Amazon.com censorship and how affiliates can make a killing

Huge outcry in America at the moment, from today, 12th April 2009 Amazon.com has appointed its self as net nanny and is removing sales rankings from adult erotica books, this has the impact that regardless of how many volumes they sell they will not appear on the best seller listings, therefore anyone not actually searching for a particular book will not see them.

Some websites are reporting that this new policy is specifically aimed at gay and lesbian titles however others are saying this censorship is more widespread and affecting all adult material.

Here is a copy of the letter that has been going out to authors:

“In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature. Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D

Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage”

I personally don’t run any adult sites however as an affilate I can see how this situation could be turned to our advantage, by specifially targeting the right key phrases the savvy internet marketer will now be able reel in a lot of sales from this genre which would previously have gone direct to Amazon.com.