Affiliate/Sheet

How to Create Amazon Affiliate Links

An Amazon Associates affiliate link is a Special Link with your tag in the URL. Here is what the rules say and where you may place it.

Section
Amazon Associates
Checked

An Amazon Associates affiliate link is a normal link to Amazon with one extra part. Your Associates tag sits in the URL as a parameter. Amazon's policies call this a Special Link.

Here is what that link is and the rules Amazon attaches to it.

Amazon's Associates policies say your Associates ID or tag must be a parameter in the URL of each link to Amazon. A qualifying purchase starts when a customer clicks a Special Link on your site to an Amazon site, according to those same policies.

Start from the Amazon page you want to link to. Your Associates ID or tag goes into its URL as a parameter, as Amazon's policies require.

Then paste the link into your page.

Look at the URL itself. Find the tag parameter and confirm it holds your Associates ID. That is the simplest check.

If the tag is missing, the link is a plain link. Amazon's policies say each link to Amazon must carry it.

The Amazon Associates agreement lets you place links to Amazon on your website, social media content, app, or Alexa skill. Emails and direct messages are allowed only if people opted in, the policies say.

What the rules do not allow

Amazon's policies list several things you must not do with your links.

  • You must not use a link shortener in a way that hides that you link to Amazon.
  • You must not cloak or hide the URL of your site that holds Special Links.
  • You must not encourage customers to bookmark your Special Links.
  • You must not offer rewards or incentives to people for using your Special Links.
  • A Special Link is not allowed in printed material, ebooks, mailings, or oral solicitation.

The agreement also names a required statement. It reads, As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The FTC has its own disclosure rules on top of that.

What happens after a click

Amazon's policies say a link session ends after 24 hours or when the customer places an order, whichever comes first. If the reader adds something to their cart, a purchase still counts if the order is completed within 89 days of the first click.

That 24 hour window works like the cookie window on other programs, though Amazon states it in its own words. To learn how the program works as a whole, see how Amazon Associates works. Commission amounts have their own page on commission rates.

Sources