Denied by Amazon Affiliate
So yesterday I took a look at my Amazon Affiliate page and I had 3 products that were ordered and awaiting confirmation.
I was happy as it was my first selling and was just waiting for the money.
Today I received an email saying that my affiliation was denied and my account closed.
The reason, they say, is one or more of this:
- Lack of content which is original to your site and beneficial to your visitors
- Pages that are mainly empty when advertisement content is removed
Now, I could say that my website has original content as I'm writing a lot about my niche (board games) and they're all with my own experience. I also can say that my pages are full of content as usually I just have one or two links for Amazon.
Has anyone experienced something like this? They completely erased my account and I can't access it. What happens with my sales? I don't even have a way to contact then now as looks like my account doesn't even exist.
I'm really feeling the impact of this as it was the only thing I wasn't expecting when I just made my first sell.
Any advices?
Recent Comments
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I can't understand their reaction!
I just had a look at your site, the first of MANY!
Not only is content there, but it was interesting, well organized , well spicked with images in the places I, as reader, needed them and I end up wanting to revisit, because I'm further along in buying decisions from it already!
Please keep me posted about Amazon in this regard.
Sometimes it could just be a review employee, looking for something specific, he or she feels, needs to be there, but one would think they're educated enough to descern whether their experience is too individual.
Is there a way to ask them to be more specific?
Please keep me posted how this story goes....
All the Best, looks highly promising to me......
Therese
Just read Alex's comment. Of course that is always the spice that makes the dish more savory. Wish I could help more on this.....
Thanks Therese.
No news yet from Amazon and there's no way to ask questions about the denied affiliation.
I'll keep everyone up-to-date. :)
Ok! Keeping my fingers crossed for you, by all means keep on, there must be many others who are more open-minded......
I would simply remove ALL affiliate links(also ads if you have any). Post 5-10 great articles, make the sit look more serious and information based. Then I would reapply to Amazon associates. And ONLY when approved, I would add the affiliate links ;)
p.s. there is also CJ, ShareASale and a few other amazing affiliate networks.
Early on I had my account cancelled due to lack of sales in the first few months. I reapplied immediately and got accepted. Got a sales and had my membership confirmed. It is worth following through on the suggestions from Josh from Oz as that may be the real reason for the problem.
If you can't get back into the Amazon affiliate program, take a look at viglink.com and skimlinks.com. They have plugins that will hyperlink keywords in your content and Amazon is one of the ad networks in their systems.
I tried them out but never made much with them. But I'm bad at driving traffic (joined WA to remedy that). As with other services that add hyperlinks into your content, you need lots of traffic to see a payoff. I have an Amazon associates account so I don't need to use skimlinks and viglink as an alternative. But their links go to many other vendors besides Amazon.
That's good to know. Thanks. I'm still evaluating my options in case Amazon turn me down again.
I hear this a lot. It's a bummer. I think that is why it's a good idea to look for other affiliate programs other than Amazon even though they have the best reputation.
In my niche, they're one of the very few that ship worldwide and they always have the best price. So it's really hard to work with one of the other 2 international game resellers that ship worldwide, but sometimes costs twice as Amazon.
Hey sorry to hear this. But, it's better it happened now rather then 1 year from now and you have 100+ pages to fix.
You can reapply for Amazon if you weren't permanently banned. I had a quick look at your site and you have 2 things wrong that I noticed immediately.
1. You dont have the amazon affiliate disclaimer on your pages wherever you have amazon affiliate links this needs to be seen by the reader. Either in side bar (better safe then sorry) or in the footer:
Your name/yoursite a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Certain content that appears on this site comes from Amazon Services LLC. Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
2. Don't put prices on items unless it's the code you got directly form amazon. For example: Best Price $19.90 at Amazon. 2 things wrong here. 1. Who says it's the best price? .Can you claim such things? Instead say 'Check Price' . 2.Amazon's prices fluctuate. So it may be $19.90 today, but will it be in a weeks time? a months time? Unless you are using their API to pull in data (Which has to be updated every 24 hrs) this is false advertising.
Yes I have been stung by Amazon, and have learned a very hard lesson. I suggest researching why amazon close accounts: Other reasons:
copied customer reviews (Without an API it's against the rules)
Using the Amazon logo unless it came from the code you got from their affiliate section
Plagiarized their product descriptions
thin sites: Is all your content 100% unique? nothing copied from Amazon? Amazon want your site to be something readers can find useful, something that they wouldn't just find on the actual amazon site. A site needs a purpose, to offer personal opinions, stories reasons why it's not just a product description from amazon. Not saying yours is, but that's what I have learned over the years.
I suggest reading more into and fixing your site. Maybe add more content which isn't promoting a product at all. You can contact Amazon staff (they told me to basically just re-apply) inside affiliates account. Or just re-apply.
Don't Give Up!
Hi Josh, you have some very good suggestions in there. I'll make sure to fix this issues in the current pages and try to apply again.
There's nothing in my website that is not 100% unique. I do not copy any text from anywhere. It's all with my own experience. The majority of the pages don't even have an affiliate link.
Anyway, thanks for your help. I'm just frustrated because they did it right when I had some sales. Even looks like they did it on purpose to not pay any commission.
Amazon now manually reviews your website after it's first sales. This is why it happened now. When I started this was not the case and I was accidentally breaking the rules for a couple years before they manually reviewed my sites. So in a way it's better that it happened now rather than in 2 years when you have a tonne of content to fix!.
If you were making sales, you will again Man!. Don't loose hope.
I just can't find any information about the affiliate disclaimer in Amazon Terms of Service (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement). If you have a link to provide, I appreciate.
Regarding the prices, you're correct. They have this info here: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/operating/linking/ref=amb_link_353005802_12
Here is a screens hot of where to look: https://monosnap.com/file/T6ElE6HElWAZ40Nf0aWgsVLXoyrC8R#
which can be found on this page: WA wont let me put the link... So go to the operating agreement link found on the affiliate login page down the bottom.
Great info Josh and thanks for sharing it here. It's always good to learn what works and not. It's a quagmire out there!
Cool. Thanks. As far as I understand, I could just place it in my Privacy Policy page. I just need to have that information, not to show it in every single page.
Because you are applying again, and once they manually review you site again. I highly suggest putting it in your sidebar widget up the top. People are meant to be aware that you are an affiliate. If its hidden in privacy policy then they won't know. For the sakeof being approved .. I would and I did..
Read more about where to put disclosure on the FTC website : https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking#affiliate
try contacting associate's support ...here's a link
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/main.html
You'll see a link at the bottom for support or contact.
I'd have your acct log in info handy when you contact them. It may be a glitch or an error in their system. :)
Good luck!
:( sorry, I thought that was a generic link that you could access some help. Have you tried to reapply?
Not yet.I'll work in the changes suggested by Josh and then will reapply. Probably in a few hours.
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Just a heads up for everyone. I made another sell and my application was approved! :)
So happy! \o/