How to make money as an Amazon Influencer: Everything you need to know

Making money as an influencer today is now a viable career path, with some creators earning six figures even inside of their first few years of being one. The vast money potential is thanks to the diverse number of methods that can be used to cash in, and one that has picked up traction lately is Amazon’s Influencer program.

The Amazon Influencer program has been around since 2017 but only recently picked up popularity with more individuals reporting substantial income after taking the steps to joining and monetizing it with multiple methods.

In this guide, we’ll go over what exactly this Amazon Influencer program is, how you can become a part of it, and exactly how you can earn money through it, including examples and pro tips from current top creators.

What is the Amazon Influencer Program?

The Amazon Influencer Program is an enhanced version of its Associates Program. Like Amazon Associates, participants in the Influencer program will be affiliates. However, while Associates only get access to affiliate links that they need to post on approved sites, Influencers receive a complete suite of tools designed specifically for content creators who want to leverage the power of their audience for greater monetization potential.

While traditional affiliate marketing typically only gives trackable links, leaving all other aspects of promotion up to the affiliate, the Influencer Program provides a complete ecosystem for showcasing and selling products.

The cornerstone of this is your own customizable storefront–this is essentially your own personal section of Amazon where you can curate products, share recommendations, and create an engaging shopping experience for your audience right on the platform.

How to Join the Amazon Influencer Program

In order to join the Amazon Influencer Program, you’ll need an established social media presence on a popular platform like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. You’ll need to pick one of those platforms to apply with, and if you’re signing up with an Instagram or Facebook, it’s required to use a business account.

We’ll go over the exact requirements later, but for now, you should know that the Influencer program is only for those with at least a somewhat established social media audience, so if you’re not there yet, consider taking the steps towards growing and becoming an influencer first.

• The ultimate guide to becoming a successful influencer
• How to become a content creator and earn money with social media, podcasts, and blogs

How does the Amazon Influencer program work?

Once you’ve completed your application, you’ll typically receive approval if successful within 5-7 business days.

Upon approval, you’ll gain access to your Amazon Influencer dashboard, where you can start building your presence on the platform through your storefront and content creation tools. Each of these is designed to help grow and establish our influence, reach, and profitability.

Let’s break down each component of how Amazon’s Influencer program works:

Amazon Influencer storefront

One of the key features of the program is having your own dedicated storefront right on Amazon. You’ll get a unique URL (amazon.com/shop/[username]) which will allow you to do the following:

Showcase your favorite products

Your store will display products that you can select to align with yourself and your audience. You can organize your products into different sections and choose which ones to highlight.

Make sure you pick products that you genuinely use and recommend, as it’s important to maintain trust and reputation with your audience.

Upload and share product-related video content

One of the most effective forms of marketing is social inbound selling. This is the case particularly because of the rapport and trust built through personalized content.

Although you can simply post pictures for marketing, videos are much more effective, so it’s helpful that your Amazon Influencer storefront will have a video feed that will encourage viewers to buy products directly from you.

Create Themed Lists and Collections

Amazon Storefront’s Idea Lists feature allows you to create themed lists and collections so your audience can easily navigate your offerings.

Make sure to maintain consistency and logical organization in your list naming and formatting while also creating compelling and descriptive titles to make for an easy shopping experience for your visitors.

Content Creation tools

This program provides several ways and tools to create and share content that will help convert visitors into buyers:

Integration with Amazon’s Inspire feed

Your video content will appear in Amazon’s social shopping feed, aka the Inspire feed. This will help you reach potential customers on the platform beyond your existing followers.

This feed functions just like other social platforms, with engaging scrolling that will help you earn new fans.

Tools and features for creating shoppable content

As an owner of an Amazon Influencer storefront, you gain the ability to add clickable product tags to your videos and images, making it easy for viewers to quickly purchase featured items. 

Live shopping

Amazon Influencers can organize and broadcast livestreams to demonstrate new products, hold Q&A sessions, or even to push promotions like giveaways. This feature gives you the opportunity to potentially increase engagement, brand awareness, and overall customer loyalty.

How to become an Amazon Influencer

Amazon evaluates all applications based on various metrics including follower count, engagement rates, and content quality. Although there’s no minimum requirement for followers, having at least 1000 followers is recommended to increase your likelihood of getting approved. It’s important to understand that quality often matters more than quantity when it comes to approval.

Make sure your social media account is public and easily accessible, and be sure to showcase one with the highest amount of followers and greatest engagement. 

Here’s a step-by-step process if you want to get started in Amazon’s Influencer program:

1. Sign up and get approved

The first step is to simply sign up for Amazon’s program. It’s worth knowing that Amazon prefers creators that want to provide specific product recommendations and reviews to inspire their audience, and if you simply want to drive traffic to Amazon, they encourage you to just sign up for their Associates program.

Here’s what it takes for you to get approved as an Amazon Influener

Requirements for approval

• Professional Amazon Seller account ($39.99/month)
• Active social media presence on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook (must have Business account)
• Clear niche focus with professional content
• Genuine engagement from followers
• There is no hard follower count threshold, but your chances are best if you have 1000 or more followers.

2. Choose what you want to promote 

Once you’re approved, you can choose what you want to promote. The most important consideration is to sell something that is catered to your audience, as this will have the highest conversion rate and will give you the best chances of entering the Creator Star Program. 

Other than that, here are some other tips surrounding the best types of products that you should promote:

• Choose a product that you’re genuinely interested in and actively using so you can make compelling content and give a strong personal recommendation to buy it, just like the viewer would get from a friend
• These products should also have strong reviews–at least 4 stars, as customers will still see the review page on the product and want to know that other people like it too
• If possible, sell products with higher commission rates. Remember also that products sold in your Amazon Influencer storefront and from Inspire feed videos will gain you a greater commission as Onsite sales compared to sales through your social media, which are considered Offsite
• Items that fit naturally with your content style and personality will perform best. You can always adjust your content to match products that are more lucrative
• Products in the $20-$100 range generally have optimal conversion and offer a decent commission per sale, especially if they’re in the higher priced commission brackets

3. Fill out your storefront

Be sure to populate your storefront with a good selection of products based on the previously described criteria. Also, take advantage of the personalization that Amazon offers, so make a solid profile complete with a good banner image and bio that makes it somewhere your shopper wants to stay.

You’ll be able to organize products into categories, and create themed collections for easy browsing in addition to highlighting featured items. Be sure to regularly update your featured items based on how your customer is engaging in your content and what their shopping behavior is.

4. Make your shoppable videos

While a good store and your existing social media presence will help to drive revenue, one of the best ways to greatly increase your reach is by making shoppable videos . These will go on your storefront and can potentially end up on Amazon’s Inspire feed, which is growing viewership by the day. 

Here are some tips for creating effective videos on Amazon:

• Make sure you’re demonstrating the product’s benefits and features, being specific and genuine with all of your comments
• Maintain a high quality with good lighting, angles, and clear audio. Look at top viewed videos on Inspire and copy those if you need inspiration
• Amazon is notorious for their strict guidelines in general, and this also applies to your videos. Be sure to follow them so your videos get approved
• Use real-world usage scenarios that your audience can relate to while remaining engaging and entertaining throughout

5. Push out your video content

Amazon’s Inspire Feed works just like any other social media platform, so if you want to succeed, you need to follow all basic principles surrounding content creation. This includes consistency, adapting to trends and changes, and making sure you updated products and videos regularly as needed.

Consider going cross-platform with your videos, offering a preview of your Inspire content on public social media to encourage people to visit your store and video feed so you get paid higher Instore commission as a creator.

How do you make money with the Amazon influencer program?

The Amazon Influencer Program offers multiple ways to generate income beyond basic affiliate links.

Unlike traditional affiliate programs, influencers have several tools and opportunities at their disposal to create a robust and diverse revenue stream.

Amazon Influencer program monetization features

As we stated earlier, Amazon’s Influencer program opens up a greater potential of income compared to its traditional Associates program, offering monetization features that include the following perks:

Personalized Storefront Sales

The main method for making money as an Amazon Influencer is through sales made inside of your personalized storefront. Each product sold through your store will earn you a commission based on the tier it’s in, and when it’s sold inside of your store, you’ll be eligible for a the Onsite commission rate.

Video content sales

The videos that you create that will show up in the Amazon Inspire feed are also a way that you can gain sales and earn commission from viewers who end up buying based on your video content. The best types of videos are quick product reviews that showcase functionality and highlight satisfaction while creating urgency.

Tiered commission structures

Influencers on Amazon will earn varying commission rates based on product category. Commission will apply to all qualified products that are sold through your links, content, and storefront.

Your commission will also vary whether you direct traffic from your social media to the product page–in this case it’s considered Offsite. A higher Onsite commission is paid if someone buys in your store or through Amazon Inspire video feed..

Analytics to track performance

Each Amazon Influencer Store comes with a powerful dashboard that displays various actionable metrics including impressions, clicks, individual product revenue, and other sales data to help understand the performance of both your products and videos so you can make informed decisions to increase your bottom line.

Bonus opportunities

Amazon allows its Influencers to benefit from increased earning potential during major shopping events such as Prime Day, Black Friday, and other seasonal promotions. These periods sometimes feature incentives specifically for Amazon Influencers.

Access to exclusive Creator programs

For increased earning potential for top Influencers, Amazon offers a Creator Stars program which can unlock additional benefits and opportunities. Admission to this program is based on performance metrics. We’ll go into the specifics of this program later in this guide. 

How much can you earn as an Amazon influencer?

Your earnings potential through the Amazon Influencer Program depends on several factors, depending on the size of your audience, how well they convert, and the commission structure of your products which is based on their category.

Amazon commission structure by category

To give you a better idea idea of exactly how much you can earn as an Amazon Influencer, we will break down some examples of popular categories and their respective commissions, starting with the most lucrative:

Electronics (1-4%)

Sports and Outdoors (4.5%)

Home and Kitchen (4-8%)

Luxury Items (10%)

Amazon Games (20%)

Amazon influencer earnings over time

To paint the picture more clearly regarding how much it’s possible to make as an Amazon Influencer, here’s a theoretical example of what the earnings progression might look like for a relatively normal microinfluencer that has a starting audience of 1000-5000 followers:

First 3-6 months

During this initial period, the majority of influencers can expect to earn between $100-$500 monthly as they learn the platform and build up their videos and store.

This period will typically involve testing different product types to see what converts, fleshing out an ideal store structure, and learning audienc preferences.

Months 6-12

By the six month mark, established influencers can realistically earn $500 to a few thousand dollars per month once they’ve refined their product selection based on data, increased their followership, and taken advantage of promotional opportunities.

Year 1 and beyond

After year 1, Influencers can realistically approach the realm of full time income, with $3000-$5000 per month or more becoming achievable especially if they have reached higher Star tiers like Gold or Platinum. At this point, they’ll be an authority within their niche, so additional income from social media or even other sources like digital products are well within reach and should be taken full advantage of.

What about the Amazon Creator Stars program?

Launched in 2024, the Creator Stars program adds a tiered rewards system to the standard influencer program. This program divides top-performing creators into four levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

To move up the ranks within the program and to become eligible from it, you’ll need to earn points. These points are awarded based on sales performance and content engagement, and advancing through the tiers and maintaining status requires a history combined with a strong present performance in these areas that is ideally increasing.

Creator Stars program: Tier benefits explained

Bronze tier is the entry level, and offers benefits such as broader content placement across Amazon’s website and access to Creator Connections.

Moving up to the Silver tier means additional perks such as early access to deals and exclusive promotional codes. Once you reach Gold, you’ll gain priority content placement, gold-level event access, and enhanced analytics and reporting tools.

The Platinum tier, which is reserved for the top percentile of performers, provides the most valuable benefits, including seasonal gift boxes, creator event invitations, and even opportunities to collaborate directly with private brands on Amazon complete with private professional photo shoots for dedicated product collections..

Each tier includes all benefits from previous tiers, and the Creator Stars program evaluates performance monthly to determine which tier someone might end up in.

5 real-life examples of Amazon influencers

Here are some inspiring stories of individuals who were able to expand their income stream, in some cases drastically, by signing up for the Amazon Influencer program.

Heidi Leatherby

One of the most well-known case studies for Amazon Influencer success is Heidi Leatherby, who leveraged her audience as an author to significantly increase her income as an Amazon Influencer.

She expanded beyond her previous reputation as an author to make videos about using daily items, including coffee makers, tea bags, supplements, and even rubber duckies, stacking up over 2200 videos in 6 months which earned her a reported $14,000 during that initial period and continue to generate revenue from new viewers.

Spencer Haws

Spencer Haws is known as an expert in niche websites and side hustles, and he’s covered just about any method to making money online which recently includes his experience as an Amazon Influencer.

He decided to go the higher ticket route, reviewing home office and tech accessories, and is now earning around $3000 per month after less than a year inside of the program.

In his YouTube videos breaking down his income and growth step-by-step, he emphasizes the importance of pushing out videos at high volume just like Heidi did.

Gina Kuehne 

Specializing in family and lifestyle products, Gina Kuehne is a teacher, wife, and mother turned Amazon Influencer. Best known now as a mindset coach and educational consultant, she focuses on taking a practical approach to helping mothers manage chaos and find clarity in their hectic daily lives.

Her success comes down to combining practical essentials with innovative problem-solving products, particularly in the home, kitchen, and organizational strategies. Gina also benefits by strategically combining evergreen and seasonal content to help maintain steady monthly earnings while also capitalizing on holiday shopping goals.

Sal Farzin

Another Amazon Influencer who found his a goldmine in the tech and electronics realm is Sal Farzin, aka Simply Sal Finds on TikTok. He’s known to be among the first to showcase new and unique gadgets, and with a loyal following eagerly awaiting his video debuts, he gains good commission from the growing portion of his audience that buys from his well-done reviews.

This father of four reports making six figures annually from his audience which mostly comes through TikTok and to his Amazon storefront, allowing him to quit his 20 year career in tech to pursue income as an influencer full time.

Jared Bauman

Successful side hustler Jared Bauman has added being an Amazon Influencer to his list of income streams. He’s documented his experience thoroughly on his blog Weekend Growth where he reports getting to over $1000 per month in earnings from the Amazon Influencer program.

He makes content for both beginners and professionals, again following the winning formula of recommending high ticket items which in his case are mostly camera gear and photography accessories. His success shows that having specialize niche knowledge is one of the most important prerequisites to monetizing an audience of any kind.

How Whop can help you make more money with Amazon

Ready to cash in as an Amazon Influencer? The first step is to grow your social media audience or to optimize it if you don’t have one already. 

Having a resource like Whop is the secret weapon of many top creators in any realm of social media.

In addition to many more free posts on our blog on how to grow and monetize an audience, we also have a collection of expert-led, thoroughly vetted groups that will help you join a winner’s circle full of social media experts, including those who are cashing in as an Amazon Influencer.

Check out all of our communities dedicated to social media success.

Already a creator looking to monetize your audience even more? Whop has all the tools that will empower you to do so, from being able to make your very own whop that you can monetize and equip with various apps such as chats, dedicated forums, hosting and selling of digital products and subscriptions, and much more.

As an influencer, you can use your whop to connect more deeply with your audience and offer paid membership-only access to you on a closer level. Plus, you can also sell ebooks, courses, webinars and masterminds that teach others how to find success as an influencer.

Join the savvy group of cutting edge internet entrepreneurs cashing in with Whop today.