Amazon Associates

I discovered something that is really bad about Amazon. If you use Amazon to promote specific products here is the big problem: You put rectangular boxes on your site that have a "Shop Now" button on the bottom. When someone clicks on it they get a very intimidating message from Amazon that says "Please confirm that you wish to add this item to your cart." The customer is given a second link that says "No thanks! Please return me to Amazon.com." 19 out of 20 customers will bail no matter how much they were interested in the product. To make matters worse, Amazon erases the record of an affiliate link click. Even if the customer ends up buying the product or another product in the same category, the affiliate gets zero credit because Amazon automatically deletes the cookie showing a click on the Amazon link.
When using Amazon Associates you can avoid this problem by creating links to categories of products based on a search term, not links to single products. Be aware that you will have serious problems if you use links to specific products on your website. Who wants to be told that they can't look at reviews or other information about a product before they actually add it to their cart?

I had been an affiliate with Amazon for YEARS from early on when I started blogging. I always followed their guidelines and reached out whenever I had questions. About a year ago (give or take at this point) I received a notice from Amazon that I was removed from their affiliate program for "violating their guidelines" and to correct the issues to avoid the account closure, but it was not clear nor did it state exactly WHY or WHAT I did. I responded and asked for an explanation several times and NEVER received a response back. About a month later, after NO response from them (via both responding to the email and contacting them through the contact form on the Amazon associates dashboard, I got the official notice of the closure to my affiliate account. Again, no clear explanation.

To my knowledge, I never actually violated their terms. I always left the disclosures, etc. If I did actually violate their terms, as they claim, why would they never respond to my reply? It comes across as a complete setup to get free advertising then using a false claim to not have to pay people. I've heard of this happening to quite a few others as well. Amazon has proven over the years to be a dishonest company and clearly doesn't treat it's employees nor affiliates well. Everyone is just another number to them.

I assure you that for the first time in my life I am writing a review, and unfortunately negative.
I have been a partner with Amazon Associates for about three months, but my account has been blocked.
I will try to explain: my website is dedicated to the review of online stores with affiliate links to the store's main page or services, and, accordingly, there are no links to specific products of the store. After the first sales, Amazon Associates approved my account and traffic source, and for three months I spent my money promoting Amazon. After this time (on the eve of payment) Amazon Associates blocked the account without the possibility of payment. Appeal filed, but it was rejected.
How can a previously approved account with an approved traffic source suddenly become unacceptable for payouts? Isn't that a SCAM? Maybe they earn on non-payments?
I am sure that this is not fair and looks like SCAM against partners. I understand that their company policy is aimed at customers, not partners. But this is not at all respectful to the partners.
P.S. If I had read all these reviews about them before becoming an Amazon partner, I would not have contacted them. I sincerely ask you to spend a couple of minutes of your time writing a review about them. This is very important for those who think to cooperate with them or not. And I wish everyone to work with those who pay and respect your work!
Thank you for reading.

Amzon Is Bad Company to work with, i had try to work as affilate with them but they close my account becouse the don't like syrian people to work with,

The difference between a good company and a bad one is the way they treat their employees and affiliates! I have sent about a few 100,000$ in sales. However Amazons terms of service is designed to make you fail! No matter how loyal you are to them, they will shut you down and keep your money. I called everyday to make sure I was in compliance, I was told yes! I would also ask the same question to different representatives and get a differnt answer, it was literally how the person on the other line interprets the Terms of sevice. I was shut down anyway resulting in a loss of over 8k! According to the TOS they can delete you and keep your earnings With or Without cause! Apparently they think people just do this as a hobby! Not the case. Im a mom of 4. I took a huge blow. Do not work with amazon because your loyalty to them will not matter. They must get FREE advertising from affiliates whom they just shutdown after a while and keep their money also! Stay far away! Their terms of service was designed to make you fail!

Amazon affiliate program is crazy restrictive some people get the approved and threatening termination email at the exact same time.
The rejection process is actually the worst I've ever seen they don't even really tell you why many folks get an email from with links that don't work as a reason for rejection or termination. Once you have been terminated that's it no second chance ever. This includes if your site or links fall below the set traffic rate and again if this happens no appeal no second chance so if you have a dry spell that option is gone.
Customer service does not apply to affiliates do not expect the same level of service you get when shopping "thank you for being a prime member" etc
The affiliate contacts are harsh some open with a cheery hello then immediately demand removal of any and all ads (even if you have none) and threaten further action against any account on Amazon related to the affiliate program or not.

Good luck figuring out why you may have been rejected even if you have followed all the rules.

Any and all content on your sites Must meet their rules and regardless if amazon sells it or you purchase it off amazon they can terminate your account without reason or recourse and in fact tell you specifically they will not read or accept any further communication from you after the first reply

The list of rules that you have to follow is vast and you need to read every one and follow them
Amazon seems to be more allowing of affiliates over seas which makes it difficult if you are in Canada a quick look on YouTube will tell you that.

It can be beyond frustrating spending years working towards the goal of being an affiliate to be shunned so abruptly and without reason or reconsideration.

Amazon expects you to be understanding of their screw ups late or lost items extreme overcharges, double billing, removing prime features but never dropping the price etc but they do not pay that forward to you.

Once you have had this experience it will affect every other interaction with Amazon depending on what the reps writes on your account and your name your sin# banking information social insurance number credit cards etc are all in their database so they have everything about you.

The pandemic changed amazon they no longer need people to like them they own it all so the service has changed it really shows they don't need affiliates or even your business they have everyone else's so your not important.

Save your time and use another affiliate program because amazon can and will gut you without explaining and black list your information making online business very difficult for you in the future it's not worth the risk

I am totally shocked by how insensitive, autocratic, and uncaring the people are who run the Amazon Associates Program. After spending weeks of time and spending a considerable amount of money setting up a First Class Website with Hundreds and Hundreds of Amazon Products (https://femdomemporium.com/), I then unveiled the Website, and began to spend more money with Google Ads marketing the site.
People started buying products and I started earning the Measeley 4% or 7 % commission on the products which they were buying. I figured that over time, as the Website built followers, I would eventually start making some money due to volume.
Sorry - that didn't happened.
Without any warning or advice from Amazon, I received an email telling me that Amazon was shutting down my Associate Account because I had prices on my website.
Yes, I made a mistake. I honestly didn't know that I couldn't show any prices on my Website. Instead of giving me a chance to fix the problem, they shut me down. I could have fixed the problem in a couple of hours. Instead, I am now spending days taking all of the Amazon Products off of my website, and replacing them with products from other sources. I've been at it for three days already, and still have a long way to go to get all of the Amazon Products off of my Website.
Absolutely sickening how they could be so insensitive to someone who put up a first class website and was selling their products. No chance to fix the mistake. They just shut you down not even taking into consideration all of the work that you went through to build the links for hundreds of their products, or the money you spent marketing those products. They think that their Shi. Doesn't stink. No concern for the little guy making them money.
If you want to make money, I'd suggest that you spend your time and energy building a site without Amazon.
A Disgusted and Depressed Former Amazon Associate

I work for a couple different companies that have an Amazon Associate program setup. My experience has been mixed in the past, but recently getting setup with a new enrollment has been the most frustrating, drawn out, and seemingly impossible task.

The new account was setup, just as all the others. All the requested business information, bank information for payment, tax information for payout, etc. During the 1st week while our account was being "fully reviewed" for setup you can typically start creating links and using them. So we wanted to get up and running right away. However, the Product Linking API, was not available for some reason so I contacted support. Support informed me that Amazon is no longer allowing associate accounts to access this feature without approval and a business justification. So the associate on the phone walked me through submitting such a request on their site, and said I should hear back in a couple days.

A couple days went by and I received a response saying our business justification for access to the Product API is not valid. So they would not give us access to this feature, and they are deactivating our Amazon Associate account. Since these are two separate issues and access to the Product API shouldn't have any impact on our associate account I attempted to reach out to get details. So far, we have reached out more than half a dozen times requesting reinstating our account or justification as to why the account itself has been deactivated, to no avail. Days after each time reaching out we have received the same copy and paste generic response above. Frustrating and just plain terrible customer service!