Reading affiliate policies is without a doubt my least favorite part of affiliate marketing. A Friday night spent scrolling through pages of fine print and program stipulations isn’t exactly my idea of fun. However, the consequences of skipping this step can be disastrous, such as losing out on future commissions and even being banned from the program.

Last week, someone asked me about using Amazon links in their Medium articles…

First let me say that the Amazon Associates program allows bloggers and content creators to earn money by referring products and services on Amazon. With Amazon’s massive range of offerings, it’s almost every blogger’s first stop when they’re ready to monetize their sites. Signing up is free.

Amazon may be one of the largest affiliate networks on the Internet, and I’m sure I have seen affiliate links for Amazon in Medium articles before.

However, are they actually allowed to be used on Medium? Despite sifting through Amazon’s extensive agreement page and searching online, I could not find a clear and concise answer. Since there must be many others out there looking for clarification on this subject, I decided to dig a bit deeper and share my take on the subject.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or qualified to make definitive claims about Amazon Associates. I personally came to this conclusion after researching the topic, but I could be wrong (please let me know if I am)!

Amazon Links and Medium’s Stance

Medium does not allow affiliate marketing or advertorial articles. Banners and advertisements are also prohibited.

Affiliate links are permitted within their content, provided they meet their content guidelines and are properly disclosed.

As an example, their help article specifically mentions linking to Amazon.

According to Medium, including Amazon links in your articles is fine, as long as you don’t include banners or advertising images. What does Amazon have to say about it?

Amazon’s Medium stance

Since I launched my personal development blog, georgebalek.com, in 2016, I have been an Amazon Associates member. Even though I rarely post on that blog anymore, it does generate about 2k a year, which is pretty good considering it’s never been a huge part of my business.

As I read through the policies, it keeps referring to “your site” and I couldn’t find much regarding whether it is okay to place Amazon links on pages other than your own.

When I’m unclear about something in a partner’s policy, I simply ask them to elaborate.

It is another matter whether or not I will get a straightforward response.

I generally got the impression from Amazon’s response(s) that the person answering my inquiry wasn’t overly familiar with Medium.

Nevertheless, they responded that links can only be posted on a few social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch.

Furthermore, the account must have “a substantial number” of followers, and any account you use must be on your own personal application.

The Meaning Maybe

Amazon views Medium as a social media platform — but not one on their approved list.

Even if this is not the case, all links must be on public pages. Because I am a member of the Medium Partner Program, all my posts are metering, which means only paying members can see them.

Non-members are technically allowed to view them, but only if they have viewed fewer than three articles on Medium in the past month. It’s unclear whether Medium pages are considered public or not.

If you want to avoid that problem, you can post free articles on Medium. In my opinion, losing out on internal revenue isn’t worth it.

The issue is further compounded by the fact that Medium is not explicitly listed as an approved sharing site.

The question might be, what about the people who have been doing it?

I don’t know the answer to that. To the best of my knowledge, no one has been banned from Amazon Associates for using links on Medium. Perhaps they don’t police it very well, or perhaps it happens, but no one talks about it. It might be okay, and I may be misinterpreting the information.

The only thing I know for sure is that Amazon did not explicitly confirm that using their affiliate links on Medium was allowed. Therefore, I probably will not be using them until I learn otherwise. I promise to update this article if I learn otherwise.

Bigger fish to fry

I don’t think this is a big deal since using Amazon links on Medium isn’t the most lucrative way to make money, regardless of whether they’re allowed.

This is mainly due to the low commission rates offered by Amazon Associates. If you aren’t promoting Amazon games or luxury beauty products, most sales you make will result in a 1–5% cut, with most products falling between 3–4%. Most other affiliate programs offer anywhere between 10 and 40%.

In order to succeed with Amazon Associates, you need a steady stream of traffic and a high volume of sales.

Medium articles don’t have the same staying power as SEO-optimized blog posts.

Despite Medium’s high domain authority, I don’t try to rank them on Google because:

1️⃣ In order to rank my posts on Medium, I would typically have to make them longer than what is optimal for the average reader.

2️⃣ As Medium has clearly stated, they will not index articles that try to exploit their high domain authority to rank on Google and make affiliate commissions.

The best way to implement affiliate links in Medium articles is to write Medium-centric articles that appeal to readers, not search engines. There is simply no way to accomplish that with Amazon links.

Conclusions

Please let me know (and cite your source) if I am wrong and Amazon links are indeed acceptable on Medium.

Even if they are allowed, I will still maintain that Medium is not the place for Amazon affiliate links.

With affiliate links on Medium, there are many other, more lucrative options for making extra money while staying true to the platform’s spirit. I have made over $4200 in affiliate sales by carefully selecting affiliate programs and strategically placing their links on Medium.

Have you started building a list of targeted subscribers yet? Start TODAY!!!

To your success,
George Balek 😀