Comments on: No Precedence For Social Media – Amazon Hangs Us Out To Dry

By: Dave from Michael Jackson T-Shirt

Dave from Michael Jackson T-Shirt — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:53:27 +0000

I’ve had a very hot and cold relationship with Amazon’s affiliate program. With my main Michael Jackson T-Shirt website—mostly Amazon affiliate promotions—sometimes commissions from clicks are recorded, sometimes not. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the clicks in question are from Twitter, or full direct links, or URL shortened, or anything! I often wonder whether Amazon’s whole affiliate program is simply broken.

Nice to know it doesn’t just happen to me (not nice for you, granted!)

Thanks Pete Williams for the javascript localiser – very handy!

By: Roo

Roo — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:34:53 +0000

I think the author here has made some very basic errors, am not saying amazon haven;t in their responses, but the sample size quoted is just too small and could well be a zero’d commission from a cancelled order.
I’ve had relative success from posting relevent amazon links to my twitter feed, both using the ‘tweet me’ link on the product page, and making my own shortened links.
OK, we all know when you start making 4-5 figure sums off amazon a month, they do pay more attention as to where you are sending the traffic from etc, but this only applies to a very small number of affiliates.
Twitter isn’t the only site that I don’t ‘own’ which I post amz links on, and commission is usually paid on these links without a hitch. I even went to the trouble of creating different tracking id’s for different sites, so I can see that clicks & commissions are being paid on these.
So, in conclusion, I really think this article is based on some quite sloppy research!

By: Dean Whitbread

Dean Whitbread — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:26:15 +0000

… and here’s the U-turn

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/04/amazon-turns-on-the-twitter-pump-to-fuel-referral-fees/

@musicafter50 – Google behaves in exactly the same abitrary way. They banned me from Adsense claiming “click fraud” – I sent them server logs to prove otherwise, to no avail, and was palmed off – just as I reached payment threshold. How much €£$ do they make by doing that to millions of small websites? It’s a POLICY.

By: Jamie Riddell

Jamie Riddell — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:20:52 +0000

So, today’s announcement that Amazon will integrate Twitter promotion buttons in its associates centre – http://bit.ly/2uuWDL – is that not just one almighty U turn?

By: MusicAfter50

MusicAfter50 — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:49:33 +0000

I recently set up an e-store via Amazon Associates. They are refusing to pay me on my first two sales, saying that the purchases were ‘personal.’ When I told them I didn’t buy a Stan Kenton CD or a Van Morrison DVD – nor did anyone in my family – they will only say the sales are ‘personal’ and they refuse to pay. They not only sent the following in an email, they had 2 customer service reps repeat it to me when I asked if there might be fraudulent activity with my account:
“Due to the proprietary nature of the process, we will not share with you the criteria by which we detect personal orders placed by an Associate.” I didn’t promote the link to my store on Twitter. If they won’t tell me how these ‘personal’ sales were made, how can I know what they consider personal or not personal? Were the products sold to someone I sat next to on a bus? Someone I worked with 2 years ago? What is this secret criteria that they cannot share with their own affiliate?

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:05:05 +0000

Let’s suppose for a minute you have a point. Let’s say those awful people out there are actually PAYING for search terms to link CUSTOMERS directly to Amazon to sell their products. Wouldn’t that be in Amazon’s best interest and worth a small referral fee? What exactly is the objection here? It sounds like Amazon is trying to use every loop hole they can to get out of paying affiliates for their time, energy, and money invested. On top of it, Amazon is making it as fuzzy as possible, so affiliates won’t know exactly HOW many commissions they have lost out on. Yesterday I had 58 clicks from a Twitter account on a single product, but won’t get a dollar in commissions out of it, because I just found out TODAY that URL shorteners aren’t gonna fly! How much money has Amazon swindled out of Twaffiliaters this way?

By: pete

pete — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:18:29 +0000

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I have been using tinyurl to post affiliate links for 7 months now and have been paid for all of my referrals fine. Not sure why you aren’t getting paid.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Are you posting the links on twitter?

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By: Joshua Odmark

Joshua Odmark — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:35:32 +0000

From the sounds of it, 4 requests to their support department is the magic number.

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:02:43 +0000

Well here’s a news break for you. Amazon is with holding my $4,500 affiliate commission because they say I am violation the TOC, which I am not of course.
I’m done promoting this old, affiliate hating company. It’s amazing how ignorant the company that practically invented affiliate marketing can be.