How to Add Amazon Affiliate Links to Your EHow Articles

I've been asked several times about how to add Amazon affiliate links to your eHow articles, and decided it was time I make a tutorial on the subject. This is very easy to do, and won't take you long once you get the hang of it.

UPDATE: You must have an Amazon Affiliate account prior to completing this tutorial. Once you sign up, it may take a few days for approval. Visit Amazon.com for more information if you don't already have an account.

On another note, I rarely do this anymore, unless an article really isn't making any money. I've made a few sales, but not enough to constitute adding affiliate links to ALL of my articles. But, if you feel you have an article that might do really well with an affiliate link, have at it! Here's what you need to do:

Find a Product

Make sure that your product matches your article. NEVER put an affiliate link in one of your articles that doesn't match the subject matter. For this example, I'll add a link to one of my articles that doesn't have any ads, "How to Increase Libido." (I used a word for a popular herb used to increase libido, which Google thinks is "dirty" and won't populate it with ads. More on this in a future post.) So, in order to try to get SOME money out of it, we'll add an affiliate link.

I've found a product on Amazon, the herb in question actually, so that if anyone reads the article and wants to try it out for themselves, they can click the link and (hopefully) buy it. I would recommend typing your keyword into the Amazon search bar and looking for the closest match for your product. That's how I came upon this one:

Get the Code

Now that you've found your product, the next step is to get your code, or the actual affiliate link, to add to your eHow article. First, click the "Link to this Page" button on the gray bar at the top of the screen. If you're logged in to your Amazon account, this bar will always be displayed while you're browsing.

You'll be brought to your affiliate link page. You may be prompted to enter your password, which is fine. Now, you'll need to click on "Text Only (Basic Display)," which is the third radio button.

Now, highlight the actual affiliate link (highlighted in the picture below). It begins with "http" and ends with "creativeASIN=12345678" but the numbers there will be different. You need everything in the quotations, as demonstrated below:

Adding the Link to Your Article

You're all ready to add the link to your eHow article. Go to the "Additonal Resources" section of your article. Paste the code into the first field. Then, in the second field type a description of what your product is. For this example, I typed H**** Goat Weed Capsules from Amazon.

Now, once you publish your article, you're all set for people to begin clicking on your affiliate link. See how easy it is? But, wait! There's more....

Linking to Search Results Pages

Did you know that you can get an affiliate link for search results pages within Amazon? For example, if you wrote an article about say, Electric Steam Irons, and you couldn't choose which ones you wanted to link to, you can perform a search on Amazon, and link to ALL the search results.

When the reader clicks on the link, they'll be taken to the search results page, where you have a much greater chance of getting a sale because they can see ALL of the items available for purchase. If they purchase ANYTHING, you'll get a portion of it, so this is really helpful.

Just perform a regular search on whatever your article is about. This only works well if your article is about one particular item, and wouldn't be appropriate for our libido article. If you did an article on somthing like "Wrinkle Cream" or "Vacuum Cleaners", this might be a good way to incorporate an affliate link. Here's an example of a search results page for Electric Steam Irons:

Notice how your "Link to this Page" button is NOT grayed out? This means you can click it. Do so, and you'll be taken to the affiliate page where the text link is already selected. Select everything in quotations, as you did before. The link for search results pages will be longer than other affiliate links, but that's normal.

Paste this into your eHow article, just as you would a normal affiliate link - in the first field under "Additonal Resources." Then, for text I would type something like "Electric Steam Irons from Amazon." Save, and publish, and you're done!

Tips for Using Affiliate Links in EHow Articles Responsibly

• Don't overdo it!! I've seen eHow articles with five or more affiliate links, and not only does this look super-spammy, it also takes away from the integrity of your writing and makes it look like nothing more than an advertisement. At most, 1-2 affiliate links per article, and I'd only do that if the article failed to make money the traditional way.

• Make sure the text is actually representative of what the item is. I usually add "from Amazon" because it's a name that most people trust, and they'll be more likely to click there - but only if they're looking to buy. If they're not looking to buy, they'll know not to click there and may click another of your ads instead. It's sort of double insurance.

Good luck with your own affiliate links!

Other posts in the eHow tutorial series:
Part 1 - How to Find Profitable Keywords for Your EHow Articles
Part 2 - How to Analyze Your Keyword Competition for EHow Articles
Part 3 - How to Optimize Your EHow Articles for Maximum Profit
Part 4 - Using Images in Your EHow Articles
Part 5 - How to Improve Ad Alignment on EHow Articles