Using Photos of Amazon Products

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   eugbugposted 24 months ago

   I tend to use photos of Amazon products from the product's page when I'm promoting them on an article and just credit them to Amazon. This probably isn't such a good idea, but if the product is being promoted would they mind I wonder? The complication of course is the seller on Amazon might not own the photo either and copyright might belong to the manufacturer. I have never seen any credit for a product photo on the Amazon website. I have asked for permission to use images on several occasions, but never got a reply.

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      bravewarriorposted 24 months agoin reply to this

      Why wouldn't you create a link to the product so you can earn from those who end up buying from Amazon by way of the link you provided?

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         eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

         I do, but usually I take one of the product photos from the Amazon page I link to and place it under the recommendation text.

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            bravewarriorposted 24 months agoin reply to this

            Ah......

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   PaulGoodman67posted 24 months ago

   I doubt that you'll have any problems, as the manufacturer/supplier wants their products sold. Making trouble for vendors and reviewers would be counterproductive and bad publicity, I believe.

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   eugbugposted 24 months ago

   Just in from Amazon. It's a pain they put obstacles in our way, considering we're promoting products:
   
   Hello Eugene,
   
   This is Paula from the Associates team, hope you are doing fine!
   
   I'm writing this email regarding your inquiry about the images.
   
   Product images and reviews displayed on Amazon.com are copyrighted by others.
   
   We display them on our site by permission from those third parties. Amazon.com doesn't have the legal right to give you permission to access, use, or display them and anyone who does so must have permission from the brand manufacturer to display copyrighted images.
   
   Our Resource Center offers some guidance for Amazon product image use, I've included links to the most relevant resources below.
   
   Best Practices for Using Images in Your Content: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/re … rch-result
   
   How to use Images: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/re … rch-result
   
   Hope this information helps and that you enjoy the rest of your day!
   
   We'd appreciate your feedback. Please use the buttons below to vote about your experience today.
   
   Best regards,
   
   Amazon.com

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      bravewarriorposted 24 months agoin reply to this

      Guess that answers your question, huh Eugene? Thanks for posting this. Amazon provided you with valuable information and the responder was quite friendly!

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         eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

         So it's a lot of hassle to go through all articles and try and get permission for the photos I've used. Finding a contact email address for Amazon sellers is difficult and they might not even own the images and could have sourced them from manufacturers, so it becomes a big paper chase. I've never got a reply either from sellers whenever I've asked for permission.

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            bravewarriorposted 24 months agoin reply to this

            I've never pulled photos of products I review or use from the 'net. I always take pics of those I've purchased and are in my possession. That eliminates the possibility of plagiarism.

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               eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

               I don't either, but I would have thought that using images of Amazon products that one promotes is acceptable use, or at least should be. There is an option to copy an associates image link or text and image link from Amazon product pages for pasting into websites, but that is HTML code for use in ad widgets in blogs or when a user can edit the code of a webpage.

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                  bravewarriorposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                  Amazon is saying you need the brand's permission to use product photos. Copying an associate's image link is not the same as having permission from the associate and/or brand to do so.

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                     eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                     It's probably like embedding a link when you post a link on Facebook and it pulls up an image. AFAIK that's allowable.

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            Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

            Eugene, Whenever I buy a product from Amazon, the manufacturer's contact information is always included in the documentation that comes with it. Sometimes even an email address.

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               eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

               I can never find it on the product page though or when I click on the seller and go to their store. I suppose I could just Google their name.

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                  Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                  Why don't you just take your own pictures of the products and avoid all that hassle.

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                     eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                     I could, but some products I haven't actually bought such as solder wire. I don't think I should "need experience" of such a product to recommend it, since it's just wire.

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                        Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                        I understand what you're saying about solder wire is solder wire. But. . .
                        
                        Is your article a review of solder wire? If not, then placing an Amazon ad in content about something else is considered spammy.
                        
                        I have five Amazon ads in a couple of my articles, and I never had trouble with HubPages snipping them because I made them relate 100% to what the title promises. And in all cases I actually have the products.

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                           eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                           The solder wire is on an article about how to solder. An article about cutting logs has a bow saw and a leaking spigot article has an Amazon recommended best buy spigot. I would recommend items usually based on their specs which a reader mightn't be familiar with in order to make a decision.

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                              Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                              Recommending products that are not 100% related to the subject is not credible. That’s why so many people complain about getting their Amazon ads snipped.  It’s also why Google reduces their ranking.
                              
                              I never had any snipped and as I mentioned earlier, I use five Amazon ads in a couple of my review articles. Notice that I called them reviews. That is when Amazon is most acceptable. Google considers it spammy when an Amazon ad is placed in an educational article that only suggests the Amazon item.
                              
                              I can understand why in some cases you’d want to help the reader by giving them a direct way to purchase the item needed for the discussion. However, that’s a fine line being crossed. Are you actually seeing sales from those ads? Or is the ranking demoted by Google bots that can’t tell the difference between self-promotional greed and offering necessary and credible resources.
                              
                              A well-known example is when one writes a recipe and places an Amazon ad in it for a cooking pan. The article contains instructions for a recipe and is not a review of a cooking pan.
                              
                              Almost half of my earnings on HubPages are from Amazon ads. That works well because I only include Amazon products that the title directly refers to and that I actually use (not just recommend).

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                                 eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                 I don't know about the ranking, but I have sold lots of saws on my log cutting article. I can remove ads as an experiment to see whether it makes a difference, but I would think the downranking of articles has more to do with the reputation of network sites sites than that of individual articles. Another article is about measuring voltages using multimeters and I've used a lot of images of Fluke products. Then I recommend different models depending on application. I've only ever had one ad snipped a few years ago when it was on an ad for troubleshooting a garden tool and I recommended that type of tool.
                                 What about books that I have cited as references in an article and then I recommend the books in an Amazon ad?

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                                    Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                    Well, then that indicates the Amazon ad for saws on your log cutting article was necessary, and helpful for readers. Like I said, it’s a fine line to cross, but you obviously did okay with it for that article.
                                    
                                    Is the same true for the solder ad on the other article? I’ve removed Amazon ads after a while when I saw my readers didn’t respond to them.
                                    
                                    As for books, I wrote a review of five books by Ben Franklin and I have five Amazon capsules in that hub. I was able to write reviews of each book because I read each one. I didn’t merely cite them as references, so that’s different from what you mentioned you did. To that point, however, do people order those books from your references? If you get sales, then it implies the listings are helpful. That’s how I see it.

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                                       eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                       Yes, I have got sales of books, but if I don't, it may be because people just got the information they wanted from an article or on the solder article, they already had solder, or they decided to buy it in a store etc, etc. Isn't that different from whether Google interprets the ads as spam, or maybe you're not implying a connection between lack of sales and spam? No sales might also be because there is little traffic to an article, there's lots of reasons.

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                                          Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                          I agree with you that there are many reasons for success or failure with Amazon ads. You mentioned several of them and they are all legitimate reasons.
                                          
                                          In repsonse to your question, Google interprets affiliate links spammy when they don't relate 100% to the subject and title. But they're okay if they add value.

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                                             eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                             I've taken some out on previously high traffic articles, so let's see whether they improve in ranking.

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                                                Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                                I assume you only took them out where they were not getting any sales anyway. I would never remove them if they are making sales.

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                                                   eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                                   Only occasionally.

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                                             eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                             If the ads that Hubpages display are not related to an article, does it follow that Google considers them spammy?

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                                                bravewarriorposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                                Great question, Eugene!

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                                                Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                                Great question, and here's the answer. . .
                                                
                                                The fact is that those ads are based on reader interest, not subject matter. In other words, they relate to the readers' prior search and sites visited. Google knows that and therefore they do not affect ranking.
                                                
                                                The ads you see are not what other readers would see. However, affiliate ads are "fixed" and always show what an author puts there. So if they don't relate 100% to the title, then those ads would be considered spammy.

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                                                   eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                                   That's good. Does Hubpages use any fixed content ads though if they have contracts with companies? I've seen ads where they're looking for people to advertise on the sites and prices for x number of ads.

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                                                      Glenn Stokposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                                      I wouldn't know what HubPages does behind the scenes with advertising. You can ask the team if you're curious.
                                                      
                                                      Are those ads you saw from HubPages? I̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶i̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶r̶i̶t̶e̶r̶s̶.̶
                                                      
                                                      EDIT: I suddenly realized you were talking about people to advertise, not people to write. So ignore my last sentence.

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                                                         eugbugposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                                                         This was a couple of years ago. It wasn't Hubpages per se, as far as I recall, maybe whatever promotion company they use. I can't find those ads anymore.

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                     bravewarriorposted 24 months agoin reply to this

                     +1. That's what I do!

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