Amazon's 1st of March 2022 - Affiliate Assassination. What Does It Mean?

Amazon's Assassination of Affiliate Widget Links

I signed into my Amazon Affiliate program today, and read that they are removing widget links, okay... fair enough, I accept change.... but where to... where are the tools they mention that you can now use instead?

This is what I was presented with... what TOOLS AMAZON!!

Then further on...

They say ( Please click here to know more ) Okay... so I clicked. And this is what it led to.

The Amazon Associates Program will be retiring all support for

widgets. Please find additional detail, as well as key dates and

alternatives available to you. We care about your success and have

offered alternative solutions to replace your widgets, which you can

find below.
As a reminder all flash widgets

are already deprecated since December 15th, 2020. The process to retire

all other widgets will begin on March 1st, 2022 and conclude on April

1st, 2022. Features will be shut down as described below:
1. March 1st, 2022

- Creators will no longer be able to create new widgets or edit

existing ones, but existing widgets that are supported by Amazon

Associates tech (non-Flash) on creators’ pages will continue to work.2. April 1st, 2022

– Widgets will no longer be supported by Amazon Associates. Creators

should plan to complete their migrations to other link building

solutions before this date.
1. What are widgets?Widgets

are web applications that you can install on your websites to monetize

your traffic. When a shopper visits your website, Amazon Associates will

serve content to your shoppers through these widgets. Originally

introduced in mid-2000s, widgets have niche applications that serve

specific monetization needs.
2. Why is Amazon retiring widgets?At

Amazon Associates, we want to offer the best tools for you to monetize

your content effectively and provide a first-class shopping experience

for your visitors. As customer preferences for online browsing and

shopping evolve, we have found that widgets in their current form are

not optimal for encouraging conversion and as a result accrue lower

referral fees for you. We have decided to deprecate this capability in

favor of other better performing link building tools.
3. Which widgets are being retired?The

widgets being retired are search widget, wishlist widget, my favorite

widget, contextual recommendations widget, product cloud widget,

contextual shop and share, and mp3 widget.
4. How does the widget retirement impact me on March 1st, 2022?After

March 1st, 2022, you will no longer be able to create or edit the ad

code for any widgets through Associates Central. Existing deployment of

widgets on your websites will continue to work, but we strongly

recommend you take this opportunity to migrate them to more suitable

alternatives (see below).
5. What happens to my existing widgets after April 1st?After

April 1st, 2022, Amazon Associates will stop supporting all widgets.

Any existing widgets on your websites will stop working. After April

1st, widgets placed inside an iFrame will appear as a blank space, and

widgets placed as-is on a webpage will not render anything.
6. What changes do you recommend I take?We

care about your success and recommend that you take action as soon as

possible to remove all legacy widgets from your website and consider

alternative link building options we offer. You can choose between Site

Stripe, Associates Central link building, Product Advertising API, and

feeds.

I'm confused here, there doesn't seem to be a solution available except to remove all of my Amazon widget links.

I'm so freaking happy I did'nt put 100 plus or so, on one of my websites, because that would have really cheesed my day off.

Does Anyone Know What's Happening?

Are Affiliates Getting Squeezed Out Of Amazon Associates?

Or Have I Missed Something Or Over looked Something?