Case Study: Problems and Barriers

November 21, 2007

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Has been 4 weeks since I launched Make Money Online case study. Which I didn’t thought that this can be very difficult. Now I understand why most bloggers and Affiliate marketers hide some of their sites that makes money. I will point out some of the barriers and problems that have been making it more difficult to succeed into this case study:

• When the case study first started, I asked my friend to registered the domain name Amazonwall dot com which is not allowed by amazon. To use Amazon related domain names, even subdomains. That was my bad because didn’t read the Amazon Associate TOS. For this reason I got an email from Associates Amazon to give the domain to amazon here is the email:
  

  It has recently come to our attention that you are using a domain name in our Associates Program that contains a variation and/or misspelling of the name AMAZON, including but not limited to AMAZONWALL.COM. Please note that we do not allow anyone with a URL containing the word “amazon” or any misspelling of the word “amazon” and/or numerical variants to participate in the Associate Program (see Section 1 of the Associates Program Operating Agreement at http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement/). Such use violates Amazon.com’s trademark, proprietary and other rights.

  At this juncture, we are willing to assume that you have registered and are using this domain name without a full appreciation of the above, provided that you are willing to assign this domain name over to Amazon.com. Please advise whether you agree to transfer ownership of the AMAZONWALL.COM domain name to Amazon.com. If so, you will be contacted with further details.

  If, however, we do not hear from you regarding the above within ten days from the date of this email, we will have no alternative but to terminate your associates account effective as of the date of this email and you will not receive payment for Q4-2007.

  Then I gave them the domain name Amazonwall dot com to them, and waiting their answer. For the same reason, the CEO of eTalk Network wanted to follow up this case study and make something similar with my weekly updates and he went ahead and registered 2 domain names which added amazon in the domain name, he lost them as well.

  But fortunetly Stephane the owner of thewebmasterscafe wanted to follow up this case study and do something similar with some “competition”. When I read it I was very excited because few competition from fellow bloggers is always good. So I read his post How To Make Money Online: Following In GoogleLady’s Footsteps and instantly sent an email to tell him what is happening with Amazon Wall and I helped him to avoid registering an amazon related domain name.

• After the amazon wall confusion, I moved the case study to a newer domain name and site, couponcodesmall.com. Then came another problem. Last year, amazon have penalized coupon codes sites which is not in their terms and conditions (I read it twice, but didn’t found anything similar, anyone can point out where the heck it says that coupon codes sites are not allowed?) so I am really waiting what will be the answer of Amazon and my way to promote amazon will be different this time. Will write only reviews about amazon products and see if it is worth. This is the email that Amazon sent in october, 2006:
  

  Over the next ten days Amazon.com will be changing the pay structure that it has in place with you today to one in which we pay you referral fees only on items that we send to you (and result in a sale on our website) on a regular basis…

  To migrate to the new pay structure, please print out, sign, and fax the amended agreement by close of business on Friday, October 13. Alternatively, if you prefer to not continue as an Amazon Associate, there is no action required on your part because our existing agreement will be terminated on October 16.

  ….The changes referenced in the posts above will only affect Associates within the Deal & Coupon category, which can be defined as a category of Web site dedicated to finding the best deals or price discounts across the Internet (and brick-n-mortar stores as well) and/or websites that provide coupons to different retail stores, online or offline. If your business is not related to the Deal & Coupon category, or you only occasionally promote deals, coupons, or discounts in the context of the topic of your Web site, you will not be affected by these changes.

• Then an email came from Comission Juction, saying that the site Coupon Codes Mall is not following some of the TOS and in the way some links are placed, called them but their offices are closed for holiday reasons. Waiting again an answer from them via email.
• When the amazon wall dot come was up. I got some envy users that reported digg.com for “spamming” with amazon wall and that is not true. I have submited 3 stories only and don’t know a way to spam digg with sites. I have my friends list I send them a shout 1 time every week, and that’s only!

Now waiting for both affiliate programs network to see what will be the final result. I am really dissapointed because I am sure some visitors knew about this issue and instead of telling me via email. They have contacted Amazon and CJ to report it. Also very dissapointed for the case study which I thought it will be fun and very informative with full of tips & tricks on how to make money online starting your site from “0″ zero.

For 2 days I have been away from the internet life and get a clearly mind to decide to continue this case study or not. But at the end I decided to continue because I am sure there are some loyal readers to Googlelady that want to learn through this case study. But now I am waiting for both affiliates and see if I can continue or not.

Till now, I am really happy of the results on this case study but let’s see if all these hard work is not in vain. Please post any opinion or comments regarding this issue. I am sorry for those unanswered emails that you guys have sent but will answer them soon. Thanks for those loyal readers that helped me to be motivated after those problems/barriers.

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