Amazon / Pinterest Cautions
A while back I published a post about Setting up Your Amazon Affiliate Account for Pinterest Tracking you can read it here. I was reminded by a couple commenters that when not done correctly and by Amazon affiliate guidelines you may be putting your affiliate account at risk. This was a god reminder because I certainly did not make that clear in my post. So let’s take a look at how this can be done professionally and safely.
I’m sure as an Amazon affiliate you are aware that they require you to post the Amazon Disclosure to your website, blog, Squidoo lens, or whatever type of sales site you have. This is clearly stated in their Terms of Service:
You must, however, clearly state the following on your site: “[Insert your name] 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 [insert the applicable site name (amazon.com, amazonsupply.com, or myhabit.com)].”
Now the disclosure I use on various sites changes this wording slightly but it clearly states that I am an affiliate. Amazon prefers that you place this disclosure in the footer of your site so that it is viewable on every page visited but I placed mine in the upper left corner where I believe it can be found easily.
So getting back to Pinterest, the question arises as to where you place this disclosure. Ideally you should state right along with your “pinned” picture some comment stating that it is an Amazon Affiliate link so that the person clicking on the image and thereby landing on Amazon knows of your association.
I browsed around Pinterest by searching the word Amazon to see how many were doing this. Interesting to see what comes up on that search but there were some images that took you directly to Amazon with no mention of affiliates in any manner. Do NOT do that.
Most images took the visitor to another “sales” website where they could browse that individual’s store and then when clicking on an image end up at Amazon to hopefully make a purchase. Interestingly visibility of disclosures on these sites was a 50-50 thing, some did, and some did not.
There were a few that actually wrote in the Pinterest image comments something like “on sale now at $xx.xx click to buy at this unbelievable price on Amazon”. Now this doesn’t mention anything about being an affiliate but if I read the statement I would certainly think that this was an affiliate linked image.
Whether this would be approved by Amazon or not I’m not quite sure, but probably not. So my recommendation is to be forthcoming. State something to the effect of “great bargain on this super brand X baby stroller, grab yours now by clicking the image and visiting Amazon via my affiliate link.
Again this is not worded exactly per their TOS but I’m willing to give it a try. If anyone feels I should not let me know in the comments and I may possibly change my mind.
The question you need to ask yourself is does the benefit outweigh the risk. My best advice would be to purchase a domain and set up a store-like website for $10 or so and send the Pinterest image links there. Place your disclosure clearly on your site and promote a targeted line of products. I will be doing this soon and will let you know how it pays off.
Kindly,
Marilyn T
