How to become an Amazon Associate Affiliate after being rejected 2 times before

Here is a true story. I have officially been accepted as an Amazon Affiliate after being rejected 2 times before. Each time I was rejected, I was about to give up. I told myself I would not apply again. Since I cannot sit still, and I enjoy making how-to videos & making money as a side hustle, I could not help myself to keep trying.

I want to share with you my story.

First time I applied to be an Amazon Affiliate

  • When I applied, I had a youtube channel that was gaining some traction. I put my best video that had the most views in my application
  • Here is a bit about my stats
    • Youtube Channel (4 videos total)
      • My top videos had about 5,000+ views
      • I had less than 500 subscribers

With-in the first 3 weeks, I got a few sales. So I was excited. After your first few sales, Amazon will manually review your account to make sure it meets their requirements. After review, I got an email from them saying that my account has been terminated.

I reached out to Amazon and they told me:

Make sure you put your entire Youtube channel so we can review it. You need to make sure that Amazon can see every place where you will be referring our products.

Second Time I applied to the Amazon Affiliate Program

  • I applied with my Youtube Channel
  • I had about 10 videos now, 4 of them were getting good traction.
  • My best videos had about 8,000+ views
  • I had less than 1,000 followers

Again, after a few weeks, I was making a few sales, and when they reviewed my account, they rejected my account again.

I reached out to Amazon. They pointed me to an article. If you are only going to be a social media influencer through Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, ect… You will need to have a large following. 1000+ Subscribes ect…

I get it, Amazon wants true influencers & marketers in their program.

So I went back to the drawing board and started to research the best tips to get accepted as an Amazon Affiliate even after getting rejected.

The third time I applied to be an Amazon Affiliate.. I got accepted!! The third time was a charm πŸ™‚

Here is the playbook and the most important thing for getting accepted.

Step 1 – Lead with Your Website in the Amazon Affiliate application

  • I created this website and built about 15 pages of content.
    • I submitted the application with my website. I highly recommend doing this. Do not lead with social media. I think having your own website with content shows that you are serious and they can see who you really are.
    • I put disclaimers in my pages where I had amazon links. This shows them I have read their Terms & Conditions!
      • Ie: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Step 2 – Organize Your Youtube Page to Showcase Your Influence

  • I organized my youtube channel page (Make yourself look big!)
    • Added a header/banner to my Youtube Channel Page
    • I organized my videos with the most views when someone goes to my youtube page.
      • Leading Videos has around 20,000+ Views
      • The Next 5 Videos on the page have around 5,000-1,000 Views
      • I built up 2000+ subscribers to my Youtube Channel

Again, after a few weeks, I am starting to get a few sales. After Amazon reviewed my account, I got the official acceptance letter from the Amazon Affiliate Program!

I only made a few sales but I challenged myself to earn a few hundred dollars a month as I get better at my how-to Youtube videos on the different DIY projects I enjoy doing.

Don’t laugh yet, when I first started dating my wife 10 years ago, I was excited when I used to make $0.04 per day with Google Adsense. I built that to over $50 per day a decade ago as a side hustle. They laughed until the checks started coming in! πŸ™‚

Here is a quick read on my journey to making money with Google Adsense.

Here is another article I wrote on the playbook of building your Youtube Brand & Views.

Do you need help getting accepted to the Amazon Affiliate Program?

Feel free to email me, I can help you. I can do a quick review and give you some tips for FREE! If you want, you can send me a tip on Venmo so I can buy myself a coffee πŸ™‚

Venmo: @Brian-Pekarek

2 thoughts on “How to become an Amazon Associate Affiliate after being rejected 2 times before

  1. Hello Brian,

    Is there any advice you can give me to get started? My niche is sharing deals I find, but my audience seems to be all over the place. I am currently relying on Facebook, but have a website. I am not gaining followers very fast. My time is limited due to my full-time work and a part-time job, but I do try to stay current on deals.

    Affiliate marketing seems easy enough, but has my head spinning with all the possibilities.

    I appreciate any feedback.

    1. Hi Kristen, the deals/coupon market is a tough one. While you think sharing deals is niche, it is actually a huge market and competing against those mega coupon/deal websites will be very difficult. You will need a massive website and the ability to source deals for all those different offers.

      If you are going to do coupons/deals, I think you need to go really niche so you can start very narrow and compete especially since you do not have the time because of your full-time job.

      Here is a random example of going niche… pick a niche/industry you really like:

      Category: Apparel
      Sub-Category: Coats/Jackets
      Have a Deals Page on the hottest jackets/coats for each season (Share links/earn commissions), obviously you update every season
      Use a blog to talk about the niche as well. For Example maybe about celebrities wearing those jackets ect… Or click bait articles like top 10 priciest jackets for 2022/2023

      I would focus on organic SEO ranking growth to make that happen. It would take some time and energy but if you followed that above, I bet you would see some traction in a couple of months.

      Good luck and let me know if you ever have any other questions!

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