My 2nd payment from Amazon affiliate program

I just received an email today that says "Amazon just sent you an Amazon.com gift card!".

For Amazon, rather than an individual to send you a gift card, it means that you are getting paid for something. In my case, it has to do with my accumulated affiliate earnings from about 2 months ago.

This is my 2nd payment so far from the Amazon affiliate program and they offer a variety of payment options for members in Nigeria and this includes gift card and foreign cheque. I prefer the gift card option since I also shop at times on Amazon. If you wanted to use the foreign check option, it may take some time before it gets to you by snail mail and take another 3 weeks or so before clearing in your domiciliary account and besides you also have to earn at least a $100 minimum.

I also prefer the gift card option because you get paid faster and can easily use it to offset your bill when shopping.

The affiliate payment at just $12.22 is not much but is good motivating factor that could encourage one to work harder to earn more. I'm also inspired by people who make as much as $1000 a month on just the affiliate program.

For now, I still earn more from Google adsense than from Amazon's affiliate program

How to redeem your gift card
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After receiving your gift card in your email box, you may click on the button that says redeem now or by visiting amazon.com/redeemgift, enter the claim code and your account would be credited with that amount.

What I've noticed about Amazon's affiliate program is that you do need a lot of US or UK traffic before making sales as most other countries don't end up buying from Amazon. As it is, my best earning niches remain in the mp3 downloads and Kindle apps. I would probably have to focus more on hardware products like computers, cameras and digital tv if I want to increase my earnings.

When does Amazon pay affiliates?
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For you to get paid from the Amazon program, you need to at least earn up to $10 in referral commissions in a given month and then you would get paid before the end of the next 2 months. This means that if you earn $50 in January, you would get paid before the end of March.