Rejected from Amazon Associates program. Need therapy.

If you have lots of traffic, you can put AdSense ads.

That being said, maybe some perspective will help.

You built something. In the process you've learnt new skills. This is good.

But I think you had unrealistic expectations about how much money this project could make. Even if Amazon accepted you as an affiliate, you would make very little money. I know that even a little money is better than no money, but you didn't loose millions of dollars, you "lost" tens of dollars.

You've learned a lesson about business models: it's better if your ability to make money can't possibly be blocked by a third party that has its own agenda.

You're relatively rare individual in that you can program, you can make new things.

Make more new things. If you make enough of them, eventually one will be successful.

I know you don't need me to tell you that Amazon affiliate links weren't going to make you a whole lotta money — both kjk and thomas have made that clear — but I'll echo them anyway.

I've had plenty of Amazon affiliate links across hundreds of highly trafficked interviews on Indie Hackers, and I usually only made about $100/month from them. To make matters worse, Amazon recently lowered the fees they pay to affiliates. So you can rest assured that you aren't missing out on some big payday.

Furthermore, you've done a few really great things in a very short period of time:

• Built something useful enough that lots of people derived some value from it, including Tyler Cowen himself.
• Learned a lesson about having a business model that can stand on its own and can't simply be shut off by AppAmaGooFaceSoft (as patio11 calls them).
• Learned a lesson about entering a market where the sales you make are substantial enough to pay the bills.

It takes many people years of hard work and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested to learn those last two lessons, and you just got a crash course in a week or two!

If you internalize those lessons, you'll be far more likely to build something successful in the future.

And assuming people really do look like your book site and it provides lasting value (or you can improve it to the point where it does), it's not a bad thing to have running on the side. Content sites can generate lots of traffic and serve as a distribution channel for other projects of yours in the future.

Amazon does this to all new accounts that look thin when they first generate revenue. Just add a blog to your site and write quality content. You'll pass eventually. Their bar for quality content has gone up over the years.

This comment was deleted 7 years ago