Cloak amazon affiliate links is okay?

9 years ago

Originally Posted by spen

Hi guys,

Cloak amazon affiliate links is okay?
Does it violate Amason's terms?

Thank you in advance for your reply

Yes, it's against the ToS. You can't cloak, hide or spoof your links - Amazon is notorious for banning people who breach these terms.

Thanks
1 reply

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Cosmit

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Jennifer Hutson

Yes, it's against the ToS. You can't cloak, hide or spoof your links – Amazon is notorious for banning people who breach these terms.

"30. You will not cloak, hide, spoof, or otherwise obscure the URL of your site containing Special Links"
-- https://affiliate-program.amazon.com...participation/

try reading what it says again. what #30 means is that you should not go out of your way to deliberately hide where your links are being clicked, and amazon should be able to detect. if you're not trying to abuse the amazon system, you can cloak all day with no worries. i cloak my amazon links for tracking purposes, i cloak all affiliate links and so do 90% of amazon affiliates.

Thanks
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Joy Livingwell

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Cosmit

"30. You will not cloak, hide, spoof, or otherwise obscure the URL of your site containing Special Links (including by use of a redirecting page) or the user agent of the application in which Content is displayed or used such that we cannot reasonably determine the site or application from which a customer clicks through such Special Link to the Amazon Site. "
-- https://affiliate-program.amazon.com...participation/

try reading what it says again. what #30 means is that you should not go out of your way to deliberately hide where your links are being clicked, and amazon should be able to detect.

Cosmit, thanks for the specific information and the link -- very helpful! Question:

In your experience, does #30 mean that redirect pages need to be on the site where the click got made in order to keep Amazon happy?

IOW, let's say I recommend an Amazon wumpus sproiler on MySite.com. If I make my link MySite.com/wumpus-sproiler, and that redirects to Amazon, Amazon can tell that the click originated somewhere on MySite.com, so that meets the terms of #30.

However, let's say I want to have a single wumpus sproiler Amazon affiliate link I can use on ALL my sites. I set up a redirect at MyLinks.com. Now my sites MySite.com and WumpusSproiler.com will both use the link MyLinks.com/wumpus-sproiler, which redirects to Amazon.

While I’m not trying to hide where the original click came from, from Amazon's point of view it might seem like I am, since my clicks will all seem to originate on MyLinks.com. Is that going to violate #30 and bring the wrath of Amazon down on my head?

I know several people who set up all of their product and affiliate links as redirects on a dedicated site they only use for links. Each person runs a bunch of sites, so having one link per product definitely makes their link management easier. It would make my link management easier too, but I’m concerned about getting zapped. Advice?

Thanks

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Sid Hale

9 years ago

Sorry Cosmit, but Jennifer is right...

Originally Posted by Cosmit

"30. You will not cloak, hide, spoof, or otherwise obscure the URL of your site containing Special Links"
-- https://affiliate-program.amazon.com...participation/

try reading what it says again. what #30 means is that you should not go out of your way to deliberately hide where your links are being clicked, and amazon should be able to detect. if you're not trying to abuse the amazon system, you can cloak all day with no worries. i cloak my amazon links for tracking purposes, i cloak all affiliate links and so do 90% of amazon affiliates.

Here's the full text of that paragraph:
30. You will not cloak, hide, spoof, or otherwise obscure the URL of your site containing Special Links (including by use of a redirecting page) or the user agent of the application in which Content is displayed or used such that we cannot reasonably determine the site or application from which a customer clicks through such Special Link to the Amazon Site.

I've underlined the pertinent portion for you.
Now I ask you... what cloaker do you know of that does so without utilizing page redirects to accomplish the cloaking?

Thanks

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Coming Soon... Rapid Action Profits (Pro)

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Path Theory

9 years ago

Your terminology is wrong. The purpose of cloaking a link is to hide where a network is sending it's traffic, not where you're sending your visitors.

Example -

You build two landing pages, one "safe" page, which has no affiliate links or ads. The second is an aggressive presale page in a semi banned niche, such as diet pills. You're running traffic from facebook ads. You have a database filled with all of facebook's known IPs. When facebook checks your link, the cloaker reads it's ip, and directs them to the safe page. When a prospect clicks the link, it directs them to the aggressive presale.

You do this so your account does not get banned, and you increase your roi. While it's terribly effective and profitable, it is considered blackhat, and you'll get banned after a little while anyways. It's not worth the trouble to find new accounts unless you have a steady stream, which 99% of people do not.

Thanks

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Robert999

9 years ago

Originally Posted by spen

Hi guys,

Cloak amazon affiliate links is okay?
Does it violate Amason's terms?

Thank you in advance for your reply

Not Allowed. Links should clearly tell people that they are going to Amazon.

Thanks

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Kenmuise

9 years ago

But Google hates affiliate links, right? So...uhm... What do you all do with that? (Please don't say not to rely on Google for all my traffic. I get it. I'm just wondering what ya'll do.)

Thanks

Ken

Thanks

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wolfmmiii

9 years ago

Google doesn't hate affiliate links. You've received bad info.

Google hates pages with 37 affiliate links and 5 sentences worth of content. That's what they hate.

[ 1 ] Thanks

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James McAllister

9 years ago

As others have said, you're not allowed to cloak or spoof your links. You can use Amazon's link shortener, but I think that's about it.

From what I know of EazyAzon though you don't have to enable cloacking. You can still use all the other features if those are what you're interested in.

Thanks

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vishwa

9 years ago

Cloaking Amazon affiliate links violate their terms. You can either use amazon shorten link. Just select the product which you want to promote and click get link for the product, here you will be find amazon shorten link for that product. Hope its help you.

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Kenmuise

9 years ago

I use Easy Azon. It doesn't actually cloak from what I see and understand. It does pretty it up a bit but you still see the ASIN/Product in the link as you hover. It just doesn't have all that long trash of an Amazon aff link. It doesn't attempt to hide... Anyone else use it and feel that same way?

Thanks

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createarena

9 years ago

No reason to cloak although I would do a no follow on the link. Best of luck.

Thanks

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Cloak amazon affiliate links is okay?

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