited, labeled as paid links.
What you are joining
Amazon Associates is free to join and covers almost anything you'd mention on a blog. Commission rates vary by category. I don't type a rate here, because the category table changes and I don't have a live feed in this draft.
Amazon looks for robust original content. Its own rule of thumb is at least 10 posts on a public site. A niche you can explain is the practical version of that rule. For me, that's photography, the Shenandoah Valley, family day trips, gardening, and the AI tools I use for my business. The questions I use are simple. What do friends already ask me about? What do I own, use, or do often enough to explain well? Could I write 10 genuinely useful posts about it?
The beginner's catch
After you apply, you need at least three qualifying sales within 180 days, and your own orders don't count. If you miss that, the application is withdrawn and you'd reapply later. (Amazon Associates help, checked Oct 27, 2026)
Don't buy through your own link, and don't ask friends or family to buy just to help you hit those three sales. A click is not a sale. An ordered item is not earned until it ships, or until Amazon's own rule says it counts. I look at the four dashboard ideas once a week: clicks, items ordered, items shipped, and earnings. I don't publish my numbers.
| Rule | What I do with it |
|---|---|
| Three qualifying sales in 180 days | Treat it as the application window, not as a promise of income. |
| Your own orders don't count | Don't buy through your link to "make" the three sales. |
| At least 10 original posts | Write the posts before you worry about a pile of networks. |
| Rates vary by category | Don't type a rate into a post. Check Associates when you need the current table. |
The sentence on the site
Section 5 of the Operating Agreement (updated Oct 15, 2025, checked Oct 27, 2026) requires one specific sentence on your Site, clearly and prominently. This article prints that sentence once, in the disclosure under the byline. Copy that line onto your own site. I am not pasting it a second time in the body.
Amazon's help topic on identifying yourself says the link-level disclosure has to be clear and conspicuous, and it gives "(paid link)", "#ad", or "#CommissionsEarned" as examples, placed near the link. For social accounts, that same topic says the full Site sentence has to be associated with the account. (Associates help, checked Oct 27, 2026)
The words next to the link, the FTC pages, and the platform labels are in the disclosure post. This page only covers Amazon's own line.
Want more on where the words go? Read Disclosure rules when you post.
How a product link is shaped
Link to the specific product page, the /dp/ page, using SiteStripe, the toolbar Amazon shows you when you're signed in to Associates. Keep the long link. On this site the tracking ID is lfosterphot0c-20.
- Sign in to Amazon with the customer account tied to Associates, or SiteStripe will not show.
- Open the exact product page. The address contains
/dp/and a 10-character ASIN. - Use SiteStripe's text link and choose the tracking ID you were assigned.
- Keep the long
/dp/ASIN?tag=lfosterphot0c-20form. SiteStripe also offers a short link. I throw the short one away. - For a bounty such as a free-trial landing page, Amazon's public bounty page says to build it in SiteStripe or by adding
?tag=on that program's landing page. That is still not a homepage link, and it is still a (paid link).
Do not add your own utm_ parameters to an Amazon Special Link. I did not find an Associates page that allows it. A sub-tag is allowed only if Amazon issued it, and you may not tie a sub-tag to a specific reader. Do not edit tag, and do not paste an amzn.to link. The field-by-field version, and the other networks, are in the link post.
(SiteStripe help and Program Policies, checked Oct 27, 2026)
Want the other networks too? Read How to build affiliate links.
What the policies page told me not to do
The Program Policies page, checked Oct 27, 2026, is where the "don't" list lives:
- Do not type a price or an availability line unless Amazon is serving that data in the link, or you pulled it through Creators API or PA-API under the license. I don't have that feed in a draft, so I type neither a price nor a star rating.
- Do not cloak the link, and do not use a shortener in a way that hides the fact that the link goes to Amazon. Those are items (v) and (w) in the policies.
- Offline use is prohibited: print, an ebook, a mailing, or an oral pitch. Email, SMS, and social direct messages are allowed on that page only when the person opted in, and you are the sender for those marketing laws. My own rule is simpler. I don't put Amazon links in email, texts, PDFs, ebooks, or print.
- Do not say Amazon supports, sponsors, or endorses you. Section 5 says that too.
- Special Links have to keep the tracking tag Amazon gave you.
A homepage link is the mistake in my old post. A homepage was never a product recommendation, and it is a bad link even when Amazon still answers. AmazonSmile is a different dead end. Amazon's own news post says the program wound down on February 20, 2023. An old smile.amazon.com URL is not an Associates link. (Amazon's announcement) I did not find a smile.amazon.com URL in this site's current files.
Learning on the go
Most of what I've learned about marketing came in bits and pieces: articles, help pages, and books listened to in the car. Our household likes audiobooks on long drives, and it's an easy way to fit learning into time you'd spend driving anyway.
If you want to try it, Audible has a free trial (paid link). If you'd rather read, Kindle Unlimited (paid link) lets you borrow from a large catalog of ebooks for a monthly fee. Check the current trial terms on the sign-up page before you start, so you know when it renews. Those are bounty-style landing pages with the tag, not homepage links.
A checklist before you add an Amazon link
- Is the required Site sentence on the site once, under the byline or in the same clear spot on your site?
- Is the link a
/dp/page, or an allowed bounty landing page, withlfosterphot0c-20if it is my account? - Did I build it in SiteStripe and throw away the short link?
- Did I avoid a price, a star rating, and the words "in stock"?
- Is "(paid link)" next to the link?
- Is this going on a web page, not in an email, a text, a PDF, an ebook, or a printout?
- Did I test it in a private window, signed out?
This is slow. A physical-product commission is often a small percentage, and it shows up only after a real person clicks and the order qualifies. Nothing here is a timeline for a paycheck.
Want the stalls I actually hit? Read Warnings: what I ran into.