Table of Contents Last Upgraded on February 3rd, 2020
NOTE: My Amazon Partner account has actually remained in excellent standing since 2017 but I am not going to rely completely on Amazon any longer. Sign up with DRM e-mail newsletter to discover what I am doing next >>
I still keep in mind the day plainly … On Saturday February sixth, 2015, I got an e-mail from Amazon alerting me that my account was closed and no payment would be produced the marketing cost that I had really earned as much as that point.
Remarkably, I really went through the common 5 stages when somebody gets a bad news.Phase 1: Rejection– Why they closed my Amazon Associates account?Initially, comparable to everyone would do, I thought this was a mistake. I go through the email as soon as again and once again … and again I logged into my Amazon Associates account and sure enough, there it was, a big” Account Closed”sign.Sponser Ads
I went back to the e-mail clicked the URL they provided and read their Connecting Requirements.It clearly mentions
that utilizing a masking software to mask their affiliate links is not an outstanding idea.Sure enough, I did do something wrong and I understood it. < img src ="https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/dont-use-URL-shortening-cloaking-software.png%201675w,%20https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/dont-use-URL-shortening-cloaking-software-300x18.png%20300w,%20https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/dont-use-URL-shortening-cloaking-software-1024x62.png%201024w"alt="don't utilize URL minimizing masking software" width="1675 "height ="102"/ > Phase 2: Anger– Why oh why did I mask Amazon affiliate links!A week previously, a member on my team forwarded variety of websites that speak about why masking the
affiliate links is a good idea.These websites talk about the advantages of user experience; rather of the horrible affiliate link, we can reveal a terrific URL such as www.yourdomain.com/affiliate.They also talk about SEO benefits such as by aggregating those cloaked links in a sub-folder structure www.yourdomain.com/go/affiliate, you can
block online search engine from gain access to that folder by utilizing Robots.txt.Then there are other benefits such as click tracking, affiliate link management etc. I believed that was a terrific idea, so I looked into how this may be executed. I ultimately chose a WordPress Plugin– Pretty Link Pro to do the job.The Pro variation has an auto-cloaking function that it can mask each and every single links on the site. I had been using the absolutely free variation so I was quite positive that it wouldn’t take excessive time for me to figure it
out.I set it up and let it do the job.However, to my frightening, the plugin did not have the capability to restrict which URL needs to be masked and which ought to not. Not just that, whenever it capes a link, it would in fact click it.The website I used the masking plugin on had hundreds
of Amazon affiliate links and while setting the plugin, I in fact paused the process number of times to check a couple of things. As a result, numerous clicks appeared in my Amazon Associates account within a couple of days which was plainly unusual.< img src ="https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/high-clicks.png"alt ="high clicks "width =" 216"height="118"/ > Stage 3: Bargaining– Please forgive me. Please!After processing all the information in my head, I instantly made up back to the Amazon Associates group describing why
< img src ="https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/high-clicks.png" alt="high clicks"width= "216 "height ="118"/ > I did it and apologised.Since I did do something incorrect, at this minute all I could do was merely apologise and wish for the best. I also explained why I did it by explaining the Yoast post. After 4 days, someone from the Amazon Associates group composed back to me informing me that I was still not in compliance.Apparently, a few of the content on the website are making “incorrect, overbroad, deceptive or otherwise misleading claims”.
This time I was puzzled. I did not deliberately do any of these things however obviously I did it.To discover what I actually did incorrect, I asked them to explain why my website was not in compliance.
< img src= "https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/amazons-reply.png%201046w,%20https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/amazons-reply-300x98.png%20300w,%20https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/amazons-reply-1024x336.png%201024w"alt= "amazon's reply" width="1046" height ="343"/ > < img src= "https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/amazons-reply.png%201046w,%20https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/amazons-reply-300x98.png%20300w,%20https://digitalreadymarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/amazons-reply-1024x336.png%201024w"alt ="amazon's reply "width="1046"height="343"/ > A couple of days later, they provided a more in-depth action. So my group and I took a look at the website and there were a couple of things that may have used to this.We have actually had produced a great deal of doubtful content on that particular website.Some posts had about only 300 words material with large rates table consisting of 10-30 items. Some posts simply had a list of items with quick description without much content.Pricing table– we developed these tables utilizing the product expense on Amazon. Undoubtedly the rates modifications exceptionally typically and we did not update them. Even if we did update them to reveal the existing cost it would take a significant resource. So we removed all such tables.Review ranking– we collected these info from Amazon as well. Obviously this can alter quickly so as soon as again we eliminated all those.After caring for all these, I made up back and asked if they might reopen my account.Phase 4: Anxiety– Should I ignore Amazon affiliate program?Few days passed and I got no response. I did some research study online and found some people discussing how they got thrown out of Amazon affiliate program.Some complained about Amazon closed their account without much reasons.Some talked about opening a brand-new account nevertheless given that Amazon can quickly learn whose account it is (IP address, checking account, mailing address etc) they might just shut it down again, so this approach does not actually solve the issue.I was desperate, so I started looking for contact number to call and sure enough, there was a number I could call(I question why didn’t I consider this earlier?)A lady responded to and I described what had in fact taken place up till that point.She looked into the case and informed me that someone on their team was checking out the concern and there was nothing she might do. She did recommend to open another account
and if whatever stays in compliance, I should be able to resume as an affiliate.As far as resuming the closed account and making money, that was not possible.Phase 5: Approval– Lesson discovered. Let’s relocation on.I established a new Amazon Associates account and waited a few weeks to ensure it would not get closed down again.Weeks went by, nothing occurred so I began adding the brand-new Amazon affiliate code to my site.Since I currently had the links in location, all I required to do was to change the tracking code. To avoid making the really exact same errors once again, we did ultimately improved the way we offer the affiliate links. I will share what we finished with you in a different post some other time.Overall, this was an in fact great lesson. There is no fast and easy technique to earn money. Establishing quality material with finest practice SEO is the way.Also, I was treating being an affiliate as a hobby rather of a service. I took approach excessive threats doing something questionable and got what I deserved.Please share your experience Have you ever got your Amazon Associates account closed down or came close to it? Please share your experience.I would delight in to hear what you need to say.In case you are interested Here is a post on the research I did about what not to do as an Amazon partner. Hope this will help make you aware a few of the important things that we require to avoid carrying out in case you did now know.Also, here is a constant upgrade on one of my websites to show how I continue to grow it with only white hat SEO.My Amazon partner account has remained in great standing considering that I recuperated and now I am working hard to enhance my sites.UPDATE February 2017 Out of no place, Amazon sent me the following e-mail and closed down my account again.I have actually called them and might not get a straight action
what precisely the offense was due to the fact that I am utilizing all naked Amazon affiliate link (not reducing, nor cloaking certainly)and have actually never ever shared any affiliate links on other sites including social media networks sites.The infraction that they used to close down my account made absolutely no sense to me.Needless to say they kept my last 2 months of earnings and closed my account with no warning.If you have a comparable experience, please post in the conversation. Why they selected to shut down my account once again?– My theory The element they shut down my account might have got something to do with drop in earning. I observed that my website traffic dropped considerably in January and as a outcome profits from my websites dropped to about 30% of December level. In case you observed, they shut down my previous account in
February 2015( the specific same month)as well.Main element for the traffic drop was due to seasonality considered that a lot of individuals shopped online throughout the vacation (November and December). The timing of my account closed down was similarly
