This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Friends, listeners, community, hey, what's up? Welcome to side hustle school. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Today's listener is wondering about amazon.com's affiliate program. I really like this question. I have talked before. It's been a while probably.
So I've talked before about why everyone should sign up for this program. It's actually called the associates program, Amazon associates. Um, but what's the point if people already shop there? Like if somebody's already shopping at Amazon, why is it to your benefit to actually sign up for that affiliate program? So as I said, very good question. It just so happens
that there's also a good answer. At least if you have any sort of website or online presence and might at some point link to one of the 600 million items that are sold through the world's largest retailer. So we'll talk about that. Also fun fact, when you participate in the Amazon affiliate program, you can actually see which items are being sold for your commission. You can't actually see people's personal information. So it's like, if you buy through my link,
I don't necessarily know who you are and what you're buying, but you can see collectively or an aggregate what people are buying, which can be an interesting exploration. So as I was researching and writing notes for this episode, I went to look in my account and I saw some things that were pretty surprising. So I will answer that question and also tell you what those things are in this episode. Hi, this is Holly from Carmel, Indiana. I've been listening to the show since a friend recommended it to me last year. I'm wondering about Amazon affiliate links. You mentioned that we could
all sign up to become Amazon affiliates. But what's the point? Why would anyone use my link to buy something instead of going directly to Amazon.com? I'm pretty sure Amazon gets more traffic than my Pinterest account. Thanks. And I look forward to hearing from you.
Hey Holly, thank you so much for listening and for the question. Okay, so it's a very logical question. You know, why bother? But the short answer and I'll go into it some more. The short answer is it's free money. And you might not get rich from it, but it
can be free money if you're ever going to link to a book or anything else that's sold on Amazon. Sometimes people will click those links from your website. And yes, if they're going to shop, like if they have something in mind that they're going to shop for, they're going to go directly to Amazon.com. But if they are reading your blog or your social account or your resource website or whatever else it is that you've made and you happen to be talking about something, they click that link, you're going to get the commission. So you get the commission by the way, even if they're already a customer at Amazon, which you know, just about everybody is. So it doesn't matter that they already have an account and
usually shop there directly. As I said, you're not going to get rich, but why not accept free money? I logged into my account and last month I made $194, you know, just by using the links. And it's not always that much a couple of months before it was $58. But I remember like a year or two ago, I had a few months in a row that it was more than $1,000.
But whatever it is, the point is it's money I don't have to do anything for, which is pretty cool, right? So even if you get $12 or $2, you know, it's completely passive once it's set up. So that's why you should sign up for this. I'll include a link in the show notes page. And sadly, there's no referral bonus, by the way. So this is just for your
benefit. But I'll include a link for that. Now, you can also get some interesting information when people start buying using your links. So as an author, it's useful to me because, you know, I can see, okay, you know, if I'm linking to different books, or if I'm linking to like the ebook version, or the audio version, the print version, you know, what are people preferring and such. But you can earn commission even if people buy something different than what you link to. So if they click through to look at something, and then they go search
for something else on Amazon and buy it, then you get the commission. Okay, so I was looking at like, what are the items in my list for that? And of course, I saw like a number of copies of my books, like all my different books in different formats. But then I also saw the best selling borrowed blue and vegan to your guide to rocking a vegan wedding. So congratulations to whatever listener out there is planning on rocking their vegan wedding.
I hope it rocks. I also saw somebody buying a Brita water filter, barbecue sauce, Quaker oats instant oatmeal in bulk, like a lot of it, I was like, okay, stocking up for coronavirus, I get it. Philip Sonicare toothbrush, dog food, also stocking up, I guess, coloring pencils and more. So I was like, wow, this is a collection of random items. Those were just the ones on the first page. It's like I have no idea what I'm gonna do with that
information. But it's, I don't know, strangely interesting, at least for a moment in time. So to circle back to where we started, why wouldn't you use an Amazon Associates link? If you Google Amazon Associates, you should see where you can sign up. Or as I said, I'll include the link directly at sidehustleschool.com slash 1201 episode 1201. Pretty cool, huh?
We are still rolling along. And listeners, if you've got a question, come decide us all school.com slash questions. We're gonna keep talking about them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. And I'm gonna keep rolling along as well. Many more cities to go on the money tree book tour. I'd love to
see you somewhere. But wherever you are in the world, I hope you do something for yourself today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
