Q: I want to know if I create an online catalog, a site that looks like a store with affiliate links, can I put pictures and descriptions of the products with affiliate links, or is this going to violate their terms of service? I am building a site with affiliate links, similar to Gary Vaynerchuk’s PleaseDressMe.com.
A: If you’re building a site like that, what you’ll need to do is get the product data feed from each merchant – you’ll have to request access from the merchant or affiliate network.
I hope you weren’t planning to put this sort of site together manually, as that would take forever, and there would be no each way to update out of stock items, price changes, etc.
This information is included in the product data feed, so you will have access to that data, as well as much more.
You can combine the product data feeds from multiple merchants to create store for whichever vertical you’d like to focus on.
An important thing to note – don’t just repackage the data provided by the merchant. Incorporate some unique value proposition, like comparison shopping for a niche, original content to complement the products being offered, etc.