If you are an Amazon Affiliate and have a website that uses Amazon SiteStripe images, you should have received an email informing you by now, that
Amazon SiteStripe Images and Text + Images link will stop working from 31st December, 2023.
What this essentially means is that, all the images that use these links to show images in your posts, will now stop displaying images.
Your posts will show ugly looking broken images errors instead, that obviously cannot be clicked on.
Needless to say, this will impact your affiliate revenue from these products.
So how do you fix this to make sure your affiliate website runs as smoothly as before?
Disclaimer : I have a niche website with Amazon affiliate links but have not yet received an email from Amazon Associates about this change. I can’t find any official announcement from Amazon about this any place. Even on the documentation for SiteStripe on Amazon’s Resource Center, there’s no notice about discontinuing SiteStripe Images.
I have however, seen a bunch of articles recently about this worrying announcement on popular forums, and that’s what has formed the basis of this post itself.
Manually replace SiteStripe images
One way, of course is to manually wade through your posts one by one and replace each image with a product image.
The alternative that Amazon has for SiteStripe is ‘Amazon Product Advertising API’ – accessible via your Amazon Associates Account under ‘Tools’.
You will need to apply for access to the API before you can start using it.
The criteria for that is generating at least 3 qualifying sales in the last 180 days.
Let’s presume you qualify.
But what if you have a large number of posts?
Do you really have the time to do that?
Swapping hundreds of images throughout your website is definitely not the best use of your time. Not my idea of fun for sure.
Which is why it is best to use a WordPress plugin that can do it for you in bulk.
Use a WordPress Affiliate Plugin
It makes more sense to use a WordPress plugin to replace all of the SiteStripe images on your website in bulk, rather than combing through each link and wasting time.
Here are a few WordPress plugins that have been fairly quick to update and address this SiteStripe images issue –
Lasso – Affiliate WordPress Plugin
Image Credit – https://getlasso.co/features/amazon/
Lasso is an exceptionally powerful WordPress plugin for affiliates, that will do more than just convert all your Amazon Affiliate SiteStripe links in one go.
To be honest, I only recently started hearing about it, when I was looking for a plugin for migrating the Amazon Associates SiteStripe images.
I have since then, based on my research, literally fallen in love with it.
I am in the process of installing it for my niche website that I mentioned earlier. And will be sure to update this post with my first-hand experience, after a couple of weeks using it, to share the impact it has on my website.
I could write a whole big article about Why Lasso, but I am going to let them do the explaining, because it clearly explains why Lasso is the best affiliate plugin for WordPress, despite being a relatively late entrant in this crowded niche.
Why do you need Lasso?AFFI.ai WordPress plugin
This is a good affiliate plugin for WordPress bloggers overall, with lots of features designed to help make your life easy.
Most importantly, it helps you to automatically replace all your Amazon SiteStripe images within a few minutes. Here’s a video that shows you how –
Tell Me MoreIn Conclusion
Besides the ones I have mentioned here, there are a few other affiliate WordPress plugins as well (such as AmaLinks Pro ) that allow you to migrate your SiteStripe images easily.
However, if I had to pick one, I would go with Lasso, because it helps protect your affiliate website from other changes as well.
For example, when a merchant switches from one affiliate platform to another, changing links can be a nightmare, but Lasso helps you handle that scenario as well.
It also has a lot of features that are built to boost conversions and help you showcase your recommendations with eye-catching, attention-grabbing visuals – but not in an obnoxious, annoying way.
Get Lasso