{"id":10049,"date":"2023-04-13T20:32:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T19:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commission.academy\/blog\/?p=10049"},"modified":"2023-04-13T20:32:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T19:32:31","slug":"is-amazon-associates-a-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commission.academy\/blog\/is-amazon-associates-a-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Amazon Associates A Scam or Legit? (It Should Be Free To Join)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amazon Associates is the name of Amazon’s affiliate program<\/a> & the official program provides a legitimate way to earn money by recommending Amazon products (it is not a scam).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, whilst the official Amazon Associates affiliate program is legitimate & free to join<\/a>, unfortunately, there are many Amazon Associates scams trying to take advantage of newbie affiliate marketers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, on this page, we will help you differentiate a legitimate Amazon Associates affiliate program opportunity from a scam one & uncover if Amazon’s affiliate program is worth it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we’ll start from the top, with the most important question first…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Amazon Associates Legit?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yes, Amazon Associates (located at https:\/\/affiliate-program.amazon.com<\/a>) is legit. It is Amazon’s official affiliate program & it provides you with an opportunity to earn commissions by recommending products<\/a> from the Amazon website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program also has separate URLs for each country it operates in. For example, the UK-specific Amazon Associates website is located at https:\/\/affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you notice, though, from the URLs is that they all end in an Amazon domain name. So, if you remove the “affiliate-program.” from the URL, you should be taken to the official Amazon website for that geo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, scammers know that the different URLs can cause confusion & so they often set up fake Amazon Associates scams on suspicious URLs to catch people out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, they set up their versions of the websites to look very similar to the official Amazon Associates website, but they ask for payment during the registration process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll explain more about those scams & how they work in a moment, but the key point I want to stress here is that the official Amazon Associates opportunities hosted on Amazon’s own domains are<\/strong> legitimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can indeed, as they claim, earn money by recommending their products or services<\/a> to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another post, we uncovered how much Amazon affiliate links pay<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, we also uncovered the top Amazon affiliate earners<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in our free training<\/a>, we teach you exactly how you build a thriving affiliate marketing business & actually start making money<\/a> with the Amazon affiliate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in short, yes, Amazon Associates is legitimate… And that brings me to the next point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Amazon Associates Free?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yes, Amazon Associates is completely free to join. As we discussed in another blog post, you should never have to pay money to join an affiliate program<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, as an affiliate of a company, you will be promoting that company’s products or services, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to exclude affiliates by charging a fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as you can imagine, companies want as many affiliates promoting their products or services as possible & Amazon are no different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you should be able to join Amazon Associates without any payment whatsoever, meaning that if you’re being asked for money to join, it’s very likely that you’re on a scam website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings me nicely to the next point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoiding An Amazon Associates Scam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

356,000 people search for Amazon Associates every single month on Google. 225,000 people search for the Amazon affiliate program (as shown below):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Amazon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, as you can imagine, scammers try to take advantage of this by creating Amazon Associates scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each scam will work & look slightly different, but they all follow a similar premise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, the scams will use a copied version of the Amazon Associates website & they will try to make it seem like an official Amazon website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, during the signup process, you will be asked for payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, in the more elaborate version of the scams, you will receive fake earnings in your account & be asked for payment prior to being able to withdraw your earnings (often referred to as a “release fee”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, you will be required to hand over some of your hard-earned cash to either take part in the opportunity or receive your earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that alone proves that it’s a scam because the official Amazon Associates program does not require any payment whatsoever. No signup payment, no withdrawal payment & no tax payment, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here is how you can avoid an Amazon Associates scam:<\/p>\n\n\n\n