Where Can You Post Amazon Affiliate Links? Approved and Banned Places

I have declared and run Amazon links across my own site for braverywatch.com, so I have read the placement rules the way you read a lease: closely, because a violation here is not a slap on the wrist — it can close the account. Amazon defines where links may go in its Operating Agreement and Program Policies. (The Program Policies’ AI-content provisions were updated April 14, 2026 — a date I have seen attached, wrongly, to commission timing and to a blanket “last updated” stamp; as of this writing it is the AI-content clause that carries it, so verify the current footer date in Associates Central before you quote one.) Below is the map of allowed and banned surfaces, with the compliance traps that actually get people removed.

Where can you post Amazon affiliate links? (the approved surfaces)

Amazon’s definition of a “Site” covers four property types: a website, social media user-generated content, an online software application, and an Alexa skill. In practice, the approved places are:

1. 1Your own website or blog, with original content you own — free or unowned platforms you cannot control are not accepted, and the content has to have value beyond the affiliate link.
2. 2Declared social accounts on Amazon’s accepted list: Facebook (fan pages and open group pages, not personal pages), Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter/X, and Twitch.tv — and you must list each account in your application.
3. 3Approved mobile applications listed in Google Play, the Apple App Store, or the Amazon Appstore.
4. 4Alexa skills with properly tagged Alexa Shopping Actions.
5. 5Opted-in email, SMS, or direct messages that originate from your social Sites — the recipient must have opted in, and it must comply with CAN-SPAM.

Conditions that apply to every allowed channel

Whatever the surface, four conditions ride along with every “Yes” in that table. Miss one and an otherwise-approved channel becomes a violation.

1. 1Each channel must be listed on your Associates account as a property you own — an undeclared account is not a declared Site.
2. 2The disclosure “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases” must be visible where the links appear.
3. 3The attribution window is a property of the link, not the channel: a standard click sets a 24-hour cookie, and items added to the cart in that window stay attributable for up to 89 days.
4. 4Each marketplace needs its own tag — a US link, a UK link and a DE link are separate tags. The mechanics of generating and tagging those links are in how to create Amazon affiliate links.

Where you CANNOT post Amazon affiliate links

The banned surfaces are where accounts die. Amazon’s Program Policies prohibit these outright:

1. 1Offline anything: printed material, flyers, ebooks, and unsolicited mailings. Special Links are online-only.
2. 2Cloaked, spoofed, or hidden destinations — including link shorteners used in a way that makes it unclear you are sending the visitor to Amazon.
3. 3Amazon’s own properties: you must not post Special Links on Amazon itself — reviews, Q&A, forums, Wish Lists, or customer-generated content.
4. 4Prohibited paid search: you cannot buy ads on Amazon trademark keywords or route paid-search ads directly to Amazon through your Special Links in a prohibited way.
5. 5Pop-ups, pop-unders, and transitional/layer ads (with a narrow exception for pop-ups on your own site).

The through-line is auditability — Amazon can inspect a public page, but it can’t audit a printed flyer, a PDF, or an inbox, so closed distribution is off the table.

Can I put Amazon affiliate links in email?

Only in a narrow, opted-in way — and here I’d rather quote Amazon than paraphrase it, because this is the clause people most often get wrong in both directions. On what is allowed, the Program Policies read: “You may include Special Links in emails, SMS and direct messaging from your social media Sites; provided, that such communications are solicited (i.e., opted into by the receiving customer)” (Amazon Associates Program Policies, retrieved July 29, 2026). On what is prohibited, the same source reads: “You will not engage in any Promotional Activities in any offline manner, including by using … any Special Link in connection with any printed material, ebook, mailing, or any oral solicitation.” (same source, retrieved July 29, 2026).

Read as a sourced clause rather than my own absolute, those two lines settle it in practice: a cold email blast with Amazon links is a violation, but a newsletter your subscribers opted into from your Instagram, sent within CAN-SPAM, can be compliant. When in doubt, keep the link on your website and drive email traffic to the page instead of embedding the raw affiliate link in the email.

Can you use Amazon affiliate links on Instagram and TikTok?

Yes — on accounts you own and have declared, but the link mechanics differ by platform. On Instagram there is no clickable link in the caption, so the click has to come from the bio link or a Stories link sticker. On TikTok the link lives in the bio, and access to it is gated by TikTok’s own account-type and follower rules (verify the current thresholds — they move, and I have not re-checked them for this writing). Either way, the account has to be declared on your Associates application and the disclosure has to be visible where the link appears.

One honest note: if your model is a storefront rather than a content site, the Amazon Influencer Program is a separate program worth comparing — see Amazon Influencer Program vs Associates.

Is your own website the best place for Amazon affiliate links?

Yes — your own website is the safest and most durable channel, because it is the only one you control end to end. You decide where the disclosure sits and what the reader experience is; nobody rewrites your rules overnight. Platforms change their policies without warning, accounts get suspended, apps drop off the approved list — but a compliant site you own keeps working. The way I think about it with braverywatch.com is simple: social is the doorway, the review site is the store, and every channel above eventually funnels the click to the place I actually own.

Do I have to get approved before I post anywhere?

You apply first, declare your site and social channels, and then you have to earn approval by generating at least three qualifying sales within 180 days of being accepted — a long-standing requirement that is still in force. So the honest sequence is: build real content in the approved places, drive real clicks, make three sales, keep the account. The qualification mechanics and common rejection reasons are covered in Amazon Associates: 3 sales in 180 days and Amazon Associates approval requirements.

The pattern in all of this: the surfaces you fully control — your own site, your own domain — are the ones with the fewest restrictions and the longest shelf life. Social accounts can be suspended, apps get delisted, but a compliant site you own keeps working.