If you’ve ever tried promoting Amazon products or your books online (or if you’re an Amazon affiliate), you’ve probably run into a really frustrating, time-consuming problem…
When promoting a product on Amazon online, you have to generate different links for every single country and every Amazon store so that people in different countries can actually find and purchase your book or product.
If you send someone in the UK to the US site, they will NOT be able to buy your book, and unless the customer knows how to navigate to the UK site and find your book, you’re missing out on international sales.
It also causes a huge headache because you’ll often get support messages and requests from readers for the proper link to buy your book in their country, costing you a lot of time and energy.
And, if you want to use your Amazon Associates account to generate an affiliate link for other countries, the process takes even more time just to earn a few extra cents for each sale!
When you spend your time doing things that only add a few cents to your revenue, you won’t be able to spend time on your highest priority activities (like writing books and actually marketing and selling them effectively).
Universal Amazon Links Are Crucial
You MUST have a universal Amazon link so you can:
- Earn more Amazon affiliate commissions in other countries
- Save your readers and customers time by giving them only one link to buy instead of dozens
- Sell more books and products on Amazon by increasing your conversions (so you don’t lose sales when someone in Germany clicks your link to Amazon.com and then can’t figure out why they can’t buy it)
- Save yourself a boatload of time every time you want to promote a product on Amazon
If you don’t have a universal link, that means you’re turning a simple book promotion or book launch or product promotion into a massive waste of time generating all the proper links for each Amazon store like these:
United States: Amazon.com
United Kingdom: Amazon.co.uk
Canada: Amazon.ca
Germany: Amazon.de
France: Amazon.fr
Japan: Amazon.co.jp
Brazil: Amazon.br
Austria: Amazon.at
Italy: Amazon.it
Spain: Amazon.es
China: joyo.com
…and more new Amazon stores in international countries are popping up every few months!
Generating a Universal Amazon Affiliate Link
So here’s the solution: you can generate a universal Amazon link (or for iTunes and other online stores as well) AND you can include your affiliate tracking code, so you get credit for every sale in EVERY country.
Not only will you save a ton of time, you’ll also increase your income with extra affiliate commissions. It’s a true win-win.
Step 1. Generating Your Amazon Affiliate Link
The first step is to generate your Amazon Affiliate link.
If you’re not already an Amazon affiliate, sign up for their affiliate program here.
Once you’ve signed up and created your account, sign in.
On the home page of your Amazon Associates dashboard, scroll over “Links & Banners” and Click “Product Links”
Next, search for your product on Amazon and click “Go.”
When you find the product, click “Get Link.”
Next, click the “Text Only” tab and you’ll see the code for your product in the box that says “3. Get HTML Code For This Product Link.” The code should look something like this:
<a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D4B5NNQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D4B5NNQ&linkCode=as2&tag=juicblog-20&linkId=X4JVXL3GYH6GCZ2E“>Secrets of the Six Figure Author: Mastering the Inner Game of Writing, Publishing and Marketing Books (Six-Figure Author Series Book 1)</a><img src=”http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=juicblog-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00D4B5NNQ” width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />
The part of the code in bold is what you want to use for your affiliate link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D4B5NNQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D4B5NNQ&linkCode=as2&tag=juicblog-20&linkId=X4JVXL3GYH6GCZ2E
This is the link to the product’s page on Amazon with your affiliate tracking ID info attached (The affiliate tracking portion of the link is this text at the end starting with &tag)
Make sure to copy the full link for the product at this point, because you’re about to paste it in the next step.
Step 2. Generating Your Universal Affiliate Link
All you need to do now is copy/paste the full link into the universal link creator tool at www.geni.us
Note: I recommend signing up for an account at Geniuslink (formerly called GeoRiot) as it will allow you to get more analytics and data on who’s clicking on your links that you don’t get without the account. Plans start at just $5/month.
How You Get Paid with Affiliate Links
Geniuslink does not take any cut of the revenue or commissions from your affiliate links.
The whole process is transparent and you can read more about the pricing model here.
What the Universal Tracking Link Looks Like
Once you’ve generated your universal Amazon affiliate link, it should look something like this:
Note: Make sure to test your link and confirm that it works before promoting it!
Step 3. (Optional) Creating a Redirect Link
At this point, you’ve got your universal tracking link, so you’re good to go.
But, some of you may want to take it a step further and create a custom redirect link (sometimes called a cloaking link for affiliate marketers).
There are a few reasons why you might want to do this:
- You can generate a link that is easier to remember and recognize for your fans and followers.
- You can possibly prevent other affiliates from stealing the credit for your sales. This is usually not a big issue for Amazon products, but it’s a general issue many affiliate marketers deal with, so it’s something to consider.
- You can generate a link that’s easier to remember for you, and that you can use forever and ensure you always get the right link to the right people in the right way.
- You can update the universal tracking link in the future, and all your redirected links will still function 100% properly forever.
How to Create a Redirect Link
There are several tools you can use to create a redirect link.
One of the easiest and free ways is using the WordPress plugin Redirection if your site uses WordPress.
Other options include:
Pretty Link plugin for WordPress
ThirstyAffiliates Plugin for WordPress
If you’re more technologically savvy, you can simply create your own redirect links for your domain manually with FTP.
What a Redirect Link Looks Like
Here’s an example of a redirect link that leads to my Amazon Author page (complete with a universal affiliate link from Geniuslink):
Promoting Your Books
There you have it!
Now you know how to create a universal book link that will work for all your fans and followers in every country, and will give you affiliate credit for all the sales you generate for a little extra income.
You also now know how to create a custom redirect link that you can guarantee will work forever, because if the links change in the future, you can simply update your redirect link.
So, what’s next?
If you’re working on a book launch with a free promotion, check out our list of the top free book promotion sites here.
If you’re working on a book launch with a paid book, check out our list of the top book promotion sites for books at 99 cents and up.
Want to Learn Even More About GeoTargeted Links and Creating a Better Link for Your Readers?
Listen to the interview with Geni.us founder and creator Jesse Lakes where he shares even more juicy details on how to create the best link possible to promote your book or business.
If you liked this post, you’ll love these great articles on Amazon marketing:
- Amazon Marketing Strategy: How to Sell More Products and Books on Amazon
- Amazon Marketing Services: How to Use Amazon Ads to Sell More Books and Products
- How to Track Keywords for Amazon Books and Products
A special thanks to Michel Dion, a student from our How to Become a Bestselling Author on Amazon Kindle course on Udemy, for sharing the tip on using Geni.us and Thirsty Affiliates.
Tom Corson-Knowles is the founder of TCK Publishing, and the bestselling author of 27 books including Secrets of the Six-Figure author. He is also the host of the Publishing Profits Podcast show where we interview successful authors and publishing industry experts to share their tips for creating a successful writing career.
Hi, I am trying to apply for different regions/countries for Amazon affiliate marketing. Do I need to set up a different email and password with amazon for every region? Or i can do this through Genious link?
I also read your article saying once i apply to Amazon Aff.. I copy and paste the product text html portion in bold. When I try to get the text, there is no bold text and it’s all the same format. Can you please help me with this. I appreciate your help.
Don’t you need a different link for each product? I do when I’m promoting for them now or is this for if you have a dedicated page with all the items you want to promote on it? How do I or CAN I set up my own Amazon store within Amazon, i have seen other people do it but people who have a lot of followers & have been in the game a while. I’m newer.
Hey Holly, product links are specific so you’ll need to do this for each item you promote. However, it eliminates your need to generate different links for each country.
As for setting up a shop, here’s Amazon’s official guide.
Hey, I have an US Amazon affiliate account and want to sell my products for German User as well. I signed up for the German affiliate and connected the store ID to my US affiliate account. However when I try to see with product match they get for my affiliate link it says the store ID doesn’t exist and they are working on my request. Can you tell me what I did wrong and how I make it work?
I have no money and job. Tell me the best way to get money for my children.
Hi Kamran, I’m very sorry to hear about your situation. If you’re looking for opportunities online, affiliate marketing can definitely help. You can also check out this list of ways to make money writing.
hi i am sunny from India I want to do Amazon Affiliate Marketing In Brazil from sitting in India Is it Possible. if it possible Then, how can I Take Payment from Brazil Amazon Program.
Hi Sunny, I think as long as you have a universal affiliate link and are registered for the affiliate program you should be able to do what you’re trying
so if we don’t use a universal Amazon link (only US link), and if someone outside the US, let’s say that person order from the UK,
are we not receiving any affiliate fees?
Yes, you need a universal link to earn affiliate commissions in other countries
Hi thanks for this most interesting.
I am about to embark on the affiliate path and from reading the above I understand that I need to :
– setup an affiliate account on every Amazon site e.g. .com, .de etc
– then identify the product on one of these Amazon sites
– get the link html text
– go to geni.us
– copy in the link text
– generate a new link
– use this new link on my website
It seems that the custom redirect would not be allowed by Amazon so do not do this.
Does that summary sound about right ?
If so a question; is it normal for people to become an affiliate of all Amazon sites ?
Hi Guy, yes that sounds right. And you can become an affiliate of all sites if you want to earn royalties in each country’s store :)
My question is can I signed up for different countries Amazon associates account with a single email address…
Hi Philip, yes I believe you can
Hello, thanks for the great article. I’ve a question.
What happens if someone -who lives in a country which doesnt have amazon affiliate program but has amazon store- clicks this link?
1- Where would he/she be redicted?
2- Would I earn money from that person?
3- -Regardless geni.us- In which scenario I can earn money from those peope who live other countries (not usa, japan, germany, etc.)
To the author – you may want to add in your article that if people follow your advice on cloaking links that they will get banned from the Amazon Associates program. It says clearly in their documentation that using cloaking or redirection will result in a ban.
Hi tom, how are you doing. Once again with awesome detail article.
I have 1 major doubt, will you please clear it?
Doubt : If I join affialiate program from amazon.in (India ), and then generate 3 sales in india. And then get one link and attach with AAWP plugin to link amazon affilate with other multiple countries. And as in future I want to target amazon USA after getting one link globalization feature. Then if I add in future for every upcoming posts amazon.com (usa ) products links, will it affect anything, as my base account was amazon.in (india )??
Hi Mustaque, If I understood your question correctly, you only need one account to get paid, but if you want to earn royalties in each Amazon country’s store, you need an Amazon affiliate account in each of those countries (stores).
Cloaking links is against Amazon TOS and will likely get your account shut down.
Amazon has changed its affiliate coding. Does your link still work?
Not sure when this was written but I’m not seeing any free account at genius, starts at $5 a month. I get that’s not a lot, but I only use occasional links. Is there any other free way until I refer enough to move to this?
Hi Andy, sorry about that! I’ve updated the post. When this was originally written there was a free plan. I think Bitly is similar and has a free plan!
thanks a lot for this great info,
my question is:
must i have a website to do that..? actually i have only instagram ( over 300,000 followers) , so is it possible to create an international link and publish it on the bio of instagram …?
Yes, you can use the link on social media too!
I have a UK Amazon Associate ID. I want to be able to also promote products to the US and Canada.
I appreciate that I have to sign up to both the US and Canada Associate programmes but when signing up to them, do I have to use different email addresses to the one I used to sign up to the UK programme, or can I use the same one; and, do I also have to provide different website URLs to the one I used for the UK Associate programme?
I think you can use the same email. And no, the website URL doesn’t matter.
Tom,
Awesome post. Thanks so much. Cheers!
We’re so glad you like the post, Andy! :)
Hi, I have a question? Should I need to create multiple amazon affiliate account or just one country affiliate account is enough?
You only need one account to get paid, but if you want to earn royalties in each Amazon country’s store, you need an Amazon affiliate account in each of those countries (stores).
When I want to create this universal link…..do I have to sign in the international Amazon affiliate program (amazon.com) or in the one of my country? (amazon.de) Or is this not important?
I recommend you use both because you can integrate both with your geni.us link.
I am starting up a backpack affiliate website. Would this work for my as well?
Yes!
So, if I want to use my Amazon Affiliates Link, my choices are upgrade to Booklinkers Genius Link for $60/year OR use BKLink but have a redirect page OR use Books2Read and have a redirect page? (Booklinker actually accepted my AAffiliates LONG link, but I’m not sure if it’s truly directing to my Affiliates store link..not sure how to check?)
Yeah, those are all options for international links. If you don’t need the international links, you can just use the plain Amazon affiliate links if your audience is all in the US, or another specific country where Amazon has a store like the UK.
Hey tom, would you be open to discussing the topic of your blogpost and answering any questions related to geotargeting or redirection?
Yeah, if you have any questions feel free to post them here!
Its so frustrating when you follow instructions like your blog post to be taken to a website to find out they charge you for using their service. It would be nice to include that service you are recommending is a paid service.
I’m sorry! When I wrote the post originally, they had a free pricing tier but it looks like they’ve since changed that. I’ll update the post!
I am not able add payment details on this site it show error “Not a recognized credit card number.” Not accepting debit card details.
Hi Sagar,
Which site are you having an issue with, and what product are you trying to purchase?
I am from Pakistan and I cannot create amazon affiliate from my gmail or phone number any vistor who can help me
Hmm I’m sorry to hear that! I don’t know of a way to work around that.
looking at that genius links, I think it not redirecting as the country changes. please confirm once.
Hi,
It seems to be working for me and has for years. Which country/link are you having an issue with? You can always contact geni.us support too—they’re really helpful!
I personally think A-FWD is much easier to use because it is designed for Amazon.
Geni.us was designed for Amazon too, and it seems to have much more robust tracking and link management as far as I can tell.