No, click on *this* link...

February 10, 2008 3:04 AM

I want a plugin for Wordpress that will automatically add my Amazon Associates ID into an URL. I've googled, and found loads of plugins that work with Wordpress and Amazon, but none of them appear to do this.

For example, I link to a product on Amazon, typing

http://www.amazon.com/[insert ASIN etc here]

I'd like the plugin to automatically modify the URL to something like

http://www.amazon.com/[insert ASIN etc here][insert ID here]

I've found several Amazon themed WP plugins, but none of them seems to do this. I don't want an Amazon based shop set up. I don't want a sidebar littered with Amazon products. I want to be able to visit Amazon, find the product I'm looking for, paste the URL into a post, and have the associate ID automatically added.

Either that, or a simple guide as to where in the URL the ID needs to be pasted manually. I know Amazon has a builder that will do this, but I find it cumbersome to use when I have several URL's that need editing.

posted by Rabulah to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I'm attempting to be helpful, not a smart-ass with this comment, but you can do this easily by learning HTML. Odds are you are copying and pasting the ASIN anyway, so why not copy and paste the ASIN and the Affiliate ID (as you showed above).

Making a link in HTML is quite simple:
<a href="URL-of-where-you-want-to-jump">visible-link-goes-between-opening-&-closing-A-tags</a>

So your links would look like this:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/[ASIN]/[Associate-ID">Visible Product Link</a>

You may have to think about it the first few times you do it, but it will become second nature.

PS... if you want to make the link open in a new window (leaving your blog in the window behind) you can add a "target" attribute to the opening A tag, like this:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/[ASIN]/[Associate-ID" target="_blank">Visible Product Link</a>
posted by spock at 6:50 AM on February 10, 2008

if not a plugin, consider looking for a 'bookmarklet'... which you'd use thusly:

1. go to amazon, pick out a suitable product.
2. click 'make a referral link' in your bookmark bar

3. the bookmarklet scrapes the data from the amazon page, then builds the link, then either shows you the link code or automatically writes the code to your clipboard so that you can paste it into your post.

Bookmarklets are typically written in JavaScript.

A bookmarklet wouldn't be as integrated as a WordPress plugin, though.
posted by Wild_Eep at 8:08 AM on February 10, 2008

Copy Amazon Associates Product URL Bookmarklet (not tested it myself)
posted by muteh at 8:27 AM on February 10, 2008

Thanks for your suggestions, folks. :)

I did find, later on, that Amazon now have a feature that sort of does what I want already.
posted by Solomon at 10:36 AM on February 10, 2008

I don't know if Wordpress can easily do this, but it would be pretty easy to define a PHP function that takes an ASIN and link text and generates the whole link. Then you you could just write something like <?php amazon_link("0916291456","Everyone Poops") ?> and it would turn it into a link of the kind you desire, with your referral code.
posted by kindall at 2:40 PM on February 11, 2008