I knew nothing about affiliate marketing four days ago.
I didn’t know what an Associates ID was. I’d never generated an affiliate link. I didn’t know what a W-8BEN form was or why a Chinese person living in China has to fill one out to earn money from an American company.
Here’s the full honest timeline of how it went.
Day 1–3: Building the Site First
The sequence matters. I didn’t start by thinking about making money. I started by building something that was actually useful.
Day 1: Domain registered, WordPress installed, first articles published. Day 2: Ten AI-built tools live on the site — investing calculators, career assessments, life simulators. Day 3: Applied to Google Search Console.
Google Search Console approved in one day. I have no idea if that’s fast or normal. It felt fast.
Day 4: The Site Has Good Bones
Before applying to any affiliate program, I wanted to know the site was technically sound. AI helped me check PageSpeed and SEO scores.
98/100 on mobile PageSpeed. 100/100 SEO score. I’m not going to pretend I know exactly what these numbers mean for real-world traffic — but they suggest the site isn’t hurting itself technically.
Day 4: Applying to Amazon Associates
The application itself isn’t complicated. The complications for someone in China are specific.
The tax form. Amazon requires a W-8BEN for non-US persons. It’s a US tax document certifying you’re not a US taxpayer. For a Chinese person, the fields are: your name in English, your Chinese address, your country (China), and your date of birth. There’s a section on tax treaties — China does have a tax treaty with the US, which reduces withholding on certain income types. I filled it in, submitted it, and it was accepted.
The payment method. Amazon Associates for US doesn’t offer direct bank transfers to Chinese bank accounts. The options available to me were gift card or check. I chose gift card — not because it’s ideal, but because it’s the one that actually works right now. If the experiment succeeds and real money accumulates, I’ll look at Wise or a similar service to convert gift card balances into something more useful.
The approval. It went through the same day. My Associates ID: ordinarymantr-20.
The 180-Day Clock Starts Now
Here’s the part most people don’t mention when they talk about Amazon Associates: the program has an activity requirement.
To keep your account active, you need at least 3 qualifying sales within 180 days of approval. If you don’t hit that, Amazon closes the account. You can reapply, but you start the clock again.
My 180-day deadline: December 17, 2026.
Current sales: 0.
I’m writing this down publicly because that’s the whole point of this blog. If I hit 3 sales, I’ll write about it. If I miss and the account closes, I’ll write about that too.
What I Actually Did With the Affiliate Links
Once approved, Amazon gives you a toolbar called SiteStripe that appears at the top of any Amazon product page. Click “Text,” and you get a short affiliate link you can put anywhere.
I added book links to the 10 life simulator tools — one recommended biography per simulator, linked to the Amazon page for that book. The logic: someone playing the Warren Buffett simulator might want to read more about Buffett. The link is there if they do.
The Honest Assessment
I know almost nothing about affiliate marketing. I’ve never run an affiliate program before. I have no audience to sell to. I have zero Google traffic.
What I have is: a site that is technically clean, 29 articles published in 6 days, 10 interactive tools that are actually useful, and a 180-day window to find out if any of it converts.
The experiment isn’t “can I make money with affiliate marketing.” The experiment is “what does the real starting-from-zero experience actually look like, documented honestly, by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”
I’ll update this post when something changes. Or when nothing changes and the 180 days run out.
Either way, you’ll know.
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