It's Time for me to get my Amazon affiliate back up and running. And I tell you the story of how Amazon kicked me off of their affiliate/associate program for cutting corners. My excuse? I was in a state of overwhelm.
It's Time for me to get my Amazon affiliate back up and running. And I tell you the story of how Amazon kicked me off of their affiliate/associate program for cutting corners. My excuse? I was in a state of overwhelm.
Administrative: (See episode transcript below)
For social Media:
Subscribe and share to help spread the love for a better world!
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Transcript: Mischa Z: 00:01 I'm walking in recording with my Shure MV88 mic. No, this is not a repeat of last of the last six episodes that I've started with that. Um, you can click through and buy the Shure MV88 Mic through my...through the show notes through my resources page, which is Be Love Media, www.Belove.media/resources. And you can buy the Shure MV88, and some other cool tech that I use to record episodes and do what I do. Now, why I'm talking about that is it's time for me to get my Amazon affiliate back up and running. So when I started this whole venture creating podcasts and summits and things. One of the ways to find some initial monetization and not a lot, but perhaps depending on your momentum, again, a way to find initial monetization was to create a resource page. Guide people to that resource page through your, um, show notes. Through your intros and outros. More specifically your outros. On your episodes by maybe saying it like I have done on this episode and I'll do it again right now.
Mischa Z: 01:55 Hey, go to www.belove.media/resources and get your Shure MV88 mic. Because it is awesome. And hopefully you do that. And I get my affiliate link from Amazon, put it in the show notes, you buy it for the normal price. You actually can't even tell that, um, that I've got anything to do with it. It's the normal Amazon page. It's pretty cool. It's really cool. Right? And, and I believe in the product and I put time and effort into creating a podcast and all these things. So hopefully you will purchase something. I'll also talk about A Course In Miracles. So you can buy the A Course In Miracles, the third edition combined volume. You can buy that, um, through my resource page and some other stuff.
Mischa Z: 03:02 And so when I started this whole venture, I created the resource page. I got, I became an Amazon affiliate. I, I, um, you know, started driving a little bit of traffic there. And when you start as an Amazon affiliate, you've got six months to, I believe it's do three sales or six sales or something like that. And if you don't do three sales or six sales within that first six months they cancel your affiliate link. So, that's the first bit of pressure. You've got to sell a certain amount. And I was like, oh my God, there's no way that's going to happen. Well, of course I got, uh, I did, I had, you know, the three sales or the six sales within the first 30 days. So that was super cool. Unfortunately, that triggers something where Amazon looks to make sure your Amazon affiliate compliant.
Mischa Z: 04:15 The reason I'm telling you all this is because a friend of mine was like, Hey, I hope you've been tracking your, your sales because I've been buying a bunch of books from your resource page. Cause he loves the Course In Miracles and buys him for his buddies and stuff like that. And uh, and I was like, oh no. I mean, yay. Yes, I was super excited, but oh no. And I'm going to, and I'm telling you why the, oh, now right now you can go back and hear these episodes. Right? Talk about Amazon affiliates, declining my affiliate status. Cause "the man" Blank'n Amazon, the man making it really hard, I feel like. And then also back then Apple wasn't distributing my podcasts. So there was the whole Apple battle. Those were way back in like episodes, probably 20 to 40 or something like that.
Mischa Z: 05:22 Anyhow. Um, so at the bottom of my show notes, it says, "I am an Amazon affiliate. I may get paid for any purchases you make through these links" or something like that. I, I put the appropriate verbiage at the bottom of, of the page there. I did not have that verbiage originally because I chose to ignore it by the way, everything I'm going to tell you how I flailed and why Amazon kicked me off as, because I cut corners. I was like, yeah, that rule doesn't apply to me. And Amazon was like, oh yes, that rule does apply to you as an Amazon affiliate. So I got the disclaimer at the bottom and the other thing is your web page. You have to, um, when you try, when you apply to become an Amazon affiliate, you give them your web page where stuff's going down and you need to be producing new content.
Mischa Z: 06:31 It's like six pieces a month or something new every day. Or I can't remember what it is. You can't just have a page out there and not be adding value. So you've got to be producing content. And again, I was like, that rule does not apply to me. And I just choose to ignore it. And it wasn't like it doesn't apply to me. I was just in a state of overwhelm. I was like, I just, you know, starting a podcast, working on my dream 100, you know, trying to get a framework together for a summit idea, all this stuff, all this new stuff. And so I was like, well maybe, maybe Amazon will miss that. Or it didn't read all the details, the fine print or whatever. So I was so excited to start having a little bit of revenue. When all of a sudden I get the email, it said you've been shut down.
Mischa Z: 07:41 And I was like "Damn It!". And so fast forward, six months later to today. And so I just said, you know what, I'm going to keep all the, you can still sell stuff through your old affiliate links. You just don't get paid on it. Um, so I was like, at some point I'll get to making a page that shows my updated content every day and I'll meet the requirements. And now, so a couple of things, one people are buying and I'm not getting credit. So I was like, all right, it's time to it's time to take the time to reapply to the Amazon affiliate program and do the work it takes to make sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. And the other thing is I'm going to start making a big push to drive more organic traffic to my podcast, to my resource page, to, to, to those affiliate links.
Mischa Z: 09:04 So I need to have it in order. So there you have it. I think. So that's, what's up it's time for me to hopefully the next, hopefully within the next week, one of my episodes will be I've reapplied for the Amazon affiliate program. And then hopefully within a few weeks, it'll be, yes. I passed the test and checked the boxes and I's are dotted. T's are crossed and I am a successful Amazon affiliate. A person company, whatever. Anyway, there you have it love to all, um, these are all, uh, problems of gradual success as well. Love to all bye.