Don't Lose Your Amazon Account Doing This

Published: Sun, 04/10/16

There are a lot of things one could do that would cause Amazon to close their Associates account and sometimes they seem like really little things. I want to talk about a few of them here.

First, when I sent you the information yesterday about MintsApp 2.0 (that cool poll and surveying tool), I talked about the redirect feature being something very useful to me. And it is!

However, DO NOT redirect from your poll to an Amazon affiliate URL.

Remember that the Amazon Associates terms of service do say you need to send people to Amazon only when it's clear the visitor will end up at Amazon. With the MintsApp, a visitor would not know that was going to happen if you redirected them to Amazon once they answered your poll or survey.

Instead, here's how I see that app helping to improve your Amazon affiliate sites:

If you have a review site, create a post on your site with a poll asking how much someone wants to spend on such and such product (whatever it is your review site is about). You can have more than two answers so you could put "Best Under $200", "Best $200-300" and "Best $300+" in the poll. Each of those responses could redirect to a related post on your site. So, if the poll taker clicks the "Best Under $200" response, they get redirected to your post on the best such and such that costs under $200. Then, in your site's sidebar you put something like "What are people spending for the best such and such?" and include a link to your poll post. It's a fun way to get people interacting with your site. People like polls, they like seeing how others respond to the same questions they have on their mind, and - at the same time - you can get your visitor more quickly to a post on your site that will suit them.
If you have a hobby site, set up a poll that says something like "What kind of project do you want to work on next?" If the site were about crochet, the answers could be "Afghan", "Baby Item", "Scarf", or "Clothing". You could then redirect each answer to the most popular post on a related project. .

While helping your visitor, you're also gathering important data that will help you know which kinds of posts to add to your site.

If most people in your review site answer that they want to spend under $200, you now know that writing about more products in that lower price range would help you offer more products of interest to your audience.

If most people on your hobby site answer that they want to work on an afghan, you now know to add more posts about afghans.

Other kinds of polls you could use for Amazon sites:

Ask your visitors which features are most important to them in products you feature on a review site
Ask your visitors their biggest challenge in making a buying decision (lack of information, finding the right size, choosing between multiple products, price)
Ask your visitors if they're buying this as a gift for someone else or for themselves
Ask your visitors when they expect to make a purchasing decision (now, in the next week, in the next month, just shopping around)

Figure out what you wish you knew from the people visiting your site and then ASK them about those things! Think about where you could send them in your site that would give them the information they'd appreciate.

The time visitors spend on your site is supposed to a factor in Google's ranking algorithm. Polls and surveys can help keep visitors on your site. That's an added benefit but it's being able to help a visitor connect to you and your site by asking them relevant questions and then getting them to the right content that could be a huge help in improving conversions.

In terms of keeping your account safe from being closed by Amazon, here are other things you need to remember:

Don't include text from reviews consumers have written on Amazon inside your site UNLESS you pull them through the Amazon API.
Don't include the price from Amazon on your site UNLESS you pull it through the Amazon API.
Don't hide your links to Amazon. It must be clear that when a visitor clicks a link, they're going to land on Amazon's site.
Don't use anchor text with your affiliate links where the anchor text does not mention a product. (For example, don't use the anchor text "this is cool" and link to a product on Amazon with an affiliate link).
Don't say something is on special or at a discounted rate if it is not on special or if the special rate is no longer available. (If you've written about Cyber Monday deals and those deals are no longer available, remove the links to those outdated deals.)

Read through the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement, Linking Requirements, and Participation Requirements regularly.

Whenever you have a question about the terms, ask them. They can be very helpful and they have a live chat line so there's a big stretch of time each day where you can get a live person right away to get an answer.

MintsApp 2.0 is only available for a couple of more hours so if you're interested, check it out before it closes or the price increases (I'm not sure which direction they're headed...only that there's a countdown timer on the page!).