Pinterest now stripping amazon links!

For those of you directly pinning your amazon.com affiliate links, please be aware that Pinterest is cracking down. They now strip your affiliate ID out so you will not get a commission. Hopefully this saves some people from wasting their time.

thanks, this will keep someone out from wasting time

Thank you for info.
I'm not quite sure does cloaking affiliate link with bit.ly is enough?

i think pinterest started doing this a while back

you had to see this comming ......

You can always redirect the traffic. Simple scripts should do their job. If you don't want to trigger any flag use like 10 domains and rotate those with the redirect.

Don't use bit.ly or any other shorting service.

my pins changed too.. what can i do?

portugalkix said:

You can always redirect the traffic. Simple scripts should do their job. If you don't want to trigger any flag use like 10 domains and rotate those with the redirect.

Don't use bit.ly or any other shorting service.

Click to expand...

What about url shorting services? Bit.ly > Tiny url > Affiliate? What's wrong about it.

Well... it was about time for this to happen!

smerf said:

What about url shorting services? Bit.ly > Tiny url > Affiliate? What's wrong about it.

Click to expand...

It won't last.

zacatictac said:

For those of you directly pinning your amazon.com affiliate links, please be aware that Pinterest is cracking down. They now strip your affiliate ID out so you will not get a commission. Hopefully this saves some people from wasting their time.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information, it will save a lot of time and energy

what if your post that is pinned has a redirect script so that when they click on the pin in pinterest and go to ur post on the site they then are sent to the amazon link? would that be good?

The simple way around this is add the Amazon product to your blog then just pin it on Pinterest, that way the user goes to to your page with the item on then onto the Amazon page.

Thanks for info...

obeselizard said:

what if your post that is pinned has a redirect script so that when they click on the pin in pinterest and go to ur post on the site they then are sent to the amazon link? would that be good?

Click to expand...

Worth trying for now, but might not continue to work. A link pointing to a minisite filled with Amazon links might be the next answer, if they crack down on redirects.

it is a sad story

Yeah, I bought Pinblaster a few weeks ago hoping that I could automate this, but it doesn't work. Just host the amazon-tagged photos on your blog, pin from there. Still requires too much time, IMHO....the Pingrabber add-on that comes with Pinblaster is great for amassing random photos, but I need a way to find and bulk tag Amazon photos, I know there is a method or a plugin, so someone point me to it, please. Thanks

they have been doing this for a long time using skimlinks

Pinterest Cracking Down on Amazon Affiliates

"If you are posting Amazon affiliate links on Pinterest you may be wasting your time. Pinterest is stripping the tag={YourAffiliateID} out of the link before passing the link on to Amazon.

Even if you are using short links to cloak the Amazon affiliate link, Pinterest will follow the link and strip the tag={YourAffiliateID} before it gets to Amazon.

Amazon Isn?t the Only Affiliate Program

Any affiliate worth her commission check knows Amazon isn?t the only game in town. As of this writing, virtually any other affiliate link I tested, from the affiliate networks like CJ and Linkshare, to in-house affiliate programs powered by HasOffers, all continue to work. Considering the thousands of affiliate programs out there, Pinterest must realize breaking links is a game of whac-a-mole it simply can?t win.

For affiliates, this leaves the door wide open to plenty of revenue opportunities, though be sure to read the fine print. As I pointed out back in February, some affiliate managers are putting Pinterest on their banned sites list. It may be safer to put the affiliate links on a site you own, with a link from Pinterest to the site.

But wait, Amazon Links Aren?t Completely Worthless? Yet

There is an Amazon linking method Pinterest hasn?t shut down just yet, though this article may be a catalyst. As of this writing, integrating the affiliate code in the Amazon URL, like one of the following methods below, will still result in a trackable link to Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470651733/{YourAffiliateID}/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470651733/{YourAffiliateID}

Since Pinterest seems to be pattern matching against ?tag={YourAffiliateID} and removing everything from the question mark on, eliminating either of these types of link codes will take more work. There are times when Amazon puts other data in the URL before their own product identifier.

Notice that code is very different than the code automatically generated using Amazon?s link building tools. You can verify you?ve made your link correctly using the Amazon affiliate link checker.

Note: If you test either of the links above, they should go to Geno Prussakov?s book, Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day."

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better off doing CPA instead of amazon