by | January 22, 2016 · 3:48 am
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Don’t fear HTML…make it work for you, one step at a time!

I was re-reading reviews of Shizzle, Inc (Isa Maxwell escapades Book 1) the other day. I do that quite often, actually – nothing like reading a good review of your book to get you out of the bed and to the keyboard. One of the reviewers mentioned that my book was somewhat similar in style to Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, No 1). I personally think that it’s more like The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel or maybe Bridget Jones’s Diary. In any case, it was great to see my book compared to a bestseller.

You know what else is great? How easily I was able to sneak affiliate links into the paragraph above! Each one of these links is attributed to my affiliate account and could make me 4-6% on each sale. I was so excited about it, that I went back to my interview with Matthew FitzSimmons and replaced the links to his book The Short Drop with affiliate ones. It’s been months since that post, but a dozen people a week still find it from a google search for the author. It’s about time that interview started making me some money…and while I’m at it, why not sell Adult Coloring Book: Stress Relieving Animal Designs? It looks like SO much fun…

Okay, okay, I got it out of my system now! Back to my original promise – to teach you how to go nuts using affiliate links in your own posts. If you have not yet, read my how to create an affiliate link post first. Once you got an account with Amazon and can figure out how to get a link, the rest is easy – turns out, all I have to do is switch to HTML in the editor window – usually I just use the default “visual” setting. This is what the above paragraph looks like in visual (notice the highlighted “Visual” button in the top right corner):

Visual draft

…and this is what the same paragraph looks like in HTML:

HTML draft

Scary mess, right? Actually, not scary at all. You can write the entire post in “visual” setting, if you wish, then switch to HTML and plaster affiliate code in the right places. Switch back to visual, check that it looks ok, and voila! You’re in business. Literally.

If you want a bit more info on how to use HTML in WordPress.com, visit this WordPress support post.

Have fun!

27 Comments

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27 responses to “Don’t fear HTML…make it work for you, one step at a time!”

  1. Elizabeth Jay
    January 22, 2016 at 4:05 am

    Hey, Ana. I’m following your blog posts with interest and finally decided to purchase your book and see what it’s all about! 😉 Just wondering – do the affiliate links work if I click through to buy on a different Amazon site? I’m on the UK one. I’m guessing they do. Cheers! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. Satin Sheet Diva
    January 22, 2016 at 5:06 am

    Is it not just as easy to highlight the text in visual mode, click the ‘add link’ button (the one that looks like a piece of chain) and post the affiliate link in? Want to make sure I’m doing it right – thanks!

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. xxertz (Fiction is My Addiction)
    January 22, 2016 at 11:57 am

    Seems like youre putting in more effort than you have to. When I add links, I usually just highlight the word and hit paste and it will add the link to the word. Or, highlight it and do CTRL-K and it will open the box for adding links (I have mac so pc may be different, but there is a link on wordpress toolbar that shows you shortcuts – it is much much much easier than manually adding the html in the html editor.)

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. readersandmore
    January 22, 2016 at 11:58 am

    This seemed pretty complicated at first but now it seems pretty simple 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. Elle Knowles
    January 22, 2016 at 2:07 pm

    I’m learning something new every day. I believe I’ll file you under WP Tips And Tricks! ~Elle

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. ms-birdlady
    January 22, 2016 at 6:10 pm

    Ana Spoke, you’ve been a life saver! (Or at least a time saver! 🙂 ) I was just trying to figure this out last night after following your three excellent posts on MailChimp, Posting your book on the sidebar, and Being an Amazon Affiliate. Thank you so much for posting!!! (And following my blog!) Gonna to purchase your book now (through your site)! Thank you!!! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  9. adeleulnais
    January 22, 2016 at 9:12 pm

    Great advice thank you so much.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. saharafoley
    January 23, 2016 at 10:35 am

    Actually, I use affiliate links and all I do is highlight and do the add a link. an Affiliate ink is still a URL. It works the same. I also use Window Live Writer to do my posts, as I can add different font types and colors not available using WP.

    Liked by 1 person

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