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Amazon Affiliate vs Amazon seller for banned state

by SpiderT3
5 replies
I'm in one of the banned Amazon affiliate states (RI), so I'm not allowed to be an Amazon affiliate. I was wondering if anyone in a similar situation went the route of creating their own Amazon store, and being an Amazon seller, instead of an affiliate?

Does the business model work? What are the biggest challenges of going this route? From what I understand, you have to source products yourself, then most likely use FBA to handle shipping and customer service?

Are there any alternatives to the affiliate program?
#affiliate #amazon #banned #seller #state
  • Profile picture of the author Arock
    An alternative that some people use is forming an LLC in a safe state, get a registered agent there and "operate" out of that state. You could also get a PO Box from Earth Class Mail or another mail service. If you need a phone number for that state, those are easy enough to get as well from places like Google Voice, Skype, etc. Best of luck to you! -Adam
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    • Profile picture of the author SpiderT3
      Yeah, I'm already a Delaware LLC and have a registered agent and all that, but from my interpretation of a "nexus", is that is you "operate", or reside in a state, you have a nexus. Am I wrong?
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      • Profile picture of the author 1byte
        You can also use Skimlinks, which converts regular non-affiliate Amazon links to affiliate links that run through Skimlinks. They take 25%, but I believe their commission tier is above 4% as well, so you will somewhat make up for it. And it's easy to use, just place the code on your site, or use their Wordpress plugin, and they do the rest.

        There is also a feature to monetize certain words in your content, if you enable that feature. For example, if you write an article about water purifiers, and Skimlink as an affiliate (Amazon or other) that sells water purifiers, the word will turn into a clickable affiliate link. When someone buys through that link, you will be paid a commission. Pretty cool, and it works great for people who can't be an Amazon associate, or who have been banned. They claim to have over 19,000 merchants across 57 affiliate networks, so there's a lot of stuff that can be monetized.

        If you're interested, check them out here: Skimlinks | Affiliate marketing made easy - content monetization | Skimlinks
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  • Profile picture of the author DWaters
    Comparing Amazon Affiliates to FBA sellers is like comparing apples to onions. Two vey different business models. Of course with FBA sourcing your products is about 90% of the business. After that you simply sending them into Amazon and you are selling your inventory in their high buyer traffic site. Obviously affiliate marketing is about you driving traffic that makes it to Amazon. The affiliate commisions are not nearly as high as the ROI can be with FBA sales.
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  • Profile picture of the author seoboyz01
    You'll always earn more as a seller or store owner than you will as an affiliate. That's true in any niche or with any product, not just with Amazon.
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