Writing good content online can make money as a side hustle or even become a full-time job. Bloggers have multiple income sources to monetize their content, such as placing advertising, affiliate marketing programs, sell physical or digital products. Medium is one of the top choices for writers nowadays to deliver their content. Amazon Affiliate Program is the best pick as an affiliate marketing program.
The question is, “Can You Use Amazon Affiliate Links in Your Medium Articles?”, Medium writer Corrie Who Writes provided detailed information and analysis last year. Has anything changed since then? In this article, I will go through my experience with Amazon Affiliate Program and discuss if we can use it on Medium as of 2023.
Why do writers prefer to write on Medium?
Medium is a popular online publishing platform that allows writers to create content for thousands of readers. One of the benefits of people loving Medium is to focus only on one thing: Content-Centric. Since it’s good content-driven, the Google SEO algorithm would prefer to rank the posts from Medium higher.
Medium has established a healthy system for writers as it attracts more readers, and readers can get information or gain knowledge from reading good content. Once writers get enough followers (100+), they can join the partner program and start monetizing by publishing content only for Medium paid members. That member-only content is monetized by members’ reading time and various factors like stories members engaged in total. You can also refer someone to join the membership through your referral link as another option to earn income on Medium. You gain the referral fee monthly as long as that member continues to subscribe that month.
Medium is also friendly to new writers. A jump-start tip is you can publish your blog post through publication. Being a writer of a publication means whenever you create a new post and publish your post via one of the publications, your content will be delivered to the network of that publication, like getting a notification from a Facebook group. If you have the right content, that means your content will be discovered by more people than you post on a newly created domain. Meanwhile, Google SEO will find your content faster and index it earlier.
Also, you don’t have to pay extra fees to maintain a website yearly and debate which web hosting to go with as part of the content creation journey. Medium is a good option for anyone to get started in writing and professional writers.
Why is Amazon Affiliate Program a good choice?
Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup, or sale they generate for a merchant.
Amazon has an affiliate marketing program called Amazon Associates. One of the most significant benefits of using Amazon is access to the entire network of Amazon products.
With millions of products and programs available, finding a replacement for Amazon takes time and effort. Also, as Amazon is well known for outstanding customer service, users trust the Amazon link more than others when redirecting with the affiliate link. Going through Amazon leads to higher conversion rates overall. However, it doesn’t mean Amazon Associates pay well. According to the Associates Program Standard Fees Schedule, not all category has higher payment. The cookies only last for 24 hours, which means you only get a commission from the user who shopped at Amazon from your link within 24 hours window.
The program itself is straightforward to use. You can search for a product, generate a short link, and then paste it on your site.
Can you use Amazon Affiliate Program on Medium?
The short answer is No. To my surprise, it is not because Medium blocks affiliate programs but because Amazon’s affiliate marketing program blocks Medium.
Medium focuses more on content. According to Medium Rules published on May 26, 2021, It doesn’t allow you to post any third-party advertising and sponsorships. Although not advocated, you can use affiliate links and must disclose them to the reader somewhere with your posts.
“You must disclose affiliate links. Affiliate links, such as links out to Amazon with your code, or any other link out where you will receive a commission or other value, are allowed in posts. But you must disclose somewhere in the post that it includes affiliate links. ”
However, after applying to Amazon’s associate program. I got rejected for joining the Amazon affiliate program using Medium. The reason is that Medium is considered to be a social media in the eyes of Amazon, and Medium is not part of the allowed social media on the Amazon affiliate program list:
“The social media account you have provided does not meet our program requirements as we accept only Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/YouTube/Twitch, and any other social sites apart from the listed above will not be considered into the program.”
The rule that Amazon applies here is still vague, as Corrie Who Writes mentioned in her post. I reapplied again and got the “Rejected account Appeal” message again. I chatted with one of the representatives online before my account was suspended. What the representative told me was my account looked in a good state, and I should keep doing what I did. Then three days, my account was closed again for the same reason.
What are the alternatives?
There are many alternatives for Amazon affiliate program Medium. However, I don’t feel comfortable letting others shop from a less reliable website. You can try the other affiliate site, but I am concerned about putting those things on Medium as it distracts my reader. I want to use an affiliate program for some books I recommend. For now, I will wait to see what happens and still focus on providing good content to my readers.
Above is my experience with Amazon Associate Program on Medium in 2023. Unfortunately, Medium is still considered social media in the Amazon Associate program. Amazon can update its policy to include Medium, as Medium is an excellent platform with a high-rank web score and high-quality traffic.