New amazon affiliates account after ban

I run a few youtube channels in the tech niche, making top 5 videos and monetizing through adsense (30%) and amazon affiliates (70%), currently making around 6-10k a month.

A few days ago one of my affiliate accounts got banned, because apparently my content "belongs to a third party", this is actually true since we do use brand product videos and parts of other creators videos, but we do write our own scripts, record the voice over and edit the videos (our content is considered original under YouTube's fair use policy). We have been doing this for three years and never had any problems with amazon or youtube. Also there are thousands of accounts that have been making the same kind of videos we do on youtube for years and are clearly using amazon affiliates.

We are currently waiting for a response to the appeal, but I fully expect the account to stay banned and lose about 8k in commissions for the last three months

I have a few questions and hope someone who knows about the topic can help with at least some of them.

1) Luckily I had different affiliate accounts for my channels, so only one of them got banned. The accounts are in different countries and I changed some of the other account details to prevent them from getting banned as well. How likely do you think it is that my other accounts can also get banned?

2) I want to reopen a new account for the channel that got banned. Do you think if I change of all my personal information but keep the channel URL the same I will be banned again? Can someone who has experience creating new accounts after a ban explain what are the minimum steps I should take to avoid getting banned again? (for example should I do everything through a VPN and should I use some kind of landing website between youtube and amazon and put the links there so that amazon don't find y YouTube channel)

So many questions and it's hard to find answers online, eventhough I think a lot of people have experienced similar things with amazon affiliates. If someone can help that would be greatly appreciated, thanks

I would be interested in the same. My Amz affiliate got banned recently too. I then did create a new account linked to the same channel URL. Worked for 2 weeks, and then Amazon banned it again with reference of a link to previous case. So, yes, not that easy to re-establish but would be curious what others did

epicmars said:

I would be interested in the same. My Amz affiliate got banned recently too. I then did create a new account linked to the same channel URL. Worked for 2 weeks, and then Amazon banned it again with reference of a link to previous case. So, yes, not that easy to re-establish but would be curious what others did

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What reason did they give for closing the account? Did they reject your appeal? Did you have other accounts? My biggest fear is that they close my other accounts because they find out that they are related to the first one.

What I've found as the easiest solution so far is to create a webpage with articles similar to the videos you make (you can use the video script as the article), then you put that webpage in the YouTube video description so people click there first and then click the amazon link on the webpage. You list the webpage as your site on amazon and they shouldn't be able to find out the youtube channel. I imagine this will have worse conversion rates as users have to go to another webpage before clicking the amazon link, but it's better than nothing and if you make a nice webpage it can even potentially bring extra revenue.

Also, when creating a new affiliate account you should change as much information about yourself as possible, like name, address, email, phone number, bank account, etc. Also they can trace you via IP or device fingerprinting so you should use a new device with a VPN to create and connect to the account.

Haven't personally implemented any of these steps as I am still waiting for a response to the appeal and also looking for other potential affiliate programs to join and not have to go through all of that. But from reading almost everything there is to read about this topic, I think that could work to still make some amazon affiliate revenue via YouTube after a ban.

If someone has some real experience with any of this I would also love to learn how you did it

UPDATE:

I'm still waiting for a response to the appeal but I actually got paid the commissions for the corresponding month in time, which is super strange because the email said that amazon had the right to not paid the rest of the commissions since we "broke" the operating agreement.

I'm wondering if they paid me because they haven't yet responded to the appeal and thus confirmed the account is closed for good... Honestly I don't understand what's happening but I'm happy I got paid some of what was owed.

Cronosman said:

UPDATE:

I'm still waiting for a response to the appeal but I actually got paid the commissions for the corresponding month in time, which is super strange because the email said that amazon had the right to not paid the rest of the commissions since we "broke" the operating agreement.

I'm wondering if they paid me because they haven't yet responded to the appeal and thus confirmed the account is closed for good... Honestly I don't understand what's happening but I'm happy I got paid some of what was owed.

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Amazon are scammers in this regard. From what I can gather they don't want affiliates that can make a lot of money (unless you are privileged). If you make too much they will just ban your ass. They rather millions of affiliates that make very little is my guess.

How many videos you have on your channel.I use only manufacturer videos not the creators videos on Amazon to use for Youtube

Bitcoin QR said:

Amazon are scammers in this regard. From what I can gather they don't want affiliates that can make a lot of money (unless you are privileged). If you make too much they will just ban your ass. They rather millions of affiliates that make very little is my guess.

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Yeah I honestly have no idea about why they decide to close certain accounts... The one they closed wasn't even my biggest one, but I've been making the same kind of content on it for over a year, so why do they say that I'm against the rules now? Why did they approve it in the first place? Probably we will never get an answer to these questions.

Ohh Amazon, always messing with their workforce. They are starting to look like Paypal lately.

moonshine7000 said:

How many videos you have on your channel.I use only manufacturer videos not the creators videos on Amazon to use for Youtube

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The channel that got closed has 75 videos on it.

I use manufacturer videos when I can, but they are not available for some products, so I use parts of other creator's. The video that they said uses third party content was marked at 0:11, when an Apple commercial for an Apple Watch was playing during the intro, so the part that got flagged wasn't even another creator's content. Honestly I think someone just reviewed the channel, watched the last posted video for 10 seconds, noticed it belonged to Apple and decided to close the account.

novembre said:

Ohh Amazon, always messing with their workforce. They are starting to look like Paypal lately.

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Yeah... I made hundreds of thousands of dollars for them and they closed my account with no warning and no way to actually contact them for help. It's crazy

Cronosman said:

Yeah... I made hundreds of thousands of dollars for them and they closed my account with no warning and no way to actually contact them for help. It's crazy

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If I were amazon I won't shut your account you are making money for me passively but Amazon is on the too big to fail attitude.

Get more than one income stream

moonshine7000 said:

If I were amazon I won't shut your account you are making money for me passively but Amazon is on the too big to fail attitude.

Get more than one income stream

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100% agree... And yeah, my biggest takeaway from this whole situation is that it doesn't matter if you're making a lot of money, if it's all coming from one source you're still in big risk. Diversification will be my priority from now.

UPDATE:

I'm still waiting for a response to the appeal but I just emailed Jeff Bezos after seeing some people online saying that solved their problem quick. Will update as soon as I get some news.

UPDATE:

Still waiting for a response on my first closed account (a Frech account), but today two of my accounts for amazon US and Canda got closed as well for third party content and unclear traffic (?).
However, my UK account that I was using on the same YouTube channel as those two is still open, which makes me think that every affiliate program is separated (good for me, since all of my biggest accounts are european and haven't been closed yet)

It seems like amazon is on a big ban wave of YouTube channels that use manufacturer videos as content, which I can understand since I imagine with the rise of AI there hundreds of those accounts are being opened each day. Sucks for people like me who do our own product research, write our own scripts and record our own voice over but times change I guess...

Anyone have experienced something similar recently?

i was doing the same. I was using slideshow videos where the images were from reviewer's post on amazon reviews mostly. My account got closed due to third party content usage. But a friend of mine was sharing my affiliate links on his instagram profile. And he did not put a disclusre there.
SO i got two reasons, one ie 3rd party content and not dislosing me being an affiliate.
I appealed to them and got a reply like after 40 days or more i think. They did not send me my commissions, they were my highest earnings i think since it was november- dec 2022.

Cronosman said:

UPDATE:

Still waiting for a response on my first closed account (a Frech account), but today two of my accounts for amazon US and Canda got closed as well for third party content and unclear traffic (?).
However, my UK account that I was using on the same YouTube channel as those two is still open, which makes me think that every affiliate program is separated (good for me, since all of my biggest accounts are european and haven't been closed yet)

It seems like amazon is on a big ban wave of YouTube channels that use manufacturer videos as content, which I can understand since I imagine with the rise of AI there hundreds of those accounts are being opened each day. Sucks for people like me who do our own product research, write our own scripts and record our own voice over but times change I guess...

Anyone have experienced something similar recently?

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well, recently, i have seen people talking to a camera and then pointing to #5 product ...at that point in the video the image of the concerned product shows, then they talk about benefits etc.
Also lots of amazon brands are on refersion, impact radius and shareasale. However, conversion rates will suck.

Hmm, thats interesting, according to you amazon eu are your biggest earners? I might have to start a european channel then. I have been banned 3rice btw.

Iconoclast said:

i was doing the same. I was using slideshow videos where the images were from reviewer's post on amazon reviews mostly. My account got closed due to third party content usage. But a friend of mine was sharing my affiliate links on his instagram profile. And he did not put a disclusre there.
SO i got two reasons, one ie 3rd party content and not dislosing me being an affiliate.
I appealed to them and got a reply like after 40 days or more i think. They did not send me my commissions, they were my highest earnings i think since it was november- dec 2022.

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Wow, that sucks... So this happened to you last year? Did they reopen your account or not?

I understand your frustration. There's a chance your other affiliate accounts might be reviewed by Amazon, so being cautious is crucial. While changing personal details might provide some protection, it's not guaranteed. Stick closely to Amazon's rules, explore diverse income sources, and if you decide to create a new account, do so cautiously with a more login and maybe a landing page. Keep things ethical for a lasting online presence. Best of luck navigating through these challenges – I hope it works out positively for you.

vincentcarbert said:

I understand your frustration. There's a chance your other affiliate accounts might be reviewed by Amazon, so being cautious is crucial. While changing personal details might provide some protection, it's not guaranteed. Stick closely to Amazon's rules, explore diverse income sources, and if you decide to create a new account, do so cautiously with a more login and maybe a landing page. Keep things ethical for a lasting online presence. Best of luck navigating through these challenges – I hope it works out positively for you.

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Yeah, those are all good points. I was considering closing my other affiliate accounts and reopening them with a new identity including new device and IP, but I'm scared that they will just get closed even sooner after I reopen them and they get reviewed.

I guess it's a waiting game until they find and close them and if they do I will try the landing page method.

Cronosman said:

Wow, that sucks... So this happened to you last year? Did they reopen your account or not?

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it happened in nov 2022. If i were you i would subscribe to tube buddy plan and bulk edit my channel description. Then replace my links with a website page having link to the product