Most publishers treat an Amazon affiliate website as a side project. For operators building content businesses at scale, it is a proven monetization layer. You publish product-focused content, place tracked links, and earn commissions when readers buy through your referrals. The catalog is massive. The checkout is trusted. The barrier to entry is low.
I’ve been running affiliate sites for over nine years. The sites that compound are not lucky. They pick a defensible niche, match search intent with useful content, and treat link infrastructure as a system. This guide walks through that framework: what an Amazon affiliate site is, why it works, how to research your market, and the exact steps to build one on WordPress.
Updated 2026.
1What Is an Amazon Affiliate Website?
An Amazon affiliate site promotes products sold on Amazon. You create content for your website and place Amazon affiliate links in it. You earn a commission whenever you send Amazon qualifying sales through your affiliate link.
The Amazon affiliate program (aka Amazon Associates) lets you make
For operators, the implication is clear. Amazon remains a strong monetization channel for product-focused content.
25 Reasons You Should Build an Amazon Affiliate Website
It is straightforward to get started. There are several reasons it appeals to beginners and experienced operators alike.
1. Significant Volume of Amazon Products
Amazon has a substantial product inventory. If you want to promote something on Amazon, you will almost certainly find it. In the first quarter of 2021, Amazon’s revenue topped $108 billion in a single quarter. Amazon currently has 40 product categories by department on its site.
2. Anyone Can Join the Amazon Affiliate Program
It is accessible to anyone with their own website, and there is no waiting period to sign up. The only caveat is you must generate sales from at least three affiliate links within 180 days, or Amazon will remove you from the Associates program.
Once you sign up and get your tracking ID, you can start adding Amazon affiliate links to your content. For a full walkthrough of program rules and payout mechanics, see our Amazon affiliate guide.
3. Millions Trust Amazon
Amazon is a household name. When you recommend products sold on its platform, you leverage a checkout experience readers already trust. There is an established market. That reduces friction compared to sending traffic to unknown merchants.
4. Getting Affiliate Links Is Easy
You copy and paste the Amazon URL into your content, and you are ready to go. Amazon’s tool, SiteStripe, lets you add affiliate links to your posts without diving back into your Associates account.
Or, if you use a tool like Lasso, you copy the Amazon URL into the dashboard and generate an instant affiliate link you can add to posts and pages.
5. Commission Extends to All Items in a Shopper’s Cart
Amazon’s cookie duration is short (only 24 hours). But you can earn a commission on every product bought using your affiliate link during that window.
For example, if your website visitor clicks your affiliate link for a $100 blender, adds another $150 worth of unrelated items, and buys everything through your link, you get a commission for that entire $250 sale.
Further Reading:
3Before You Build Your Amazon Affiliate Website
There are a few things to consider before getting started. You do not want to invest time (or
How to Do Niche Research
The first thing to consider is the niche you want to start. If you are stumped, start by asking yourself these questions:
- What are you interested in?
- What do you already know?
- Is there income potential?
Check your bank statements if you are struggling to determine what interests you. What do you pay for regularly? What do you buy on Amazon? How do you spend your time on weekends, early mornings, or after work? What could you talk about for hours?
“What do you already know?” revolves around your previous work experience, interests, or hobbies. Perhaps you are an experienced rock climber or carry a deep understanding of carpentry. Those are profitable Amazon affiliate website niches you could build.
Further Reading:
How to Do Keyword Research
Paid tools help, but you can start free. Three ideas for getting started:
- Answer the Public
- Keywords Everywhere
- Amazon’s search engine (autocomplete)
Let us say we are building an Amazon affiliate website about snowboarding.
If you start with Amazon’s autocomplete method, type “snowboard” into the search bar and let Amazon fill in the blank. Amazon gives you several options, including:
- Boots
- Helmet
- Bindings
- Goggles
Next, take any of those keywords, for example “snowboard boots,” and search the Best Sellers category for snowboard boots.
Using snowboards again, Answer the Public will divide your query into “Questions,” “Prepositions,” “Alphabeticals,” “Related,” and “Comparisons.” Clicking on “questions,” you can see terms like:
- Snowboards with boots
- How to choose snowboards
- Why do snowboards need wax
- Can snowboards get waterlogged
These question types can serve as content you create based on the products you promote from Amazon.
Keywords Everywhere is a free browser extension that shows related, trending, and long-tail keyword ideas when you scroll down the SERP of whatever seed keyword you are searching. See the screenshot below.
If you want to use a paid tool, we use Ahrefs. We like it for conducting keyword research because you will see:
- Search volume
- Traffic potential
- Keyword difficulty (KD)
- Competing site’s Domain Rating (DR)
- Low KD score
- High search volume
- Low Domain Rating
How to Research Competitors
Check the “Traffic” column too when using the filters above. It estimates the amount of traffic competing websites actually get (compared to search volume).
One idea is to take popular review sites or competing blogs in your niche, enter its domain into Ahrefs Site Explorer, and click the Organic Keywords Report.
Sticking with our snowboard example, try running a Google search for “best snowboard review site” or “best snowboard blogs.” Try this search template:
- Best [product/keyword] review site
Let us use the first example, thegoodride.com, listed at the top. Pop its domain into Site Explorer. We can see it has a DR (Domain Rating) of 35. The lower the better when you are starting out.
Next, head to Organic Keywords and set your filters for:
- KD <10
- Traffic >500
- Position <20
- Modifiers “best, review”
You will see the keywords ranking on page one for those terms. Then, click the SERP button to see the top-ranking pages. For example, several posts rank on page one with a low domain rating and a low referring number of domains.
You must consistently produce great content to establish yourself as an authority site. An example of an Amazon affiliate site crushing it is The Wirecutter (more on them below). For more models across niches, browse our affiliate marketing website examples roundup.
4How to Build an Amazon Affiliate Website
To create a profitable Amazon affiliate website, focus on what is essential and what has helped us build seven-figure online businesses. This step-by-step guide walks you through the stack.
Register a Domain
This is the easy part. Google “best domain registrars.” Choose one from that list. You will see popular registrars like GoDaddy, NameCheap, and Google Domains (we use Google Domains).
Next, pick a domain name and find if it is available. Once you have found one, choose the suffix (e.g., .com, .co, or .net) and buy it. This is how people find your site on the internet.
Choose a Host
HostGator is our budget pick for a high-quality, low-cost plan. They serve over two million sites, offer unmetered bandwidth, deliver free SSL certificates, and have 24/7/365 support. You will also find many theme selections with easy drag-and-drop website builder tools.
Right now, you can create an account for $2.75 per month. If you buy a 12, 24, or 36-month plan, you will get a free domain with it.
If you want to go premium, we use
Install WordPress
To run your blog, you need a content management system (CMS). Without it, you will struggle to publish and organize content at scale. There are many available, but we like WordPress.
WordPress is free, open-source software used by 43% of the web. Niche bloggers and premium news sites run on it. Its functionality is virtually limitless. Developers continuously create plugins for it. Designers create new themes all the time. Support is world-class with a substantial knowledge base.
The best part: it is customizable, mobile responsive, and SEO friendly. You can create an account and install WordPress for free through most hosting providers with one-click setup.
Choose a Theme
The theme you choose impacts your WordPress blog’s overall look and design. It also dictates functionality. A poorly coded theme might load slowly, which hurts the user experience.
You will want to choose one that:
- Loads fast
- Has a page builder
- Gives layout options
- Is mobile responsive
- Has SEO functionality (or plays nice with Yoast or RankMath)
If you cannot afford a premium theme, consider using a free version that offers a premium upgrade (like Kadence, Astra, or GeneratePress). That way, you could start free and upgrade later. Head to WordPress.org/themes to find both free and premium themes.
Publish Your First Post
Once you have done all the above, it is time to start publishing. Consistency pays off. Decide your publishing cadence (daily, weekly, fortnightly) and stick to it. Your readers will start to expect your content, and your audience will grow.
Expect crickets in the beginning. Building a profitable Amazon affiliate website takes time. Traffic does not happen overnight. A good rule of thumb is to create content that matches search intent.
- Comparisons
- Product reviews
- Best lists (aka product roundups)
Try using search terms like “[product name] review.” For example, iPhone X reviews. Examine what the top-ranking posts did. Look for commonalities and content gaps. Notice what is popular and should be included AND what people do not have in their reviews.
People are ready to buy but want to know about the product. Most consumers perform product research before making a decision. You are allowed to use Amazon product images on your affiliate website, but read Amazon’s policy for the specifics.
Search term: [product name] vs [product name]. Comparison posts are good choices when buyers want to compare the pros and cons of new products. For example, rocker snowboards vs. camber.
List each product’s features and explain the pros and cons of each one. That helps your audience determine whether the product is the right choice for them.
Search query term: best [product name]. These listicle posts are curated lists of the best, high-quality products in a category. For example, “best snowboards.” These are typically popular terms that:
- People want to know about
- Are searching for
- Indicate readiness to buy
Creating in-depth, how-to, or step-by-step guides for different products is the last content example to model. Any items people find difficult to use are worthy of a well-researched guide, especially if nobody has created it.
Further Reading:
5How to Create Your Amazon Associates Account
You will head to the Associates homepage, answer a few questions, and then Amazon issues your affiliate ID. It is a quick three-step process consisting of entering your:
- Account information: your name and address
- Domain name: the website sending traffic to Amazon
- Profile: what your site is about, how you plan to
monetize it, how you drive traffic, and how many monthly visitors you get
Once approved, you will get your affiliate ID and can start promoting Amazon products on your blog or website. Search Amazon for products related to your niche site.
Further Reading:
6How Amazon Affiliate Links Work
We wrote an article about using Amazon affiliate links on your WordPress site. The quick explanation goes like this:
Amazon gives you a unique store ID, which consists of your name followed by a number. It will typically look like this:
- yourstorename-20
That tracking code is your affiliate ID and how Amazon knows to pay you. Here is the full breakdown of an Amazon affiliate link:
When someone clicks your affiliate link and purchases on Amazon, they know who to send the commissions to based on your affiliate ID. Without that unique tracking code, you will not get paid.
Further Reading:
Copy and paste any Amazon URL into the dashboard and Lasso grabs the product title, image, and price automatically without needing API keys. Then, converts it to an affiliate link and updates that data every 24 hours.
Convert Your First Amazon Link
How to Choose the Right Products to Promote for Your Amazon Affiliate Website
Once you know your niche, explore Amazon’s product listings. Head to the “Best Sellers” category and look at the left sidebar, “Any Department.” Those are broad topics. You will see niched-down lists for specific products when you click on any of those.
For example, when you click “Automotive,” you get these. You can gauge what kinds of affiliate products are popular and start promoting those. It makes it easier when you are starting to find best-selling products you are interested in or already know about.
It is also a good idea to check Amazon’s commission rates to see the percentages Amazon pays. For example, you can take a look at Amazon commission rates on the screenshot below:
Is there a sweet spot between your interests and affiliate commission rates? It is not meant to deter you. It is only meant to give you an idea of the kinds of products with the highest payouts.
You could easily choose products with a lower commission rate, but you may have to generate a higher volume of clicks to earn more revenue.
Sidenote: Check out Lasso co-founder Andrew Fiebert’s thread about amplifying your Amazon affiliate commissions.
Sell a lot of a particular item you promote on Amazon?
Let us 8-15x your payout on top of your Amazon Associates income. It takes less than 10 minutes to do per product and can seriously change your business. – Andrew Fiebert (@andyfieb) June 20, 2022
Run an Opportunities Scan on your site to find unmonetized product mentions sitting in posts that already rank. Most operators find quick wins on the first pass.
7Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugins to Run Your Website
Plugins can make your life as an affiliate marketer easier. There are a number that perform different functions, such as:
- Link cloaking
- Affiliate link management
- Help to improve conversion rates
Many plugins are good at doing one thing, but not many are great at doing them all. That is why we built Lasso.
Lasso
Lasso is a WordPress affiliate marketing plugin that lets you create custom link displays so you can promote your links. It also helps you find new affiliate income opportunities and manage all of your links in one dashboard.
Example of a Lasso product display:
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
$29.00
$11.75
The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s not about getting less done. It’s about getting only the right things done. It’s about the pursuit of the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.
-
Will make you more effective.
-
Quick read and highly actionable.
-
You have to be open-minded.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
You can also enable Auto-Amazon on Lasso, which automatically detects and monetizes your Amazon links with your tracking ID. To do it, head to Settings > Amazon. The Auto-Amazon feature is in the left column.
Under “Tracking ID for This Site,” add your primary tracking ID and toggle “Allow Multiple Tracking IDs” to the “On” position. Under “Tracking ID Whitelist,” add any Amazon IDs you would like to ignore (when Lasso monetizes your Amazon links, we will not change those IDs). Then, toggle “Enable Amazon Auto-Monetization” to the “On” position and hit “Save Changes.”
Sidenote: You can also choose to show the Prime logo in your displays, as shown in the above screenshot.
83 Successful Amazon Affiliate Website Examples
If you prefer seeing things in action, here are three examples of Amazon affiliate websites doing it right.
Swim University
Lasso co-founder Matt Giovanisci built this site devoted to pool and hot tub care. He founded it in 2006, drawing on his experiences working in the pool industry since he was 13. It is still his primary site and earns him over $160,000 in affiliate commissions.
SwimU provides articles, videos, and simple step-by-step guides. It is a single niche site with only 200 posts getting over four million visitors annually. It does not take much volume when you create insanely valuable, well-researched content.
Giftlab
Giftlab is one of our sites focused on niche gift lists for consumers. You will find new and unique products for everybody, from skiers to 3-year-olds to pilots, and everyone in between. It is categorized by:
- Popular
- Interests
- Occasions
- Recipients
Since Amazon is the most popular shopping search engine, it made sense to start there. The site’s got a 37 domain rating yet still receives over 400k monthly visitors.
The Wirecutter
The Wirecutter is the benchmark for successful affiliate marketing sites. It is also one of the most referenced across the internet. Brian Lam founded it in 2011 and established it as the product review destination for consumers. It generated $150 million in eCommerce and sold to the NY Times for $30 million five years later.
They kept their business model simple:
- They wrote detailed product reviews
- Every product had an affiliate link to a merchant where the reader could buy
- They earned a commission every time someone made a purchase using their affiliate links
It is lean (because their sole revenue stream comes from affiliates) with a broad focus (they review every consumer product imaginable). You will not see display ads either. When readers go to the site, they know they are getting sold, and that is what The Wirecutter wants. They are one of the most active members of Amazon’s affiliate program.
9Start Building Your Amazon Affiliate Website Today
Whether you are blogging or running an e-commerce adjacent site, you can replicate a successful Amazon affiliate website by following the steps above. Sites like The Wirecutter are extreme examples of how much affiliate income you can earn. It does require patience, because building an audience takes time.
The operators who win treat niche selection, content production, and link infrastructure as connected systems. At Lasso, we built monetization infrastructure so operators can manage Amazon links, displays, and opportunity detection in one dashboard. See how Lasso fits your stack. Get started with Lasso and turn your Amazon affiliate website into a system that scales with your content.
Sean Brison
Sean Brison is a dad, writer, business owner, and Content Lead at Lasso. He's spent the past several years in cahoots with Lasso's founder, Andrew, creating awesome things for people. He's also addicted to perfectly-balanced cocktails, the outdoors, and John…