Amazon and images - let's settle the issue once and for all

Nenad Aleksic said:

Hi guys,

I'm a newbie to the forum but not really a newbie in IM.

So, I have two questions about the amazon affiliate program.

1 - I have an account that's a few years old and I went through 1 approval (had to change how I link in some places). When you add a new site, when do they check it (if at all)?

2 - At least one every 6 months or so, someone gives me a scare about accounts being shut down because of the images used - let's try and put this one to bed.

* One one hand you have people that say that they prefer if you don't "waste" their bandwidth and use their api on all images.

* Others are saying that you can ONLY use their api.

Now, for the products I don't have I do use images that are the same as on the Amazon site - it doesn't mean that I use THEIR images - these are available on the manufacturers pages and with other retailers.

Bottom line - is there a cause for concern here.

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staypositive said:

Long debate For this regarding image. My thought is new account using their image hosted in ur server will be banned
Old account is fine

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blogzandstuff said:

You have to use the images as shown on Amazon otherwise it's misrepresentation

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Nenad Aleksic said:

Yeah, I know it's a long debate and I didn't even know about it back in the day. But the only thing they asked me to change when are the links. No mention of the images.

So, do they check each site you add and if yes, when?

If we could get someone who has actually been banned to tell the story that would shed some light on this thing.

The terms are unclear - "In order to facilitate your advertisement of Products, we may make available to you data, images, text, link formats, widgets, links, marketing content, and other linking tools, application program interfaces, and other information in connection with the Associates Program (“Content”). Content specifically excludes any data, images, text, or other information or content relating to product offerings on any site other than the Amazon Site."

What does that last sentence mean - is it possible that the confusion stems from people using the images from their reviews?

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