Six Months as an Amazon Influencer
I have been in the Amazon Influencer program now for a little over 6 months. This month will be my 6th whole month. My first month was only the last 12 days of June. So I wanted to give a quick update on my journey.
Let’s start with what the program is. The Amazon influencer program is not the same as the associate’s program if you want to see the difference you can check out this article Amazon Influencer v. Amazon Associate.
The Amazon Influencer Program is a program that you get approved to do by applying with a social media account and once approved you are given a storefront and you have the opportunity to be approved for onsite placement, which is where I earn the most money at this time.
Why do I say “at this time” well, I am starting to branch out into other areas of influencing and my business. Which includes UGC, and more affiliate type content.
Amazon Influencer Program with Onsite Placement
The program that I am part of that includes the Amazon Onsite Placement is a two-step process the first of which is getting approved for the Amazon Influencer Program with an approved social media account. The second step is getting approved for onsite placement.
I was approved for the program after creating a Facebook page, running an ad for followers, posting 3 times a day for at least 2 weeks, and getting tons of engagement. Then I applied and was approved. I still post to that group even though it has nothing to do with my niche.
The second step was getting approved for onsite placement. That is a little bit harder to get approved for. You have to submit 3 videos reviewing 3 Amazon products. Now, no one knows exactly what Amazon is looking for in these videos, but my first three videos were simple videos that showed the product, with no heavy editing and no claims as to what the product could do. They were just walking through the function of the product and how it worked. I was approved on my first attempt.
My First Month (11 days – June 2023)
The first month I was in the program was the last 11 days of June 2023, and it was a learning experience as I didn’t know what I was doing and had no idea what to put on my storefront on Amazon or how to promote the content I put there. So I just started creating idea lists and videos.
I uploaded 45 videos to Amazon and some of them were placed on product pages. And with those videos, 29 products sold and earned $42.61 in commissions in that period. I was excited because it worked. This little side hustle was earning me money.
My First Full Month (July 2023)
In my second month, creating the videos became almost second nature. I started looking at other storefronts watching how they created their videos and learning what I liked about them. I then started to integrate some of the ideas that I liked into my videos. I also started trying out the thumbnails to see if they worked better than not having them. I am not sure if it has any effect on how many views or whether or not they get placed.
The question you may have: What does getting placed mean?
Getting placed is when your video shows up in the carousel either on the top carousel or the bottom. The bottom is not always there and that is another thing I have learned.
Now in July 2023, I uploaded 111 review videos, 168 items were shipped out, and I earned $378.47.
Second Full Month as an Amazon Influencer (August 2023)
August was the month of the This or That Challenge for Amazon Influencers that had onsite placement. That was interesting. I only did 5 videos for it and they were all accepted so I earned the bonus for each one, which was great. But I wish I had done so many more.
But it was my first time being invited to one of the challenges and I was still fairly new to the program so I was still trying to get videos up of products I had in my home and that was my goal. In retrospect, I should have focused on the challenge because I could have earned a huge chunk of change for me if I had.
This month all I focused on was getting videos up and learning more about the program. Learning the rules and such. Some big influencers were being banned from the program for not following the rules
One of those rules was not to receive products in exchange for a refund and another is you can’t do 5-star written reviews. You are now an influencer, not a regular customer any longer.
In August of 2023, I uploaded 140 videos, 872 items were shipped out, and I earned $865.22.
Third Full Month as an Influencer (September 2023)
So September 2023, was slow all around. It was the month after the this or that challenge and it is also the month I learned about throttling in the program. What is throttling? It is when things are slowed down to almost a complete stop with Amazon pushing the creator’s videos.
Amazon removed the lower carousel from products and products were not shipping out as much for the month.
But what did happen is that I started having sellers contact me and ask me to create reviews for their products. In return, they would send the product to me at no charge and pay me to create a shoppable video to place on my storefront.
This however is where you need to be careful as there are a lot of sellers out there that ask you to purchase the product and they will refund you the price plus extra to do the video. That is against Amazon’s Terms of Service for them and not good practice for you as an influencer.
In September 2023, I uploaded 38 videos, 995 products were shipped out from my videos, and I earned $676.21 from commissions for onsite, I earned $151.26 from offsite, and I earned $220 from brand deals for shoppable videos. In total, I earned $1047.47 for September just because I started this simple side hustle.
Fourth Full Month as an Amazon Influencer, Associate & UGC Creator (October 2023)
October 2023, was even slower than the previous month. It seemed like none of my videos were on product pages and the ones that did make were my low-cost items that I didn’t earn much in commissions from.
So, I decided I would start working on my affiliate side of things with the associate’s program for Amazon. I created an online group for my niche Jenn’s Daily Home Finds and invited a few people to that group.
I started creating listings of all the best deals that I found on Amazon either through my back office or just scouring Amazon for things that I would buy or did buy, LOL, you’ve got to spend money to make it. At least that is what I told my husband.
I also started getting more and more requests to create videos but now some sellers wanted to buy the rights to these videos and that meant more money for the video cost.
Now, don’t make the mistake I did and accept to do those for a low payout. For my first one, I only charged $50 and that’s 10x lower than it should be. You should be charging anywhere from $150 and up for those videos. Why? Because you can’t upload those to your storefront and earn commissions on those products.
In October of 2023, I uploaded 165 videos, 719 items were shipped out, and I earned $629.03 in onsite commissions, and $144.77 in offsite commissions, UGC Videos $540, Amazon Shoppable videos $200. I earned a total of $1513.80 for October 2023.
Fifth Full Month as an Influencer (November 2023)
November 2023, started slow. I became worried that I wasn’t growing how others were, I was worried that I was doing something wrong. I started researching other storefronts again to compare my videos to others.
But it was nothing I was doing wrong, it is just the peaks and valleys of the program if all you are doing is onsite placement. And November does start slow because people are waiting for Black Friday. Now being newer and having under 500 videos uploaded is another thing that I found out has some effect on placement. The more videos you have the more sales you will make.
But I wanted to get that offsite going even more so I decided it was time to start uploading to my Youtube Channel more regularly. To become an influencer of sorts without all the aesthetically pleasing Instagram or TikTok posts. So I started taking the videos that I uploaded to Amazon and began uploading them onto my channel. Who knew I could get over 2k views on a review of Gain Laundry detergent?
In November 2023, I uploaded 21 videos, 1268 products were shipped out from my videos, and I earned $1181.65 from commissions for onsite, I earned $315.29 from offsite, $50 of that came from Youtube, and I earned $320 from brand deals for shoppable videos and $450 in UGC. In total, I earned $2266.94.
Sixth Full Month as an Amazon Influencer, Associate, YouTube & UGC Creator (December 2023)
Now, we are in my sixth month of being an Amazon Influencer. I now have a blog that I post on most days, I have been messing around trying to figure out the best way to do that. This will be a constant work in progress but I like doing it. I do want to get it to the point that it has a theme for each day of the week. And I want to create a newsletter soon with deals from other brands as Amazon doesn’t allow you to share links through email and earn a commission. But that is a work in progress.
I have integrated Pinterest into my business now, but still not super consistent yet with it and there are many rules on how you share images and things.
I have started creating shoppable images and collages that I have on my Amazon Storefront that I also put on my blog and then share to Pinterest.
I have two videos a day being published on YouTube
I have my online Facebook Group Jenn’s Daily Home Finds which I share all the deals I find and also discount codes that I no longer have to search for as I have a list of sellers that send me the codes and pay me to post them in my group.
I share other stores on my group such as Walmart and Target and a few others, I have also joined a few sites that pay me to promote products from them through their sites which are earning me more income.
In December of 2023, I uploaded 29 videos, 1723 items were shipped out, and I earned $1654.66 in onsite commissions, and $362.61 in offsite commissions, UGC Videos $840, Amazon Shoppable videos $240. And placing discount codes on my group I earned $120. I earned a total of $3217.27 for December 2023.
So in the first 6 months of being an Amazon Influencer and branching out from that I have earned $9331.78 all from a very part-time side hustle. I have automated a lot of my work for my Facebook group. I have an app that pulls deals for me in the categories I choose and then I use another app to pull from the spreadsheet to post those into my group. I’m sure there are better ways than I am doing it at this time but it works for me for now.
This is not a get-rich business but honestly if I just did the onsite with the Amazon Influencer Program I would earn enough to pay for groceries a month plus have some spending money now. But I want to turn this passion into a full-time business. Something, I can do from anywhere so let’s see where 2024 takes me so far it is looking good. I know the onsite has many ups and downs, and with Amazon making changes all the time it gets frustrating but I don’t think I have ever found a side hustle that is so easy to get started with and earn money from things you already own in your home.
If you would like to learn how to get started the same way I did, each step I took to get approved and start earning money in as little as 10 minutes a day then I can help. I created my Amazon Rave Reviews Course to get you started with the Amazon Influencer Program and onsite placement. I will be creating a more in-depth course that will walk you through my whole business and if you are already a student in the Amazon Rave Reviews Course then you will have the opportunity to be a beta students in the new course when it is completed which will include, creating an automated Facebook group, website build and much much more.
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