Free guide · Amazon Influencer ProgramThere is no shortcut.

This is the guide we wish existed when Amazon invited us into the Influencer Program. It's free, and it's built from two things: what Michelle and I have actually done to turn this into a multiple six-figure business, and everything that changed in 2025 and 2026 (and a lot changed).

You won't find "passive income" promises here. The Amazon Influencer Program is a real business. It can pay very well, it takes real work, and Amazon changes the rules often. If someone tells you it's easy money, they're usually selling you a course that costs $997.

Never done this before? Start here

If you've never made a penny online, none of this will sound familiar yet. Here's the whole business in plain English.

What you actually do: you film a short video of a product, upload it to Amazon, and Amazon can show that video on the product's page. When a shopper watches it and buys, Amazon pays you a percentage of the sale. That's it. No inventory, no shipping, no customer service.

The words you'll keep seeing:

How you get paid: Amazon adds up your commissions each month and pays about 60 days later. There's no salary and no hourly rate. A video you film today can keep earning for years, or earn nothing. That difference is what most of this guide is about.

What it costs to start: nothing but time, if you film things you already own. It gets more serious when you start buying products to review (Module 4), and we'll show you how we make that cost far less than it sounds.

Who this is for

• You just got approved (or you're about to apply) and you're thinking "OK... now what?"
• You've uploaded some videos and you're making $0 to a few hundred dollars a month, and you don't know why.
• You want to go from "side hustle" to "this pays real bills," including brand deals.

How to use this guide

Go in order the first time. Every numbered module ends with a short Do this list. Don't skip those; reading about videos doesn't make you money, but uploading them does.

As you read, you'll see three things that stand out from the normal text:

• A small blue tag that says Check your dashboard. That marks a rule or number Amazon changes. We've checked it as of September 2026, but confirm it in Associates Central or the Amazon app before you bet money on it.
• Yellow panels labeled "Seb & Michelle." Those are us talking: our own stories, our numbers, and how we actually do it. The rest of the guide is what we teach.
• Red "Myth / Reality" notes. Those clear up the things we see people repeat in Facebook groups every single day.

Quick answers

The questions we get asked most, answered short. Each one links to the full section.

How long until I see real money?

Longer than most people expect. A sale only shows up as commission once the product has shipped. Then Amazon pays each month's earnings about 60 days after that month ends. So a sale today reaches your bank more than 60 days from now. And it only arrives if your bank and payout details are set up everywhere you earn: on both of your US store IDs, and in every other country's Amazon program you've joined, not just your US account. (Setup, troubleshooting.)

Do I need an LLC?

Can I do this outside the US?

Absolutely. It's open to anyone, and a US Amazon Influencer account and storefront can be run by someone living outside the United States. You'll complete the tax interview for wherever you live when you set up payments.

• Getting products is the harder part. Creator Connections samples ship to US addresses, so they're more complicated to receive from abroad (Module 5).
• Buying your own is simpler. A lot of the products sold on Amazon US also exist in your region. Buy it locally, find the matching ASIN on amazon.com, and tag your video to that.
• If your followers are spread around the world, use links that send each of them to their own country's Amazon (OneLink or Passport).

Can I use the same video on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram?

Wherever you post, add the channel to your website list before you put Amazon links there, and follow each platform's own rules for links and disclosure (Module 8).

Should I upload shoppable photos to Amazon?

Do I have to show my face?

What this guide won't do

It won't teach you tricks that break Amazon's rules. We've been doing this for years because we protect our account. Buying through your own links, disguising where your links go, fake reviews, and "accept everything and post nothing" might work for a month. Then they cost you everything.

Most beginners can't explain where their money comes from. That's why they can't fix it when it stops. Learn this module and you'll understand this business better than most of the people posting in those Facebook groups.

The six income streams

The pros stack all six. Beginners usually only think about the first one.

Creator Rewards: the bonus most people never turn on

Almost nobody talks about this one, and it's free money for sales you're already making. Amazon runs Creator Rewards in periods (usually a month or two). For each month in the period, you get a ladder of shipped revenue targets. Reach a rung and Amazon pays you a flat bonus on top of your normal commissions.

Shipped revenue means the total value of what shipped through your links, not your commission. So the targets look big, but they're counting sales, not your cut.

Here's how a ladder works, with made-up round numbers (your real targets are private to your account, and so are ours):

Your targets are set for your account, so a newer account will see smaller numbers than an established one. Don't compare with anyone, just check yours. Check your dashboard

How to find it:

1. In Associates Central, open the menu (the three lines at the top right). Under Promotions, click Creator Rewards (direct link).
2. On the Current tab, look for a green line saying your Store ID is enrolled. No green line means you aren't earning it. Enroll.
3. Check the Upcoming tab too, so you're enrolled before the next period starts.
4. Switch the StoreID dropdown to your other store ID and check it there as well.
5. Each month, look at Monthly progress to see how close you are to the next target. If you're close near the end of a month, that's the week to push your links offsite.

While you're in that menu, the other Promotions are worth a look too: Creator Connections (Module 6), the Amazon Bounty Program, and the Deals Hub.

Onsite rates (the ones nobody tells you about)

These are Amazon's published onsite rates (Table A). They're what you earn when a shopper buys after watching your video on the product page. Check your dashboard

There's a second table on that same page, for Creator Ads, and almost nobody mentions it. When your content runs in an ad placement rather than organically on the product page, the rates are higher, topping out around 5%. You don't control which one applies, so don't plan around it. Just know that when your onsite earnings look better than the table above says they should, this is usually why.

Read the first table again. A $20 toy at 0.5% pays you 10 cents per onsite sale. A $150 patio set at 3% pays you $4.50. Same effort to film. This is why product selection (Module 4) matters more than how pretty your video is.

The per-video math

Here's the benchmark we use to judge a catalog today. This counts all your Amazon earning streams (onsite, links, Creator Connections, bounties) during a normal, non-Q4 month:

• $1 per video per month: low to average.
• $2 per video per month: average to high.
• $3–4 per video per month: high.

Anything above that is an outlier, not a plan.

How long a video earns depends almost entirely on the product. Pick something that disappears from Amazon in two months and the video dies with it. Pick an evergreen product and it can pay you daily for years: we have staple products we filmed years ago that are still earning today. Module 4 covers how to spot them.

That means income ≈ (live, earning videos) × (average per video). You can move either lever: more videos, or better videos on better products. The people stuck at $100 a month usually have plenty of videos on products that can't pay.

The latest rule changes

A lot of people panicked when these landed. Here's what actually happened, in plain words:

• April 14, 2026, new Operating Agreement (see exactly what changed). Onsite commissions now pay only on "direct qualifying purchases" (the same product variant you featured). The old "halo" (earning on everything else in the shopper's cart) is gone for onsite. Offsite link clicks still appear to earn on the other items in the cart.
• Paid ads don't count. Purchases that come from paid or boosted ads pointing to Amazon no longer qualify.
• 180-day window. An item has to ship and be paid for within 180 days to earn.
• "Original content" rule. Your content needs real commentary, analysis, or transformation. Low-effort AI filler is a risk now.
• Reporting got thinner. Trade press (Logie, Karooya) reported a US reporting reset around March 9, 2026, with less order- and campaign-level detail in the dashboard. Amazon didn't publish a notice, so treat the date as reported rather than official.
• The promo code page is gone. Amazon removed the central page where Associates could get bulk affiliate discount codes, which sellers used to set up really good prices. The Deals Hub took its place (Module 8). If a guide or video tells you to grab codes from Associates Central, it's out of date.
• Rate cuts in the news (Adweek, May 2026) mostly hit big publishers with custom deals, not the standard public rate table.

Bottom line: the lazy version of this business got harder. The real version (good products, good videos, CC, brand deals) still works.

Our revenue mix right now

"I got approved, now what?" is the most common question in every beginner group. Let's clear it up.

Associates vs Influencer: what's the difference?

• Amazon Associates is the affiliate program: you get tracking links and earn when people buy through them. Applying isn't the same as being accepted: you have 180 days to refer 3 qualifying sales, and then Amazon reviews your application properly (your own orders don't count). Amazon's rule is here.
• The Amazon Influencer Program sits on top of that. It's for people with a social media presence. You get a storefront (amazon.com/shop/yourname), idea lists, the ability to upload video reviews that can appear on product pages (onsite), livestreams, and access to Creator Connections.

Since April 14, 2026, Amazon's agreement gives every Associate who completes registration a storefront and a Unique Creator Link, not just Influencer Program members. The lines are blurring. What still separates serious creators is the onsite video access. Check your dashboard

Applying

Apply here: Amazon Influencer Program sign-up. If you're not an Associate yet, you can join Amazon Associates here.

• Platforms Amazon accepts: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest (Amazon's own overview).
• Follower minimum: Amazon doesn't publish one. They look at content quality, engagement, and follower count together. Creators get approved with small but real audiences; engagement matters more than size.
• Timing: some platforms get a decision almost instantly; others take days or weeks.
• Rejected? Amazon says you can reapply. Fix what's weak first: post consistently for a few weeks, make sure your content looks like product/lifestyle content, and apply with your strongest account.
• Or try a different platform. Rejected with Instagram? Apply with your YouTube or Facebook account instead. Plenty of creators get in on their second choice.
• Never buy followers. Fake followers wreck your engagement rate, and engagement is what Amazon is looking at.
• Apply with the Amazon account you actually shop with. Your order history is part of who you are as a reviewer.

The part everyone misses: two store IDs

When you're approved you get two IDs:

1. Your normal Associates tracking ID (for links).
2. A separate Onsite Store ID (it starts with "onamz").

You have to add your payment and tax info to the Onsite Store ID separately. It doesn't copy over. We see people every week asking why they have onsite sales and no money. This is usually why. In Associates Central, switch the store dropdown at the top to your onsite ID to see those earnings. (Amazon's explanation of onsite earnings and the Onsite Store ID.)

Unlocking onsite: the 3-video review

To get your videos placed on product pages, you submit 3 video reviews that Amazon reviews by hand.

• Review can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks.
• Don't delete videos while they're in review. It can reset the clock.
• You get 3 rounds, and that's it. If you're not approved after 3 submissions, you're out, and you'd have to start over with a new account. So focus and get it right the first time. It isn't hard: pick the right products (Module 4) and follow the video rules (Module 3).
• Treat these 3 like a job interview. Pick simple products you can demo clearly, with good light and clean audio. Module 3 covers exactly what gets rejected.

You got the confetti. Now what?

The confetti screen is a great moment, and then it drops you on a dashboard with no instructions. Here's exactly where to go, in order. Do it on a computer, not your phone: uploading, tagging, checking earnings and messaging brands are all faster and more reliable there. Amazon's phone app (Creator Central) is fine for a quick check later.

Step 1: Money first (day one, about 20 minutes)

This is the step that costs people real money when they skip it, so it goes first.

1. Log into Associates Central.
2. Open the StoreID dropdown at the top right. You should see two: your normal Associates ID (it usually ends in "-20") and your Onsite Store ID (the one starting with "onamz").
3. With your normal ID selected, open the menu (the three lines at the top right) and go to Your Associates Account (direct link). Everything in this step and the next is on that one page.
4. Under Payment and Tax Information, click Change Payment Method and add your bank (direct deposit is simplest). Then click View/Provide Tax Information and finish the tax interview.
5. Switch the StoreID dropdown to your onamz ID and do both again. It doesn't copy over.
6. Check it actually saved. On each ID, View/Provide Tax Information should say Current Tax Status: Completed, and Change Payment Method should show your bank. If either one says anything else, your earnings on that ID will pile up and not pay out, and nothing will warn you.

Step 2: List every place you'll post links (10 minutes)

Almost nobody tells new creators about this one, and it's the one that can get an account closed. Amazon's rules say your links can only go on websites and accounts you've listed in your Associates account. If you post links on a YouTube channel, Facebook group or link-in-bio page that isn't on the list, you're breaking the Operating Agreement, even if everything else you do is perfect.

1. In Associates Central, go back to Your Associates Account. Under Account Information, click Edit Your Website, Mobile App, and Alexa Skill List. (Direct link.)
2. Add every place you'll share a link: your YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook page, any Facebook group you run, Pinterest, your link-in-bio page (Linktree, Beacons and so on), and your blog if you have one. Use the full address of each one. You can list up to 50.
3. Finish the second screen, Confirm Compliance, so the list actually saves.
4. Come back every time you start somewhere new. New channel, new group, new blog: add it before you post the first link there, not after.

Step 3: Learn where everything lives

You'll use these places for as long as you're in the program. Bookmark the first three.

Amazon renames and moves these menus often, so if a label on your screen doesn't match ours, look for the closest one. Check your dashboard

Step 4: Set up your storefront (15 minutes)

• Profile photo: your face, not a logo. People buy from people.
• A one-line bio that says what you review: "Honest reviews of kitchen and home gear, tested in our house."
• Your social links, so shoppers can find the rest of your content.
• Your disclosure in every social bio (Amazon's disclosure rules): "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."

Step 5: Your first uploads

1. Make 3 idea lists from things you actually own and use ("Our kitchen", "Travel gear we use", and so on). Five to ten products each. Idea lists can earn too, and they make an empty storefront look lived in.
2. Read Module 3, then film your 3 onsite test videos. Simple products, clear demos, no prices, not clothing.
3. Upload them from your computer (Upload, in the top menu) and tag the exact product you filmed. If it comes in colors or sizes, tag the one in your hands.
4. Check the status a few days later in Manage Content. "In review" is normal and can take weeks. A rejection comes with a reason: fix that reason before you submit again, because you only get 3 rounds.
5. Leave them alone while they're in review. Don't delete, re-upload or edit them. It can reset the clock.
6. Start a simple tracking sheet: date, product, ASIN, category, price, video status. You'll thank yourself at video 200.
7. Share your storefront with your own followers. That's how you get your first real sales, and it's what Amazon wants to see (the "3 sales" box above).

Step 6: What NOT to do in week one

Almost everyone who stalls early does one of these. Skip them and you're already ahead.

• Don't accept every Creator Connections campaign, and don't turn on a tool that accepts them for you. Brands see who delivers, and Amazon is cracking down on accept-everything accounts (Module 6).
• Don't buy new gear. Your phone got you approved. Film your first 30 videos on it and upgrade once you know what's actually slowing you down.
• Don't buy products to film yet. Start with what you own. Investing in products comes later, once you have your own numbers to budget from (Module 4).
• Don't film clothing for your 3 test videos. Fit and sizing are hard to demo, and you want easy approvals first.
• Don't post a link anywhere that isn't on your website list (Step 2). Add the place first, then post.
• Don't touch videos that are in review. Worth saying twice.
• Don't try to run it from your phone. Worth saying twice too.

You don't need a studio. Michelle and I came from video production, and we'll still tell you: a clean video with good light and clear audio beats a cinematic one with muddy sound. Amazon shoppers want to see the product working, and they want to hear a real person explain it.

Before you film anything, read Amazon's own rules once, start to finish: the Associates Program Policies and the video guidelines inside Creator University. Ten minutes of reading saves you weeks of rejections.

What gets videos rejected

Most rejections come down to one of these:

Also: gifted products must be disclosed, kids on camera need to be relevant and supervised, and Amazon logos and service names don't belong in the video.

Specs: .mp4 or .mov, under 5 GB, longer than 5 seconds and shorter than 60 minutes. Amazon doesn't require your face on camera, but we strongly recommend it (see below).

Words that get you rejected

Most of our rejections have come down to words. The ones that catch us most: safe, Amazon, buy, purchase, deal and save, plus anything that sounds like a medical claim. Keep all of these out of your videos, titles, and descriptions:

Rule of thumb: describe what the product does and what you experienced. "It kept my coffee hot for about four hours" is fine. "The best mug on the market, guaranteed" isn't.

What works on Amazon now: value over volume

Where the extra information comes from:

• Read the product page. Features, what's in the box, what it's for.
• Read the customer reviews, especially the concerns and complaints. Those are pain points. Show whether the product solves them, and you've made a video that answers exactly what the next buyer is wondering.

Stuck on what to say? A short script can help if you don't feel comfortable talking off the top of your head. MVP Affiliate (our software, on Pro) writes video scripts built around pain points, features and benefits. Use it as a starting point, then say it in your own words: a script read word for word sounds like a script.

Watch how we do it

Six of our real reviews. Watch them with this module in mind: how fast we get to the product, how close the camera gets, the questions we answer, and how natural we keep it. They play right here.

Our filming formula

Use this structure on every review until you don't need to think about it. Our videos run anywhere from about a minute to six or seven minutes, depending on the product. A quick, inexpensive product still gets at least a minute and a half. A piece of tech that needs in-depth focus gets five or six minutes. The timings below are for a short review; on a longer one it's the demo and the questions that expand, never the open.

Before you hit record (5 minutes)

• Read the listing's Q&A and the 3-star reviews. 3-star reviews are where buyers explain what they wish they'd known. Write down the top 2–3 questions. Those are your script.
• Check the variant. Film the exact color and size you'll tag. Since April 14, 2026, onsite pays on the exact variant.
• Clean the set. No boxes with labels, no clutter, nothing with an address or a price tag in frame.
• Charge, clear space, light. Nothing kills a batch like a dead battery halfway through.

1. The open (first 3–5 seconds)

• Start on the product, already in frame. No intro, no "hey guys", no logo.
• Say what it is and who it's for in one sentence. "This is a cordless stick vacuum for small apartments and pet hair."
• Why it matters: the shopper decides in seconds whether to keep watching, and Amazon often pulls the thumbnail from the first frames. Onsite, you only get paid if they keep watching.

2. First look (10–15 seconds)

• Size and scale: hold it in your hand or next to something everyone knows (a phone, a mug).
• Build and materials: tap it, flex it, show the finish up close.
• What's included: lay out the accessories quickly. Don't do a 2-minute unboxing.

3. The demo (30–60 seconds, the part that sells)

• Use it for real, in the place it belongs. Vacuum the actual rug. Blend the actual smoothie. Put the dog bed where the dog sleeps.
• Show the result: before and after, the clean floor, the finished drink.
• Talk while you do it: what you're doing and what you notice. Short sentences.
• Get close: buttons, settings, the part people are unsure about.

4. Answer the questions (15–30 seconds)

• Hit the 2–3 questions you pulled from the Q&A and reviews. "A lot of people ask if it fits a queen bed. Here it is on ours."
• Numbers help: battery life you measured, noise level, how long setup took.

5. The real cons (10–15 seconds)

• One or two actual downsides. "The cord's short, so you'll want an extension." It builds trust, and trust is what converts.
• Keep it fair. If the product is bad, don't make the video. Move on.

6. The close (5–10 seconds)

• Who should buy it and who shouldn't. "Great for small spaces and pet hair. If you've got a big house with thick carpet, look at a stronger model."
• Then stop. No "link below", no "follow me", no "let me know in the comments".

After you record

• Edit on a computer, not your phone. It's a lot faster.
• Cut the dead air and flubs. When you mess up a line on camera, pause for 5 seconds and say it again. Don't restart the whole take.
• Check audio before anything else. Bad audio gets rejected and doesn't convert.
• Grab 3–5 still frames or photos while the set is up. You'll want them for thumbnails, idea lists, and social.
• Run it against the rejection table before you upload.

Uploading: where to click

1. On a computer, open your storefront while signed in (amazon.com/shop/yourname). A bar appears across the top: Create content, View Storefront, See reporting and Manage content.
2. Click Create content, then Post (video and photo). (The same menu is where you make an Idea List or start a Livestream.)
3. Drag in up to 50 files at once. Videos as MP4 or MOV under 5 GB each, photos as JPEG or PNG under 20 MB each. A whole filming batch can go up in one go.
4. Give each video its title and product tag (see tagging below), then submit.
5. Check its status later in Manage content: in review, approved, or rejected with a reason.

You can also reach the uploader from Upload in Associates Central's top menu. Both go to the same place. Check your dashboard

Tagging: where your video shows up

The product you tag decides which product pages your video can appear on, and which sales you get credit for. It's not paperwork.

• Tag the exact product you filmed. Search by name or paste the ASIN (the 10-character code in the product's Amazon link). If it comes in colors or sizes, tag the one in your hands: onsite only pays on that exact variant.
• Comparison video? Tag every product in it. Your video can then appear, and earn, on each of their pages.
• Never tag a popular product that isn't in your video to borrow its traffic. It gets rejected, and shoppers who feel tricked don't buy.
• Watch your tags over time. If a seller switches to a new ASIN, retag the video (see when something looks wrong).

Show your face, shoot horizontal

Gear: what we use

Our kit

What matters no matter what you shoot on:

• Start with the phone you have. 1080p is plenty to get approved. Don't buy gear before you've made your first 30 videos.
• Audio first. A clip-on wireless mic makes a bigger difference than any camera upgrade, and it's the cheapest thing on this list.
• Soft, even light. A window works. So does a basic LED panel.
• One filming spot that stays set up, so starting a video takes seconds, not 20 minutes.
• Editing: keep it simple. Jump cuts, filler words out, volume evened out. No music.

Links marked "paid link" are our affiliate links and take you to the product on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.

Titles and thumbnails

• Win the row on the product page. Your title sits next to other creators' videos, and the shopper picks one. A formula that works: the question a buyer has, plus your promise to answer it. "Does it survive frozen fruit?" "Watch this before buying the bigger size." Keep it under about 60 characters so it doesn't get cut off.
• Say what the product is and the angle: "Cordless Stick Vacuum for Pet Hair: 30 Days in a Small Apartment" beats "Amazing vacuum!!!"
• Never put "honest" in your title. We hate it, and audiences hate it too. Every review on the internet calls itself honest, so the word means nothing, and it quietly suggests your other reviews weren't. Show it with the cons in your video instead of claiming it in the title.
• Thumbnail, at first: clear product shot, good light, no clutter. 1280×720 is a safe size. Upload your own instead of letting Amazon pick a frame.
• Thumbnail, once you're past the basics: go bright and colorful, with the product, your face, and a few words of text. That's exactly how we build ours now (it's what MVP's Art Director generates for us). A few words, not a paragraph: the thumbnail is small on a phone.
• Don't obsess over this on video #3. Get to video #50, then optimize.

Comparison videos

A video comparing 2–5 similar products can be tagged on several listings, so one video does several jobs. They're more work, so save them for after you're approved and your basic workflow is automatic.

This module is where the money is. A mediocre video on a great product will beat a great video on a product that can't pay you. Every time.

Why "film everything in your house" stalls

Filming what you own is how everyone starts, and it's fine for your first 30–50 videos. But your house is full of products that are cheap, in low-paying categories, discontinued, or already buried under 80 other videos. So you plateau. That's the $100-a-month wall people keep posting about.

Don't niche down (for onsite)

Most guru advice says "pick a niche." For onsite video income, we disagree. Shoppers on Amazon don't follow you. They're on a product page, and your video is there or it isn't. A wide catalog means more product pages, more Creator Connections campaigns you qualify for, and less risk when one category's rates drop.

What makes you different is your pitch

You can be a general product reviewer and still stand out. You just have to tell brands what's different about you, because that's what makes them pick you for their product.

Do you have a boat? Live in a mobile home? Run solar panels? Own a farm? Live near a beach, or a ski resort? Have four kids, three dogs, a tiny apartment, a workshop? All of that is a reason a brand picks you over someone else, and none of it forces you to narrow your catalog.

Broad catalog, specific story. That's the combination.

The 2-minute product screen

Before you buy or film anything, check these:

1. Price. Aim for $25+ for anything you film, and $75+ for anything you buy with your own money. Under $25 is pennies.
2. Category rate. Check the onsite table in Module 1. Home, Pets, Furniture, Lawn & Garden, and Beauty pay better onsite than Toys or Grocery.
3. Does it sell? Look at sales rank, "X bought in past month" on the listing, or a tool estimate. You want real monthly volume and a proven sales history, not a brand-new listing.
4. How crowded is it? Scroll to the videos. When you're starting out, fewer than about 20 influencer videos are a good sign; a listing with hundreds is a lottery ticket. (This matters less once you have experience and a big catalog.)
5. Is there a Creator Connections campaign? With 3+ months left, ideally. The bonus changes the whole math (Module 6).
6. Return risk. Avoid clothing, shoes, and anything with lots of one- and two-star reviews. Returns claw back commissions.
7. Will it still be here in a year? Check the brand's history and catalog, not just the listing (see "evergreen" below).
8. Can you demo it well? If it's boring on camera, it won't convert.

The payback math (illustrative)

Say you buy an $80 home product with a 15% Creator Connections campaign on it:

• Onsite Home rate: 3% of $80 = $2.40 per sale
• CC bonus: 15% of $80 = $12.00 per sale
• Total: $14.40 per sale while the campaign runs

You need about 6 sales to earn the product back. Resell it locally for $60 after filming and your real cost drops to $20, which is 2 sales.

Without the campaign, the same product would need about 34 onsite sales to pay back. That's why we tie buying decisions to CC campaigns. A simple rule: if it can't plausibly pay for itself in about 30 days, don't buy it.

How we reinvest (and why it costs less than you think)

A few ground rules if you copy this:

• Only resell what you bought. Gifted samples and campaign products come with expectations from the brand; if you want to resell those, ask first.
• Film everything you need before you sell (the review, the photos, any social cuts). You won't get the product back.
• Keep your numbers. Log purchase price, resale price, and what the video earned. That's your real payback.

What "well-researched" means to us

What losing looks like (it's normal)

Not every product you buy will earn. That's part of the model, not a sign you're failing.

Look for evergreen products

Tools: only two, and not yet

You can do everything in this module by hand, and you should until you have at least 100 videos live and you're making some money. You need to know what you're looking for before a tool can help you find it.

When you're there, we only recommend two:

• MVP Affiliate (full disclosure: it's ours, we built it for our own business). Product research, Creator Connections campaigns, and turning one review into content for your other channels.
• Oink for Influencers: a browser extension for spotting untagged videos, campaign matches and competition on a listing.

That's it. Stay away from tools that grab your data and sell it back to everyone as a feature. If a tool scrapes your storefront, your earnings or your best products and turns it into "trending products" for every other user, you're paying to train your competition.

Links marked "paid link" are our affiliate links and take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.

There are five ways products end up in front of your camera. Each one has a catch.

1. What you already own

Start here. Check your Amazon order history too: anything still listed is fair game, and so is stuff you bought elsewhere if the same product is sold on Amazon. It's free and it's how you learn. The catch is the one in Module 4: most of what's already in your house won't pay much.

2. Buying to keep (investing)

This is the approach we use, and it's covered in Module 4. Buy products that pass the screen, preferably with a Creator Connections campaign, and treat them as inventory for your content business. Then, once the content is done, resell them locally at a discount to get most of your money back. That's the difference between "I can't afford to buy products" and "my real cost is $50." Keep receipts.

3. Buy-and-return: don't

A lot of beginners buy a product, film it, and send it back. Never buy to return.

• On February 2, 2026, Amazon started warning shoppers in the returns flow that "excessive returns, cancellations or refunds" can lead to account restrictions or blocks. That notice is aimed at your shopping account, not your Associates account, which is exactly why it matters here. They didn't publish a threshold.
• If your shopping account gets closed, you can lose your orders, gift card balances, and Prime, and possibly more.
• It's also unfair to sellers who eat the cost of returned "used" items.

4. Samples from Creator Connections brands

Brands running CC campaigns often send free product to creators who ask. It happens through messaging the brand inside the campaign.

• Request only what you will actually film, on the brand's timeline.
• The seller ships it. You're expected to use it in your content, and you must disclose it was gifted.
• Not every request gets a yes. Your delivery record is what gets you the next one.

5. Brands that come to you

Once your storefront has a solid catalog, brands will message you, usually through Creator Connections messaging, email, or Instagram DMs. Some want free content in exchange for product; some will pay. Module 7 covers how to price it.

Amazon Vine is a different thing

Vine is Amazon's invite-only program for customer reviewers (written reviews on the listing), not the Influencer Program. You can't apply. It's nice if you get invited, but don't plan around it.

A quick word on gifted products and taxes

Gifted products can have tax implications depending on where you live. We're not going to give tax advice. Keep a simple log of what you received and what it's worth, and ask your accountant how to handle it.

Creator Connections (CC) is where a lot of the real money is now, especially after the latest rule changes squeezed base rates. It's also where a lot of creators are quietly ruining their reputation.

How it works

• Brands create campaigns that pay a bonus commission on top of your normal rate. Brands have to commit a budget of at least $5,000 (a cap on commissions, not money paid upfront), a commission of at least 10%, and a campaign that runs at least 30 days. In practice 15–20%+ is common, and some go higher.
• You find campaigns in Associates Central (and in Creator Central in the app) under the brand/campaign section. You accept a campaign, and it moves to your active list.
• The bonus applies to qualifying purchases of the campaign products until the campaign ends or the budget runs out. After that, your content earns the normal rate.
• It stacks with onsite. Sales credited to your onsite video for a campaign product earn the onsite rate plus the CC bonus (the shopper has to buy the exact variant).
• Tracking window is 24 hours from the click, same as normal links.
• CC bonuses pay out with your regular earnings, about 60 days after the month ends.

Why CC changes your product math

Go back to Module 4's example: an $80 product earns $2.40 per onsite sale without CC and $14.40 with a 15% campaign. That's 6× more per sale. That's why pros look for the campaign first and the product second.

Is posting content required to earn the bonus?

The auto-accept debate

Some tools can scan your storefront and automatically accept every campaign that matches products you've already posted. It's tempting: more accepted campaigns, no new filming.

Here's where we land: it works, and it's not against any rule we can find. But brands see it. Sellers post on Amazon's own forums about dozens of creators accepting a campaign and almost nobody delivering.

What just changed, and why

We've been saying for a while that Amazon would have to overhaul CC. It started in September 2026, and it's worth understanding, because it explains a lot of what you're about to read in the Facebook groups.

What this means for you, in plain terms:

• The accept-everything era is closing. If your plan was to claim campaigns in bulk and post nothing, that plan has an expiry date on it.
• A delivery record is becoming an asset. The creators who can show a brand what they posted are the ones who'll get picked as this tightens.
• Don't panic-quit CC. It's being repaired, not removed, and it's being repaired in favor of people who do the work.
• Don't let CC be your whole income while it's in flux. Ours was our biggest stream and it moved inside a month.

If you've been doing this the straightforward way (accept what you'll film, film it, tell the brand), this change is good news for you. That's the whole reason we push it so hard in this module.

Doing CC the right way

1. Accept campaigns on products you've filmed or will film within the campaign window.
2. Tag your existing videos to campaigns you qualify for. This alone can add real money on content you already made. It's legitimate: you did the work.
3. Deliver fast. Most creators who accept a campaign never deliver. Simply showing up puts you ahead of most of them.
4. Disclose gifted and sponsored content.
5. Watch end dates. Video content goes to campaigns with 3+ months left. Short campaigns get quick content at most.
6. Message the brand when you deliver. One line: "Posted, here's the link, happy to do more." That's how a campaign turns into a relationship.

How we choose campaigns

When a product turns out to be bad

Your Amazon catalog is a portfolio. Once you have a few hundred solid videos, brands start reaching out, and some of them will pay. This is how you stop depending 100% on Amazon's commission table.

What UGC pays right now

These are the market ranges we're seeing right now. Use them as a starting point, not gospel.

Learn the power of no

Make it easy for brands to find and pay you

Usage rights: where the real money hides

The base price usually covers the brand posting your video organically on their own pages. Anything more costs more:

• Paid ads usage: the brand runs your video as an ad. Common pricing is roughly 20–30% of your base price per month, or a flat uplift by term (for example +30% for 30 days, up to +100% or more for 12 months). The two models don't match on long deals, and that's deliberate: the flat-term price is the discount you give for buying a year up front instead of month by month.
• Whitelisting / Spark Ads: the brand runs ads from your account. Often 30% of base per month, or a flat monthly fee.
• Using your video on their Amazon listing (the brand's own product video slot): treat it like paid usage and price it in.
• Exclusivity (you can't work with competitors): +30–50%, and only for a set period.
• Perpetual buyout: roughly 2.5–4× base.

A simple formula: Base + (Base × usage % × months). Example: a $200 video with 3 months of paid usage at 25% a month is $200 + $150 = $350.

The deal checklist (get it in writing)

Before you film, the brand's email or contract should state:

• Deliverables (how many videos/photos, length, format) and revisions (one round included is normal)
• Where it will be used (organic, paid ads, whitelisting, their Amazon listing) and for how long
• Exclusivity, if any
• Price, payment terms, and deposit (50% upfront on larger deals is common)
• What happens if they cancel after you've filmed (a kill fee)
• Disclosure: paid content has to be labeled (#ad, "Paid partnership")

Never promise placement

A brand can't pay to put your influencer video on their product page, and neither can you guarantee it. Amazon's algorithm decides. Sell the video, the rights, and your onsite upload; never "top carousel spot guaranteed."

Pitching brands

Keep it short enough to read on a phone:

1. A subject line that names their product.
2. One line showing you know the product ("Your cordless pet vacuum has 2,000+ reviews and only 4 influencer videos").
3. One line on what you'd make and why it fits.
4. One proof line: your storefront link and a best-performing video.
5. A clear ask: "Want me to send a rate card?"

Follow up twice, 3–5 days apart. A 5–10% reply rate is normal. Use a professional email, ideally on your own domain.

UGC platforms: where to get your first reps

Platforms are a great way to get your first paid jobs, testimonials and portfolio pieces while your catalog grows. Direct deals will always pay better, but you don't need to wait for brands to find you. Here's how each one works. Fees and rules change, so check each platform's terms before you sign up.

Billo

• Sign up: billo.app
• How it works: brands post briefs (often product demos for Amazon, TikTok and ads), you apply, the brand ships the product, you film and deliver in the app.
• Pay: roughly $50–150 per video for standard work, more for complex briefs. Paid out after the brand approves.
• Requirements: no follower minimum. Your sample videos are your application.
• Good for: beginners building a portfolio fast, and Amazon-style product demos that match exactly what you already film.
• Watch out for: lower pay than direct deals. Treat it as paid practice, not your ceiling.

JoinBrands

• Sign up: joinbrands.com
• How it works: a big marketplace of brand jobs: UGC videos, photos, TikTok/IG posts, and Amazon shoppable video jobs. You apply per job.
• Pay: default rates start low (around $50–100 per video) and go up as you level up on the platform. The platform takes a fee on your earnings (around 20%, lower with their paid creator plan).
• Requirements: open signup; your level and ratings unlock better-paying jobs.
• Good for: volume and Amazon-specific jobs.
• Watch out for: popular jobs get hundreds of applicants. Pitch with your best Amazon videos, not your bio.

Insense

• Sign up: insense.pro
• How it works: brands (many of them DTC and ad-focused) invite or accept creators for UGC built to run as paid ads, often with whitelisting.
• Pay: usually better per video than beginner marketplaces; set per campaign.
• Requirements: a solid profile with sample videos; brands pick who they want.
• Good for: learning to make ad-style UGC and getting paid for usage rights.
• Watch out for: slower turnaround and more revisions, because the content is going into ads.

Collabstr

• Sign up: collabstr.com
• How it works: you list your own packages with fixed prices (for example "1 UGC video, $150"), and brands book you directly. Payment is held in escrow until you deliver.
• Pay: you set it.
• Requirements: a profile with your content and prices.
• Good for: creators who already know their rates and want inbound bookings.
• Watch out for: you're a listing among thousands. A clear niche and strong samples matter.

SideShift

• Sign up: sideshift.app/creators
• How it works: an app where you apply to campaigns from brands, including big names. It covers UGC and creator jobs, with earnings tracked and paid out through the app. Free to join; you attach your social handles and top-performing videos.
• Pay: varies by campaign (per video, per post, or ongoing).
• Requirements: a complete profile. They offer a free UGC training course that earns a verified badge brands can see.
• Good for: access to bigger brands and ongoing campaigns.
• Watch out for: competition is high. Deliver on time every time; ghosting gets you filtered out fast.

Trybe

• Sign up: jointrybe.com
• How it works: a performance-based UGC app. You browse brand programs, join with a tap, submit content, and brands run approved content as Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ads. The app shows your ad performance and earnings in real time.
• Pay: tied to results: commission on sales your content drives, pay based on ad performance, or flat per-submission fees and retainers, depending on the brand. Payouts go through Stripe to 170+ countries, which matters if you're outside the US like we are.
• Requirements: the app, and content that can run as an ad.
• Good for: creators who make content that sells and want upside beyond a flat fee.
• Watch out for: performance pay means some videos earn little. Mix it with flat-fee work.

Fiverr

• Sign up: fiverr.com
• How it works: you create "gigs" (for example "Amazon influencer product video, 60 seconds, 7-day delivery") with basic, standard and premium tiers, and buyers order them. Amazon sellers use Fiverr a lot to find product video creators.
• Pay: you set your prices. Fiverr takes 20% of every order, and payments clear after a holding period before you can withdraw.
• Requirements: open signup. Reviews drive everything, so your first few orders matter most.
• Good for: getting found by Amazon sellers who need product videos, and packaging your work clearly (video + raw footage + extra hooks as add-ons).
• Watch out for: price races to the bottom. Don't compete on being cheapest; sell your Amazon experience. Never promise onsite placement in a gig.

Lives can be a paid add-on too. Some brands will pay for an hour or two of Amazon Live on top of videos and posts. Module 10 covers how we sell them.

Working with brands: what's normal and what's a red flag

What's normal (don't panic):

• Brands want to move the conversation to email, WhatsApp, WeChat or Lark. That's commonplace now, especially with sellers based overseas.
• You'll usually talk to an agent, not the brand owner. Many brands are represented by individual agents, sometimes with strange-looking email addresses or generic names. That alone isn't a scam.
• English is often a second (or third) language. Be patient and be very clear. Short sentences, one question per message, and put the deliverables, price and dates in writing so there's no confusion later.

Red flags (walk away):

• "Buy the product first and we'll refund you." Or "buy it, leave a review, and we'll send a gift card or PayPal refund." Never do this. It breaks Amazon's rules on incentivized purchases and reviews, and it can cost you your account.
• Any money flowing from you to them: "processing fees", "deposits to qualify", or an overpayment by check followed by "please refund the difference".
• Payment in gift cards or crypto for your work.
• Anything tied to a positive review or a star rating.
• "Guaranteed Amazon approval" or "guaranteed onsite placement." Nobody can promise that.

Rule of thumb: money never flows from the creator to the brand, and you never buy a product in exchange for a refund. If they want your content, they send the product and pay for the work.

Onsite videos depend on Amazon showing them. Offsite traffic is the part you control: people who click your links. It also pays standard rates, which are higher than onsite rates.

Platform by platform

YouTube: the big one right now. In late August 2026, Amazon joined YouTube Shopping's affiliate program in the US, so creators can tag Amazon products directly in long videos, Shorts, and lives. YouTube reports that product tags get far more clicks than description links. You need YouTube Shopping Affiliate eligibility (YouTube lowered it to 500 subscribers in 2026, with Partner Program membership) and an Amazon Influencer or Associates account linked. Check your dashboard Your Amazon review videos are ready-made YouTube content. Repurpose them: it also gives you a dated, public copy under your own account, which is your proof you published first if someone steals a video.

Pinterest. Amazon Associates US is one of Pinterest's official affiliate partners (Pinterest's affiliate rules). Pinterest says the link should go directly to the product page, and some link shorteners aren't supported. So link each pin to your own blog post or to the full, tagged Amazon product URL: no redirects, no cloaked or branded short links, no link-routing services. Disclose on every pin. Want to know what Pinterest earns you? Create a separate tracking ID just for Pinterest in Associates Central and use it on every pin.

Instagram. Stories links and automated DMs (comment a keyword and get the link by DM) work well. Amazon allows links in DMs and messages to people who asked for them (opted in), with an easy way to opt out.

TikTok. On a personal or creator account, clickable bio links need 1,000+ followers. A business account can add a bio link with no follower minimum, which is the fastest way around this when you're starting from zero; the trade-off is that business accounts only get TikTok's commercial music library. Links in captions aren't clickable either way. Send people to your storefront or your link-in-bio page (below) from your bio. TikTok Shop is a separate affiliate system.

Facebook. Post in pages and groups you own or moderate. Dropping links in other people's groups is how you get flagged as spam. Meta now limits link posts on Pages and creator profiles, and Module 9 shows the setup that works around it: a Page for content, your own Group for deals.

Blog and email. Blogs still work if the content adds real value (the new "original content" rule). Email lists are allowed for opted-in subscribers. Links in PDFs, ebooks, or printed material are not allowed.

One link in bio for everything

Most platforms give you one link. Your Amazon storefront works, but it only shows Amazon, and it's built for Amazon's shoppers, not for your audience. A link-in-bio page lets you send people from any platform (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Threads) to one place that shows your latest reviews, your gift guides, your storefront, your YouTube, and your blog.

We built one into MVP Affiliate (full disclosure: it's our software) so our audience lands on a single page that's always up to date with what we've just reviewed.

Whatever you use, a few rules:

• Put your Amazon disclosure on the page itself, not just in your bio.
• Make it obvious the product links go to Amazon. Label them ("See it on Amazon") and don't hide the destination.
• Pinterest is the exception. Pins should link straight to the Amazon product page or your own blog post, not to a bio page.

One tracking ID per platform

Out of the box, every link you make carries the same tracking ID. That means a sale from YouTube, a sale from Pinterest and a sale from your Facebook group all land in one bucket, and you can't tell which platform is actually paying you. You end up spending your time on the one that feels busy instead of the one that earns.

The fix takes five minutes: make a separate tracking ID for each place you post links.

1. In Your Associates Account, under Account Information, click Manage your tracking IDs.
2. Click Add Tracking ID and make one per platform, with a name you'll recognize at a glance: one for YouTube, one for Pinterest, one for your blog, one for your Facebook group, and so on. Amazon adds the ending (like "-20") for you.
3. Give it up to 24 hours before using a new ID. Amazon says that's how long it can take to switch on.
4. Pick the right ID every time you make a link. SiteStripe (the bar across the top of Amazon when you're signed in) has a tracking ID dropdown. Choose the platform first, then copy the link.
5. Once a month, open My Earnings and look at results by tracking ID. Now you can see which platform actually earns. Check your dashboard

Two more ways to use them: make one for a season or a campaign (a holiday gift guide, say) to see what that push actually earned, and one per person if someone else posts links for you. Tracking IDs are for your offsite links. Onsite earnings stay on your onamz Store ID either way.

Links for the whole world: OneLink or Passport

A normal Amazon link sends everyone to amazon.com. That's fine for your US followers. But your blog, your YouTube and your social posts are seen all over the world, and a shopper in the UK or Canada who lands on amazon.com usually won't buy there.

A geo-routing link fixes that. It checks where the person clicking is and opens the right Amazon for them: amazon.co.uk for a UK viewer, amazon.ca for a Canadian one, and so on. You stop throwing away every international click, and your content is suddenly open to the whole world, not just the States.

• OneLink is Amazon's own version. You set it up in Your Associates Account under Change your OneLink Tracking ID Preferences. Check your dashboard
• Either way, join each country's Associates program you want to earn in. A UK sale only pays you if you have a UK Associates tag for the link to use. For countries where you don't have one, the link falls back to your US store and tag.

Rules that apply everywhere

• Disclose: "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases" in your bio or about section, plus #ad, #CommissionsEarned or "(paid link)" near links (Amazon's disclosure rules, FTC endorsement guides).
• Make it clear every link goes to Amazon. Link tools and short links (amzn.to, Geniuslink-style smart links, your own branded links) are fine, as long as the reader knows they're headed to Amazon: label them ("See it on Amazon", "(paid link)"). What the Program Policies prohibit is using them in a way that makes it unclear the link goes to Amazon, or that hides which site or app the click came from.
• Never buy through your own links, or ask friends and family to do it for you.
• Never offer anything in return for using your link (giveaways, rebates, "use my link and I'll...").
• Purchases from paid or boosted ads pointing to Amazon don't earn commission anymore (since April 14, 2026).

Disclosing the way the FTC asks

Amazon's line in your bio covers your affiliate links. It does not cover everything else. In the US the FTC decides what counts as a proper disclosure, and its own plain-language guide for influencers (Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers) is short and worth reading once. It also says the job is yours: don't rely on the brand, the platform or anyone else to disclose for you. Here is what matters for how we work.

When you have to disclose

• Any relationship with the brand: money, a job, family, friends. And anything of value, not only cash. A free product, a discount or a perk counts.
• That includes Creator Connections samples, Vine items and anything a brand sent you, even when the brand never asked you to mention that particular product.
• Every time. Don't assume your viewers already know, and disclose even if you're sure your review is fair.
• Tags, likes and pins count as endorsements too. Pinning a brand's product or tagging it in a post is the same as recommending it.
• Posting from outside the US doesn't get you out of it. If US shoppers will reasonably see it, US rules apply, and your own country's rules may apply as well.
• If you bought something yourself and just like it, you don't need to say you have no deal with the brand.

Where it goes

• With the recommendation itself, where it's hard to miss. A disclosure only in your bio or About page, at the end of a video, or below a "more" click is easy to miss, and the FTC says so.
• In the video, not only the description. Say it out loud and put it on screen: some people watch with the sound off, and others never read what's on screen.
• On a live, say it more than once. People join part way through, so repeat it every so often.
• On a photo or a story, put it on the image itself, long enough to read.
• Not buried in a pile of hashtags or links at the bottom of a caption.
• YouTube's paid promotion box is not enough on its own. Tick it (we always do), and still say it yourself. The FTC's advice is to use a platform's tool in addition to your own disclosure, never instead of it.

What to say

• Plain words work: "Thanks to Acme for the free product", "ad", "advertisement", "sponsored". A hashtag like #ad or #sponsored is fine but not required.
• Skip the vague ones: "sp", "spon", "collab", or "thanks" or "ambassador" on their own. They don't tell anyone what the relationship is.
• Same language as the video. This matters for Amazon's other countries: a video dubbed into German needs its disclosure in German, not an English line left over from the original.

Honest reviews are part of it

• Don't talk about your experience with a product you haven't actually used.
• If a brand pays you and you thought the product was bad, you can't call it great. Say what you really found (Module 3's "real cons" step is there for this).
• Don't make claims that need proof the brand doesn't have. "Clears acne", "cures back pain" or "boosts collagen" on a beauty or health product is exactly the kind of claim the FTC means. Describe what you saw and felt, not what the product treats.

A routine that covers all of it in about ten seconds a video: say it out loud in the first minute ("the brand sent me this one", or "this video is sponsored by..."), show it on screen at the same moment, tick paid promotion in YouTube Studio, and repeat it at the top of the description and in your pinned comment.

The Deals Hub: see deals before they go live

The Deals Hub replaced the old promo code page. If you have access, you'll find it in the three-line menu under Promotions. It lists thousands of products that are about to go on deal, and you can promote them. Check your dashboard

The big advantage: you see the deals in advance, so you have time to make your content before the deal starts.

Amazon's own wording, shown on the Deals Hub pages: deals are confidential and can be published only on or after they appear on amazon.com. There's a second rule too: the dates of big events like Prime Big Deal Days are confidential until Amazon announces them. So even "big sale coming October 7!" can break the embargo if you post it before Amazon does.

One rule still applies: deal posts are for your offsite channels (social, your blog, email). Keep prices, "deal" and "discount" out of your onsite review videos, or they'll get rejected (Module 3).

Idea lists that earn: build them around the season

Make them ahead of time. Build the list a few weeks before the season starts, so it's ready to share when shoppers start looking. The calendar below shows when each season starts for us.

Making an idea list, click by click

1. From your storefront bar, click Create content, then Idea List.
2. Title it the way a shopper would search for it. Amazon's own example is "My Essentials for Hiking in the Desert": that specific. "Back to school backpacks, kindergarten to college" beats "Backpacks".
3. Click Add products. You need at least two to save the list. The ones you've actually used and filmed are the ones to add.
4. Write the description yourself, up to 600 characters. There's a Generate button that writes an AI draft. If you use it, edit it into your own words and check every claim, because Amazon itself says AI text needs checking, and it's your name on the list.
5. Add 10 or more products if you want Amazon to make an AI cover image for the list. Then click Save.

The calendar: Q4 is everything

Q4 is where the year is made. Here's our own month-by-month pattern, taken from two full years of our earnings. Each figure is that month compared with an average month in the same year, so you can see the shape without worrying about the size of anyone's catalog.

Across those years, an average Q4 month earned about 1.4× a normal month, and December alone was about 1.75×. So plan for a strong finish, not a miracle.

Your calendar for the rest of the year

Money rule: save part of your Q4 earnings to cover the January–February dip. In your early years those two months can come in at half a normal month, so budget for it. It'll happen every year.

Everyone wants the same thing from Facebook: post their deals, their affiliate links and the products they recommend, to as many people as possible, without hitting a limit. There's a lot of misinformation about how to do that. Here's the simple version.

Page, Group, creator profile: what each one actually is

• Personal profile. You, your friends and family. Not built for business.
• Creator profile (professional mode). Your personal profile with professional mode switched on. Anyone can follow you, and you get a Professional Dashboard and Meta's creator tools. But it's under the same link limit as a Page.
• Page. Your public business presence. People follow it, it shows up in search, and apps can post to it for you (MVP included). It's under the link limit.
• Group. A community people choose to join. Your posts reach members who opted in, and they can comment, ask and share. No link limit has been reported for Groups. The catch: no app can post into a Group by itself. Meta closed that off in 2024, so someone has to press Post. MVP's SCOUT fills the post in for you (below), and you press the button.

So the short answer: a Page is where people find you, and where an app can post for you. A Group is the free way around the link cap. Which one you need depends on whether your Page is capped.

Two ways to run Facebook

• Path 1: Page only. Let MVP post your deals and reviews to your Page automatically, use Reels for reach, and promote the Page itself to grow followers. Simple, and it works as long as your Page isn't capped. If it gets capped, either pay for a Meta One tier that fits your volume, or add path 2.
• Path 2: Page plus your own Group. The Page grows your audience; the Group gets your daily deals, with no cap reported so far. Group posts need you to press Post, but with SCOUT that's one click to fill and one to post.

Promoting the Page is fine. Boosting a post with an Amazon link isn't. Paying to grow your Page's followers has nothing to do with Amazon's rules. But Amazon doesn't allow affiliate links in paid placements, and sales that come from boosted or paid posts don't earn commission (Module 1). So promote the Page, and boost only posts without Amazon links, like Reels and review videos.

The link limit in 60 seconds

• What it is: since late 2025, Meta has been testing a cap of about 2 organic posts with an outside link per month on Facebook Pages, and on profiles in professional (creator) mode. It expanded after Meta launched its Meta One subscription on September 15, 2026.
• Meta's own help page now spells it out: a Page gets 2 posts or comments with a link a month for free. It resets on the 1st of each month, and unused links don't carry over. Meta also says the limit "may not apply to all Pages", so don't assume yours is safe because a friend's isn't.
• How to check: look at your Page notifications and your Professional Dashboard. If you're affected, Meta tells you there.

What counts, and what doesn't:

• Doesn't count: links to Meta's own apps: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. So inviting people to your Group is free.
• Doesn't count: extra links in the comments of a post that already has a link.
• Counts: a link in the first comment of a post with no link. Meta confirms it, so moving the link to the comments doesn't get around the limit.
• Some affiliate links are exempt when they come through Facebook's own affiliate partnerships. Don't assume regular Amazon links are.
• Groups: no link cap has been reported for Facebook Groups, but Meta hasn't promised Groups are exempt either.

Paying raises the cap. Meta One tiers, per month: Essential ($14.99) keeps the 2 links, Advanced ($49.99) gives 8, Expert ($149.99) gives 20, and Max ($499.99) is unlimited. With a plan, your links reset on the day the plan renews, not on the 1st. Paid ads with links don't count either, but Amazon doesn't allow affiliate links in ads, so that's no way around it. Check your dashboard This is all still moving, so check before you build a plan around a number.

Meta Verified and Meta One: does paying remove the limit?

Meta Verified is Meta's paid blue check: the badge, account protection and access to real support. Since Meta One launched, it comes included with every Meta One tier, from Essential up, and you can still buy it on its own. Check your dashboard

Being verified does not lift the link limit. Essential includes Meta Verified and still allows only 2 link posts a month. Only the higher tiers raise the cap: Advanced (8), Expert (20) and Max (unlimited).

Posting your deals with MVP

• To your Page, automatically. Connect your Page in MVP (Connect Socials), and MVP posts your deals and reviews with the caption, your affiliate link and your disclosure.
• To your Group, with SCOUT. Add your Groups in MVP's Brand Profile. In the Facebook post preview, click Fill with SCOUT next to a Group: SCOUT, MVP's Chrome extension, opens the Group in your own signed-in Facebook, opens "Write something" and puts the whole post in, with your link and disclosure. You read it and press Post. That's as automatic as Meta allows, and it's why SCOUT never presses Post for you.
• Watch the Page cap. An auto-post with an outside link counts toward your Page's monthly limit, just like a manual one. If your Page is capped, let it carry your content and your best one or two offers, and put the daily deals in the Group.

(Full disclosure: MVP is our software. Everything here works without it, by hand.)

Page vs. Group vs. Profile at a glance

The strategy in one line: Page for content and growth, Group for deals and links. The Page brings people in. The Group is where they shop with you. And send them somewhere you own too, a blog or an email list, because Meta can change the rules overnight. It just did.

Setting up your Page for growth

• Name: the same name as your Amazon storefront and other channels, so people can find you everywhere.
• Bio: one line on what you review and who it's for. "Real reviews of home and kitchen gear we actually use."
• Cover: your face, your products, and a line about what people get.
• Action button: point it at your Group (free, it's a Facebook link) or at your blog.
• Pinned post: an invite to your deals Group, with what members get and how often.
• Disclosure in the About section: "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."

Creating your own deals Group

• Name: say what it is. "[Your name]'s Home Deals" beats something clever nobody searches for.
• Rules: keep them short. Deals only from the admins, be kind, no spam, no selling, and a line that links may be affiliate links.
• Membership questions: two or three. What do they shop for? Where did they find you? Do they agree to the rules? It keeps bots out and tells you what to post.
• Welcome post: pinned. What the Group is, when deals go up, how to request a product, and your disclosure.
• Privacy: we'd lean public. Anyone can see the posts, but only members can post. Amazon can see where your links are, and the Group shows up when people search. Whichever you pick, add the Group to your Associates website list (Module 2) before you post your first link there. We couldn't find a clear Amazon rule on private groups, so public is the safer choice. Check your dashboard

Growing the Group to your first 1,000 members

• Promote it from your Page every week. Links to Facebook don't count against the cap, so invite as often as makes sense.
• Mention it in your Reels and videos: "We post the best deals every day in our Group."
• Cross-promote everywhere you are: YouTube descriptions, Instagram, TikTok, your link-in-bio page.
• Invite people who already like your content. Facebook lets you invite people who engaged with your Page. Don't mass-invite strangers.
• Use what you own: a line on every blog post, and in every email.
• Team up with a creator in a different niche: you mention their Group, they mention yours.

Never promote it by dropping links in other people's groups. That's spam, it gets you flagged, and it burns the creators who run those groups.

What to post, and how often

Use your 2 Page links on your strongest offers of the month: a big sale day, or a product you know converts.

Posting affiliate links without getting flagged

• Disclose every time. The FTC and Amazon both require it: say it in the post itself, not just in the Group rules (Module 8 covers how).
• Follow Amazon's rules: only post links on places you've added to your website list, never in paid ads, and don't quote a price without saying when you checked it, because Amazon prices change.
• Don't post identical links over and over. Repeating the same URL and text looks like spam to Facebook's filters. Write each post fresh.
• Add something of yours to every deal: why it's worth it, who it's for, a photo of yours. Plain link dumps get less reach.
• Use a tracking ID just for Facebook (Module 8), so you can see what the Group actually earns.
• Mind the embargo on Deals Hub deals: post when the deal goes live, not before (Module 8).

Keeping the Group active

• Deal of the day, at the same time every day, so members know when to look.
• Polls: "Which should we review next?" People love being asked.
• Member requests: a weekly thread where members ask what they're hunting for, and you find the deal.
• Answer comments. A Group where the admin replies feels alive.
• Show your own reviews of products in the deals. That's what separates your Group from a link bot.

Common mistakes that kill reach

• Spending your 2 Page links on average deals.
• Only posting links on the Page, with no content in between.
• Dropping links in other people's groups.
• Posting the same link and caption again and again.
• Forgetting the disclosure.
• Running everything from a personal profile.
• Building only on Facebook, with no blog or email list to fall back on.

The whole strategy in one paragraph: Meta now limits outside links on Pages and creator profiles to about 2 a month unless you pay for a higher Meta One tier, and being verified alone doesn't change that. It's still rolling out. So use your Page for what Facebook rewards anyway, videos, Reels and personality, and save its few links for your best offers. Put your daily deals and affiliate links in your own Group, where members chose to be and no cap has been reported yet, and invite people there from your Page as often as you like, because Facebook links are free. Disclose every time, never spam other people's groups, and keep sending people to something you own, a blog or an email list, because the next rule change is coming too.

Amazon Live lets you stream on Amazon while shoppers watch on their phones or computers. You can go live from your phone, or from a computer with streaming software.

How it works on screen: a product carousel sits right there while you're talking. You can line up to 39 products, switch from one to the next by hand as you talk about it, and feature the one you're showing. Viewers click it and buy without ever leaving your stream. Check your dashboard

Going live for yourself

• Go long. We typically stream for a little over an hour. With lives, the longer the better.
• It grows your Amazon follower count. Your storefront has followers, and lives are one of the ways to grow them.
• Your level matters. Amazon Live has three creator levels (further down). The higher you go, the more places Amazon shows your streams, and followers are one of the things Amazon weighs at the top level.
• It makes your videos better. Talking about products live, for an hour, makes you much more comfortable with them and with their features and benefits. That carries straight into your shoppable videos.
• Mine the chat. Viewers ask questions in the live chat, and those questions are often pain points. Write them down: they're exactly what to answer in your next video on that product.
• It suits people with the gift of the gab. If you're comfortable talking in front of a camera, we highly recommend it.
• Don't put all your eggs in it. Lives are worth doing, but they're not a plan on their own.

How we run a live

Our setup:

• Streaming software on a computer. We've used Ecamm Live for years. It's very good, but it's Mac only. OBS Studio is free, very popular, and easy to use on any computer.
• A camera or webcam plugged into the computer.
• A phone or iPad running the Amazon Live Creator app. We use an iPad. It's your control panel: you switch and feature products in the carousel and read the live chat from it, while the computer handles the video.
• Stream to two places at once. Ecamm and OBS can both send your stream to more than one place. We go live on Amazon and on YouTube at the same time, which gets more eyeballs on every stream. If you put Amazon links on YouTube, make sure your channel is on your Associates website list (Module 2).

The three Amazon Live levels

From Amazon's own Live Levels page. Amazon says you move up "by streaming longer and driving sales": the Creator app tracks your minutes streamed toward Insider and your sales toward A-List. When you hit the minimum, you apply, and a person reviews your streams. Check your dashboard

• Rejected? You keep streaming at your current level, wait 30 days, hit the minimum again (your progress resets to zero), and reapply.
• You can lose Insider or A-List. Amazon audits streams against the same standards. One slip won't cost you the level, but repeated or abusive violations will.

Selling lives to brands

The creators who last treat this like a business from month one. The ones who burn out treat it like a lottery ticket.

Workflow: batch everything

• Batch by stage, not by product. One session to film 10 products, one to edit, one to upload and tag. Switching tasks is what kills your time.
• One filming spot, always set up. If setup takes 20 minutes, you'll film less.
• Get faster before you get fancier. With a system, a video goes from taking hours to taking minutes. Cutting time per video from 30 minutes to 5 takes you from two videos an hour to twelve: six times the hourly earnings at the same per-video income.
• Track everything in one sheet: product, ASIN, category, price, CC campaign and end date, filmed, uploaded, approved, resold.

How we split the work

When to hire an editor or a VA

Volume: what "enough" looks like

There is no magic number, and catalog size alone tells you almost nothing.

So yes, keep adding: a steady weekly rhythm beats a big burst and a long break. Just make sure every video you add passes the Module 4 screen and gives shoppers real information (Module 3). A steady stream of good videos beats a flood of rushed ones.

Where software fits in

Once you're past a few hundred videos, the bottleneck isn't filming. It's everything around it: finding products worth buying, tracking campaigns, repurposing each review for YouTube, Pinterest, a blog, and social, and writing all the titles and descriptions.

That's the problem we built MVP Affiliate to solve for our own business (yes, it's ours, full disclosure): product research, Creator Connections campaigns, and turning one review into content across your channels, in your own voice. You don't need it to start. Wait until you have 100+ videos and you're making money. When the admin starts eating your filming time, it's there.

Getting paid

• Amazon pays about 60 days after the end of the month (January earnings arrive around the end of March). Amazon's payment timing page.
• Earnings show up as items ship, and returns claw them back.
• Payment and tax info must be set up on both your Associates ID and your Onsite Store ID (Module 2).
• US direct deposit pays out once you're over $10. Checks don't go out until you're over $100, and they carry a processing fee.

Taxes and structure: talk to a professional

Taxes depend on where you live and how you're set up, and they're personal. We're not going to give tax advice.

One fact worth knowing in the US: Amazon sends you a 1099 once you're paid $2,000 or more in a year. That threshold used to be $600, and it now rises with inflation. The income is taxable either way, with or without a form, so keep a simple record of every payout from day one.

Reading your reports

From your storefront bar, click See reporting (or My Earnings in Associates Central). Pick a date range at the top, and use the Tracking ID dropdown to see one platform at a time (Module 8). The cards across the top split your money into commissions and Creator Connections, and the Commissions Summary underneath has the numbers that matter:

• Clicks: are people reaching Amazon through you at all?
• Shipped: orders that actually went out. That's what you get paid on.
• Conversion: how many clicks turned into orders. If clicks hold but conversion drops, look at the products, not your traffic.
• Earnings: the running total. Watch the trend week over week, not the daily number.

Check it once a week, on a set day. Ten minutes: note clicks, shipped items and earnings, find your top few videos, and ask one question: what should I film more of? Then close the tab and go film. Checking every hour doesn't make it grow.

When something looks wrong

These are the problems we see asked about every week. Each one has a usual cause and a first thing to check. Work through them in order before you change anything.

"I have onsite sales but no money"

There are two usual causes:

• Payment and tax aren't set up on your Onsite Store ID (the "onamz" one). It doesn't copy over from your main ID. Switch the StoreID dropdown to your onamz ID, open Your Associates Account, and add your payment method and tax information there. Then check it says Current Tax Status: Completed. Module 2 has screenshots.
• You're looking at the wrong ID. Onsite money only shows on the onamz ID. If you have several IDs, look at them all together in the consolidated view in My Earnings before you decide nothing came in. Check your dashboard

"My video got rejected"

Start with the reason Amazon gives you in Manage Content. Don't guess and re-upload the same video.

Module 3 has the full list of what gets videos rejected, including the words to avoid.

"My video disappeared from the product page"

"I made a sale and it's not showing"

• It hasn't shipped yet. This is the usual one. Earnings count when the item ships, not when it's ordered. So you can see clicks and orders that you know converted, and still not see the commission for a while. Not everything ships with Prime speed: we've seen items take a week or two to ship, and sometimes longer, depending on warehouse delays and where the item ships from.
• Reports lag. Give it a day or two before you worry.
• You're looking at the wrong ID. Onsite sales show on your onamz Store ID, offsite ones on your main ID. If you use a tracking ID per platform (Module 8), check the one you used for that link.
• It doesn't qualify. Your own purchases don't count, and neither do sales from paid or boosted ads.
• It came back. Returns take the commission back.

"My storefront isn't showing up"

Your storefront should always be there. If you can't find it, you're usually looking at the wrong country's Amazon. Each country has its own site, and your storefront lives on the one you signed up for:

• US: amazon.com/shop/yourname
• Canada: amazon.ca/shop/yourname

"yourname" is your storefront name, the account name you picked when you signed up. If you're on the right site with the right name and it still doesn't load, then contact Associates support, and expect it to take a while.

"My earnings dropped overnight"

Don't change anything for a week. One bad day is noise, and reports for the last day or two are often incomplete anyway. If it's still down after a week, find out which of these it is, in this order:

1. Which side dropped? Switch the StoreID dropdown between your main ID and your onamz ID. Onsite down and offsite fine points at Amazon's placements or your products. Offsite down points at your traffic. If you use tracking IDs, you can narrow it to one platform.
2. Is it the calendar? Going from Prime Day or Black Friday back to a regular day will always look like a crash. So will January after Q4. Compare with the same month last year, or with the month-by-month pattern in Module 8.
3. Did a top earner go away? Take your best-selling products from last month and look them up on Amazon. Out of stock, a changed or merged listing, or a big price jump will take its commissions with it.
4. Is it Creator Connections? The bonus stops the day a campaign ends, and when Amazon changes CC itself, as it did in September, everyone's CC income moves at once (Module 6).
5. Are the clicks down, or the sales? Look at clicks and orders side by side, day by day, across all your IDs and links. Clicks down means fewer people are reaching Amazon through you: a traffic or placement problem. Clicks steady but fewer orders means people arrive and don't buy: look at price, stock and the product page.
6. Did Amazon change a rule? Check the announcements on the Associates Central homepage and Amazon's page of Operating Agreement changes. When a rule changes, everyone's numbers move at once, and the Facebook groups will be full of it that same week.

What not to do: don't delete or re-upload videos, don't switch niches, and don't buy a course that promises to fix it. Find the cause first.

"Amazon sent me a warning email"

What gets accounts closed

Amazon can close your account and keep your unpaid commissions. Read the Operating Agreement and Program Policies once a year; they change. These are the classic causes:

• Buying through your own links (or asking friends and family to)
• Links that hide they go to Amazon, or that hide where the click came from
• Links in ebooks, PDFs, or offline materials
• Offering incentives to use your links
• Missing disclosures
• Showing prices you don't pull from Amazon's tools, or outdated prices
• Fake or incentivized reviews, or undisclosed paid relationships with sellers
• Low-effort, AI-only content with no real commentary (the new "original content" rule)

A note on AI: sellers now have to label images with AI-generated people, and some reports say creators will need to flag it too. Our advice: film real products with real hands. It's what converts anyway.

If your account gets closed anyway

Before you start over, read Amazon's Operating Agreement for what it says about applying again after a closure, and fix whatever got you closed first. The same thing on a new account gets the same result.

Don't put all your eggs in Amazon's basket

Amazon changed the rules several times in a single year. We're actively working toward a 50/50 split between Amazon and everything else: brand deals, YouTube, our review blog, and our software. You don't have to start there, but build at least one income stream Amazon doesn't control by the end of your first year.

Avoiding burnout

• Set a weekly rhythm you can keep for a year, not a week.
• Accept the January dip. It's the calendar, not you.
• Measure per-video earnings monthly, not daily. Daily numbers will drive you crazy.

Print this, or keep it open. The weeks are a guide; move faster or slower depending on your hours.

Days 1–7: set up

• Payment and tax info on both store IDs, and Current Tax Status says Completed on each
• Every site and social account you'll post links on added to your website list
• Creator Rewards checked, and enrolled if it's offered to you
• A plan to get your first 3 real sales from your own audience
• Storefront profile, bio, disclosure in every social bio
• 3 idea lists from things you own
• Tracking sheet created
• 3 onsite test videos filmed with the 6-step formula, checked against the rejection table, uploaded

Days 8–30: first 30 videos

• Film everything you own that's still sold on Amazon and passes at least half of the product screen
• Batch: 2 filming sessions a week
• Read the Q&A and 3-star reviews before every video
• Tag any video that matches an active Creator Connections campaign
• Start one offsite channel (we suggest YouTube) and post there every week

Days 31–60: start investing

• Calculate your per-video earnings
• Set a product budget as a percentage of your commission
• Buy only products that pass the screen, ideally with a CC campaign that has 3+ months left
• Set up your resale channel and resell products once the content is done
• Deliver on every campaign you accept

Days 61–90: build the business

• 100+ videos live
• Rate card built; pitch 10 brands whose products you've already reviewed
• Q4 list filmed (if you're in the fall)
• Review what earned: double down on the categories and price points that paid, drop the rest
• Book time with an accountant

Glossary

Amazon Live: live streams on Amazon where shoppers watch and buy. Creators move up three levels (Rising Star, Insider, A-List), and higher levels get more placement.

ASIN: Amazon's product ID. Each variant (color, size) can have its own.

Associates Central: the desktop dashboard for links, earnings, and campaigns.

Carousel: the rows of videos on a product page. Earlier slots get more views.

Creator Ads: Amazon's higher commission table that applies when your content runs in certain ad placements rather than organically on the product page.

Creator Central: the creator hub inside the Amazon Shopping app.

Creator Connections (CC): brand campaigns that pay a bonus commission on top of your normal rate.

Creator Rewards: an Amazon promotion that pays a flat bonus when your monthly shipped revenue hits targets set for your account. You have to be enrolled.

Deals Hub: the page in Associates Central listing upcoming deals you can promote. It replaced the old promo code page, and deals are embargoed until they go live.

Geo-routing link: a link that opens the right country's Amazon for whoever clicks it. OneLink and MVP's Passport links both do this.

Halo sales: commissions on other items in a shopper's cart. Removed for onsite in April 2026; offsite links still appear to earn them.

Idea list: a curated product list on your storefront.

OneLink: Amazon's tool that sends each shopper to their own country's Amazon store, with your tag for that country.

Offsite: traffic you send to Amazon with your links. Paid at standard rates.

Onsite: your content shown on Amazon's own pages. Paid at onsite rates.

Onsite Store ID: the separate ID ("onamz…") that tracks onsite earnings. Needs its own payment and tax setup.

Shipped revenue: the total value of what shipped through your links in a period. It's sales, not your commission.

SiteStripe: the bar across the top of Amazon when you're signed in to Associates. It makes a link to the page you're on.

Storefront: your page at amazon.com/shop/yourname.

Tracking ID: the tag on your links (it ends in "-20" in the US) that tells Amazon the sale was yours. Make one per platform to see which one earns.

UGC: user-generated content. Videos you make for a brand to use.

Usage rights: what a brand is allowed to do with your content, for how long.

Website list: the sites and accounts you've told Amazon you post links on. Posting links anywhere else breaks the rules.

Whitelisting / Spark Ads: a brand running ads from your account.

Amazon changes things often. When a rule matters to your money, check it in Associates Central first.

Where to start

• Amazon Influencer Program sign-up
• Amazon Associates sign-up
• Associates Central (your dashboard)
• Creator University (Amazon's free training)
• Associates Operating Agreement

Official Amazon

• Associates Operating Agreement: April 14, 2026 changes
• Onsite and Creator Ads commission rates
• Onsite commissions and the Onsite Store ID
• Associates application review (3 sales in 180 days)
• Payment timing
• Program policies
• Amazon Live Levels: Rising Star, Insider and A-List benefits and review guidelines
• How the Amazon Influencer Program works (Amazon newsroom, Sept 2026)
• Prime Big Deal Days 2026 dates
• FTC: Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers
• FTC: Endorsement guides, what people are asking
• FTC: Consumer reviews and testimonials rule
• Pinterest: affiliate link basics

You don't need software to start. Film, upload, tag, repeat. That's the job for your first 100 videos.

But somewhere after that, the filming stops being the hard part. It's everything around it: finding products worth buying, keeping up with Creator Connections campaigns and their end dates, messaging brands, turning one review into a YouTube video, a Pinterest pin, a blog post and a social post, writing every title and description, adding every disclosure. That's where our hours were going.

What it does

• Deal Radar and full-catalog product research: price, sales velocity and competition in one view, so you can run the Module 4 screen in seconds.
• Creator Connections finder, plus a daily digest of campaigns picked for you.
• Brand Deals: long-form outreach emails drafted for you, and unlimited Creator Connections messages.
• Art Director thumbnails and designs with your own face on them for Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.
• Auto-posting to Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook, with AI captions and your affiliate link.
• Shoppable link-in-bio page that sends your audience from any platform to your latest reviews.
• On Pro: video scripts built from a product's pain points, features and benefits (Module 3), Deals Hub posts you write early and schedule for the moment the deal starts (Module 8), blog posts written in your real voice, Video-to-Blog, Clip Factory for turning long videos into shorts, and posting to more networks.

Who it's for

• You have 100+ videos and you're making some money (Module 4's rule applies to our tool too).
• You want offsite traffic and brand deals, not just onsite.
• You'd rather spend your time filming than copying, pasting and formatting.