Re: About the & and validation & Amazon links

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 12:16:57 -0600, "Mikkel Møldrup-Lakjer"
<mikkel (AT) fabel (DOT) dk> wrote:

As discussed recently, Amazon among others do not use the &amp; required for
validation, but simply the & in their links.

That really annoys me, so I would prefer to fix this. Now my question is: if
I register with Amazon's affiliate program and then modify their links so
they validate, might this affect Amazon's ability to recognize my referral?

Also, some links by Amazon lack the alt atrribute, also impeding validation.

The same question would apply to this case. Not to mention other attributes
such as rel and maybe more.

Unless Amazon uses some kind of checksum in relation to their links, I
cannot see why I shouldn't modify their links.

however, they claim that any modification might cut off the referral-pointer

They don't want every amateur code jockey messing up their associate
links and then blaming them. If you're sensible with things you
should be ok. You can test this anyway, buy the cheapest item you can
via a direct associate link (one including a &) from your site and
then alter the link and buy it again. See what the logs say. You can
put an item up specially for the purpose, comment it out or something
so the public don't know about it. Get creative.

BB
--
www.kruse.co.uk/ seo (AT) kruse (DOT) demon.co.uk
seo that watches the river flow...
--

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 14:33:22 -0600, "Mikkel Møldrup-Lakjer"
<mikkel (AT) fabel (DOT) dk> wrote:

"Big Bill" <kruse (AT) cityscape (DOT) co.uk> skrev i en meddelelse
news:3ra0d1loeovakb7k780lba1sao1ai6pllk (AT) 4ax (DOT) com...

They don't want every amateur code jockey messing up their associate
links and then blaming them.

That's understable!

If you're sensible with things you should be ok.

I hopes so :-)

You can test this anyway, buy the cheapest item you can
via a direct associate link (one including a &) from your site and
then alter the link and buy it again. See what the logs say. You can
put an item up specially for the purpose, comment it out or something
so the public don't know about it. Get creative.

Although the terms of the contract say that using my links myself (or even
letting my relatives use them) would be a fraud which would be grounds for
Amazon to end the contract!

Mikkel

I don't think they mean it quite that way. Creativity seems to be
escaping you, Mikkel.

BB

--
www.kruse.co.uk/ seo (AT) kruse (DOT) demon.co.uk
seo that watches the river flow...
--