by | January 21, 2016 · 2:24 am
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Even more fun with WordPress widgets: how to create an Amazon affiliate link and make a ton of cents!

So I was procrastinating today and watching my sales creep up with eReader News Today, when I noticed that they are an Amazon Affiliate. How genius, huh? Not only they take our money to advertise, they get paid by Amazon, too. Not that I mind – of all the advertising websites I’ve tried, they’ve so far delivered the most value for the money…

They also gave me an idea – I’ve decided to become an Amazon affiliate too! Cause, you know, thousands of people are clicking on the Shizzle, Inc link…well, not thousands, just 100-200 per month, but that’s a start, right? So why not make the link an affiliate one and earn 4% on whatever sales happen as a result? At least it’s an experiment and something new to learn.

First things first – sign up to be an affiliate. Because I’m already registered with Amazon, it was ridiculously easy. Took about 5 minutes and I have no problems to report, or lessons learned – just make sure to have your tax number ready. The only bugger was that I can’t get paid by direct deposit, as I’m not in the US – so I’d opted to be paid with a gift certificate.

Next it came to creating a link – all you have to do is search for a product of interest, which in my case was Shizzle, Inc:

AA search results

Once I’d found it, I clicked on “Get link” and chose “text only” – to make long story short, I could not get image and text html to work and have found a work-around.

AA html

Then, I created a new “text” widget on my WordPress.com website – for more advice on creating links with text widgets see my MailChimp explained post. This is what this new widget looks like:

AA widget

The tricky bit was how to make the link stand out. Previously, I’d created a link to Amazon using an image widget, which worked well and was easy to use – just click on the image and you are there. I didn’t want to have a “naked” link only and as mentioned before, when I pasted in “image and text” html, I ended up with a lot of code visible to everyone. So I cheated: I put a text widget with HTML in the sidebar first, followed by the image widget, but without title or url link:

Two widgets

And here you go – I now have a working affiliate link in my sidebar, which should be earning me a cool 4 cents each time someone buys a book via my website! Yay!

Have fun 🙂

72 Comments

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72 responses to “Even more fun with WordPress widgets: how to create an Amazon affiliate link and make a ton of cents!”

  1. rgdole
    January 21, 2016 at 2:33 am

    I’ve signed up and put links on all the reviews I do… hasn’t done much for me yet… of course having yours with the permanent link on the side is actually pretty smart… something to keep in mind…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  2. SciFi and Scary
    January 21, 2016 at 2:37 am

    Yeah, like rgdole, I put the links, but haven’t exactly raked in the money. lol.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Annette Rochelle Aben
    January 21, 2016 at 2:37 am

    Makes.. cents! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. J.A. Stinger
    January 21, 2016 at 2:42 am

    Reblogged this on and commented:
    I have to tell you, you have been amazingly helpful! Thank you so much for your blog!

    Like

    Reply
  5. Allie P.
    January 21, 2016 at 2:55 am

    I wonder how this strategy works within the Kindle Select/Unlimited program. The fine print for participating in the program means you can’t sell via your website, but I wonder if selling on your website via an amazon link is a loop-hole. Then again, I believe you said you weren’t currently enrolled in the program, so I guess it is moot.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. Allie P.
    January 21, 2016 at 2:56 am

    I’ve pondered it some more and am thinking it is no different than putting any other link on your page as to where you can buy a book. So I’m not going to worry about it any more.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. Tamara Kulish
    January 21, 2016 at 3:29 am

    I like this tip! I’m going to try it! You ARE such a smart cookie!! *smile*!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. xxertz (Fiction is My Addiction)
    January 21, 2016 at 3:36 am

    I tested it out for ya 😉 Great, informative post !

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. colingarrow
    January 21, 2016 at 4:30 am

    Excellent advice, as always.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. carolelouie
    January 21, 2016 at 4:34 am

    Great job, Ana! Did you know that you also earn points by adding links to other books written by someone else? For instance, one of my short stories is featured in an anthology, which I linked to my affiliate account. Also, because the book “Many Lives Many Masters” changed my life, I added it to my blog via a link to the account. I figure it’s WIN WIN for everyone.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Pingback: Even more fun with WordPress widgets: how to create an Amazon affiliate link and make a ton of cents! | Toni Kennedy : A Writing Life

  13. Justine
    January 21, 2016 at 11:04 am

    Thanks for sharing! I’ve been linking to amazon without even knowing this was possible! Now hopefully I’ll actually make money from it!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  14. Fun Simplicity
    January 21, 2016 at 12:44 pm

    You are absolutely right! Why let others earn your money when you could! Good job! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  15. Steve Wand
    January 21, 2016 at 10:34 pm

    Cracking post! I’ve been curious about Amazon affiliates in the past but been too damn lazy to check it out. I will be doing now. Good on you!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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  17. The Story Reading Ape
    January 21, 2016 at 11:53 pm

    Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
    Blogging Authors – Have YOU done this?
    Many thanks to Ana for posting this great guideline 😀

    Like

    Reply
  19. Elle Knowles
    January 22, 2016 at 1:30 am

    Link works great! You are now in my Kindle Fire…can’t wait to read. This is a grand idea. I like the link is not really bothersome on my phone when on your site. Haven’t looked at it on my laptop yet. What happens when you add an imagine? Considering adding this to my WP site. It can only help my sales I think…~Elle

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  20. Pingback: Don’t fear HTML…make it work for you, one step at a time! | AnaSpoke.com

  21. readersandmore
    January 22, 2016 at 11:52 am

    The Internet is such a wonderful place!! 4 cents can really add up as long as people keep clicking the link 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  22. Let's CUT the Crap!
    January 22, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    Most intriguing. Thank you for sharing. o_O

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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  24. Nic Schuck
    January 28, 2016 at 3:37 am

    I’ve signed up and am giving it a shot as well. Thanks again for more great advice. When my book comes out, I would like to send you a copy for sharing all your hard work.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  25. sunfishyoga
    January 30, 2016 at 4:21 am

    Thank you so much for this…I already have affiliate links on my website but had not yet worked out how to do them on my blog too….this can be one of my tasks for next week now!! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  27. ms-birdlady
    January 31, 2016 at 10:06 am

    Hey, Ana Spoke! 🙂 I found out you are not supposed to use the entire link available in the Amazon Text Only box! (Go figure! 😉 ) Here’s a link to a useful post that explains that. Thanks for all your extremely helpful WordPress / Mail Chimp posts!!! 🙂

    http://bakerviewconsulting.com/2014/09/how-to-add-amazon-affiliate-links-to-a-post/

    Ms. Birdlady at http://www.ms-birdlady.com 🙂

    P.S.: How did you get your motto at the bottom of your webpage? 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Ana Spoke
      January 31, 2016 at 10:19 am

      That’s strange, cause I’ve used the entire code and as you’ve seen in my post, it looks good. I will look into it further, thank you for supplying the link!

      What is the “motto” you refer to? The “time to get serious”? I didn’t do anything, it must be a template setting…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • ms-birdlady
        January 31, 2016 at 11:32 am

        Hi, Ana! I was specifically using it for text hyperlinks, and the shorter version was needed. Was thinking perhaps this second way might work better with the earlier image/text side widget method you were trying? Just a suggestion (haven’t tried it yet). 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Ana Spoke
        January 31, 2016 at 12:26 pm

        Have you tried posting the entire hyperlink in “html” window?

        Like

      • Ana Spoke
        January 31, 2016 at 12:40 pm

        Had a better look at the post about short links on my laptop (impossible to see on the phone). I think the following: the post is over a year old, and Amazon since then has changed the html links it produces. When I “get a link”, the code looks nothing like the one in the post. When I post it in HTML window, I get a clean and simple link. I think Amazon must have improved something since. Whenever I search for tips on things like this, I always narrow the search to last year, at least – things change so quickly!

        Liked by 2 people

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