Amazon Wanting More Transparency With Affiliate Links?

MisterF said:
if you're not US based/resident, do these actually apply to you?
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I am curious about it as well. But anyways guess it's applicable for all the countries and website then what's the solution? A sticky sidebar? That would not be sticky in the mobile version. Then a floating sticky ber in the footer? This might be a solution. I want to hear more about it if anyone has any updated news or information.
 
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I get less and less happy with Amazon associate thingy, Everytime I get a mail like this from Amazon it. They rarely send good news. i guess this goes for image links too since there are so many product images linked to amazon pages in my sites. Plus so many text links.... What about those old Tweets with Amazon links? FB posts at least have an edit button.
 
This means I have a couple hundreds of edits to make lol. It sucks when people that make important decisions don`t know too much about the internet or affiliates.
 
Damn that's rough with amazon getting strict each day.

It's hard to market them with low returns.
 
got it this email ... this issue normally nothing mejor issue
 
Yesterday, I got an email about it.
 
If you have an HTML website you can modify your links in bulk and add a little note saying it's a paid link next to each link. Open all the pages in Notepad++ and use the replace all function combined with regex expressions to find your Amazon links among all links (depends on your content , you can search for a specific pattern ,length, structure, etc).
For WordPress maybe there is a plugin that does this since there is a plugin for almost anything .
 
"Okay, I messaged their support.

They said it is just a reminder automated email and nothing new.

The FTC requirement is only for US citizens and Amazon doesn't require it, FTC does. Amazon does not care if you are doing link-level disclosure.

https://ibb.co/gjjGsbs One disclosure per page is enough for them.

The text in Section 5 has changed though, read it. It seems it changed months ago though, so nothing new.

The text used to say the required disclosure is what probably most of us have "Yourwebsite.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com"

This disclosure has changed to "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”

they also say: "You must clearly state the following, or any substantially similar statement previously allowed under this Agreement, on your Site or any other location where Amazon may authorize your display or other use of Program Content"

which means you can also stay with the old disclosure, but I have changed it to be 100% compliant with current Operating Agreement.

In the last email, we all received they also have said this:

" To meet the Associate Program's requirements, you must (1) include a legally compliant disclosure with your links and (2) identify yourself on your Site as an Amazon Associate with the language required by the Operating Agreement. "

I asked them and by including "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” we are compliant with both of these conditions."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/comments/djrmds/amazon_guidelines_on_ftc_compliance/
 
It's a bit of a pain in the arse when to put this disclaimer on YouTube videos. For my sites though, the plugin I use allows me to put in a disclaimer at the bottom of the page. The fact that I can update the site wide disclaimer for every page with a link on it in one go was a big time saver.
 
me too received the email. should I contact them to get it cleared?
 
Ozzyzig said:
It's a bit of a pain in the arse when to put this disclaimer on YouTube videos. For my sites though, the plugin I use allows me to put in a disclaimer at the bottom of the page. The fact that I can update the site wide disclaimer for every page with a link on it in one go was a big time saver.
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I added a ftc disclosure to my channel description after seeing that email.
 
Other affiliate networks also do this and more will follow in the future.
That's life.
 
Ozzyzig said:
It's a bit of a pain in the arse when to put this disclaimer on YouTube videos. For my sites though, the plugin I use allows me to put in a disclaimer at the bottom of the page. The fact that I can update the site wide disclaimer for every page with a link on it in one go was a big time saver.
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What plugin are you using? Is it able to add the disclaimer at the beginning of the pages which contain affiliate links?
 
I have some thoughts
nichexposure said:
I just got this - https://www.facebook.com/writerskernel/posts/140922657300459

It's hard to understand the conversation but still what I got it so far -

1. We need to change the disclosure in the footer.
2. (AD) or (Paid lInk) might work in the CTA button. (Not 100% sure about it)

If anyone understands better by reading this conversation, please enlighten us.
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As the Amazon support agent said "as long as it's clear and in plain sight for viewers to see" when he was asked about the position of the disclaimer text on the site. Then I think placing the text on footer is not safe while placing it on the sidebar makes the site ugly as well.

I have two ideas:

1) I would hire a developer who can help me add a small tooltip showing the disclaimer text "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases" to any outbound links to Amazon.com. Or simply use a Wordpress plugin which has similar functionality if you are not familiar with coding or do not want to hire a developer.
2) Add the disclaimer text to the beginning of every article that contains Amazon affiliate links (like the way TheWirecutter is doing). However, I have not found the plugin to help me get that thing done yet. If anyone has an idea it would be highly appreciated.
 
MisterF said:
I had a very quick scan over this( seconds not minutes ), first thoughts are these link-level disclosures they mention are ( by my understanding ) an FTC requirement, not actually Amazon who started this. That being the case, if you're not US based/resident, do these actually apply to you?

I'll welcome any feedback or comments from anyone who looked into this for more than 60 seconds. But imagine sites such as Wirecutter etc having to update ever link.....
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I also think that it's some regulation. Afaik here in germany affiliates are required to do that anyways, and it needs to be more clear than just '#ad'
 
I've been seeing this on websites for over a year now. When I signed up for the affiliates program 7 or 8 months ago they had this as a requirement too. I usually don't see anything at the link itself, but I'll often read a disclaimer written into the article. Something along the lines of "clicking the links below will take you to Amazon's site to purchase the product and I earn a commission from those sales." I'll also sometimes see a similar disclaimer in the footer of a website.

Whether the disclaimer is required at each link, or in the article, or if a site wide disclaimer is needed seems a bit vague from what was written. Best to get Amazon to clarify.
 
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