These 9 Things Will Get You Banned From Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is the number 1 used platform by affiliate marketers. Many affiliate marketers make a full-time living with this platform and it would be devastating for them to have their account banned.
I would say the majority of the affiliates here at WA use Amazon as their sole affiliate program. So it’s very important to make sure you don’t get your account banned from Amazon.
I came up with a list of mistakes that could get your Amazon Associates Account banned. Don’t make these critical mistakes and your account will not suffer the consequences.
# Things That Will Get You Banned From Amazon Associates
1. Don’t purchase items for yourself through your affiliate links.
The affiliate links that you put in your posts should not be used by you to purchase things for yourself. If they find that you have done this you could get banned.
2. Having More Than One Account
You're not allowed to have more than one Amazon Associates account. If you have more than one website you can make separate tracking ids for each website that you own.
3. Including Affiliate Links In Emails
That’s right you are not allowed to use Amazon Associate links in emails that you send out. Instead, you can include a link to a post on your website that contains the affiliate links. Amazon bans affiliate links from anything offline.
4. Including Affiliate Links in Ebooks
You are not allowed to use your affiliate links in Ebooks. I noticed affiliate links in ebooks a lot in the early days of affiliate marketing. Not sure if this was a no-no back then but it sure is today!
5. Cloaking Your Affiliate Links
Cloaking or redirecting your affiliate links will get you banned from the Amazon Associates program.
6. Not Having An Affiliate Disclosure Document On Your Website
Make sure you include an affiliate disclosure and a link to it on every page/post of your website. I include a link to mine along with a link to the privacy policy page in the footer of my website.
Some people go as far as having a full statement posted directly to each page/post that contains affiliate links. These are usually included in the sidebar or at the bottom or top of a post.
7. Including The Price of a Product in Your Posts
You're not allowed to put the price of a product in your posts. You can use their auto-generated product images and price but you can’t include the price of a product on your own. Instead, you can create a link or button that says check price on Amazon.
I don’t understand why that matters because many times I will get comments in a post asking for the price of a certain product that I have reviewed. To me not including the price leads to a bad customer experience.
8. Violating Amazons Trademark Policy
You are not allowed to use any of Amazon’s trademarks in the domain name of your website. Anything Amazon__.com will get you banned. But you can use the trademarks in the keywords of your posts.
9. Copying and Pasting Customer Reviews
Don’t copy and paste customer reviews from Amazon into your posts. You can sum up reviews that others have made but don’t copy the actual review images themselves. For that matter, you shouldn’t just download and upload Amazon images to your posts. Instead, you can use Amazon’s SiteStripe or their API.
I did a training on how to add images using SiteStripe You can check it out here:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-add-amazon-i...
Now You Know
If you are doing any of these 9 things make sure that you stop doing them. I don’t agree with all of these rules that Amazon has but if you want to keep your account in good standing you should follow their guidelines and policies.
I hope you find this post useful.
I would like to know if any of you have had your Amazon Associates Account banned and if you were able to have it reinstated?
Thanks For Reading!
Cheers,
Cory
Recent Comments
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Thank you Cory for this information. I was told by a commentor to do this, and to add a customer review in my post to help boost the post. I didn't feel right and thats why I am here. I am glad I chose to research before I added a customer review from Amazon into my post.
Thank you.
Their rules have gotten out of control! Thanks for the list. There's a couple that I did not realize. Like you can't share a link in email or stating the price. Rolling my eyes now! lol
~Debbi
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You've hit all of the most common culprits, but Amazon actually has even more ways to get banned from their program. This remains one of my favorite posts on the subject. 25 Reasons to Get Banned from Amazon's Affiliate Program After the way Amazon slashed commissions last summer, plus their pathetic 24-hour cookie, it still saddens me when affiliates choose to work with Amazon when there are so many other, far better choices.