Inside Affiliate

Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

As more and more affiliates are trying to figure out how to monetize Twitter, one of the largest affiliate programs on earth has decided against it.  Amazon is refusing to pay affiliate commissions on clicks generated from Twitter, citing a clause in the TOS that states that the clicks have to be generated from “your site”.  Since Twitter is not your site, the clicks are invalid (at least according to Amazon).

This seems like an odd move to me, and it’’s an even odder move if it becomes a precedent for other websites that will no longer be accepted as legitimate traffic sources.  What does this mean for affiliates that use 3rd party adservers or tracking software so that all the clicks appear to come from a different site than their own?  Will Amazon only be allowing affiliates to place banners on their websites instead of the RSS methods that we have enjoyed up until this point?

I”m assuming that Amazon must have received a bunch of complaints about the links in Twitter as people were tricked into clicking by their “friends”.  This is not really any different then when CPA advertisers declared that they would not accept traffic from MySpace or Facebook messages, bulletins, updates, friend spamming, etc.  There were major lawsuits filed against several companies including Media Breakaway, parent company of affiliate.com.  I suppose it is best if Amazon pulls the plug now instead of waiting for things to get ugly and bringing out the lawyers.

So bottom line, if you have a nice auto blog setup with an RSS feed to your Twitter account, you better pull the Amazon links from it ASAP or you are just burning money.  As far as I know, you can still post eBay Partner Network links, RevTwt links, and CPA links.

It’’s not quite back-to-the-drawing-board yet, but it is definitely a sign of things to come.

1.)  Watchmen (the Graphic Novel).  I did it backwards.  I saw the movie, and loved it so much that I wanted more.  I quickly ordered the book from Amazon (nice $10 sale price for brand new book) and couldn’t wait for it to arrive.  When it did, I devoured it in 2 days.  One of the best books I have ever read, graphic or non.  The back of the sleeve says it all, “If you’ve never read a Graphic Novel, start with Watchmen.  If you’ve read it, it’s time to read it again.”

2.)  Tweetdeck.  When I installed this sweet little app on my desktop, suddenly Twitter made sense to me.  I’ve had an account for almost a year now, but it never clicked with me until I got Tweetdeck.  For better or for worse, I’m hooked.  Install this at your own peril.

3.)  Freeloaders.  Gary Simon’s free how-to design videos for Photoshop and Wordpress are excellent!  This guy is sharp, and he has a sense of humor.  If you have Photoshop or Illustrator installed, gathering virtual dust on your hard drive, do yourself a favor and get the design juices flowing again with these videos.

4.)  Castle.  Hot on the heels of the new-media success story Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Nathan Fillion returns to television with one of the best pilots I’ve seen in a while.  I’m a huge fan, so that helped, but the show is actually good.  It’s funny, suspenseful, and I can’t wait for episode 2, airing later this evening…

5.)  Morning Sci-Fi by Hybrid.  Found this little gem on Pandora.  It’s been a couple years since it was released, but it still sounds relevant.  More importantly, this is the kind of album that I love to listen to while spending 8 hours coding up a Wordpress theme.  Not too harsh or annoying, but keeps it moving enough to keep you interested.