Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer

by 59 replies
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Hey,

Just want to start by saying sorry if this is in the wrong category it is really early in the morning here and I couldn't find an appropriate one.

Anyway I just wanted to know if anyone uses the Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer plugin for wordpress?

I installed it and it doesn't seem to be working, I am from the UK and everytime I click on any of the amazon links on my site I go to Amazon.com even when the same product is available on the UK site.

This is quite worrying for me because the site I have put the links on is around 50% US, 25% UK and then the ROW, so I dont want to be losing 25% of my potential earnings (plus my ROW is made up with a large % of other amazon countries like France and Germany).

So basically I am wondering if this plugin has worked well for you because it could be I have done something wrong somewhere.

Also I was looking through the code for the plugin and came accross this bit of code, so though instead of screaming scam I would ask about it as I cannot understand the coding of it:

{window.addEventListener("load",checkAmazonLinks,f alse)}else{window.attachEvent("onload",checkAmazon Links)}var arrAffiliatesSpares={"co.uk":"pcrev05","com":"pete will-20","de":"petewill05-21","fr":"petewill-21","ca":"petewill00-20","jp":"petewill-22"};

This bit of code seems to be putting other amazon affiliates into the link instead of my own. There could be an innocent explanation for this of course so thought I would ask here.

Thanks for reading guys and any help is appreciated!
Jason
#programming #affiliate #amazon #link #localizer
  • While i don't know the context of the code, but those are other people's amazon id's, the -20 -21 tells you they are (the -20 is a region - north america i think).

    Just going off the code you pasted, perhaps it just there to fill in "blank" affiliate id's (hence arrAffiliatesSpares).
    • [1] reply
    • That's what I assumed as well but the plugin is supposed to put your aff id in as well when none is attached.

      Strange anyway, I have emailed the plugin developer but had no response
  • Just read this in the WP Plugin Directory:

    From what it says, the plugin should select the country automatically. Somewhere, something is going wrong.
  • Those Amazon affiliate links belong to the plugin authors. They're straight up about this from the outset and don't hide it at all - the plugin lets you hoover up Amazon commissions from more than one region if you have the relevant accounts (e.g .com and .co.uk). If your visitor instead uses Amazon from a region where you don't have an account, the commission goes to the authors. Not unreasonable - since it can't go to you anyway, then it may as well go somewhere.
    • [1] reply
    • I suppose that's pretty reasonable.

      I still have the problem that it just doesn't work however, I am from the UK and every Amazon link I click still takes me to the .com site with my .com affiliate id attached.

      Am I just being stupid here, has someone else installed this and had it work fine?
      • [2] replies
  • Is there any way to do this but also use an affiliate link cloak/redirect? I'm using the "Pretty Links" WP plugin to redirect my Amazon links, but I'm guessing this won't work with it. Just checked and I'm missing a good 25% of my traffic.
    • [1] reply
    • I'm interested to know if anyone has anymore info on this too?

      I've been using pretty links to create the aff link. Would the plugin recognise this?

      Also, I wanted to know how the plugin actually works.

      Lets say I have my long affiliate link just naturally coded into the website. so... www.amazon.com/blahblahblah-afflink-etcetc

      Would the plugin change that code for different visitors from different countries, or should I just be using direct links to amazon, and let the plugin take care of the aff id and incorporating it into the link?

      Sorry if that sounds confusing...I've been having some serious problems getting my thoughts in to text of late! (just check some of my other posts!) lol.
      • [2] replies
  • A lot of the new scripts these days cloak amazon links. My 1shopelectronics.com has all amazon links cloaked.

    Also my wordpress sites I have a plugin i use to cloak any link. Will try to find name when I get a chance.
  • In answer to the original post, I have been using this plugin and can confirm that the clicks are divided as expected (.co.uk/.com/.ca).

    I haven't looked at the code so am not really sure how the plugin captures the locale, but if it's as simple as grabbing the language from your browser, could it be that your browser settings are set to en-US rather than en-gb therefore directing you to .com ??

    Cheers.
    Paul
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for sharing your experience. I have no idea to be honest, I will check out from another computer and see where that sends me.

      Also Paul, how do you link to amazon? Do you direct link to the page and the plugin puts the aff code in? Or do you just put up your normal amazon aff link and the plugin converts it for you?

      Cheers
      • [1] reply
  • I've been thinking about making an Amazon plugin for Wordpress because I always find myself wanting extra features or an easy way to create a lot of different advertisements.

    I also have one Amazon site I recently made where the products are only available to certain countries for particular products or on certain Amazon country sites. Not all of the products were available on other product sites, so I needed to be able to use different product ids for various countries.

    Does anyone else find a lack of functionality with current Amazon Wordpress plugins? I'd love to hear some of the things you want an Amazon plugin to do.
  • I tried to use this but I wasn't convinced it worked. As its such a crucial part of my site and sales process I opted not to use it. I think giving visitors the option by country is just as good.
    • [1] reply
    • Hey guys,

      My name's Pete and I wrote this plugin. It looks like there are some questions/comments about the plugin so I thought I'd pop in and see if I can help.

      Just to explain, the script does use my affilliate IDs, but only where you don't provide your own. It will never overwrite your IDs, and so will never deprive you of any commission. This is explained on the page on my site for this script:

      That's said, for some reason this isn't on the Wordpress Plugin page for the plugin and it should be - I'll add it when I next update the script. I'm not sure why it wasn't there in the first place as I did it over a year ago, but it's also missing various other sections that are on my site, so I imagine there was a character limit or I was just trying to cut it down to the bare essentials to explain the concept succinctly.

      Believe me, I'm not making a killing by pulling the wool over people's eyes on this one! Thinking about the Amazon commission I've made and the time I've spent on the script and responding to endless support queries, I'd estimate it's worked out at earning me about 20p/hour!

      Some people have mentioned it's not working for them - if that's the case for you, can you post a link to an example and I'll check it out for you.

      The most common reason it doesn't appear to work is when people link to an item that is not stocked at the local site. The script automatically checks if an item is sold and if not it does not localise the link. I'm changing this in the next version so that it changes to a search page at the local site for the requested item. This is because some items have different product IDs in different countries - for instance the PS3 on .com has a different ID to the one on .co.uk because they are actually slightly different products. Therefore changing the link to co.uk would not work, but if it searched .co.uk for 'Playstation 3' it would take you straight to the product.

      The other issue is that the script doesn't yet work with Amazon widgets (that use iframes) or some other wordpress plugins that generate other kinds of links. Again, this is something I am looking to resolve in the next version.

      I'll try answer some specific questions now, please let me know if I miss yours!

      Yes it would.

      Yup.

      Yup.

      The idea is that it takes care of everything for you - you forget about localising or affiliating and it'll do it for you. But I think you are right, more information on some things is needed, so I'll be adding a FAQ to the next version.

      As mentioned, the Wordpress version takes care of this. The plain JS version needs updating.

      As above, the WP version checks links before changing them.

      You're right, and I'll change this.

      Nope, it works your location out form your IP.

      I can't see any email from you, when did you send it?

      Any more questions, please do ask?

      Thanks

      Pete
      • [ 5 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • A version of this that supported url cloaking/redirection (website.com/go/randomamazonitem/) would be very cool.

    I'm not a huge fan of having the bare links showing, for various reasons, but you can't have it both ways, I guess.
  • Please do let me hear any more suggestions as I'd love to improve the plugin further.
  • Thanks for throwing in on this Pete. An update were it would do the search if the item was not the same would be pretty sweet, is this actually something you are working on now or is it just something you are thinking about?
    • [1] reply
    • Yup, that part is already done, I just need to find some time - when I'm not busy with paid work - so I can finish the rest of the updates I've got planned.

      Pete
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Is the plugin avaible now ?
    • [1] reply
    • Go into your wordpress dashboard, then plugins, search for Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer
      and then install.
      • [1] reply
  • Installing this plugin slowed my loading time down massively. I would like to try it again when it has been updated and is compatible with WP V 3.0.3

    And if anyones worried about the affiliate links paying the author then just open an account in each of the locales. For me I really can't be a**ed with getting a check for $10 in japenese yen, the author is welcome to it

    @ Pete Williams - could you update this thread when you have updated the plugin so I can give it another try? Cheers
  • Suggestion, even though you can do this for yourself. Having the plugin automatically insert nofollow tags to the Amazon links would be great. They have enough as it is!

    And silly me I used the search function and completely forgot to check when this thread was made lol
  • Hi Pete
    I would love test your new beta edition on a few sites.

    Tom
  • Hi Pete

    I have been looking for a plugin like this for ages - have you notified Reviewazon as they didnt seem to know of any when I asked?
    I am very happy for you to collect any comms I dont put in ID's for - I reckon you deserve it for all your hard work

    Thanks
  • I agree that using "pretty link" that looks better would be more useful than keeping the "bare" amazon link so you can utilize the plugin. I've also heard that google likes seeing the "pretty links" over the amazon links because they don't like affiliate links as much.

    Curious if anyone else had some thoughts on this....
  • Looks like the plugin is doing well now. Pete's updated it as of 2011-9-23 and over 17000 downloads. Nice one Pete.
    Cheers!
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks mate! I've had a bit more time to work on the plugin recently, so it's had quite a few tweaks and new features added to the latest version.

      I've also finally updated the non-Wordpress version for anyone who wants to use this system but doesn't use Wordpress. Unfortuantely I don't have permission to post links here but it's at:
      petewilliams.info/blog/2009/07/javascript-amazon-associate-link-localiser

      If anybody has any suggestions for features they'd like to see in a future version, do please let me know and I'd happy to look into them.

      Cheers

      Pete
      • [1] reply
  • if i were you I would hardcode this and put my own affiliate id into the scri[t as well as in the admin of the plugin just to be sure.

    having said that, if you had to outsource this creation it would cost you a fair bit to implement, this plugin is free, so the coder needs to get paid too.

    I see no issues with this what so ever if his affiliate lnks are used when you haven't added yours in.

    Suppose you signed up to every amazon affiliate except for france, so you put all your accounts in instead of france. The french visitor is only going to buy from french amazon site, so he will visit amazon france and because you don't have an affiliate account there, nobody makes any comission (or at least the last guy who had a french amazon affiliate link, which could be anyone with a 90 day cookie).

    So why is it so bad if the coder decides to drop his affiliate link in there in the absense of your code?>
  • I signed up to all amazon affiliates except for china and japan, it seems that you can't use your nomal amazon logins for accounts over there, couple possibly be down to some restrictions placed by the governments meaniing you have to sign up to a new amazon account to get access.
    • [1] reply
    • Im in the UK. I installed this plugin, but when I click on a US affiliate link, it doesn't direct me to the UK amazon site instead it goes to the US site for that product.

      The products on the UK amazon site have different ASIN numbers than the US site amazon site, but in the FAQ section below it says that it should link to a search results page if the product doesn't have the same ID.



      Any idea why it isn't directing to the UK site?

      Im not using Amazon widgets, im using text links. Also, i've ensured that the UK affiliate ID is in the plugin's settings.
      • [1] reply
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  • Do we have to have affiliate accounts at both UK and US to do this?

    I just got told from amazon support that if someone enters your site which promotes Amazon US, and they redirect themselves to Amazon UK or any other region and buy something, we will not get paid for that.. which is the opposite of what I have been told and read on here ...
  • Does anyone know of a Amazon Link Localiser plugin for a normal website?
    • [1] reply
  • Banned
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