Can I do this?

[dots and spots Jeff]

I buy quite alot from amazon. It occured to me that if I became an Amazon affiliate, bashed together a very simple website with the affiliate link on it, and then every time I want to buy something from Amazon, I would go to Amazon through the affiliate link on my website, thereby getting (a small) amount of cashback on every purchase I make.

Can I do this? Would amazon ban me if they found out?

Thinking on a little bit - could I then share my website address with friends and family, and split the 'affilaite fee' with them - i.e., would the amazon stats tell how much each person spent, so I would know how much to give them?

I see this as not only a way to save a few pennies, but also a way to learn a little more about becoming an affilaite, without (at this stage) also worrying about driving hoardes of visitors to my site. I could also expand it to include other online retailers I regularly visit?


I'm still very much learning the 'whole e-commerce thing', so forgive me if this is a simple or stupid question!

Jeff

[crossdaz]

I buy quite alot from amazon. It occured to me that if I became an Amazon affiliate, bashed together a very simple website with the affiliate link on it, and then every time I want to buy something from Amazon, I would go to Amazon through the affiliate link on my website, thereby getting (a small) amount of cashback on every purchase I make.

Can I do this? Would amazon ban me if they found out?

Thinking on a little bit - could I then share my website address with friends and family, and split the 'affilaite fee' with them - i.e., would the amazon stats tell how much each person spent, so I would know how much to give them?

I see this as not only a way to save a few pennies, but also a way to learn a little more about becoming an affilaite, without (at this stage) also worrying about driving hoardes of visitors to my site. I could also expand it to include other online retailers I regularly visit?



No, you get the commission credited to your account initially and it is clawed back later on. Amazon are one of the few affiliate schemes which do this though, your idea would be fine with most other schemes.

I've never bothered to try but there is nothing to stop you having more than one account. I'm not sure whether they go on physical address or ip address but if you had a friend who was registered then you could buy from his and visa versa.

Amazon's associate scheme, despite the above, is the best there is and is a great way to learn how to make money as an affiliate.

[James1980]

It was my understanding (when I was an Amazon Affiliate about eight years ago) that this is allowed. If a product was purchased through an affiliate link, the associate would receive the cut of the profits. If it wasn't, that 'cut' went to Amazon. In fact, as a protest against Amazon (who were evidentally accused of something nefarious) it was suggested that people should manually alter their Amazon URLs in their web browser (while browsing the site), insert the Associate ID of a friend, and thus reduce the profits going to Amazon.