Non-US based Amazon Associates must "perform all services" outside the US

An interesting addition to Amazon's terms and conditions for their Associates (announced here):

“If you are a Non-US person participating in the Program, you agree that you will perform all services under the Operating Agreement outside the United States. If, for any reason, you cannot comply with this requirement, you must notify us using this link for an exception.”

My guess is that this is something to do with tax-regulations, and is worth a few moments thought (at least) for Bloggers who use Amazon Associates links to earn money from their blogs.    

But it also made me wonder about bloggers who travel a lot:   we possibly shouldn't be doing any work inside a country where we don't have a visa that allows us to work.   I wonder if that includes writing blog posts, or perhaps even drafting but not publishing them or taking pictures for them? 

Changing the tracking ID for an Amazon Associates widget

You can change the tracking ID for an Amazon associates widget, even after the widget is created and in use on your site.

Tracking Amazon widget performance

Widgets (aka gadgets) from Amazon Associates can be used to display certain content from Amazon on your blog / website.   Some of them are fixed format, while others (eg the MP3 widget) let you select a range of items from Amazon's stock to display.

In two of my blogsites, I use Amazon MP3 widgets to include snippets of songs that my readers might be interested in, without breaking any copyright laws.

If Amazon sells more than one version of a song, then I put in quite a bit of time choosing which specific version to include, so that a variety of styles are shown - this makes it more likely that my readers will see something that they like.

Because there are two sites, I set up two tracking-ids within my Amazon Associates account, one for each site, and use these to know how many of my Amazon visitors have come from each site.  This will let me analyse the performance of each site as they grow.

Problem:  assigning the tracking ID

When you create a new widget on Amazon, the tracking ID that is assigned to the widget is the one that is selected when you start the widget-creation process. There is no way to change the tracking ID part way through the process.

Changing it on the left sidebar resets the widget-creation process back to the beginning, so you have to start again.  This isn't much of a problem if you're just getting the Amazon code for a simple gadget with no selection or maybe a context sensitive one.  But it's extremely frustrating if you've spent 15 mintues carefully choosing exactly which versions to a song to include.


Editing the tracking ID after the widget is created:

Recently I discovered that it is possible to change the tracking-id, and other features too, after the widget has been created.   To do this:

1  Log in to Amazon  (either .com, or whichever one you are working with) and go into the Associates section

2  Choose Widgets from the top menu.  This changes the contents of the left-sidebar to show items relating to widgets.

3  Choose My Widgets.  This opens a screen where you can change of the details of the widget, including the name and the tracking ID - and has a button that you can use to Edit the widget contents, and one where you can get the the code for the widget.

4  Choose the item(s) that you want to update, change them

5  Save the change.

There is no need to change the code that is on your blog or website:  the tracking ID, name, etc are stored in Amazon, not in the code.

What you and your readers see:

The tracking ID has no effect of what your reader see - unless they're beign particularly eagle-eyed when they look at the URL that is generated when they click on the widget.

But it means that when someone visits Amazon, as a result of clicking on the play or buy buttons, the visit and the credit for any qualifiying purchased that they make are given to you using the tracking-ID that you chose.

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Amazon integration is with Amazon.com only

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Blogger / Amazon integration is finished - what are our options now?

This article is an update about the interation between Blogger and Amazon, and what options Blogger users have instead.

Blogger and Amazon working together ...

In December 2009, Blogger announced integration with Amazon (which was actually only integration with Amazon.com).

At the time, there were hints that this was only the first of many new money-making  options and programmes for Bloggers.

These features were added to Blogger to support the integration:

• Ability to sign up for Amazon.com on the Monetize tab
• Existing Amazon.com users link their Blogger and Amazon account on the Monetize tab
• A tick-box on the Monetize tab that let "amazon-integrated" bloggers turn on the Amazon-product-preview  without having to install the code
• Amazon Product Finder (APF) - a gadget that bloggers could use in the the Post Editor, to make a link to a product from Amazon.com without leaving the Post Editor screen
• A range of gadgets from Amazon were added to the list  in Add a Gadget 

... but not any more?

For months, there have been complaints in Blogger-help-forum that existing Amazon.com associates couldn't  link their Blogger and Amazon.com Amazon.com accounts on the Monetize tab any more: the function just returned an error, or appeared to work, but didn't actually storing the connection.

Now, with the release of Blogger's new interface, the Monetize tab has been renamed Earnings.  There's no mention of Amazon on it, and no sign of the Amazon Product Finder (APF) in the Post-editor.   And there are reports in Blogger-help-forum that people who had APF turned on in "old blogger" find that it's gone in the new interface - and is broken even if they switch back to the old interface.

On the Amazon.com site their official Amazon-Associates blog is now made with TypePad.   I know that I recently saw instructions about putting things (widgets?) into Blogger, that that these commented that blogger has a new look.   However the instruction were still based on the old interface.   And today, I can't find them at all.

There has been nothing said (that I've seen anyway) by either company.  But I think it's safe to assume that the Blogger / Amazon integration has been abandoned.


Why Did This Happen:

My guess is that there are two big issues.

Firstly, Amazon.com is a lot more than just a bookseller:  Google and Amazon are competitors in some areas (eg document storage), so there's bound to be some friction, even though they managed to agree a compromise in 2009.   And possibly that compromise wasn't profitable enough for either of them.

Second, and possibly more importantly, there is an internationalisation issue.

Blogger is a multi-lingual, multi-country platform:  different languages and cultures are catered for within the same platform and subject to the same terms and conditions.  Blogger users all live with the same rules, that are based on American law (eg the 13-year age limit, which is most probably based on America Children's Online Privacy Protection Act).

Amazon, on the other hand, have different platforms for different countries (even amazon.ca for Canada, vs amazon.com for the USA+rest of the world).   This is understandable, because countries have  vastly different laws about on-line selling and taxes, so Amazon's rules need to be quite different in different places.  Even in the European Union,  we see regular updates to the terms and conditions that basically amount to the addition of new countries/languages - Amazon.es (for Spain) was the latest one - and these come with small rule-tweaks too.  These big differences mean that integration with a multi-national product like Blogger is not easy:   there would be lots of on-going issues with making the sites work well together.

My guess is that these two factors combined have killed off the integration.


What can bloggers do instead

You can still sign yourself up for Amazon.com (or Amazon.co.uk, or .ca or whatever-other country), and make the links to products and Amazon-widgets yourself.   Personally, I think this better anyway, because it gives you control ove the look and feel (colours, backgrounds, tracking-IDs) used on the ads, and choices about where to install the HTML on your blog.

There is no alternative for the Amazon Product Finder gadget - except opening Amazon in a different tab, and making the links there as you need them.  It's little bit more work - but only just.

There are still Amazon.com gadgets in the Add a Gadget list  (from Layout in the new interface, Design > Page Elements in the old one) - you can find them under the features tab.

For now at least, it looks like Blogger's monetize tab is limited to AdSense , and it is a money-making option that you can sign up for from within Blogger.  (Even though there are a few vital extra steps that you should take, even though Blogger hasn't told you about them, like blocking certain ad-categories, and stopping malicious use of your AdSense ID).

And there are, of course, many other advertisting programmes and affiliate programmes that you can consider if AdSense doesn't work for your blog.

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Related Articles:

-->

Signing up for Amazon.com

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.
Making links to products and Amazon-widgets yourself

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Installing the Amazon Product Preview code

Amazon / Blogger integration is with Amazon.com only

Customizing the look and feel of your Amazon associate advertisements

If you are an Amazon Associates publisher, then you have a great deal of control over the color schemes used in your ads, and some control over the other elements.  This article describes the options that are open to you:  it's writen for Blogger users, but the info applies to all Amazon affiliates.

Easy links between Blogger and Amazon?

Between 2009-2011, Blogger and Amazon were integrated, and there were tools that made it very easy to put Amazon ads into blog posts.  However the integration is gone from the most recent version of Blogger - and besides, many publishers would prefer to customize the colour and style of ads on their site.

Amazon gives some control over these features - you simply need to log into their site, and set up the options that you want.


Making Amazon product ads that match your colour scheme.

Log in to whichever Amazon you're using.

• Remember, there are different Amazons to use for different readers.  
• For Amazon.com, log on at:    https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ 

From the row of tabs at the top of the screen, choose Links and Banners / Product links

Click the "Add Product Links Now" option

Search for the product you want to link to

From the list of products shown, click  "Get link" - it's the button on the right side of the screen

In the window that opens, you can edit the link properties.

Choose the type of link that you want:

• Image and text (show a small picture of the product, a description and perhaps the price)
• Text only (shows whatever text you choose, only)
• Image only (shows a picture of the product - clicking the picture takes your reader to Amazon)
• Add to widget  (these will be covered in another article)

The specific options that you can choose are different for each type of link - changing color is very popular for image-and-text links.  You may just want to choose a values from Amazon's colour-picker:  use the "ok" button at the bottom to apply your colour choice.

Or you may want to get the exacty value from your blog, by going into Blogger's colour selection tools,  choosing the item whose colour you want to use and coping the hex code (without the #) .and pasting it into the Amazon colour picker wind.

For image and text links, you can also choose whether to open links in a new window, picture size (limited to larger or smaller), and whether to show the item price or not.

Once you have finished copy the HTML from the "Get HTML Code For This Product Link" box at the bottom of the screen.

Put the HTML into your blog the same way you would add any other 3rd party HTML.   

Some examples of customized links:

             


The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

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Amazon / Blogger integration is no more.

Adding 3rd party HTML to your blog

Changing the colour-scheme in Blogger

Advertising and Blogger - things to consider

Adding Amazon Associates product links and banners to your blog

This article shows the options for putting product links, banners, widgets and page-links from Amazon into your blog-site.  

Overview

The short-lived integration between Blogger and Amazon.com, back in 2009-2010-ish, means there are a number of ways to link your blog and Amazon - and the tools that Amazon provides means that there are a wide range of products you can show and functions your can provide to your readers.

You might do this just to make your blog look more interesting, or to make money by being an Amazon Associate and recommending their products to your readers.

Basically, so far in Blogger's life there have been four options for putting a link to Amazon inside your blog:

1. Use one of the Amazon widgets found in Blogger's gadget menu.
   
2. Use the Amazon Product Finder that was available when you're using the Post Editor in Blogger  - but this is only available if you've added it previously - you can no longer add this to your blog, since Blogger / Amazon integration has ended.
   
3. Log in to the appropriate Amazon site, find the product that  you want to link to, and choose "Link to this page", from the site-stripe at the top of the page.
   
4. Log on to the appropriate Amazon site's Associates page, and use either the Links & Banner, or Widgets tabs.

Options 1 still works - but you have no way of linking the gadget to your Amazon Associates ID.  It lets you put:

• Amazon gadgets into any place that you can put a regular Blogger gadget (header, footer, sidebar, etc),
• Links to individual products from Amazon inside Posts or Pages.

Option 2 is no longer available.

Options 3 and 4:

• Can be used with any Amazon site (ie Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, etc), no matter what you did with Amazon previously.   
• Let you put the code into your blog in the same way that you install any 3rd party HTML into your blog.
• Give you the full code for their widgets (ie gadgets), so you can put these gagdets into posts.    This is unlike gadget/widgets that you get from Blogger, which cannot be put into posts - at the moment anyway.
• Can also be used if you want to put Amazon links inside other types of blog or website that allow you to install your own HTML/Javascript.

Further details for each of the options are listed below.

Option 1 - adding an Amazon gadget in Blogger

• Go to  Design > Page Elements > Add a Gadget. 

• Choose one of the Amazon gadgets from the list.  (use the search item at the top of the list of gadgets to just get Amazon ones).  

• When you have configured the gadget (eg entered a title), press Save.  

• Then drag-and-drop the new gadget to where you want it to appear.

I strongly recommend only selecting gadgets that say "By Amazon.com" underneath their description (because I just don't trust 3rd party gadgets).

Also, be careful that the gadget(s) you choose don't conflict with any other tools that you have - for example, in you are using a Google Custom Search, one of the terms and conditions is that Google is the only search provider on your site, and this may mean that you should not use Amazon's search gadget.

Option 2 - using the Amazon Product Finder

This option is no longer available, because Amazon / Blogger integration is over.

Option 3: Using Amazon's Link to this Page

This gives you a very quick way to get the HTML you need to put a product-link into your blog, which you can then put into your blog in the usual way.

It's particularly useful because it lets you link not only to a product, but also to other pages, for example, and up to date list of Amazon sellers who are currently providing a particular product - Example of a link to used copes of HTML Dog's XHTML / CSS guide.

See Amazon's article explaining the site stripe for more information about this.

Also, if you use widgets, remember that it's easy to change the tracking-code that they are associated with, without having to re-generate the widget.

Option 4: Using Amazon's own code builder

If you go to the Affiliates page on the Amazon that you have signed up for, there are a number of ways (top menu, sidebar) to get into their code building tools.

These tools are fairly intuitive to use:  choose the options you want, copy the code, and install it into your blog.

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Related Articles:

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Putting HTML from 3rd parties (like Amazon) into your blog

Changing the Look of Amazon Associates advertisements

Changing the tracking code for an Amazon Associated widget

Building Image-only ads from Amazon

When Blogger users put an image-only link from Amazon into their blog, there is often a problem with the image not being found.  It applies to code generated at Amazon, not to ads that are made using the Amazon widgets in Blogger.  

Previously, I explained how to build customised Amazon product links for use in Blogger. You may need to do this if your readers are mainly not from the USA, or if you need to change the size of the advertisements.

One of the options for links is Image-only:   the link shows a picture of the item, which your readers can click.  When they click on the picture, they are taken to Amazon to buy the product.

This article explains how to fix the problem of the image not actually showing up on the published blog page, even though no error is reported and Amazon's reports say that the ad displayed.

What is causing the picture to not display?

The procedure for building an image-only link has a step:

"Save this image to your server, then cut and paste the HTML code in the lower left textbox into your web page."

Unfortunately, the HTML that Amazon generates assumes that you will save the image onto the same directory in the server that the web-page is stored on.   This is fine for many web-site builders, but doesn't work for Blogger users who store their pictures in Picasa by default, or on other image-hosting services.

How to fix it:

You can fix the problem by uploading the image file to Picasa, or any other file host service, and altering the HTML to use this uploaded file.

Follow these steps:

1. Copy the HTML provided by Amazon's link-builder, and paste it into wherever you want it in your blog.
2. Copy the location of the image that Amazon is telling you to put onto your server.
3. In another window, log on to Picasa Web Albums using the same Google account that owns your blog
4. Choose Upload
5. Choose an album to put the image into
   (You may want to keep a separate folder for all Amazon Associates products, or you may want some other arrangement eg one folder per page).
6. Use the From an URL tab, and enter the location that Amazon told you for the source of the image (copied in step 2)
7. Press Upload, and wait while the picture is loaded.
8. When the picture has loaded, Picasa-web-album shows the album summary page.  Click on the picture you just loaded.
9. Click Link to this Photo (on the right hand bar) to get the link value (ie the URL or hyperlink) for the photo, and copy it.
10. Go back to the place in Blogger where you put the HTLM provided by Amazon in Step 1 and edit it.
11. The HTML will have this structure:
    (I've put in some link breaks and bolding to make it easier to read - you can do the same, provided the Post Options - Ignore new lines option is selected ):
    
    <a
    href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975841963?ie=UTF8&tag=bloggerhintsa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0975841963">
    <img border="0"
      src="41FxC9u%2B%2BVL._SL160_.jpg">
    </a>
    <img
       src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=YOUR-AMAZON-ID=as2&o=1&a=0975841963" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
12. Find where it says SRC "blah-blah-blah.jpg"  (ie the piece in bold)
13. Select everything inside the quote marks, and replace it with the link value for the picture that you loaded into Picasa, so it becomes something like:
    
    <a
    href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975841963?ie=UTF8&tag=bloggerhintsa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0975841963">
    <img border="0"
      src="http://picasaweb.google.com/YOUR-GOOGLE-ACCOUNT/YOUR-ALBUM-NAME?authkey=Gv1sRgCOGyrv2X0-OvmAE#5430348305093079170">
    </a>
    <img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=YOUR-AMAZON-ID=as2&o=1&a=0975841963" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
14. Save the change (ie publish the post, or save the gadget etc).

Here are some examples of working image links:

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How to build customised Amazon product links for use in Blogger

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Picasa and Picasa-web-albums, and overview.

Adding the Amazon Associates search tool switches on Blogger's new editor

This article explains the effects of using Blogger's Amazon Associates integration on your Blogger editor, and how this can be undone. 

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Sept 2011 Update:  

It now appears that the integration between Blogger and Amazon is history.  

I've left this article here to avoid broken links, but it's no longer relevant.  See building your own Amazon advertisements for update information about putting Amazon ads into your blog.

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What is the issue?

In Dec 2009, Blogger added an Amazon Associates option to the Monetize tab.  I've written about this previously in Amazon Integration is with Amazon.Com.


An issue for some Bloggers is that turning on Amazon Associates Product finder automatically switches them over to the updated editor.

 

New Blogger Editor (compose mode) with the Amazon Product Finder


Some people (like me!) don't have a problem with this and barely noticed the change.

But for people who were using the old editor, it may appear that the Amazon integration has changed or removed a number of functions, including the Post Preview option.   And because the editor-selection is for your Google account, not for individual blogs, the functions are removed from all your blogs, not just one.


What to do about it:

Firstly note that one of the effects of activiating the Amazon Product Finder is turning on the new editor for your entire Google account.

Even if you don't turn on the Amazon Product Finder, you can still use the Monetize / Amazon Associates function to link your blog with Amazon.     You will have to build your links manually (as explained in Changing the Look of Amazon advertisements) - and this may be a good idea anyway, as it gives you more control over how they look, and is essential if you're readers aren't mainly from countries serviced by Amazon.com.

Secondly, if you have already turned on the Amazon Product Finder and want to remove it all its side effects:

1. Under Monetize / Amazon Associates, remove the tick beside " Enable the Amazon Product Finder for the Blogger Editor "
2. Under Settings / Basic, choose the Old Editor
   
   
   
   Settings / Basic option for choosing which Blogger editor to use
   

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Related Articles:



Amazon Integration is with Amazon.Com

Changing the Look of Amazon advertisements

Integration between Blogger and Amazon is history

Amazon Associates and Blogger, an overview

A list of articles about the relationship between Blogger and Amazon Associates, including hints-and-tips for working more effectively with Amazon, and using Amazon sites other than Amazon.com.

These articles may be useful for people who use Amazon Associates ads on other blogging platforms (Wordpress, TypePad etc) - or even on other types of website. But they are targeted towards Blogger users, consider Blogger issues, and have instructions that are specific to Blogger.

Amazon Associates and Blogger - an Overview

Amazon/Blogger Integration is with Amazon.com

Adding Amazon product links and widgets to your blog.

Adding the Amazon Associates search window switches on Blogger's new editor

Changing the Look of Amazon advertisements

Buiding Image-only Amazon Advertisements

Installing Amazon Associates Product Preview into Blogger

Amazon Integration was with Amazon.Com, not the other Amazons

This article looks at the integration between Blogger and Amazon Associates (Amazon.com), the fact that there is not any integration between Blogger and Amazon.co.uk (or any other Amazons), and the consequences of this.

Update:    the Blogger / Amazon.com relationship has now ended.   The information below is kept for reference purposes only, but is no longer up to date.

Blogger and Amazon integration

In December 2009. Blogger announced a new level of integration between Blogger and the Amazon Associates programme.

For Blogger users, this announcement was the start of

• An Amazon Associates section on Blogger's Monetize tab
• Being able to sign-up with Amazon Associates from this tab, and 
• Access to an Amazon Product-Finder tool from within Blogger's post editor:  this tools makes it easy to create links to Amazon Associates products while writing a post

One key point that the Blogger documentation doesn't stress is that the integration is with Amazon.com only.

Consequences:


If you use the Amazon Associates product finder to put an Amazon link in your blog, and it's clicked by a reader from Europe, Canada, Japan, Germany ... etc, then they first go to Amazon.com (ie the USA's Amazon).  But the system very will suggest (or maybe enforce) that they go to their "local" Amazon to purchase the product.    If this happens, you don't get any commission for purchases they make.

An Alternative

You are allowed to sign up with each of the different Amazon's (Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.jp, etc) yourself.   If you do this, you can put separate links from them into your blog.    It's probably only worth signing up for ones where most of your readers come from, since you will have to display separate links for each Amazon.   Here is a list of all the Amazons (at the moment).

You can use the same email address and web-page to sign in to the different Amazons, however you cannot use the same password.   (Which makes me think that they're integrated at some level, and hopefully this problem will go away, one day.)

The downside is that because the Blogger integration is with Amazon.com, any product links that you build with the Amazon Product Finder for the Blogger Editor will be with Amazon.com.

You need to go to the individual Amazons, and use the product builder there (or be very clever with creating links yourself) to get product links for the other Amazons.

NB  If your readers aren't from the USA it's probably best to go into the Monetize / Amazon Associates tab and turn the Amazon Product Finder feature off.   It will only be confusing.

To get links without using the Amazon Product Finder for the Blogger Editor, go into the Amazon site that you want links to, sign in, and choose Link-Builder.   The process is fairly simple, and it gives you access to a wider range link sizes and types.

Example Amazon.com links

A text link

 See how Amazon do business by reading   Big Shots, Business the Amazon.com Way: Secrets of the Worlds Most Astonishing Web Business (2nd Edition)

Product links generated from the Product Finder for Blogger:

A product link generated inside Amazon.com

(Notice the different background colour: making links from Amazon itself gives you a lot more control ove rt eh look of the too.

A banner:

 

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Related Articles:

The Blogger / Amazon.com relationship has now ended

Building customised Amazon product links for use in Blogger.

Building Image-only ads from Amazon

Changing the look of Amazon advertisements

Product Preview (Amazon Associates)

Installing Amazon's Product Preview tool

This article is about fixing a problem with installing Amazon's Product Preview feature into your blog or website.

Amazon's Product Preview code:

As you build your Amazon Associates product links through Amazon's website, you might notice that, in the sidebar, there there is a link to put the Product Previews feature into your website.

The instructions say to place the HTML "after your content and before your closing tag", which is fine provided you are willing to accept the disadvantages of editing your template, and are not using a dynamic template.


Is it that easy?

When I first discovered this, in Jan  2010, I tried to install it got this error:

"Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure that all XML elements are closed properly. XML error message: The reference to entity "o" must end with the ';' delimiter."

After a little investigation, I found that this was an example of 3rd party HTML that needed to be "escaped" before it could be put into my template.

In particular, I had to change the & sign to &-amp-;
(but without the dashes, they're there to stop Blogger from display just an ampersand sign on this page!)

For example:

What Amazon gave me:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/link-enhancer?tag=YOUR-AMAZON-ASSOCIATES-ID&o=2">
</script>
<noscript>
    <img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/noscript?tag=YOUR-AMAZON-ASSOCIATES-ID" alt="" />
</noscript>

What I needed to change it to:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/link-enhancer?tag=YOUR-AMAZON-ASSOCIATES-ID&amp;o=2">
</script>
<noscript>
    <img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/noscript?tag=YOUR-AMAZON-ASSOCIATES-ID" alt="" />
</noscript>

What your readers see:


I don't have Amazon Product Preview installed in this blog, because that's not the effect I'm looing for - but I am going to try to install it into this post.

If I've been successful, then you will see it when you hover your mouse over the Amazon product ad to the right of this paragraph.   (Though last time I checked, it had not been successful.)

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Related Articles:



Building Amazon Associates product links

Limitations of dynamic templates.

Adding 3rd party HTML to your blog

Advantages and disadvantages of editing your template

Some other advertsing programmes to consider

Rules for using Amazon Associates on Blogger

This article has links to the official Amazon Associates terms and conditions, and has some brief guidelines about complying with them. are available on Amazon's site, currently here.

Always refer to the official version for definitive answers about any programme's Terms and Conditions.

Amazon Associates Terms and conditions:

Each Amazon site (remember, Amazon has different sites for different markets) has its own set of terms and conditions, usually called its Operating Agreement.   They are similar, but there are subtle differences between each one, and in how each of the Amazons interprets things.

You always need to make your own decisions about whether a particular approach meets their rules.

You can find the operating agreement for each of the sites, as at the time of writing, at:

• Amazon Europe:  UK and Ireland, Germany, France and Italy.  (The English language one is definitive, accourding to Amazon at Sept 2011).
• Amazon Canada
• Amazon.com - ie USA and rest of the world - except for China and Japan

In Summary:

I prepared the following guide for myself when I first signed up with Amazon.com, using to help me make 100% sure that I meet the terms and conditions.   It is not definitive, and not up to date (new T&Cs have come out several times, and while I've read the change summaries, I haven't updated the following..   Also, it's only for Amazon.com, not the others (which Blogger did not integrate with).

Associates must:

Use any data, images, text, or other information obtained from Amazon in connection with the agreement, only in a lawful manner and only in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.

Promptly delete any Content that is no longer displayed on the Amazon Site or that Amazon notify is no longer available for use.

Display a logo (a small graphic image that identifies the site as a Program participant, provided by Amazon ) or the phrase "In association with Amazon" somewhere on their  site.

Use the graphic images and text provided by Amazon to identify their site as a Program participant and to generate Product sales.

Comply with laws, regulations, licenses, etc - ie any requirements of any governmental authority that has jurisdiction over them.   This means pay tax (among other things!)

Stop participating in the Amazon Associates programme if any change to the terms and conditions is unacceptable to them.

Associates may:

Buy paid search advertisements to send users to their own site and then, when the user affirmatively clicks on a Special Link on the site, direct the user to the Amazon Site.


Associates must not:

• Buy products during sessions initiated through the links on their own site (for personal or commercial use, or re-sale)  [it is ok to click on links - just not to purchase thru them?  double check this]
• Offer incentives (ie rewards) to people for using links on their site.
• Read or change how the user interacts with the Amazon site  [I guess Google Analytics use is ok ... surely it records an exit to Amazon?]

Change how anything on the Amazon site works.

Do any transactions on Amazon on behalf of any third party, or help anyone else to do any.

Do anything that could reasonably cause customer confusion about their relationship with Amazon or about the site on which things (e.g., search, order, browse) are happening on.
 
Show advertisements or material promoting Amazon around or in conjunction with the display of the Amazon Site (e.g., through"framing" or pop-up or pop-under windows), or assist, authorize, or encourage any third party to take any such action; - except for displaying advertisements provided by Amazon.

• Try to get around the referral fee schedule or artificially increase their referral fees.
  This could include encouraging people to buy low-price items in order to exceeding any referral fee threshold or causing any page of the Amazon Site to open in a customer's browser other than as a result of the customer clicking on a Special Link on their site)
  [so no referral links in emails, Facebook, Twitter, etc - some of the stuff on the AA discussion forum seems to say differently]

• Try to intercept or re-direct traffic from or on, or divert referral fees from, any web site that participates in the Program;

• Use any Content or Special Link in connection with any handheld, mobile, or mobile phone application without our prior written approval;  [BUT HERE WILL BE SOME MOBILE USERS - ESP OF BLOGGER SITES ...hmmm]

• Try to purchase or register any keywords, search terms or other identifiers that include the words "amazon," "endless," "kindle," "javari" or any other trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, (inlcuding variations or misspellings)

• If they bid on or purchase keywords ib keyword auctions on (eg on Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, or any site in their respective search networks (e.g., AOL, Ask.com, etc.), - then the paid search advertisements they purchase may not send users to Amazon without a click by the user on that intermediate site.   [NEEDS BETTER WORDING]

• Show or refer to a trademark/logo of a 3rd party seller on the Amazon Site;

• Obscure or change a “Privacy Information” link or Amazon trademark (logo or text that's is a Special Link which Amazon provide

• Use Content relating to any Excluded Merchant or any product sold by any Excluded Merchant;

• Change any graphic provided by Amazon, except to resize it;

• Change any text link provided by Amazon, except to shorten it;
  [LAST TWO CONTRADICT ONE FURTHER DOWN?]

• Sell, redistribute, sublicense or transfer any Content;

• Use Content provided by Amazon to send sales to any other site

• Use any Content, including any name or likeness embodied therein, in a way that implies endorsement, sponsorship, commercial tie-in or other association with, any product, service, party or cause.(e.g., placing it close to unrelated 3rd party materials)

• Issue a press release about the Amazon Agreement or their participation in the Program.

• Misrepresent or embellish the relationship between themselves and Amazon, or between Amazon and anyone else.

• Use images or text supplied by Amazon in any offline way manner (e.g., in any printed material, mailing or other document).

• Change graphic images or text, or any of Amazon's images.

Penalties may include: 

• withhold referral fees (from permitted and non-permitted activities) and/or 
• terminating the Agreement.

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