If you’ve been using the Amazon Influencer Program for a while, you’ve probably noticed that affiliate income can feel inconsistent. Some months perform well, while others depend heavily on traffic, algorithm changes, or whether a post happens to take off. This is a common experience for creators who rely only on off-site links to generate commissions.
What many affiliates don’t realize is that Amazon has quietly expanded the way creators can earn and those opportunities don’t require you to leave the Amazon platform. In fact, they reward creators whose content helps shoppers make buying decisions while they’re already on Amazon. This is where onsite earnings come into play.
What Are Amazon Onsite Earnings?
Most affiliate marketing strategies focus on driving traffic outward – from a blog, social platform, or email list to Amazon. Onsite earnings flip that model. Instead of relying entirely on your audience clicking a link, Amazon may place your content directly within its own shopping experience.
This content often takes the form of product videos, lifestyle photos or curated images and collages that appear on product detail pages, search results, or related shopping feeds. When a shopper views or interacts with that content and then makes a purchase, you can earn a commission even though the transaction happened entirely on Amazon’s site.
For creators who are already producing review-style content, this is a natural extension rather than a completely new strategy. You’re still educating, demonstrating, and recommending and Amazon is sharing the content.
Learn more about Amazon Onsite Earnings directly from Amazon: Click Here
How Amazon Influencers Start Earning Onsite Commissions
Do I still need a separate approval process to earn onsite commissions? The short answer is: yes, but the process is integrated into your Amazon Influencer journey and it’s less confusing than it sounds.
Step 1: Join the Amazon Influencer Program
Before anything else, you need to be approved for the Amazon Influencer Program. This is different from the basic Associates Program and has its own application process. You can apply through the Amazon Influencer landing page using your existing Amazon account. You’ll be asked to connect at least one social profile (like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook) so Amazon can evaluate your engagement and content quality. Once approved, you’ll get access to your influencer dashboard and storefront.
Amazon looks at things like:
- Your activity and engagement on the connected platform
- How often you post
- Whether your content aligns with shopping behavior
There’s no official follower minimum, but stronger engagement helps your application.
Step 2: Build Out Your Storefront Content
Once you’re in the program, your next priority is to populate your storefront with engaging content, especially photos and product videos. Amazon uses the content you upload to decide what qualifies for onsite placements.
What counts here are authentic, helpful pieces that show real product use and value. This might mean posting 3–5 review videos that you’ve already created for social platforms or making new ones specifically for your Amazon page.
Step 3: Onsite Earnings Approval
After approval into the influencer program, Amazon requires influencers to complete a separate onsite review process before their content becomes eligible to appear on product pages.
Here’s how that process typically works.
Once you’re inside your influencer dashboard, Amazon will prompt you to upload three product videos. These videos are reviewed by Amazon to determine whether your content meets their standards for onsite placement.
During this stage, your videos are evaluated for things like clarity, usefulness, and whether they genuinely help shoppers understand the product. Amazon is essentially asking: Does this content improve the shopping experience?
READ MORE ABOUT THE APPROVAL PROCESS: How Amazon Influencers Get Approved for Onsite Placement
Only after these three videos are reviewed and approved will onsite placement be unlocked.
When that happens, you’ll gain access to your onsite store ID where you can separately track income from any content placed onsite as well as any bonus earnings earned through creator connections.
Your future video uploads become eligible for placement on Amazon product pages
Step 4: Amazon Reviews Your Content for Placement
Even after the three videos are approved and you get an Onsite Store ID, that doesn’t guarantee that every piece of content will earn onsite commissions right away. Amazon curates which photos, videos, and lists they choose to show to shoppers inside the marketplace.
Amazon performs a review of your content to decide whether to enable onsite placement for your account. Some creators have reported that Amazon looks for a few high-quality videos before enabling onsite earning.
That means your goal in the early days is:
- Publish well-lit photos and thoughtful product videos
- Link them to the specific products you feature
- Avoid posting low-value videos, strive for clear quality and consistency
Once Amazon selects your content to be displayed to customers browsing the site, you begin earning onsite rates whenever that content leads to qualifying purchases.
How Onsite Earnings Connect to Amazon Influencer
Onsite commissions don’t replace your existing affiliate setup. Instead, they work alongside it.
Your Amazon Influencer account continues to track earnings generated from external traffic like blogs, Pinterest, YouTube, or social media. At the same time, Amazon assigns a separate onsite tracking ID for content it distributes within the marketplace. This allows you to see how your content performs through both channels without combining the analytics.
For creators who enjoy analyzing post performance and adjusting content, this separation is incredibly valuable. It shows you what converts when shoppers are casually browsing versus what converts when they’re already looking to buy.
The Natural Next Step for Affiliates
If you’re already an Amazon Influencer, chances are you’re creating content designed to help people choose products. That skill set is exactly what Amazon prioritizes when selecting and promoting influencer content onsite.
The biggest difference is buyer intent. Off-Amazon traffic often comes from people still in the research phase. On Amazon, shoppers are already in purchase mode. When your content appears at that moment, it carries far more weight and often converts at a higher rate.
This is why many creators see Amazon onsite earnings not as a replacement for affiliate marketing, but as a way to expand it. Instead of relying on a single income stream, you’re layering earnings inside and outside the platform.
Amazon Influencers Use Onsite Earnings Long-Term
Successful Amazon Influencers tend to approach onsite commissions as a long-term content system rather than a quick win. Video content is created intentionally to answer the kinds of questions shoppers are already asking, such as whether a product is worth the price, how it looks in real life, or how it compares to similar options.
What makes this strategy powerful is that the content doesn’t expire. A well-made product video or photo can continue resurfacing months later, generating commissions long after it’s uploaded. For creators who want income that compounds over time, this is a major shift away from the constant pressure to post daily.
Over time, many influencers combine onsite commissions with traditional affiliate links, storefront traffic, and even brand partnerships, creating multiple Amazon-based income streams that support each other.
Why Onsite Commissions Are Worth Building Slowly
It’s important to be realistic: onsite commissions are not typically instant income. Like most content-driven strategies, they build gradually. Early earnings may be small, but consistency and quality tend to compound.
What starts as a few dollars a day can turn into steady monthly income as your content library grows. And because Amazon controls the traffic, you’re less dependent on social media algorithms or search engine updates.
For creators thinking long-term, this is one of the most sustainable ways to grow within the Amazon ecosystem.
Expanding Beyond Affiliate Links
If you’re currently using the Amazon Influencer Program, onsite earnings are less about changing direction and more about expanding your reach. You’re still creating helpful content, you’re just allowing Amazon to place it directly in front of buyers.
When used together, affiliate marketing and onsite commissions create a better income strategy. One supports the other, and both benefit from content that’s designed to inform rather than sell.
That’s what makes this transition so powerful for creators who are ready to move beyond links and start building influence where purchases actually happen.
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