If you’re a professional blogger who earns income by using Adsense on your sites, you know about “Google slaps.”  These are akin to penalties in football: various punishments dished out for various infractions (big and small) that a blogger might be guilty of.

I’ve recently become alerted to the fact that Amazon slaps, too.  Many eHow writers supplement their eHow income by adding links to Amazon products in the “resources” section of their articles.  That is fine, and allowed by both Amazon and eHow (for now).  HOWEVER, some members thought that it would be okay (and beneficial) to order items from Amazon using their own partner link (thereby getting paid commission on items they purchase for themselves).  This is a huge no-no.

One eHower who subscribes to this blog wrote to me today to tell me that they had their Amazon partner account suspended.   He is embarrassed and prefers to remain anonymous, but said that I could use his story to inform others.

Mr. X has been writing for eHow.com for nine months.  In his second month of writing, he learned in the forum that he could sign up for an Amazon partner account to increase his eHow income.   Because of the nature of his articles, the Amazon links proved quite successful for him, and he earned at least $300 per month from Amazon links alone.

A few months ago, he had a “eh, why not” attitude about using his own Amazon partner links in order to purchase items for himself.  He figured that with such small purchases, Amazon would never know or suspect.   He was wrong.  Just last week, he got an email from Amazon.com, telling him that he had committed fraud and his account had been suspended as a result.

I have also spoken with someone at eHow’s parent company, and they have begun taking a closer look at links in the “resources” sections.   Remember that your links must be related to the article you’ve just written.  So, for instance, if you’ve written an article about “How to Make the Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich,” you couldn’t provide an Amazon partner link to a BlackBerry phone, just because the commission would be lovely.  You can’t even get creative with it and use words like, “Call Aunt Millie with a New BlackBerry to Tell Her About Your Great Grilled Cheese!” 

Keep writing, eHowers… but be smart about it!