As someone who loves affiliate marketing, I find the thrill of promoting a big sale exciting. It’s a time for research, writing, and hopefully increasing income.
In case you’ve been taking a social media hiatus lately, Amazon’s first day is coming. And there are two days this year: from July 15 to 16.
This is one of the biggest days for sales on the site and one that makes a lot of money for many bloggers when it comes to rewards and commissions. If you’re a new blogger, maybe this could be an opportunity to make your first affiliate sale.
Why Prime Day?
There are a few reasons to promote Prime Day regardless of your niche:
- Thousands and thousands of people will be buying these sales. This promotion has been around for a few years, since 2015, so people are familiar with it.
- People love Amazon and feel comfortable shopping on the site.
- Amazon has it all. Orders are likely to be even higher on Prime Day than normal.
- The sale only lasts for 36 hours, so the 24 hour cookie is less of an issue. People will see, they will buy, they will buy.
Today, I wanted to share some tips for bloggers who aren’t sure how best to promote Prime Day if they’re not in the deals or coupons niche. Good news! You still can! (PS: these tips may help you with promotion all year long!)
Prime Day Affiliate Promotion Tips
1. Start promoting now
The “pre-launch” period can have a huge impact on any sale. This is the window that leads to the promotion where you build excitement and get people ready to buy. They are anticipating a purchase. They know a sale is coming up. They have time to prepare.
Especially in the case of Amazon, people are already familiar with the site and are probably repeat buyers. Most of us already have a wish list and cart full of items on any given day anyway! (No? Is it just me?) This is the time to get them thinking about the things they need and want. Give them a quick overview of what Prime Day entails. Give them some shopping tips. Amazon has some tips on Associates Central.
While Amazon is keeping the actual Prime Day deals close to the vest until the actual event, they have released a few products to be released that day to excite people. They also have some deals you can take part in right now, like the daily Countdown deals and Toshiba Fire TV, which is over $100 off right now for Prime members.
2. Start promoting rewards
One of the best ways to earn money as an Amazon affiliate is with their “Rewards Programs”. These programs pay you a flat fee, usually between $3 and $10, when people sign up for an Amazon service. I’ve seen some bloggers report that almost half of their Prime Day income comes from rewards. That’s great. Some of the rewards available right now include:
And possibly more. These can change at any time.
Obviously, his big focus this week would be getting people to sign up for Prime. They can only buy those Prime Day deals if they’re a member after all. The good news is that Amazon offers a 30-day free trial which makes it easy to promote. However, be sure to let your readers know the cost involved if they don’t cancel. In addition to Prime, many of the programs above also have special offers or free trials available. You’ll find them on your Promotions Associates board.
Connect the dots between your single reader and the show you are promoting be it Amazon Family, Audible, AmazonFresh or something else. What makes it attractive to them?
3. Do I have to post individual sales?
No. It’s up to you how far you want to take your Prime Day promotion. Maybe all you want to tackle is this year’s pre-release. That’s great. is your blog
If you’re feeling frisky, you might want to do a single roundup of Spotlight deals on July 14, 15, or 16. Pick a few of your favorite offerings that align well with your niche.
I would caution you against going 24/7 with Lightning Deals, though, unless you know what you’re getting into and your audience agrees. If he normally publishes one blog post a week on how to be a freelance writer and suddenly goes off the rails with post after post about the latest flash sales for 36 hours, he’s likely to lose a good chunk of his following. Take it easy. If your followers couldn’t care less, you’re not going to make more sales with 20 spaghetti-on-the-wall posts than one really well-targeted one. Why stress out and lose sleep if you don’t have to?
Like I said before, we won’t know until Prime Day rolls around what the deals will be. However, we can get a little idea of what to expect by looking at the best sellers of previous years. Those things usually include Amazon products: Echo, Kindle, Fire, Fire TV, Fire Stick, etc. We’ve also seen big sellers like Instant Pot. Start thinking about the things you love and regularly promote on your blog anyway. Make a list of those items to review on Monday.
Also, please be aware of Amazon’s rules on image usage and pricing. You can only display these things if you pull data via API. It is not a big thing. just use the Link Builder Plugin or clever new native shopping ads to display product details. It will be updated accordingly when the sale ends. Here’s what a native ad looks like. You can create them with SiteStripe.
A word about email
Don’t forget that it’s against Amazon rules to share affiliate links in your emails. You will need to link to the post on your blog. The only exception to this rule are influencer pages. Even then, you can only share a link to your page, not individual items. That being said, those influencer pages will be a great opportunity to share some of those curated deals on Prime Day now that they allow for customization and categories.
As always, don’t forget to spread the word, whether it’s via email, social media, or on your blog. A simple “As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases” is all it takes. << That also applies to this post! 😉
