This is just a quick note to let you know that Amazon has banned us from their affiliate program, the official reason given was that “You are bidding on or purchasing Amazon’s proprietary terms (for example, ‘Amazon’, ‘Kindle’, or ‘ amazon prime deals’) for use in a search engine and, as a result, your ads are appearing in search engine results when users search for our Proprietary Terms.”
The problem is that we don’t use keyword advertising like that at all, despite sending in proof to Amazon that shows we don’t use this type of advertising they have still decided to ban our account. Going forward nothing will change, we will still post Amazon deals that we think readers will find useful and we will still be providing prime coverage (don’t worry, more of that to come shortly). The only difference is that our posts won’t have Amazon affiliate links anymore.
This was a large source of revenue for us, so I won’t pretend that Chuck & I aren’t disappointed. We can still appeal the ban (and we will) but given the size of Amazon I’m not at all hopeful that we will be successful. The main reason I wanted to write this post is so that users can choose to use Amazon affiliate links from other bloggers they find useful instead of ours. Thanks for the support.
[Update: we are now un-banned from Amazon. Shop on Amazon link.]
I just wanted to add my vote for you to consider adding affiliate links for credit cards. Darius of million miles fame (now moved on) used to clearly show best credit card offers and called it his mother in law rule even if as he stated he got no referral bonus. You have earned your readers trust and if you continue to show all offers and state which ones give you compensation it will be obvious you are being upfront as I know you will show all best offers available. The compensation will assist you in having the resources to further all the great work you do.
David Black
Sent from my iPhone
This is complete and utter BS. Sorry to hear that, Amazon seems to be doing some shady stuff.
Amazon has poor customer service, and this is just another example of that. They are focused on growth — not service. Their size+scope is a liability — not an asset.
After reviewing hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands, of Amazon purchases, they banned me from posting reviews. Mostly I reviewed books. They said I was paid to write the reviews.
Ha! Half of them said the books sucked.
Appealed, did no good. They had the balls to say Jeff Bezo
said to tell me I have violated community standards. Lol.
And all my legacy is gone, all those well drafted reviews that I am sure helped some.
was just going to use your side bar link but couldn’t find it!
Super disappointed for you guys. I always try to use your amazon sidebar link. G/l with the appeal. Like others commented, let us know how we can support the site.
If you do want to use your affiliate credit card links, I would be more than happy to use them.
We don’t have those to remain unbiased
Amazon sucks. They know they can do anything they want with no repercussions, and folks will still buy tons of @#$%^ from them.
Not cool, Amazon. Not cool at all.
DoC at least add a donate button to the site. A lot of us have some leftover money on gift cards that we would spare