Amazon Affiliates and ads.txt File Clarification

Amazon Affiliates and ads.txt File Clarification is finally here. As a WordPress website owner, I have been an Amazon affiliate from the very start of this website. I try to keep up on every aspect that could impact our relationship. So it was earlier this year(2019) that I started seeing 404 errors showing up concerning the ads.txt file. Since I didn’t have one, my curiosity got me and I looked at what the ads.txt file was meant to do.

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Here’s the short description

ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is an initiative from IAB Technology Laboratory. It specifies a text file that companies can host on their web servers, listing the other companies authorized to sell their products or services. This is designed to allow online buyers to check the validity of the sellers from whom they buy, for the purposes of internet fraud prevention.

ads.txt From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amazon answers

So that brings us to Amazon. I wanted to make sure that everything was going to continue to work as it should and that there would be no hiccups in the system. So I started to look around the internet for what I would need for the ads.txt file to work properly. Once I had an idea what parameters were needed in the ads.txt file for it to work correctly it was time to go to the Amazon affiliate blog and find my answers.

Boy was I disappointed. There were two strings on the blog that lead to nowhere. The generic answers provided on those strings did nothing for my confidence. So what do I do? I put it on the back burner until I could get an approach(internet searches weren’t working) that would get me the answers I needed.

My Eureka moment

It was recently while I was having trouble with another website that the approach finally became clear to me. I needed to ask a direct question. I needed an answer from a verifiable expert. Amazon needs to explain to me in detail what I would need. No, I did not want a generic answer. That would be a waste of time. I needed to ask for very specific and detailed information on the ads.txt file for being an Amazon affiliate.  So that is how I worded my request to Amazon.

Here is the email I sent to Amazon

 I need the parameters for Amazon affiliates to put into my websites ads.txt file. Please be specific and detailed. I don’t need a generic answer that would be almost useless. I did check the blog but the answer in there was too generic to be of any value.

Here is their reply

The Amazon Associates program does not use or interact with an ads.txt file in any way; we provide direct HTML-based and URL-based link coding to place on your website. In the past, we provided ads.txt parameters for CPM Ads, but since that part of the Associates program has been discontinued, there is no part that you have to include in your ads.txt file.

So there it is the vital piece of information that I needed. I finally had an Amazon Affiliates and ads.txt File Clarification. I needed to do nothing.
If this question has been on your mind I hope this has helped.

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RayC.

Editor at Mybusyretiredlife.com

Trained in the mechanical arts. I have worked on anything dealing with a home from changing a light bulb to moving a load bearing wall. As for the recipes, they came about after I could not find what I was looking for and recipes that over a lifetime I have come to love and want to share with the world.

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