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Very Important Changes in the TOS for EUROPEAN amazon affiliates

by Chrisbroholm
10 replies
Hello guys,

Amazon will be changing their terms of service as of June 6th. I quickly skimmed through the changes and found two instances, which I think are very important for people who are using european amazon affiliate links.

"In addition, you must not use a link shortening service in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site"
Was added to the General Link Policy section.


"You will not cloak, hide, spoof, or otherwise obscure the URL of the site containing Special Links (including by use of a redirecting page) such that we cannot determine the site from which a customer clicks through such Special Link to the Amazon Site."
Was added as a new point in the operating agreement.

Third and finally this is how the old point 27 sounded:
27. You will not artificially generate clicks or impressions on your site or create Sessions on the Amazon Site, whether by way of a robot or software program or otherwise.
It was changed to:

You will not artificially generate clicks or impressions on your site or create Sessions on the Amazon Site, whether by way of a robot or software program or otherwise, which we may determine if you have a conversion rate (which is defined as the percentage of clicks on a Special Link from your site in any given calendar month which results in the purchase of a Product) of less than one percent (1.0%).
Maybe other warriors will have noticed other such crucial changes? Personally I'm safe as I still comply with all of these terms with no problem, but I thought it was important to let you guys know that the deadline for fixing this is a week from now.
#affiliates #amazon #european #important #tos
  • Profile picture of the author matrixmgmt
    Yeah, Amazon is finally cracking down on people who have been promoting amazon target URLs from Trafficvance and Lead Impact.

    I know several ppl who have lost their accounts recently and they felt they were hiding what they were doing pretty well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brandon Sean
    On the link shortening and redirects,

    You can still use them but do not mislead your visitors.

    -Brandon
    Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author Chrisbroholm
      Originally Posted by Ytmarketer View Post

      On the link shortening and redirects,

      You can still use them but do not mislead your visitors.

      -Brandon
      Hey Brandon,

      My understanding is that this new addition to the rule means that, although link cloaking is technically allowed, you'd have to call your links like /canon-photosmart-505-amazon, if you dont have amazon in the link then you'd have to disclaim it before every single shorten. And even then, the wording of the rule is up for debate.

      To be absolutely sure, just don't do it.

      Personally I dont bother with cloaking or shortening services anyway, when using amazon, what's the point?
      Signature

      Check out my blog GenuineOnlineMarketing.com where I talk about building Amazon and Adsense Niche Websites.

      Over 800 Amazon Reviews for $1 - No way?

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      • Profile picture of the author Brandon Sean
        Originally Posted by Chrisbroholm View Post

        Hey Brandon,

        My understanding is that this new addition to the rule means that, although link cloaking is technically allowed, you'd have to call your links like /canon-photosmart-505-amazon, if you dont have amazon in the link then you'd have to disclaim it before every single shorten. And even then, the wording of the rule is up for debate.

        To be absolutely sure, just don't do it.

        Personally I dont bother with cloaking or shortening services anyway, when using amazon, what's the point?
        I actually sent an email to Amazon about this, there are some people who use redirects for many reasons. One of them being for example twitter

        But I agree with you , best not to use redirects. not worth the risk at all ( if any)

        -Brandon
        Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author anton433
    The last part got me worried. I have one site where I have used Associate Goliath. It's the only auto-posting plugin I have ever tried and normally I just manually create unique content.

    Everytime I run Associate Goliath, the next day I can see a huge amount of clicks on Amazon. Totally unnatural amount, sometimes thousands of clicks. They don't result in any sales so my conversion rate is extremely low. Is Associate Goliath somehow causing those clicks when it scrapes the content? Is that normal with auto-posting plugins? I think I will stop using it, I don't want to risk my Amazon account...
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    • Profile picture of the author Chrisbroholm
      Originally Posted by anton433 View Post

      The last part got me worried. I have one site where I have used Associate Goliath. It's the only auto-posting plugin I have ever tried and normally I just manually create unique content.

      Everytime I run Associate Goliath, the next day I can see a huge amount of clicks on Amazon. Totally unnatural amount, sometimes thousands of clicks. They don't result in any sales so my conversion rate is extremely low. Is Associate Goliath somehow causing those clicks when it scrapes the content? Is that normal with auto-posting plugins? I think I will stop using it, I don't want to risk my Amazon account...
      I do believe that's part of what Amazon is trying to get rid of, so I would be very careful with what automation methods one uses.
      Signature

      Check out my blog GenuineOnlineMarketing.com where I talk about building Amazon and Adsense Niche Websites.

      Over 800 Amazon Reviews for $1 - No way?

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  • Profile picture of the author lukedidit
    I 'prettify' the links, but they are under big yellow 'buy from amazon' gifs, so that should be no issue.

    I also don't use amazon uk, which is even more relevant.
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  • Profile picture of the author mitchmelkonian
    Banned
    Thanks for this informative piece of news. It is certainly eye opening!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author pepper81
    Banned
    Quote:
    "In addition, you must not use a link shortening service in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site"

    Does this mean you can't use a text link saying "click here for more details" or something similar?
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    • Profile picture of the author Chrisbroholm
      Originally Posted by pepper81 View Post

      Quote:
      "In addition, you must not use a link shortening service in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site"

      Does this mean you can't use a text link saying "click here for more details" or something similar?
      If the link URL is like bit.ly/aZtPOE5 then you most definitely shouldn't use that wording.

      But if the URL is amazon.com/cameras/underwater-5000-xl-camera/ then I think its okay, you just cant deceit people.
      Signature

      Check out my blog GenuineOnlineMarketing.com where I talk about building Amazon and Adsense Niche Websites.

      Over 800 Amazon Reviews for $1 - No way?

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