Amazon Associates ToS Question

Hi guys,

I am pretty much aware and make sure to stick to all ToS of Amazon Associates as I don't want to get kicked off. But there is one in particular which confuses me which has mixed discussion and opinions on the internet and has no clear answer in their terms itself.

Let's say I have this niche site where I am mentioning top 5 products. Under each product, I have a button with CTA as "Check the latest price on Amazon".

Now I've heard some people saying that you can't even mention "Amazon" in that CTA or instruct your visitors that they are going to hop on Amazon now.

How true is it? I want to mention Amazon because it increases trust and confidence in buyer's mind and without it, I assume there'd be a minor decrease in CTR.

Thanks.

I've never heard that, you do need the amazon disclaimer though and declare that it's an affiliate site

blogzandstuff said:

I've never heard that, you do need the amazon disclaimer though and declare that it's an affiliate site

Click to expand...

Yes, that I mention as they want it.

I've always read that it was quite the opposite. You need to make it clear that if a user clicks on a link they are going to Amazon. If you hover over a link, it shows the destination, which is good enough. Therefore, make the anchor text whatever you want it to be.

"In addition, you must not use a link shortening service in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site."

As I use a link shortening service I explicitly state that a user will end up on Amazon. I see loads of websites breaking this rule. It probably isn't an issue until you make over 5k a month, though. Just a guess, but that may put you on Amazon's radar.

It's confusing.

Amazon has its own link shortening service.

I know you can get in trouble for using your own buttons. I was looking at the 'offical' buttons and they all said 'buy on amazon' and not 'check price on amazon'

sotto123 said:

I've always read that it was quite the opposite. You need to make it clear that if a user clicks on a link they are going to Amazon. If you hover over a link, it shows the destination, which is good enough. Therefore, make the anchor text whatever you want it to be.

"In addition, you must not use a link shortening service in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site."

As I use a link shortening service I explicitly state that a user will end up on Amazon. I see loads of websites breaking this rule. It probably isn't an issue until you make over 5k a month, though. Just a guess, but that may put you on Amazon's radar.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I use pretty links plugin to make URLs look clean. Would that be an issue? Just want to hide from Google these links and keep them user friendly in general.

Jesse Custer said:

It's confusing.

Amazon has its own link shortening service.

I know you can get in trouble for using your own buttons. I was looking at the 'offical' buttons and they all said 'buy on amazon' and not 'check price on amazon'

Click to expand...

It is very confusing indeed.