Update - Amazon Account Terminated - Amazon Respond

[Young Samurai]

I’ve been expelled from the Amazon Affiliate Advertising program and I don’t know why and Amazon won’t tell me.


On Monday past I received the following email from Amazon.com


Hello,

It has come to our attention that you are artificially increasing your advertising fee earnings by automatically tagging Amazon sessions to your account. This is a direct violation of the Operating Agreement to which you agreed when registering for the Program. You can find the complete text of the Associates Program Operating Agreement, including Participation Requirements, via this link:

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement

We insist that you cease this activity and remove all Amazon content from your site(s) immediately. Moreover, because you are using the Associates Program in ways in which it was never intended, your account has been closed and you will not receive further payment. Any other accounts you may have or may open in the future will be closed and advertising fees withheld without notification.

Best regards,


I responded immediately with the following


Hello,

I have just received the notification of my expulsion from your advertising program. I confess to being completely surprised and confused as I don't understand what is meant by "artificially increasing your advertising fee earnings by automatically tagging Amazon sessions to your account.”

Can you please explain precisely what offense I have committed?

Your decision has a very definite “permanent” tone about it. Any transgression has been totally unintentional. I have committed a lot of time and effort to learning how to promote your products and would not knowingly jeopardize my relationship with a program I regard so highly.

Can you outline how I may appeal and/or seek reinstatement in the Associates Program?

Sincerely,


Amazon.com prides themselves on their ability to quickly respond to queries. Given that I haven’t received a response some four days on I’m going to have to assume that I’m not going to get a reply and they are not going to explain to me what my transgression is.

_____________________________

I am completely devastated – I have invested so much time, effort and money in getting to the $1k/month earning point and to have that taken away so abruptly has me still in shock.


I’m also very frustrated – I don’t know what offense it is that I’ve committed and it appears I won’t be told and I find that offends my sense of natural justice.

Any transgression was certainly unintended.

I think it would be simple courtesy to tell me what I've done in understandable language.

___________________________


I have several questions I hope Warriors can answer:


1. The only clue I have to my transgression is this line, “you are artificially increasing your advertising fee earnings by automatically tagging Amazon sessions to your account. “


Does anyone know what that means?


2. What is the status of my websites? Are they blacklisted? Are they ruined for any owner? Will they be marked by Google too?

3. Are there any alternative affiliate programs for UK affiliates running sites in US for home and DIY physical products? So, that I might retain the sites.

I'm at a pretty low point at the moment. Any help no matter how small would be appreciated.

[Young Samurai]

OK folks reply received.

Hello again from the Associates Program.

Upon further investigation, we have found that you are framing our Web site with the domain XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.COM. This activity is prohibited by the terms of the Operating Agreement which states that Associates cannot frame any part of the Amazon site within their site(s). You can review the complete terms of the Associates Program Operating Agreement and Participation Requirements by following this link:

http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/...ates/agreement

http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/.../participation

As a result of this activity, your Associates account has been closed and payment of advertising fees has been withheld. Any accounts you may open in the future which are found in violation of the Operating Agreement terms will be closed and advertising fees withheld without notification.

Best regards,

[Paul Myers]

Kyle,

If I'm reading that right, they're saying you got nuked for cookie stuffing.


Paul

[cwilliams6009]

Hey Kyle, just saw your post. Booger! I have to say I've been speaking English for many, many years now, since I was child actually, and can't make head or tail out of that sentence. Give me a couple minutes to review the agreement they cited, okay? I'll check back.

[erichammer]

It sounds (and I'm no expert -- just guessing here) that the issue was somehow artificially forcing visitors to use your Amazon affiliate ID. I know that's not much, but without knowing exactly how you used Amazon links, it's hard to say. And even if I did know, I can't really offer advice beyond a guess...

Regarding your other questions though, as far as I know, getting banned by Amazon doesn't mean getting banned by Google. The two are separate companies completely. OTOH, if there was something a little not kosher that you were doing with your Amazon links, you may want to examine this further to make sure you don't end up banned elsewhere.

Alternative programs? Try eBay. Also, look at Comission Junction, Google Affiliates, Shareasale and Linkshare. They all have hundreds of physical product stores you can sell stuff from.

Finally, I suggest you look up Amazon's phone number and call directly. I find it's often easier to get a straight answer when you call rather than when you send an e-mail...

Best of luck to you.

[drewfioravanti]

How does one "cookie stuff", intentional or not?

[theverysmartguy]

What I would start doing right away is looking for other affiliate programs that you can enter. Such as Commission Junction.

They have a vast list of physical products that you can promote there. And I am sure you will be able to find the products that you currently promote through amazon on their network.

-- Jeff

[wtd1]

They're accusing you of cookie stuffing.
Never heard of anyone getting an account reinstated with Amazon. They're right up there on the impersonality scale as G, Y and the rest.
You'll probably keep getting boilerplate responses.

[john_kennedy]

What Paul said. Do a search for cookie-stuffing or that exact phrase "artificially increasing your advertising fee earnings by automatically tagging Amazon sessions to your account", apparently you aren't the only one.

[Young Samurai]

Yes chaps,

I accept and agree with your interpretation of the phrase.

I have searched for the phrase and read the references to "cookie stuffing" but I can't understand in what way I'm guilty of that offense.

I know there isn't a pup's chance of being reinstated. At present I'd settle for an explanation of how I was artificially increasing my advertising fee.

Originally Posted by john_kennedy

What Paul said. Do a search for cookie-stuffing or that exact phrase "artificially increasing your advertising fee earnings by automatically tagging Amazon sessions to your account", apparently you aren't the only one.

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Kyle,

If I'm reading that right, they're saying you got nuked for cookie stuffing.

Paul

[Young Samurai]

Eric,

I really appreciate the detailed response.

As to my links, I only followed the guidance offered by a number of the best known Amazon affiliate courses available here. I never attempted anything underhand.

Originally Posted by erichammer

It sounds (and I'm no expert -- just guessing here) that the issue was somehow artificially forcing visitors to use your Amazon affiliate ID. I know that's not much, but without knowing exactly how you used Amazon links, it's hard to say. And even if I did know, I can't really offer advice beyond a guess...

Regarding your other questions though, as far as I know, getting banned by Amazon doesn't mean getting banned by Google. The two are separate companies completely. OTOH, if there was something a little not kosher that you were doing with your Amazon links, you may want to examine this further to make sure you don't end up banned elsewhere.

Alternative programs? Try eBay. Also, look at Comission Junction, Google Affiliates, Shareasale and Linkshare. They all have hundreds of physical product stores you can sell stuff from.

Finally, I suggest you look up Amazon's phone number and call directly. I find it's often easier to get a straight answer when you call rather than when you send an e-mail...

Best of luck to you.

[Young Samurai]

I'd like to know that too.

It wont do me any good but perhaps others can use the info to avoid the same fate as me.

Originally Posted by drewfioravanti

How does one "cookie stuff", intentional or not?

[Young Samurai]

Jeff,

Thanks.

Originally Posted by theverysmartguy

What I would start doing right away is looking for other affiliate programs that you can enter. Such as Commission Junction.

They have a vast list of physical products that you can promote there. And I am sure you will be able to find the products that you currently promote through amazon on their network.

-- Jeff

[cwilliams6009]

Hey, it's me again. I don't know what "cookie stuffing" is either so I'll be following to learn the basics.

Here's what I do know:

This is news to me, but their agreement says you have to post this sentence if you are an Amazon affiliate:

“[Insert your name] is 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 [insert the applicable site name (amazon.com, endless.com, smallparts.com or myhabit.com)].”

I didn't know this so I guess I probably should post it on my own amazon affiliate site. Ahem.

Do they owe you a lot of back reimbursement? That's what would really bother me. If so, you might write a reg letter politely requesting they pay out the amount owed, as you were operating in good faith (if indeed you were). They also mention binding arbitration,, which in my experience is pretty fair, or the small claims court option in section 19.

For the record, I do not like the highhanded approach of this company and also what I hear on this forum about Google.

I think a lot of people probably are doing their best to follow the long, complicated rules . . . and those people don't deserve that kind of blow-off from a company with whom they've been doing business.

Just sayin'. . .

[cwilliams6009]

Oh by the way -- I asked them. I entered my question about that phrase. Since I'm an Am affialite who knows? maybe they'll answer me.

In clear English and regular, average person with a law degree plus a masters can understand.

if you know what I mean.

[Young Samurai]

Christine,

Thank you for the time you've put into your contribution.

The disclosure you've referenced I've included in the footer of all my sites so it appears on every page.

As to money owing, it is either $300 or $1,300 depending on whether the latest cheque clears or not.

I'd forfeit that money for being reinstated.

I agree with you that a little civility would not go amiss.

Originally Posted by cwilliams6009

Hey, it's me again. I don't know what "cookie stuffing" is either so I'll be following to learn the basics.

Here's what I do know:

This is news to me, but their agreement says you have to post this sentence if you are an Amazon affiliate:

“[Insert your name] is 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 [insert the applicable site name (amazon.com, endless.com, smallparts.com or myhabit.com)].”

I didn't know this so I guess I probably should post it on my own amazon affiliate site. Ahem.

Do they owe you a lot of back reimbursement? That's what would really bother me. If so, you might write a reg letter politely requesting they pay out the amount owed, as you were operating in good faith (if indeed you were). They also mention binding arbitration,, which in my experience is pretty fair, or the small claims court option in section 19.

For the record, I do not like the highhanded approach of this company and also what I hear about this forum on Google.

I think a lot of people probably are doing their best to follow the long, complicated rules . . . and those people don't deserve that kind of blow-off from a company with whom they've been doing business.

Just sayin'. . .

[Sarevok]

How were you building the links?

Did you have any automated Amazon software?

Did you hand code your affiliate URLS?

The more additional information about the actual construction of your sites will enable others to help determine the cause of red flag.

[Young Samurai]

No automated software.

Most text links: "Click here to read further information", "Click here to read the reviews in full."

All reviews have two/three text links and one/two images hyper-linked.

Links constructed as advised by the programs available on the forum.

Originally Posted by Sarevok

How were you building the links?

Did you have any automated Amazon software?

Did you hand code your affiliate URLS?

The more additional information about the actual construction of your sites will enable others to help determine the cause of red flag.

[cooler1]

There was someone on the Amazon forum recently who had this same issue. They weren't aware what was causing it.

They found out that it was caused by old Amazon code that was causing the cookie to be activated when someone landed on their site. So the problem was caused by Amazon it seems.

I don't think the issue got resolved by Amazon. They had to create a new account. Im not sure if they used their same address to make a new account. It doesn't really make sense to ban someone if they can use their same address to make a new account.

[Sardent]

My guess is that it's your image links.
A common method of cookie stuffing.

[agc]

Originally Posted by drewfioravanti

How does one "cookie stuff", intentional or not?

To make it obvious, here's the crude way:

Display a link, then also load the link's target url in an iframe, thus forcing the cookie imprint into the browser even though they never clicked a thing.

To the OP, go over your site carefully and figure out exactly how it was cookie stuffing. It may be a plugin you used. If you don't know how, then find someone who can do it for you.

When you figure out HOW it happened, fix your site so it can't happen again.

THEN contact Amazon by phone. Be prepared to show the rep this thread whereby you are taking affirmative action to make sure you learn what happened, and learn how to prevent it from happening again.

Maybe you'll get lucky and you'll be the first person ever given a second chance.

[nik0]

Getting expelled from Amazon, LOL, that's a new one to me. You sure you are innocent?

[Luke McCormack]

Are you using a Amazon naked url link (i.e. the one provided by Amazon) to direct customers to Amazon or a redirect plugin like pretty links i.e. sitename/recommends/xyzcoffeemachine.

Know a lot of people pinged for using second method.

Best regards

Nigel

[Randall Magwood]

That's messed up, but i'm not surprised. Read the comments about Amazon on the website below (and yes, my money-making Amazon account got banne also):

Selling On Amazon.com Sucks !

[tpw]

Originally Posted by agc

THEN contact Amazon by phone. Be prepared to show the rep this thread whereby you are taking affirmative action to make sure you learn what happened, and learn how to prevent it from happening again.

Maybe you'll get lucky and you'll be the first person ever given a second chance.

Right on advice.

If he gets reinstated, he will be second to have done so, as far as I know.

In the first case, the phone call was critical.

[erichammer]

Originally Posted by Young Samurai

Eric,

I really appreciate the detailed response.

As to my links, I only followed the guidance offered by a number of the best known Amazon affiliate courses available here. I never attempted anything underhand.

Like I said, it was only a guess. Sorry I couldn't help more.

[Bill_Z]

Originally Posted by nigelwhittaker

Are you using a Amazon naked url link (i.e. the one provided by Amazon) to direct customers to Amazon or a redirect plugin like pretty links i.e. sitename/recommends/xyzcoffeemachine.

Know a lot of people pinged for using second method.

Best regards

Nigel

Where in their terms does it say you can't use redirects?

[Young Samurai]

Appreciate the advice.

Seems a sensible, practical way to go.

And as to the cookie stuffing, I certainly didn't do it the crude way.

Originally Posted by agc

To make it obvious, here's the crude way:

Display a link, then also load the link's target url in an iframe, thus forcing the cookie imprint into the browser even though they never clicked a thing.

To the OP, go over your site carefully and figure out exactly how it was cookie stuffing. It may be a plugin you used. If you don't know how, then find someone who can do it for you.

When you figure out HOW it happened, fix your site so it can't happen again.

THEN contact Amazon by phone. Be prepared to show the rep this thread whereby you are taking affirmative action to make sure you learn what happened, and learn how to prevent it from happening again.

Maybe you'll get lucky and you'll be the first person ever given a second chance.

Originally Posted by tpw

Right on advice.

If he gets reinstated, he will be second to have done so, as far as I know.

In the first case, the phone call was critical.

[Young Samurai]

I did use ABC Recommends plugin on a couple of product reviews on one site as a test.

BUT, these were still pages with repeated references to Amazon on them.

AND, as Bill asks, where in Amazon's TOS do they prohibit such a method?

Originally Posted by nigelwhittaker

Are you using a Amazon naked url link (i.e. the one provided by Amazon) to direct customers to Amazon or a redirect plugin like pretty links i.e. sitename/recommends/xyzcoffeemachine.

Know a lot of people pinged for using second method.

Best regards

Nigel

Originally Posted by Bill_Z

Where in their terms does it say you can't use redirects?

[Sojourn]

Kyle - I was sorry to hear about your situation and I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to have your account closed.

Finding exactly how this happened is critical because any affiliate program I can think of would also shut down your account for cookie stuffing. You won't be able to prevent making the same mistake again if you don't get this figured out.

First, here's why Amazon took such a hard stance on the situation.

Originally Posted by Young Samurai

It has come to our attention that you are artificially increasing your advertising fee earnings by automatically tagging Amazon sessions to your account.

As others have mentioned, this is called cookie stuffing. Normally, someone would visit your site and, if they clicked an Amazon affiliate link on your site, a cookie would be placed on their computer and the visitor would be taken to Amazon.

With cookie stuffing, the act of landing on your website placed the cookie on the visitor's computer. The person never clicked on one of your links.

So, a person shopping for a lady's watch lands on your site, doesn't see anything that inspires them to visit Amazon and they leave your site without clicking on any affiliate links. You shouldn't earn a commission at that point.

They may browse around a few other online stores for a few hours but then they go to Amazon directly and buy a watch within 24 hours of having visited your site. You get credit because something in your site placed a cookie on the visitor's computer even though they never clicked on one of your links.

Amazon is very clear that this is a violation of their TOS. It basically amounts to stealing and Amazon is probably numb to the response that the stuffing was unintentional.

How do you check if your site is cookie stuffing?
Cookies leave a trail and you can find them in your computer so you can test when an Amazon cookie is being placed. You'll need to first figure out how to find a list of cookies on your browser.

I can't cover all the browsers and operating systems so you may have to search for how to do this on your own. For my version of Firefox, I click on Tools/Options/Privacy and then "remove individual cookies" which brings up a list of cookies and an option to clear them all or individually.

Once cleared, visit your site and look at the list again. If just visiting your site places a cookie for Amazon or Amazon AdSystem, then your site is placing a cookie when it shouldn't.

It might not be your site.
People have been known to cookie stuff here on this forum. Maybe you followed someone's strategy for doing so on a forum related to your site? Just something to think about as the issue was associated with your tracking ID and not necessarily your site.

But if it is....
You'll find it in a plug-in you installed, a piece of code you added, or something along those lines. You can remove all of your plug-ins and run the cookie test again to see if the issues stops. Then add one plug-in at a time and check your cookies again after each plug-in to see if one of them is causing the problem.

You need to question every script, plug-in, or code change you - or someone else - made to your site. Sites don't just cookie stuff by themselves. Something made this change to your site.

Based on agc's advice, you may even be able to look at the source code in your browser (View/Page Source) and then do a search (Edit/Find) for the word "frame" and see if you are framing portions of Amazon's site. Framing is another violation of TOS but at least you should see some clue of that in your source code.

Good (painful) learning experience.
I certainly hate to see this happen to anyone but it does serve as a good set of reminders for all of us:

• Importance of reading the Amazon TOS
• Responsibility to research unfamiliar terms in that TOS
• Being careful about whose advice you take and whose you ignore (just because something is in an ebook or forum doesn't automatically make it okay, legal, or ethical)
• You are ultimately responsible for everything on your site even if you didn't design the theme, create the plug-in or write the content

Some learning experiences are far more harsh than others and losing out on the income that was in your Amazon dashboard would certainly hurt but none of us moves forward without some painful lessons along the way so consider this one of your battle scars, take what you can from it, and keep moving forward.

Good luck!

[Lares]

Auf meiner Seite Best WordPress Plugins benutze ich ABC Recommends, dass man dazu bekommt, wenn man den AutomaticBacklinkCreator (gleichzeitig das Beispiel) kauft.

Das Plugin funktioniert so, dass es die Seite in einem iFrame darstellt (Beispiel siehe oben). Zusätzlich habe ich es noch so optimiert, dass ich per Analytics die Verweildauer auf den anderen Seiten verfolgen kann.

Nächster Schritt wird, dass ich über der anderen Seite einen eigenen Text/Banner einbaue, um die Verkäufe noch zu pushen.

Found this on another forum. It says that ABC Recommends uses iframes which is against Amazon TOS.

[agc]

Originally Posted by Sojourn

Based on agc's advice, you may even be able to look at the source code in your browser (View/Page Source) and then do a search (Edit/Find) for the word "frame" and see if you are framing portions of Amazon's site. Framing is another violation of TOS but at least you should see some clue of that in your source code.

Actually, my advice would be to search the page source for your AFFILIATE TAG, ie "myname-20"

Look at each instance where it shows up and figure out what's being done with it.

Apparently, images are a big vector when they are miscoded (either intentionally or by accident) to have an affiliate page URL rather than an image URL.

If you bought any WSO or plugin promising to boost your Amazon earnings just by installing it, you would obviously look there first.

[Young Samurai]

Sojourn,

I can't thank you enough for this response.

I finally get the cookie stuffing concept and I will check out my sites.

I would suggest that you might consider making this the op in a separate thread. More folk may be willing to read a thread opened by you than by me. Whilst I do wish to know what I did wrong for my own sake I also wish my experience to be a warning to others.

Now to testing. The lesson for others will be more valuable if I can identify what was doing the "stuffing."

Originally Posted by Sojourn

Kyle - I was sorry to hear about your situation and I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to have your account closed.

Finding exactly how this happened is critical because any affiliate program I can think of would also shut down your account for cookie stuffing. You won't be able to prevent making the same mistake again if you don't get this figured out.

First, here's why Amazon took such a hard stance on the situation.



As others have mentioned, this is called cookie stuffing. Normally, someone would visit your site and, if they clicked an Amazon affiliate link on your site, a cookie would be placed on their computer and the visitor would be taken to Amazon.

With cookie stuffing, the act of landing on your website placed the cookie on the visitor's computer. The person never clicked on one of your links.

So, a person shopping for a lady's watch lands on your site, doesn't see anything that inspires them to visit Amazon and they leave your site without clicking on any affiliate links. You shouldn't earn a commission at that point.

They may browse around a few other online stores for a few hours but then they go to Amazon directly and buy a watch within 24 hours of having visited your site. You get credit because something in your site placed a cookie on the visitor's computer even though they never clicked on one of your links.

Amazon is very clear that this is a violation of their TOS. It basically amounts to stealing and Amazon is probably numb to the response that the stuffing was unintentional.

How do you check if your site is cookie stuffing?
Cookies leave a trail and you can find them in your computer so you can test when an Amazon cookie is being placed. You'll need to first figure out how to find a list of cookies on your browser.

I can't cover all the browsers and operating systems so you may have to search for how to do this on your own. For my version of Firefox, I click on Tools/Options/Privacy and then "remove individual cookies" which brings up a list of cookies and an option to clear them all or individually.

Once cleared, visit your site and look at the list again. If just visiting your site places a cookie for Amazon or Amazon AdSystem, then your site is placing a cookie when it shouldn't.

It might not be your site.
People have been known to cookie stuff here on this forum. Maybe you followed someone's strategy for doing so on a forum related to your site? Just something to think about as the issue was associated with your tracking ID and not necessarily your site.

But if it is....
You'll find it in a plug-in you installed, a piece of code you added, or something along those lines. You can remove all of your plug-ins and run the cookie test again to see if the issues stops. Then add one plug-in at a time and check your cookies again after each plug-in to see if one of them is causing the problem.

You need to question every script, plug-in, or code change you - or someone else - made to your site. Sites don't just cookie stuff by themselves. Something made this change to your site.

Based on agc's advice, you may even be able to look at the source code in your browser (View/Page Source) and then do a search (Edit/Find) for the word "frame" and see if you are framing portions of Amazon's site. Framing is another violation of TOS but at least you should see some clue of that in your source code.

Good (painful) learning experience.
I certainly hate to see this happen to anyone but it does serve as a good set of reminders for all of us:

• Importance of reading the Amazon TOS
• Responsibility to research unfamiliar terms in that TOS
• Being careful about whose advice you take and whose you ignore (just because something is in an ebook or forum doesn't automatically make it okay, legal, or ethical)
• You are ultimately responsible for everything on your site even if you didn't design the theme, create the plug-in or write the content

Some learning experiences are far more harsh than others and losing out on the income that was in your Amazon dashboard would certainly hurt but none of us moves forward without some painful lessons along the way so consider this one of your battle scars, take what you can from it, and keep moving forward.

Good luck!

[Young Samurai]

Thanks guys,

The only plugin I used that fits the mold is the ABC redirect plugin. It seems to be exactly the same as the JVpress Go version.

I certainly will test it.

I know it opens the redirected link in an iframe but there is surely a world of difference between that and stuffing. In other words, the visitor only receives a cookie if they click through the link and when they do so they are very clearly taken to Amazon.com. I'm at a loss to see how that is either deceiving the visitor or affecting Amazon's stats. My reading of the TOS does not rule out redirects or iframes per se. Then again, I am banned.

Originally Posted by Lares

Found this on another forum. It says that ABC Recommends uses iframes which is against Amazon TOS.

Originally Posted by agc

Actually, my advice would be to search the page source for your AFFILIATE TAG, ie "myname-20"

Look at each instance where it shows up and figure out what's being done with it.

Apparently, images are a big vector when they are miscoded (either intentionally or by accident) to have an affiliate page URL rather than an image URL.

If you bought any WSO or plugin promising to boost your Amazon earnings just by installing it, you would obviously look there first.

[agc]

Originally Posted by Young Samurai

I finally get the cookie stuffing concept and I will check out my sites.

I would suggest that you might consider making this the op in a separate thread. More folk may be willing to read a thread opened by you than by me. Whilst I do wish to know what I did wrong for my own sake I also wish my experience to be a warning to others.

Now to testing. The lesson for others will be more valuable if I can identify what was doing the "stuffing."

If you still can't find it, I can take a look. Just send me a PM w/ the url.

[kindsvater]

Originally Posted by agc

If you bought any WSO or plugin promising to boost your Amazon earnings just by installing it, you would obviously look there first.

Yep. This isn't the first thread where someone has lost their Amazon account due to a WSO WordPress plugin.

At phpBay Pro - Ebay Plugin and Amazon Plugin Script for Wordpress is a recommended professional Amazon plugin that has been sold for years. This is the type of solid product that one should be looking at. Not the plugins being hyped in emails by someone trying to get a commission.

.

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by Young Samurai

I would suggest that you might consider making this the op in a separate thread. More folk may be willing to read a thread opened by you than by me.

You did a fine job getting me to open the thread and there are all the other helpful comments so I think we're in good shape but you're awfully kind to say so.

Originally Posted by Young Samurai

Whilst I do wish to know what I did wrong for my own sake I also wish my experience to be a warning to others.

Now to testing. The lesson for others will be more valuable if I can identify what was doing the "stuffing."

Exactly - and there's something invaluable in reading your account of what happened. Sharing your experience is truly helpful and makes this forum so useful to so many.

I'd take agc up on their offer to take a peak. The source code alone should reveal what's going on.

If you can get it all cleaned up and get Amazon to turn you back on, great. If not, figure out how to repurpose that site with another affiliate program. Your hard work doesn't need to go to waste.

BTW - Happy St. Patrick's Day! Thanks to a discussion in school, my 8 year old is bound and determined to find a leprechaun today. I'll tell him I met someone in Ireland who thinks he has one in his website and is looking for it right now. He'll think that's very cool. You may not think it's cool but know that an 8 year old and his mother are rooting for you from half way across the world!

[Young Samurai]

Class.

I hadn't made the association between my sites and the tiny green guys but there you.

Originally Posted by Sojourn

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Thanks to a discussion in school, my 8 year old is bound and determined to find a leprechaun today. I'll tell him I met someone in Ireland who thinks he has one in his website and is looking for it right now. He'll think that's very cool. You may not think it's cool but know that an 8 year old and his mother are rooting for you from half way across the world!

[Young Samurai]

agc,

I will take you up on your offer.

I'm going to reactivate the redirect plugin on one of the reviews and I'll send you the url.

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by agc

If you still can't find it, I can take a look. Just send me a PM w/ the url.

[Young Samurai]

OK

Pm'ed you agc

[Alan Petersen]

Originally Posted by Young Samurai

...

As to my links, I only followed the guidance offered by a number of the best known Amazon affiliate courses available here. I never attempted anything underhand.

Unfortunately, that might be the problem. I've seen a lot of these courses that put their students on the road to being nuked by Amazon.

Post a link to one of your sites in this thread then we can take a look where the cookie stuffing is occurring, if you really don't know.

You need t get that fixed since all thee other affiliate networks will give you the boot for that as well. Simply changing your affiliate links to CJ without addressing the cookie stuffing will just get you terminated from their network as well.

[cwilliams6009]

Thanks again for posting this thread, Samarai, and Sojourn for the very detailed and helpful response. I'm getting a huge education out of this.

[agc]

I just went through both your home page and also the item page and I see no reference to your affiliate id in anything but <A> links.

Try deleting all your cookies, then visiting your page without clicking through to Amazon, and see if a cookie pops up.

[James B]

Wow, I did not know that as well. This is informative reading, for people who are getting into amazon for affiliate marketing.

Then again, maybe I should just see what cookie stuffing looks like on youtube. If there is any videos on it.

[FredBeers]

wow.

well I have some checking to do as well.

thanks all of you for your input.

just now ramping up my traffic...need to check this asap.

[agc]

Yanno, thinking about this more.... is there anything to a competitor from setting up a bogus website somewhere, doing a cookie hack with my amazon ID, and sending it 40k hits a day from one of those junk traffic offers?

It would cost what, $2 for a .info, and $10 for the traffic?

How can we protect against this?

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by agc

Yanno, thinking about this more.... is there anything to a competitor from setting up a bogus website somewhere, doing a cookie hack with my amazon ID, and sending it 40k hits a day from one of those junk traffic offers?

It would cost what, $2 for a .info, and $10 for the traffic?

How can we protect against this?

Like minds, and all....I've just spent an hour thinking through the very same thing. I like to think people are better than this but I've seen people spend a lot of time ruining the work of others for no benefit whatsoever so it's certainly possible someone would think to do what you describe.

I ran through possible solutions like link cloaking and rotating tracking IDs but I don't think cloaking is advisable (and I don't recall but it might even be an Amazon TOS violation) and rotating tracking IDs would be a total pain.

At the end of the day, your tracking ID is going to show up in the final URL on Amazon anyway so nothing is going to stop someone from finding it if they're determined.

Of course, you'd see the activity show up in your Amazon stats. If you see an increase in clicks and/or sales that does not correlate with an increase in traffic to your pages, then you should stop to investigate the source. Might even be prudent, at that point, to ask Amazon to help you determine the source URLs for those clicks, if they can. If you go to them first, they might be more willing to cooperate. Hopefully, that would lead to the sabotage site, a whois search and steps to shut the site down. Perhaps you'd have to replace your tracking IDs at that point and see if Amazon would terminate any offending tracking IDs until the shut down was complete.

I know...a bunch of what-ifs and I-hope-nots but another reason to stay on top of the stats behind one's business.

[agc]

Originally Posted by Sojourn

Of course, you'd see the activity show up in your Amazon stats.

I think that's the answer right there. If I see 40k clicks a day, I'm going to be asking questions.

Thanks.

[foxtrot3]

If the OP used any redirect that resulted in a framed Amazon page then that's possibly why he was banned. There have been other threads about this at the WF.

.

[RJS7]

Originally Posted by agc

I think that's the answer right there. If I see 40k clicks a day, I'm going to be asking questions.

Thanks.

This is what I was thinking Keep Up With Your Stats!