How to Correctly Use Amazon Affiliate Images On Your Blog (Important 2024 Update)


Amazon Affiliates

One thing many bloggers and niche site owners will need to do once they start creating content for their site is to pull product images off Amazon to promote in their articles. There is a specific way you need to do this to avoid getting in Amazon’s bad books with their terms of service.

Up until late 2023, you used to do this signing up to their affiliate program and using the Sitestripe option to copy and paste the image code into your website. This code used pull the relevant product image off Amazon’s servers, meaning it will always be an up to date product image displayed on your page.

But Sitestripe Images are being retired from the end of 2023, so this option no longer works and you instead need to use the Amazon API tool to render product images on your site.

It is very important NOT to simply download the product image off Amazon onto your computer and then reupload it onto your website, nor take screenshots of rendered images and use them. This is breaking Amazon’s terms of service and they have been known to throw people off the affiliate program for violating the terms in this way.

The idea behind this is probably that saved and reuploaded images will stay the same even the image changes on Amazon’s site. They cannot be updated automatically as when using the API tool.

Using formerly the SiteStripe and now the API tool going forward means that if Amazon changes a product image on their server, then so will the product image on your site, since doing it the right way using the API code will pull the relevant product image off Amazon’s server, whatever it is at that time.

This way product images are kept up to date. Amazon are very keen on you making sure all product information displayed on your site is fully current and up to date.

Let’s look in more detail at how to correctly add Amazon images to your site. The video below also covers the same material, plus switching over your SiteStripe links (won’t work after the end of 2023) to working API generated ones.

Using the Amazon API Tool To Upload Product Images to Your Site (Working Method 2024)

Before you use Amazon product images on your site, you will need to sign up to Amazon if you haven’t already, and then to their affiliate program. Doing so is free and relatively quick; see our article on how to sign up for the affiliate program for a full rundown of the process.

However, to use the API tool, you’ll also need to be fully accepted onto the program, which means you must make the qualifying 3 referrals within your first 180 days. If you haven’t yet done this, you can’t get the API keys to render images, and your SiteStripe ones will unfortunately stop displaying after the end of 2023 (see this post for some Premium plugin options that can get switch them over for you, but you’ll need to pay for them).

However, assuming you do have an API key (see here for how to get one), here are your steps:

Step #1 – Load up your affiliate Dashboard, and go the Tools tab, and the Amazon Product Advertising API:

 

Step #2 – Scroll down to the bottom of the API page and click on Scratchpad:

 

Step #3 – Click on GetItems on the left hand side:

Step #4 – Plug in the details requested:

  • Your affiliate ID/tag
  • API Access key/secret key
  • ItemID – product ASIN that you can get on the product page on Amazon
  • Image size (choose small/medium/large on the “Images.Primary.xxxxx” category (see here for a guide on the best size to choose – I guess Medium will be the most commonly used one).
  • Click Run Request to fetch data
  • Code should load below these boxes that you need to copy and paste into your site to display the API images.

You the need to repeat these steps for all Amazon product images you want to display on your site. You’ll also need to switch over all your old SiteStripe images before the end of 2023 to this API version, otherwise they’ll stop displaying once SiteStripe is fully retired.

See our guide on the longer, manual but free method of switching over your old SiteStripe images, which also has Premium plugin options you can use to change them over if you’d rather not do it the long way.

Using Amazon API images – video demo

 

What Will Happen To SiteStripe Images I Already Have On My Blog?

If you’ve already been using SiteStripe images for a while, it’s important to know these will be retired from the end of 2023, so they won’t display properly and will need to be changed over.

From 31 December 2023, any SiteStripe images you have will display as:

  • A blank white space, or
  • One of those weird icons that indicates an image can’t load.

Therefore it won’t look very good and you’ll have to either delete them or change them over API generated images to get them to keep displaying (our guide covers how to do this).

How To Display Images If You Can’t Get An Amazon API Key

Bloggers who are new to the Amazon Associates program can’t actually get an API key until they make the required 3 sales in 180 days and are fully accepted onto the program.

With the only other free option (SiteStripe) being retired after 2023, this leaves them in a bit of a pickle regarding displaying Amazon product images on their site. SiteStripe images won’t display any more after 2023, and if they can’t use the API because they haven’t qualified as a full Associate yet, what can they do.

Here’s your main options in these cases:

  1. Don’t use images for the time being and just use text links.
  2. Use alternative product images, either ones taken yourself (best way to do it) or ones from the product manufacturer’s website (provided you have the rights to use them).
  3. Wait until you make the minimum 3 sales in your first 180 days, then you can get the API key
  4. Use a Premium plugin like Lasso, which can switch over all your Amazon product images without needing an API key (you need to pay though as these tools aren’t free – more options covered in this post).

Oliver

I like to draw on my own experience to help new bloggers and other digital marketers solve common problems encountered when working and making your money online

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