We have an “Amazon Associate” arrangement under which we can do the following whenever we want to recommend a book, DVD, etc.
- Write a post recommending the book.
- Include a specially-formulated link to the Amazon.com page for the book.
- When a user clicks through to the Amazon page an buys the book we will get a small referral fee.
Obvious ethical note: the amount of money is not so large that it should ever tempt us to recommend a product that we don’t genuinely feel is worthwhile, and of course the reader is always free to buy the product elsewhere. Still, when we want to recommend something it is worth including the link.
The easiest way to insert such a link is to use the Amazon Link plugin, which should be available on all of our subsites. Look for the Add Amazon Link form at the bottom of the editing page.
First use the Search function to find the appropriate Amazon page. Generally it work best to fill in the name of the author and one keyword of the title. (If you try to enter the whole title you will need to get it EXACTLY right.)
Then press the Search button.
This will usually find multiple matching Amazon listings. Usually the first search result is the one that you want. If you aren’t sure, click on the link to examine the Amazon page.
When you have decided which Amazon page you want to send people to, place the cursor at the point in your post text where you want to insert the link, then press the Insert button next to the desired listing. That will insert a short-code like this (without the extra spaces):
[ amazon asin=0938474189 ]
When the page is viewed this will display as a clickable link like this: (Amazon)
If you want more control over the link, use the “+” button next to the search result to insert the ASIN number into the Insert Link form. Then select a template such as “Image” or “Thumbnail” or your desired link text, and press the Insert Link button. That will let you create an image link like this:
