How to Sign up as an Amazon Affiliate and make money on HubPages

OK!!! So I saw this question asked and realized that I actually knew the answer to it! I am not going to go into how great Hubpages is or how to increase traffic or make money...there are tons of hubs about that...I am just going to explain how to sign up for Amazon Affiliate program, how to connect the Affiliate Program to your HubPages account and how to add a Amazon capsule and select which items you want to get paid on....

I really like the Amazon option as it allows you to add a link to a specific item or type of item that is relevant to your hub AND earn commission if someone buys that item along with any other items they might buy while they are at Amazon. I will go into this a little later, but I think it is a distinct advantage as you can hand-pick the items you want displayed. I am assuming you already have signed up for HubPages and have an active hub.

1. Go to www.amazon.com. Wait for the page to load and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on "Join Associates" which is under the "Make Money with Us" column.

2. On the far right you will see a login box, under the box there is a button that says "Join now for Free" click on this button. The next page is a login screen, if you have a Amazon login already (from purchasing items on Amazon) then you would enter your login and password and click "Sign In." If you do not yet have an Amazon login then select " I am a new customer." Note that you will not be asked to buy anything to sign up as an associate, but they will collect information about you just like Google does..this only takes a couple of minutes.

3. Select the correct primary address to receive payment at, select the payee you want (it can be yourself or someone else if you would like, but if you choose someone else they will need information about that person.) Click Next...

4. Enter the information about your website. This will be your Hubpages URL (note that you can add other hubs or webpages at this step by selecting the "Add additional URLs" button next to the box where you enter your hub URL)

If you do not know how to get your URL (web page address) it is very easy, just sign into HubPages, then click the button along the top of the page that says "My Account" and then click on "Statistics" and then on whichever of your hubs you want to enter for use with Amazon. When your hub loads, just copy everything that appears in the address bar of your web-browser, that is your hubs URL or web address and paste it into Amazon. Amazon will ask you some information about your webpage, all of them are very straight forward, just answer them all honestly, takes about 45 seconds. Click continue.

5. The next page will have a "Affiliate ID." Make sure you copy this down. They will also send you an e-mail with this code, but this is what you need to start getting paid so I would make sure that you save this along with your Amazon login information.

6. Now, go back to HubPages, go to "My Account" and then to "Affiliate Settings." Enter your new affiliate ID in the space provided for Amazon, then go to the bottom and click "Apply Changes."

7. You are now almost done! On any of your hubs you can now add a Amazon capsule. Once you have added the capsule, click on edit, enter the name you want to appear over the items.

Now you decide if you want to specify specific items to be show or if you just want to enter keywords and let Amazon pick which items they want to display.

See my Hub 10 Things your wireless company Does NOT want you to know!! and notice how I selected cigarette lighter inverters just like the ones I mention in my article. I talk about how to use your home wall chargers for cell phones and laptops while in the car without buying expensive car chargers. This is great as I am placing the exact items I just talked about for sale right there in my Hub! At the bottom of that Hub I did another Amazon Capsule but this time I used the other option and just entered the keyword "Verizon" and let Amazon come up with the listings they thought best.

To select the specific items you want to be shown, go back to Amazon and search for whatever it is you want to use (note that when you select "choose specific items" that it then asks for either keywords or a specific Amazon URL, ASIN or ISBN number.") I have found that it is much easier to go to the Amazon site, find the items you want and either paste the URL or copy the ASIN or ISBN number, which you can find in the details for each item on the Amazon page. I added a picture below to show you the location, click on the image to view larger. Now click save and you are ready to go! Play around with the spacing, you can move the capsules around so they can be in the middle of your Hub like my inverters were.

For future reference, the Amazon affiliate homepage is http://affiliate-program.amazon.com which will allow you to track all of your stats for the program.

GOOD LUCK and Happy Hubbing!!