Amazon suddenly closed my Associate Account without notice $3K+ commission not paying!

It's a lot like when Google closes down your adwords or adsense account. All you can do is move on. If you're into selling physical products, you could check out another affiliate network like Pepperjam. It has a lot of "As Seen On Tv" stuff on there and beyond. It also offers a variety of payment methods and has a low payout threshold.

Good luck,
Joey

Sorry man, but iframing is DEFINITELY not allowed, and that is made extensively clear in Amazon's terms and conditions. Clearly you are not going to be able to market on Amazon any more.

If you want to sell your sites, send me a PM...you can still make some money and turn a negative to a positive.

You can also check out Commission Junction offers as well. They sell extremely well and if you had that much in commissions, I'm sure you aren't hurting too much.

Who knows you could have it back in no time at all! If you are good at selling physical products I bet you could dominate selling digital ones too! So check out clickbank and the other digital product sites.

It sounds like you are out of luck. You have to work pretty hard to piss off Amazon but apparently you managed to do just that. You seem to know how to make money online, just try a different sponsor.

IFRAMES are a clear no no and you made the money by breaking their terms of service and that means they have the right to shut your account down and void your commissions since they were not legitimately earned.

It is very clear in their TOS you may not use iframes and this is a great example for a reminder for all Amazon Associates to take the time to READ Amazons TOS because if you break them this is what will happen.

Kickin it on Amazon

Gaz Cooper
Amz Training Academy

Right. Break terms of service and you're not eligible to get paid. Simple as that.

For anybody else looking to make money with Amazon.com, and you're making a killing real fast... read this:

http://vorg.ca/1065-Selling-On-Amazon.com-Sucks

if you cant use iFrames, does it mean you cant create amazon stores on Facebook fanpages? From what I know, fanpages are iframes? no?

At least that article was worth a good laugh. Amazon is a pretty good site to sell on considering you can sell pretty much anything on it.

Sry about your misfortune with the TOS, but this is why I recommend people read them on any website they sell products on. Clickbank, commission junction, Amazon(obviously) and any other site you sell or promote products on.

Thank you all for your response. I have really no intention to break the TOS but I'm just very confused about their linking method and the problem is now they terminate the account without even a notice. In the Amazon associate central Amazon publishes a lot of advertising code with use of iframe actually!

I cannot find the term "iframe" in their TOS, I only find a clause related to framing as below -

22. You will not frame the Amazon Site, or any part of it, within your site. However, displaying a Special Link on your site in accordance with the Operating Agreement will not be considered framing the Amazon Site.

So have they clearly stated that displaying a link generated from Amazon associate central with iframe is wrong and will result immediately termination? If so, where is the clause?

Besides, based on their report there are still many purchase come from direct product link, so why they void commission from direct product link as generated from Amazon associate central?

What's an Iframe?

Bill

1. Forget Amazon.

2. Find someone else and then, READ THE TOS of that site.

It astounds me the amount of people out there and in this forum, making money off the back of sites and they haven't even read the TOS.

I can't stress enough how important it is to do this, whether it's EZA, AdWords, Amazon or any site out there.

The TOS are not just to protect the company, they are to protect you from making silly errors that cost you 3k when you could do with it most. This isn't so much directed at you Felix as to the myriad of other people that don't even think they should read the TOS.

Sorry this happened but on a positive note, if you can generate 3k in a month from Amazon, you clearly know what you're doing and can do the same on just about any other alternative to Amazon.

Learn and move on, they don't look like they'll budge on this.

I'm really confused as to what iframing actually means now. I thought that it means using an iframe to place say like an Amazon store on one of the webpages on your site. Is that not allowed?

Live, learn, adapt.

There seems that there was another person with this problem on this WF thread

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ble-ideas.html

This is the framing policy I think people here are talking about:
"You will not frame the Amazon Site, or any part of it, within your site. However, displaying a Special Link on your site in accordance with the Operating Agreement will not be considered framing the Amazon Site."

So I think there's a differences between framing and iframing (like using an aStore on your webpage) as far as I can understand.

The one that I thought made sense to me was this explanation (also found on the WF thread I mentioned)

"Framing usually means that someone looks at your site and sees Amazon's site, too, basically as if Amazon is embedded in your site. It can be done with iframes in HTML.
It used to be pretty common to see sites framing each other because site owners didn't want people leaving their sites while visiting others. I seem to recall Ask Jeeves used to frame other sites, for instance. But framing is considered bad behavior because it can confuse people about what site they're on. Did someone set up your site for you? If so, ask them about how to remove any frames."

I use a paid plugin that pulls product information customer reviews from Amazon.

Is this considered "iframing" Amazon?

That's a pretty harsh response from Amazon, and they
make it abundantly clear that it's a final decision.
So you should move on. You should probably look
in to Commission Junction and what they have to offer you.
From your forfeited commission amount, you are adept at
Amazon sales, so you should be able to readily adjust and
apply your methods elsewhere. Remember to read their TOS.
You don't want another repeat.

OP: Look in to filing an LLC. If applicable, it's worth checking in to. You can do this for less than $200. You can schedule an appointment with a local attorney, walk in, and be out in less than an hour - with your LLC filed and ready to go. I can't promise that this will work for your situation, but again, it's worth looking in to. If you go this route, please do your research first and remove those iframes!

If not, simply look for a merchant that carries the products that you are promoting and register with their affiliate program. Most major merchants have an affiliate program and their commissions and cookies are often times better than Amazon anyway. Your conversions may take a hit, but it's better than the alternatives.

I love the thread title "without notice", should they tell you that they're going to close it before closing it?

They don't take breaking their TOS lightly so they're not going to warn you to fix what you did.

If you iframed you were trying something, cookie stuffing? I don't know but odds are you knew what you were doing.

Always the same answer from them I got my account closed too without warning or something else! I tried to speak to them but got the exact same answer as you!

Well, Iframe is not allowed, I did once and after a month they caught me. So you know what happened lost few K lol
just move on and forget about this.

Sorry for what happened. There are still plenty of opportunities to make money online, so I suggest you concentrate on other affiliate programs such as Commission Junction, Clickbank or ShareASale. It's good to diversify and not put all your eggs in one basket.

I am no expert on Amazon Associates program, but why don't you create an entity of some sort and get a PO box or alternate address and open up a new account in the name of that entity?

I would recommend that you change the web sites a bit so it isn't so blatant. There is always a way to get around stuff like this. Are you married?

Next time, follow the rules and do do stupid crap like iframes, which are obviously against the TOS. Did you read them? Probably not, but that doesn't excuse you. I thought everyone knew iframes were not allowed. I don't know why, but most affiliate programs disallow them.

Dont most of the Amazon plugins generate iframes when importing product pages?

Please read the policy of Amazon before shouting something


However, displaying a Special Link on your site in accordance with the Operating Agreement will not be considered framing the Amazon Site

There are links provided by Amazon themself that require iframes.
Reviews are one of them. When you use the webservices (API) yu get from Amazon an iframe url that you need to place in an iframe which displays the reviews. The reason is that they don't want their reviews actually on your site.
See this Motivating Customers to Buy - Product Advertising API

So please don't tell others that an iframe is a def Nono without knowing the facts.

If you frame amazon site with the purpose to place a cookie etc which is known as cookiestuffing then you know you are on the darkside and obviously you don't do what is allowed by Amazon.

I hope this will clear up some confussion

Edwin

Your problem is a lesson for me since I am still newbie on amazon. This is a high value lesson.

this totally sucks, but again is a reminder taht you should have several sources of internet income.

I had something happen like this to me back in 2005, and since then I have a plan b, and a plan c, and d, e, f.

Even if paypal goes down or clickbank I will be fine. Same with your business, you should not rely on one form of income.

Learn from the experience and move on. Next time make sure you have a plan b, and c and possibly a d. I know where you are right now, and might be hurting, but just know there is a way around this. ALl the best.

Amazon's behaviour is just immature and "witholding money" sounds like theft, I don't care what their own rules say,

This relates to cookie stuffing. Thats why the account was closed.

Using amazons built in iFrames wont drop a cookie.

This is not good, you may want to look into Shopzilla..

Try Commission Junction, LinkShare or ShareaSale. You won't see conversion rates as high as Amazon's but some merchants pay commission percentage much higher.

I really do feel for you. But atleast this will teach you a lesson.

When dealing with these huge companies you have to tred so carefully, they are literally so big they can do whatever they want and you can't do anything about it.

Atleast you have proved to yourself that you can make $3000, from here just move somewhere else and make another $3000, then another and another and then some more. You get my picture!

I also just got my amazon account closed just a few days ago for the same exact reason and I had no idea what "auto tagging sessions" meant. I tried emailing them asking for an explanation, but of course the email they sent was no reply.

On my sites I was using a combination of 2 amazon plugins, one called phpzon, and another that I got off a WSO here called CTR Maximizer.

I'm seeing people talk about iframing people the culprit. I had no idea that using these plugins can get your account closed. Wish I woulda known.

But then again....I guess I should've read the TOS as well...sorry just kinda disheartening.

I just wanted to point out, for those stating that anyone can start a business in the UK for £10 - there are legal responsibilities that you would need to look into, and plenty of fines if you get things wrong. If you are going down that route, make sure you fully understand it, or get a solicitor first.

These Amazon threads all tend to be the same - someone bought a WSO, didn't realize they were doing anything wrong. I appreciate that not everyone will read the TOCs of every service they use - but if you are using someone else's system, you should at least glance through them to check the new system won't cause problems.

No one who is banned comes here and says; "I was blatantly breaking the rules but I want my account back." It's likely that no one says that to Amazon, either - so they are going to receive hundreds of "I didn't know, sorry, please give me my account back" messages. It probably comes down to that either you can't keep to the rules, in which case they don't want you, or you don't even know the rules, in which case they don't want you either.

You have two real options. Look into starting a business or registering an Amazon account in someone else's name, being very careful not to link the accounts at all, and reading the TOCs in full this time; or using a different service and reading their TOCs instead.

Makes you wonder how Amazon WSOs ever sell!

I am sorry, I am new on this and I would like to know what is iframe. I would not like to make the same mistake with my website. if you have a minute to answer please I would really appreciate it.

Sorry to hear this and I feel your pain.

But thanks for sharing so that others don't make the same mistake of using iFrames on Amazon - especially as there are quite a few plugins that do this nowadays.

I plan to use Jewel Clone by Coolice, is this something violating Amazon's TOS?

thanks i feel your pain atleast it gives a warning to amazon affiliates to not do the same.

Now this is *completely* theoretical. I certainly would never do this.

However what you could do is get an ein (you can get one as a sole proprietor, google it it's instant and free), set up a dba name in a random name for probably less than $100 in your county, open a business bank account able to receive checks and wires in that dba name, use google voice for a new phone number and open a po box or use a friends address, get a new website on a new hosting account, and open and access a new amazon account from a different computer on a different internet connection with this new information.

I'm assuming you were making money in a legit way and the iframe was something random.

But don't screw up your new account because you only get one ein.

You can try emailing Mr. Bezos and beg him to help you. I know this sounds retarded but he has actually helped me before when I contacted his offices