Everyone is familiar with the Amazon website. They are surely one of the most famous online vendors on the planet. They may even be one of the most famous retailers full stop. But what springs to mind when you think of Amazon? Books, CDs, DVDs, consumer electronics and gadgets. I suppose these days the Amazon Kindle reader might be the first thing a lot of people associate with Amazon.

The simple fact of the matter is that Amazon offer an incredible range of products on their website. You can buy all sorts of things for your home, hoovers, pots and pans, bed linen, tools, toys and games. You can download music and video directly and do away with the need to wait for a CD or DVD in the post. You can even do your grocery shopping on Amazon.

Which is all fascinating stuff of course – but what does it mean for you? If you’re interested in making money as an affiliate then the enormous range on offer at the Amazon store offers a tremendous opportunity for you. There will surely be something to interest to your potential customers – all you need to do is get them to go to the Amazon website by way of one of your affiliate links and let Amazon do the all the sales work for you.

Amazon, of course, is rather good at getting people to buy stuff online. It’s how they built their online empire - and they are very good at it. Apart from all the various little tricks that they have perfected over the years – the free shipping, the list of other items that go well with your chosen goods, the e-mails when they’ve got a special offer – they enjoy a high level of both brand recognition and trust amongst the buying public. Combining the high trust levels for the Amazon brand with similar brand recognition and trust of the products on offer – Sony, Apple, Microsoft for example – makes it easier for you to achieve a high sales conversion rate.

Amazon’s affiliate scheme – they call it the Amazon Associate scheme – is one of the oldest in existence. That’s a sure sign that they’ve got something right and that the scheme is a good one, both for the company and the affiliates who promote it. It’s free to join so there’s no risk for you. You will need your own website – but that could be a free blogger blog if you wish. Whatever blog or website you use, Amazon must approve it. This is a very simple process. As long as you don’t have any racist, hate or “adult” themed content on your site, and as long as you don’t use the word Amazon in your web address, Amazon will more than likely approve your site. If there is some minor problem don’t worry - you can reapply as often as you like using a different blog or site.

The sign up process is fast, free and simple. In just a few minutes time, you could be marketing items form Amazon’s enormous portfolio. So rather han spending all your time promoting e-books that very few people want, you could be selling real stuff to real people and making real money.