When you first install Oink, it can feel like sitting down in the cockpit of a 747. There are buttons everywhere, and I’ll own that — I built Oink to be big, tough, and bad to the bone, packed with every tool an Amazon influencer could want. But here’s the thing I tell every new member: you do not need to touch most of it on day one. There are a handful of activities that drive the overwhelming majority of your commissions, and if you just do those, you’re winning. This is my onboarding walkthrough for brand-new Oink users — the simple version.

In This Article

Why Oink Feels Overwhelming (And Why It Shouldn’t)

I get it. You signed up, you opened the extension, and there are a dozen features staring back at you. Don’t let that paralyze you. Almost everything you do that actually earns money lives in just a few tools. The rest have real value, and you’ll grow into them when you’re ready — but if you try to learn all of it at once, you’ll spin your wheels and make nothing. So I want you to mentally shrink Oink down to the four or five things I’m about to show you. Master those, and you’re doing exactly what a smart Amazon influencer should be doing anyway.

Step One: Validate Your Subscription

The very first thing is making sure Oink knows you’re a subscriber. In your settings, you’ll enter the email address you actually signed up with. That email is what validates your Pro status. Here’s a trap I see constantly: a lot of people pay with something like Link, which uses whatever email it has on file, and then they have no idea which address they used. If you don’t see your receipt in your inbox right after signing up, go dig it out so you know exactly which email to enter. Type it in, hit save, and Oink will either confirm “validated” or tell you there’s no Pro subscription on that address. You can always switch the email later if you need to.

Back Up Your Oink Data

Inside the My Oink Data section there’s a feature most people honestly won’t need often, but I want you to know it exists. As you fetch your storefront, cross-post to other countries, and let Oink build up all this information on your computer, you can go into My Oink Data and create a backup file anytime you want. If Oink ever has a weird hiccup down the road, you’ve got a clean copy to restore from. Two minutes now can save you a headache later.

Your Daily Driver: The Creator Connections Cross Check

This is the one you’ll run more than anything else. Oink pulls every video off your storefront and cross-checks it against Creator Connections, hunting for matches. If you’ve set it to automatically accept, there is literally nothing else for you to do — just let the full cross check run. You’ll get a final results page showing everything Oink accepted on your behalf. Ignore the copy and export buttons on that screen; they’re there for edge cases, not for you. I also run a cross check against the products on my sales reports, so anything I’ve already sold gets pushed into Creator Connections and auto-accepted too, just in case it converts again. Treat the Creator Connections cross check as an everyday habit. Do it once a day and move on.

Run Your Storefront Health Check

Next is a different kind of storefront cross check — what I think of as your storefront health check, powered by Oink’s Unavailable Video Matching. This finds videos on your storefront that have gone unavailable or broken, which quietly kills commissions you’ve already earned the right to. Don’t try to fix all of them in one sitting. Aim for about five a day. There’s a tutorial video right inside Piggy Planner that walks you through fixing each one on your list. I felt like a dummy the first time I ran this because I had so many sitting there broken — chip away at five a day and you’ll clean it up fast.

The Order History Content Gap: Money Sitting in Your House

If I could only get you to do one thing, it might be this. The Order History Content Gap looks at everything you’ve actually purchased on Amazon and shows you which of those products you never made a video for. When you’re new, you’re running around the house filming everything you can find — but I promise you’ve forgotten stuff. We all forget stuff; there’s just too much in our homes. This tool surfaces the products that are selling, that have Creator Connection campaigns, and that are already sitting in your house right now. Use the filters, pull up the ones that are selling, and work through them 20 at a time. Make your videos, upload them, come back, do the next 20. Don’t get wrapped up in messaging brands for free stuff before you’ve exhausted this list. This is money you already own.

Your Once-a-Week Storefront Fetch

About once a week, I want you to go into your storefront, clear it, and run a fresh fetch using the storefront fetch button. This keeps the data Oink is working from current, so your cross checks and your content gap are always running against an accurate picture of your storefront. It’s a small bit of housekeeping that makes everything else more reliable.

How I Decide What’s Worth a Video

When I’m looking at a product, I run it through a quick filter. First: is it selling? You’ve heard me say this until you’re sick of it — if a product isn’t selling, Amazon can’t make money and neither can you. The number one reason people in the influencer program struggle is that they say yes to products with no sales history. Look at the page; if there’s a sales number, any number beats no number, and I’d like to see at least 100. Second: does it have a Creator Connection campaign? Third: does that campaign have at least 60 days left on it? I want plenty of runway for exposure. A campaign with 300+ days left is a far better bet than one about to expire.

Make Videos That Actually Convert

In the beginning, lean hardest on products already in your house — you don’t have to fight for them. I don’t mind new creators doing two videos per product early on, one horizontal and one vertical, just to build up the storefront and get comfortable making videos. But the biggest thing is how you open. Stop leading with pleasantries. I used to do it too: “Hey, I recently bought this label maker because I had some things around the house that needed labels…” Too much — they don’t care. Lead by saying the thing the viewer is already wondering: “You’re probably wondering, does this label maker actually work? What do the labels look like? Is it easy to use? I’m going to show you all of that.” You’re connecting with their search intent right out of the gate. And when a brand sent you the product, just disclose it naturally: “The brand sent this to me and asked me to make a video showing you how it works.” Easy.

Keep It Simple When You’re Starting

That’s the whole onboarding. Validate your subscription, back up your data, then build your day around three or four activities: your Creator Connections cross check, fixing a few videos with your storefront health check, and working your Order History Content Gap. Those activities are where the majority of your commissions actually come from. The 5 Pillars system, the Comparison Video Schedule, the cross-country posting tools — they all have value, and you’ll get to them when you’re ready. For now, don’t feel like you’re missing out by simplifying. You’re not. You’re focusing on exactly the work that matters.

If you’re new and any of this still feels fuzzy, that’s normal — come do these activities a few days in a row and they’ll become second nature. Ready to put your storefront to work and stop leaving commissions on the table? Head over to oinkforinfluencers.com and let Oink do the heavy lifting for you.

I'm an Amazon Influencer since 2023 and blogger since 2021. My goal is to help you succeed in the Amazon Influencer Program.

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