After you gain acceptance into the Amazon Associates program, you may assume that it’s all going to be smooth sailing from then on. However, as many Associates (and former Associates) have discovered, your time in the program can come to a quick end if you happen to knowingly, or unknowingly, violate one of the program’s rules.

How will you know when this happens?

You will receive an email from Amazon that starts with this language…

“Hello from the Amazon Associates Program. While reviewing your account, we have been unable to…”

The email then hits you with the bad news…

“…If we don’t hear from you regarding the above, or, based on your response, we will be unable to verify that your methods are compliant with the Operating Agreement, we may close your Associates account and may withhold fees.”

Let me just say that if you do happen to receive this email, respond as soon as possible with whatever information they are requesting. Do your best to provide documented evidence that you have either corrected the problem or prove that you are in full compliance.

If you don’t respond in a timely manner, or Amazon determines you are a liability to its program, they will close your affiliate account, effectively banning you from the program permanently. Although there is an appeal process, the likelihood of winning your appeal is slim.

Oh, and any money you earned that hasn’t been paid out, is also gone – poof!

It’s always better to avoid this situation by being mindful of what rules you should be following.

Read the following rules to keep your account safe.

Not Disclosing Your Affiliate Relationship

All Amazon Associates are required to fully disclose to the public that if Amazon affiliate links are clicked on, the Associate earns money when a purchase is made from those links. To comply with this rule, you can add the following to each page of your site where Amazon affiliate links appear:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Or you can use similar language that includes Amazon in the disclaimer.

Amazon takes this rule seriously, and so does the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). So be sure to never hide the fact that you earn money as an affiliate promoting various products and services.

Cloaking or Shortening Links

Link cloaking or shortening is a common practice. Usually, there isn’t a problem using tools that make this possible. However, don’t use them for your Amazon product links. If you do, you can find out the hard way that it’s bound to get you in hot water.

Your choices are to display Amazon’s text version of the affiliate link or use an Amazon Associates tool to create a button or image link. I prefer using text links, and Amazon has an automatic text link shortener available in the dashboard. This is an easy rule to follow if you use the link-making tools provided.

Avoid Sharing Links in Emails

This is one of those rules that is easy to break if you don’t know about it. Building an email list? Cool.

Promoting Amazon products by including direct links within those emails? Not cool.

But so and so influencers or big-time marketers do it.

So what?

Let them take the risk of getting their account banned. Amazon doesn’t care how big the account is, when the ban hammer drops, those people can lose a ton of money when they aren’t able to show proof that they didn’t violate this rule.

Do not follow the bad actions of a few uninformed Associates.

Create landing pages for those links or refer people on your list to specific pages of your site.

Avoid Putting Links in Books

This is similar to the email list rule. If you create an e-book and want to promote Amazon products within the book, do not link directly to Amazon’s site. Instead, link to your site or a landing page.

Buying Through Your Affiliate Links

Amazon doesn’t allow Associates to make purchases through the Associate’s affiliate links – no exceptions. No matter how desperate you are to get your first affiliate sale through the program, don’t think you can get the ball rolling by making a purchase through your own links. This action sets off a red flag within Amazon’s tracking system, and you’ll eventually get that dreaded email.

Also, be aware that you shouldn’t have anyone who shares your regular Amazon purchasing Account or has any type of associated link to that account, purchase through your links either. The result of this infraction will be a permanent ban – no exceptions.

A retired gentleman made a video about making these mistakes and it cost him his affiliate account. His first infraction was to purchase through his own links. Amazon contacted him and he was able to keep his account. It was, in fact, an honest mistake because he admits that he didn’t read any of the legal language when signing up.

However, after he was given a second chance to continue being a part of the program, he messed up again. This time he asked his former co-workers to purchase items through his affiliate links.

They did so, and he didn’t know there was a problem until he got a second email informing him that his account was banned. On appeal, he found out Amazon doesn’t like this kind of collusion between people associated with the affiliate account owner.

He realized too late that the work credit card used to make those purchases was also connected to his Amazon purchasing account. He too had used this company’s credit card to make purchases for work, and that’s how Amazon found out.

The former affiliate acknowledges that he was in the wrong, and he’s not upset with Amazon for the ban. He shared his story to help others avoid his mistakes.

Avoid Adding Links to Sexually Explicit Content

Amazon doesn’t want any of its affiliate links used in content that can be considered sexually explicit. While there may be some gray areas as to what kind of content falls under this category, it’s best to stay far away from adding Amazon links to any content that has the slightest hint of being interpreted as sexually explicit.

Adding Prices to Product Listings

You may think that it’s okay to provide a product price when you’re recommending Amazon products. However, Amazon forbids this practice. The reason is that prices constantly fluctuate, and the pricing information you provide is sure to be misleading at some point.

Customers expecting one price and finding a totally different price when they click on the page can lead to customer dissatisfaction and no sales. So don’t do this. If you want to show a price, use the product link creation tools to create image links that show prices that can be automatically updated.

Avoid Asking for Clicks or Bookmarks

As the example above shows, Amazon doesn’t like it when Associates ask family, friends or co-workers to buy products using Amazon’s affiliate links.

Likewise, you shouldn’t make any statements in your content (email, site, video, etc.) that blatantly ask or encourage people to click on your affiliate links. Nor should you ask people to bookmark your pages that feature Amazon affiliate links. These are rule violations that can get you banned.

Having More Than One Affiliate Account

You are only allowed to have one Amazon Associates Account. Anyone who tries telling you that you can game the system and set up several accounts is scamming you. Worse, if you follow their advice, you are sure to get banned after Amazon discovers those multiple accounts belong to you.

Copying Amazon Reviews

When you’re researching what products to promote, the reviews you read are probably going to be helpful in finding products that have good to great customer reviews. However, you should never copy and paste any of those reviews from Amazon on your site.

Why?

Because all of those reviews are considered Amazon’s proprietary content. You don’t have permission to use them to help promote products. Doing so can get you into trouble. Instead, you can read those reviews and use them to create your own reviews. You can also reference them like this:

“According to user reviews, this product gets high marks for…”

Or use similar language.

Outdated, Limited Time or Rare Products

Amazon is a dynamic selling platform where products can be hot one moment, only to gradually lose their appeal. Amazon expects you to periodically review your affiliate links to ensure they remain current and relevant for buyers.

Remove any outdated product links you find and replace them with similar products that are currently selling.

If you promote products that have a limited-time sale or offer, be sure to keep track of when those offers end so that you can update the links.

It’s best to avoid promoting Amazon products that are rare because there won’t be many of them. If a rare product sells out, that link is no longer valuable for you or Amazon. It’s not worth the hassle of keeping track of them. If you desire to promote rare products, you can choose other affiliate programs that allow you to promote rare and vintage items.

You Don’t Have Any Sales

For whatever reason you haven’t made any sales within three months (180 days) as required by the Amazon Affiliate Program. When this happens, you’ll likely get a notice that your affiliate account is no longer active. The good news is that this usually isn’t a permanent ban. You can always choose to re-apply and start the process all over again.

12 Things That Can Get You Banned From Amazon Associates

by Donna Gets Real, an affiliate marketer and experienced online content writer.