<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"The Zlio-Amazon story, which Kristen was the first to write about this morning, would be easy to interpret as \"Statsaholic 2.0\" (as Kristen did, to some extent).  But I think it's more nuanced than that: after talking to Zlio for some time, it certainly seems that Amazon wants to protect aStores, its \"build your own store\" program that rivals Zlio.  And in truth, Zlio is arguably better than aStores.  That said, Amazon's ToS seems to be designed to protect aStores and prevent affiliates from offering rebates to others.  \nI don't want to apply too much spin to this, so here is 90% of the mail sent to Zlio over the issue.  Note that the issue only seems to affect Zlio US - Amazon is still available on Zlio FR (where the site originated):\n\nIt has come to our attention that you may be paying some of your referral fees back to customers as a form of rebate.  While we are certain that your idea would meet with some success, we have decided against working with any Associates who employ this rebate model.\nUnder the Associates Program, Associates may choose to recommend either individual products or our entire service to their visitors in exchange for a small percentage of the resulting sales.  The goal is to introduce our services to new customers this way, helping them find us through sites that offer value-added editorial assistance or which provide trusted advice in choosing e-commerce sites.\nGiven our relatively slim retail margins and our strong discount pricing, the referral fees we pay can only be sustained as we meet new customers through our Associates.  Many of these customers return to us later for items unrelated to those recommended by the Associate web site, and this future business helps to offset the referral fees we pay.  For this reason, we're able to pay nearly all of our margins to Associates in referral fees.\nWhen an Associate re-directs these fees to the customer, it changes the entire relationship in ways we did not intend.  Under the 'rebate' model customers actually have a disincentive to return and shop with us directly, undermining the expectation of repeat business that is necessary to fund the program. \nIn addition, Associates are prohibited from placing orders through their own Associate tagged links.  Please note, per the Operating Agreement:\n\"You may not purchase products during sessions initiated through the links on your site for your own use, for resale or commercial use of any kind. This includes orders for customers or on behalf of customers or orders for products to be used by you or your friends, relatives, or associates in any manner. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees and/or the termination of this Agreement.\"\n\nAlthough those terms are mainly designed to prevent people from doing stuff like paying people for using your affiliate links, you can almost see how Zlio fits under that banner.  Yes, Amazon's move is probably concerned with protecting aStores to some extent, but the decision isn't completely meritless. Zlio, which makes 50% of its sales through Amazon, will likely need to look to other partners: with such a strong platform, I think they'll pull through this one.\nRichard MacManus also provides deep analysis.\nPS. I just logged in and saw that my Zlio store and affiliates have earned the grand total of $3.44 so far - obviously this payola is going to change our opinion in favor of Zlio.  ;)"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/05/21/amazon-zlio/>