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Amazon - your Associates Account has been rejected

by CAPCHA
12 replies
Hi guys,

I read this forum with great interest, and being completely new decided to take the plunge two days ago, i researched a niche, bought a domain and wrote a couple of reviews.

Then to monetize the site i applied to Amazon on both UK and USA sites, i received emails from both today, one saying "Congratulations, your application to the Amazon.co.uk Associates Programme has been approved" and the other saying from the USA site saying "We do not allow the use of URLs that include trademarked words" and "your Associates Account has been rejected".

I was planning on using the Amazon.com affiliate links on my pages because it is a larger market, and i used the same domain at the application page on both sites, so why was one approved and the other not?

Any advice from experienced Amazon affiliate marketers would be greatly appreciated.
#account #amazon #associates #rejected
  • Profile picture of the author WildGale
    Is your domain along the lines of disneystuffedanimals.com or amazonalley.com? I'm just curious. Apparently the name is not trademarked in the UK?
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    • Profile picture of the author jan roos
      Thats why i always recommend not having trademark names in your domain names.
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    • Profile picture of the author CAPCHA
      Originally Posted by WildGale View Post

      Is your domain along the lines of disneystuffedanimals.com or amazonalley.com? I'm just curious. Apparently the name is not trademarked in the UK?
      The domain name contains the word sony, there seems to be plenty of sites with company names included in the URL promoting Amazon, so how do they get away with it.

      Do you have to add all your sites in your Amazon profile, or can you register with nobrand.com then advertise on something like sonystuff.com?

      It seems a shame because with just a page title, no content and no backlinks my blog went straight to the first page of google for my search phrase which has 33,000 searches a month.

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author WildGale
        Hmmm. You could register under another domain name and use the affiliate code on your Sony site, but if you make any real money on it, Amazon will notice and, since it violates their TOS, they won't pay you. I would go a different direction.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        It seems a shame because with just a page title, no content and no backlinks my blog went straight to the first page of google for my search phrase which has 33,000 searches a month.
        I doubt that is the case. More likely is that Google is showing you "personalized" search results.

        Also possible is your site was just indexed. When first indexed the site may appear to be high in google rank for a day or three - but that's because it hasn't yet been ranked by google.

        kay
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        • Profile picture of the author CAPCHA
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          I doubt that is the case. More likely is that Google is showing you "personalized" search results.

          Also possible is your site was just indexed. When first indexed the site may appear to be high in google rank for a day or three - but that's because it hasn't yet been ranked by google.

          kay
          Thats possibly it.

          I opened the top ten pages on Google to look at the competition, and was amazed to see my own site amongst them. this was within hours of installing an empty blog.

          I will probably leave the site and monitor its position within google search results over the coming weeks.

          This was only an experimental first site, so was not expecting too much, just wished i had registered for 1 yr not 2.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by CAPCHA View Post

        The domain name contains the word sony
        You were extremely lucky that Amazon UK didn't spot this.

        The potential problem is that you may not necessarily be so lucky when Sony spots it. And they do have a reputation for investigating these things and following them up. You'd think - superficially - that they wouldn't necessarily want to because "you're helping them to sell stuff" but that's not how they see it. To them it's just a registered trademark infringement. Sony (just like Google) has a reputation for finding out and doing something. (Google has a lot of cases pending at the moment against people who've done this).

        I'm not suggesting they'd sue you (even though they'd have the right to) but they can take the domain off you, legally, any time they choose. I know hundreds of people do things like this and get away with it, and make some money from it, but that doesn't make it right. Sorry.
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by CAPCHA View Post

        The domain name contains the word sony, there seems to be plenty of sites with company names included in the URL promoting Amazon, so how do they get away with it.

        Do you have to add all your sites in your Amazon profile, or can you register with nobrand.com then advertise on something like sonystuff.com?

        It seems a shame because with just a page title, no content and no backlinks my blog went straight to the first page of google for my search phrase which has 33,000 searches a month.

        Thanks
        You do realize don't you that you may have bigger problems than being rejected by Amazon by using other people's trademarks in your domains, don't you?

        You can be sued if they want to, or they can send a cease and desist. It's asking for trouble.
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        • Profile picture of the author CAPCHA
          Thanks for all your helpful comments

          I will mark this one down to experience, and move on .
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Nguyen
    As an Amazon affiliate, i know what its like to give up your domain. You just gotta weigh the pros and cons before you buy it. If you don't want hassle in the long run, just avoid trademarks at all costs and go for generic domains.

    If you want to target the product then just create a page with that name eg
    domain.com/sony-whatever

    Then optimize for the url. You will have go work abit harder but you'll be able to avoid the hassle fo companies / amazon rejecting you etc

    Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author CAPCHA
      Originally Posted by Michael Nguyen View Post


      If you want to target the product then just create a page with that name eg domain.com/sony-whatever

      Good luck.
      I think thats the way forward, i dont like the idea of building a house on sand.

      Just checked with Traffic Travis SEO analysis and it says rank 7 with pr1. Doesn't sound quite right that, is there a reliable way of checking page rank.
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  • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
    Get new domains.

    You really don't want to be futzing with Sony on trademark issues. It's easy to rank without the word in the URL.
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