Amazon Affiliate Oops

bySandiT

869 followers

10 years ago

I am already an affiliate with Amazon.ca and Amazon.com and had thought to join Amazon.uk but when I applied they visited my website livingsnug.com and this was their response:

"We found that the URL http://livingsnug.com redirects viewers to Amazon.co.uk, which violates our Operating Agreement. Redirecting to our website infringes on our trademark and causes misunderstandings with our customers."

At this point I was completely confused as I thought that was the idea so I posed my question to the WA community.

"Denied Amazon Affiliate program now what do I do?"

I received several responses, one from Kyle explained that I would be ok without Amazon and he explained they are on the lower end of the commission scale and their cookies are only valid for 24 hours.

Kyle also provided a link to training on how to find relevant affiliate programs that I am definitely going to research.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-fi...

Another member inquired if I was able to still access Amazon.ca and Amazon.com and I have since determined that I can, but on reading the Associates Program Operating Agreement from Amazon I find that if I do not make changes to my website to stop the redirecting to Amazon and I do make a sale it does not mean that they have to pay me.

One further researching the Operating Agreement I came upon this paragraph that explains what redirecting is:

“Redirecting Link” means a link that sends users indirectly to the Amazon Site via an intermediate site or webpage and without requiring the user to click on a link or take some other affirmative action on that intermediate site or webpage.

For the next little while I will be at my website making some changes and researching alternate affiliate programs.

I hope this blog prevents someone else from making the same mistake I did.

Another thing I should point out is I had gone ahead of my course lessons. After this fiasco I went back to doing the training by Kyle - Course 3, Lesson 2 "Understanding How Affiliate Marketing Works". Goes to show I should have completed my training because he clearly says not to do that and I would have saved myself a lot of hassle.