5 ms·

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/policies/ https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/policies... https://affiliate-program.amazon.c

by petee 5y ago

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/policies/ https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/policies... https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/node/topic/G8TW5AE9XL2VX9VM https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/node/topic/G8TW5AE... Quite a few spots mention "original" and "creative content" - because you have essentially just a database I'm betting they do not see it as original 'creative' content. It seems the goal of their program is to have bloggers write about the products being sold. Rather than simply decode the tire, they want you to upsell. Maybe if you were to include individual/separate pages or 'blog' posts about each facet of the tires' specs, as painful as that is.

moasda 5y ago
Good point, more written text could perhaps help.
bcrosby95 5y ago
Yeah, this happened to one of our sites, and we resolved it by making a blog we post to every couple of months. We get basically zero sales through the actual blog posts.
- moasda 5y ago
  Thanks for sharing your experience. So it really looks like Amazon expects a blog-like page.
- ewuhic 5y ago
  Do you host both websites (or website and whatever "web" the other thing is) on the same domain, or those are completely different entities, so you can just point amazon to the blog?
  - bcrosby95 5y ago
    Same domain - we just have a /blog path. So the main site is www.example.com, and the blog is at www.example.com/blog
tyingq 5y ago
It looks like you've already put in a lot of work to parse out individual specs and data for the tires. I bet you could inject a paragraph or 2 of text using that, and place that on the pages somewhere. Just make a few different templates with some random phrasing to generate variations, like: - This off-road tire features a track width of xxx mm, making it perfect for... - Designed for off-road use, this tire is xxx mm wide, and features... - Schwalbe, a German manufacturer, produces this xyz model of tube for... ...
- moasda 5y ago
  Cool idea, thanks! I will give it a try.
  - tyingq 5y ago
    There's also templates that can do "spintax", so you get more variations, like: {The|This} tire {is $width mm wide|{features|has} a {track |}width of $width mm}}
    - moasda 5y ago
      Thank you, I have not heard of Spintax before. Nevertheless, I will try to provide added value for readers in the texts.
- xgbi 5y ago
  Am I the only one shocked that this is required ? This is essentially advocating for SERP spam, which is the bane of my existence. Websites with generic sentences like this make everyone lose their time when they are looking for tangible information. If Amazon asks for that kind of shitty content to justify the existence of a valuable site like yours, I’d skip them entirely and search elsewhere to monetize…
  - ninth_ant 5y ago
    From what they describe it’s not “required” by Amazon — sounds like they don’t want that sort of automated/database-oriented content at all. What you are reacting to is a way to trick Amazons bots and the underpaid bored agents looking over affiliate sites.
dperfect 5y ago
I've shared this before, but this has happened to me - 3 times - with different sites I created. One was very similar in nature to OP's (essentially a specialized tool/calculator with affiliate links to the products), and another was a very detailed guide for making a DIY electronics product. It was "creative" enough to be featured on the front page of hackaday.com, but I guess not enough for Amazon's affiliate program. Traffic also wasn't a problem - in one case they pulled my program membership only after I had generated hundreds of dollars in referred sales (of course they didn't pay the commission). Needless to say, it has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since. In my opinion, if they have such a narrow interpretation of what "original" or "creative" means (applying only to blog-style content, or who knows what), then I frankly don't care to do anything more with their affiliate program or drive sales to them.
- moasda 5y ago
  Wow, thanks a lot for sharing your experience.
- amelius 5y ago
  This is what you get when a company is the regulator of a market. I guess government regulation isn't so bad after all.
  - lixtra 5y ago
    Or just don’t affiliate with amazon. Instead use an online service, that is dedicated to your niché and both profit.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - daveguy 5y ago
      Seems like government regulation against corporate control of markets is still a good idea.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
tgflynn 5y ago
I'm surprised to see them take such a narrow view of what kind of sites are suitable. It seems to me that the OP is providing a useful tool, why wouldn't Amazon want to reward him for driving (probably highly motivated to buy) traffic to their site.

by petee 5y ago

moasda 5y ago

Good point, more written text could perhaps help.

bcrosby95 5y ago

Yeah, this happened to one of our sites, and we resolved it by making a blog we post to every couple of months. We get basically zero sales through the actual blog posts.

moasda 5y ago
Thanks for sharing your experience. So it really looks like Amazon expects a blog-like page.
ewuhic 5y ago
Do you host both websites (or website and whatever "web" the other thing is) on the same domain, or those are completely different entities, so you can just point amazon to the blog?
- bcrosby95 5y ago
  Same domain - we just have a /blog path. So the main site is www.example.com, and the blog is at www.example.com/blog

tyingq 5y ago

It looks like you've already put in a lot of work to parse out individual specs and data for the tires. I bet you could inject a paragraph or 2 of text using that, and place that on the pages somewhere. Just make a few different templates with some random phrasing to generate variations, like: - This off-road tire features a track width of xxx mm, making it perfect for... - Designed for off-road use, this tire is xxx mm wide, and features... - Schwalbe, a German manufacturer, produces this xyz model of tube for... ...

moasda 5y ago
Cool idea, thanks! I will give it a try.
- tyingq 5y ago
  There's also templates that can do "spintax", so you get more variations, like: {The|This} tire {is $width mm wide|{features|has} a {track |}width of $width mm}}
  - moasda 5y ago
    Thank you, I have not heard of Spintax before. Nevertheless, I will try to provide added value for readers in the texts.
xgbi 5y ago
Am I the only one shocked that this is required ? This is essentially advocating for SERP spam, which is the bane of my existence. Websites with generic sentences like this make everyone lose their time when they are looking for tangible information. If Amazon asks for that kind of shitty content to justify the existence of a valuable site like yours, I’d skip them entirely and search elsewhere to monetize…
- ninth_ant 5y ago
  From what they describe it’s not “required” by Amazon — sounds like they don’t want that sort of automated/database-oriented content at all. What you are reacting to is a way to trick Amazons bots and the underpaid bored agents looking over affiliate sites.

dperfect 5y ago

I've shared this before, but this has happened to me - 3 times - with different sites I created. One was very similar in nature to OP's (essentially a specialized tool/calculator with affiliate links to the products), and another was a very detailed guide for making a DIY electronics product. It was "creative" enough to be featured on the front page of hackaday.com, but I guess not enough for Amazon's affiliate program. Traffic also wasn't a problem - in one case they pulled my program membership only after I had generated hundreds of dollars in referred sales (of course they didn't pay the commission). Needless to say, it has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since. In my opinion, if they have such a narrow interpretation of what "original" or "creative" means (applying only to blog-style content, or who knows what), then I frankly don't care to do anything more with their affiliate program or drive sales to them.

moasda 5y ago
Wow, thanks a lot for sharing your experience.
amelius 5y ago
This is what you get when a company is the regulator of a market. I guess government regulation isn't so bad after all.
- lixtra 5y ago
  Or just don’t affiliate with amazon. Instead use an online service, that is dedicated to your niché and both profit.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - daveguy 5y ago
    Seems like government regulation against corporate control of markets is still a good idea.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

tgflynn 5y ago

I'm surprised to see them take such a narrow view of what kind of sites are suitable. It seems to me that the OP is providing a useful tool, why wouldn't Amazon want to reward him for driving (probably highly motivated to buy) traffic to their site.