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How To Add Amazon Affiliate Links to WordPress: Two Easy Methods

Last Updated on July 28th, 2023

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The Amazon Associates program has enabled countless website and social media channel owners to generate significant profits by promoting Amazon products in return for a commission. The program is best if you want to start an additional revenue stream. With the help of this program, you can sell products on the platform through your link and start earning money.

If you own a WordPress website, you can start the Amazon Associate program. For the same, you can start adding Amazon affiliate links to WordPress site. However, please remember you need to invest a sufficient amount of time to get success in this program.

Now the main question is, how to add Amazon Affiliate link to WordPress site? There is no straightforward method, you need to follow several guidelines.

To simplify your task, we will explain in detail how to insert Amazon Affiliate Link into WordPress manually & using a plugin.

Without taking much of your time, let’s get started.

adding amazon affiliate links to wordpress

What Is Amazon Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a popular business strategy where an online retailer (such as Amazon) pays a commission for sales referred from an external website, such as a blog, informational site, social media channel, etc.

In the case of Amazon, their affiliate program is called Amazon Associates. It is a hugely popular program with website owners for several reasons:

  • The program is free to join
  • Amazon is a massive platform with millions of products covering virtually every niche
  • People trust Amazon, feel secure buying from them, and believe they are getting a good deal
  • The program has very detailed user documentation
  • Affiliates have access to a useful dashboard and plenty of tools to help them market the affiliate products
  • Provides a (relatively) passive source of income

Unfortunately, the commission paid by Amazon to its affiliates has eroded considerably over time. The last reductions came hot on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and saw up to 5% knocked off several categories.

However, Amazon Associates remains a hugely popular scheme and can still be very lucrative, particularly if your niche either targets high-ticket items or popular lower-ticket ones that sell in large volumes.

One nice bonus of the Amazon Associates program is that if someone clicks on one of your affiliate links, you will receive a commission on everything they purchase within the cookie period (currently twenty-four hours), not just the item you promoted. However, whether that will continue to be the case in the future remains to be seen.

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If you run a blog or some other informational-type site, monetizing it makes sense to help cover the running costs and perhaps generate some profit. You can add affiliate links to WooCommerce stores to extend their moneymaking capabilities. Moreover, given the sheer number of products on Amazon, there are products to suit almost any website, regardless of niche.

So, let’s now look at how to add Amazon affiliate links to your WordPress site. We will look at the two most important methods: the first method adds them manually, while the second uses a plugin.

If you are only promoting a few products from Amazon, you can manage by adding the affiliate links manually into your content, and I will now show you how to do that.

However, if you are promoting many items, manual linking and maintaining those links can become very time-consuming. Therefore, in this case, you might wish to skip directly to Method 2: Adding Amazon Affiliate Links Using a Plugin.

Step 1: Register as an Amazon Affiliate

If you haven’t already registered for an Amazon Associates account, you can do so here. You will need specific information on hand, including:

  • Your website URL
  • Your preferred store ID
  • How you plan on monetizing and marketing your site (via multiple-choice questions)
  • Whether you wish to enter your payment and tax ID information now or later (you won’t get paid any earned commissions until you have done this)

Accepting the program may take some time (generally one to three days, but that is not guaranteed), so be patient. While you are waiting, I strongly recommend you carefully read the following:

Amazon is notoriously strict at implementing all its rules and regulations, so follow them to the letter. Punishment is severe if you fail to do so, as Amazon could close your account.

Once accepted as an Amazon Associate, you will have access to your Associate Homepage. It is the dashboard of your Amazon Associates account and is where you will search for product links, manage your affiliate commissions and payouts, etc.

Go to the ‘Product Linking’ dropdown menu on your Associate homepage and click ‘Product Links.’

Next, use the search box that appears to find the products you wish to promote.

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find amazon affiliate product links - how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress

You can also go directly to a product if you know the ASIN (for products) or ISBN (for books) number – simply enter the number into the search box. See Step 5 of Method 2 for more information on ASINs and ISBNs.

If you don’t know the ASIN number, you can enter some appropriate keywords in the search area and click on the Go button. Other than this, you can simply scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the best-selling products available in various products.

find amazon affiliate product links step 2 - how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress

When you have found the product you wish to promote, click the corresponding ‘Get Link’ button. When you click the button, you will be redirected to a new page. Here, you can select the URL type and modify the appearance.

find amazon affiliate product links step 3 - how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress

Now, you will get three types of link options.

Text Only: It consists of an anchor link along with the link to that product. This link would be great while introducing the product in a huge blog.

Image Only: It comprises an image with the link to the page or post. Users who click on the image will be redirected to the product page. You can insert these images in long-form content to break text.

Text and image: It has an anchor text and a linking photo.

Besides this, you also get an option to select the color of the link and linked image. Here, you can decide whether the URL opens in a new window and whether you want to showcase a border across the product.

After deciding link, you can GET the HTML code for the product link.

find amazon affiliate product links step 4 - how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress

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adding amazon affiliate links to wordpress

To use SiteStripe, you must enable it. To do this, go to the SiteStripe page from your Associates’ homepage by clicking on ‘Tools,’ ‘SiteStripe,‘ and ‘Learn More.’ From there, you can enable it under ‘Display Settings.’

After deciding product link, you need to go to the specific WordPress post or page to which you wish to add it. Here, we will explain how to add a text/image link. However, the process is similar for all.

Firstly, you need to insert a custom HTML block from the current editor where you want to image or link to appear. After this, you need to insert code from the Associate dashboard into the custom HTML block.

insert the amazon affiliate product links into your wordpress content

To check how the specific image will look, click on the preview option from the editor.

how to embed amazon affiliate link wordpress

In case you want to include a link in a generalized manner, you can do it the same way as inserting any other link in WordPress. But ensure that you don’t hide any of the Amazon Affiliates links. If you tend to do anything like this, you are breaching the Amazon Affiliate program’s terms of service.

After manually adding the Amazon affiliate link, we will explain how to embed Amazon Affiliate link in WordPress using the plugin.

A faster, more efficient, and preferable way of adding affiliate products to your WordPress site is using an Amazon affiliate plugin.

One of the best plugins currently available is Amazon Affiliate for WordPress or AAWP. This premium plugin includes many advanced options to simplify the daily running of your affiliate site.

The price of AAWP starts at €49 for a single site, including updates and support for a year.

Get AAWP

Step 1: Install the AAWP Plugin

First, you need to sign up for the Amazon Associates program (following the procedure in Step 1 of Method 1 above) if you have not done so already. 

Before purchasing and installing AAWP, ensure that your web hosting provider supports the minimum technical requirements of the AAWP plugin. Fortunately, most hosts will meet those, but it is worth checking.

Once the minimum technical requirements have been met, purchase and install AAWP as you would any other plugin.

After purchasing the plugin, you should have received a license key via email. Enter this into the ‘License key’ field in the ‘Licensing’ tab of the AAWP dashboard and hit ‘Activate license’:

how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress with aawp plugin

Step 2: Connect an Amazon Product Advertising API

If you haven’t already, register for an ‘Amazon Product Advertising API.’ You can find out how to do that by clicking here. Furthermore, you will also need to sign up for Amazon Web Services to create the API keys.

Click on the ‘Amazon API‘ tab, and in the appropriate fields, enter your:

This video explains how to obtain your API Key, Secret Access Key, and Tracking ID. Enter these accurately to ensure your affiliate ID is added to all outgoing links. Failure to do so will result in lost commission from any sales you drive.

Use the ‘Country’ dropdown box to select the Amazon region you are targeting:

how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress - connect an amazon product advertising api

If you have entered everything correctly, the status should switch to ‘Connected.’

Step 3: Configure the General Options

The ‘General‘ tab contains several options you can choose from (to see them all, you’ll need to scroll down the page in AAWP):

how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress - configure the general options

Here, you can configure the following:

  • Which shortcode to use (only necessary if you have another plugin that uses the same Amazon shortcodes)
  • The duration of the cache (the pricing and information update frequency)
  • The type of affiliate link to use (standard, shortened, or cloaked)
  • Enable or disable SSL for images and accelerated mobile pages (AMP) support
  • Choose the format for the last update (date only or date and time)
  • Inline information, for example, statements like “Price includes shipping.” This can be enabled/disabled as needed
  • The disclaimer (Amazon requires affiliates to inform people of their relationship with Amazon)
how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress - configure the general options step 2

Step 4: Configure the Output Options

The ‘Output‘ tab contains all options relating to how the Amazon links appear to your site users:

how to add amazon affiliate link to wordpress - configure the output options

In this tab, you can set the following:

  • Title length
  • Number of description list points
  • HTML formatting, Star Ratings, Pricing format, etc. 
  • Whether star ratings and reviews are to be shown
  • Pricing
  • Whether or not the Amazon Prime logo is to be displayed next to products
  • Call to action button style

Furthermore, you can add custom CSS to modify the plugin to match your theme’s appearance.

Step 5: Embed Amazon Products in Your Content Using Shortcodes

AAWP uses shortcodes to insert affiliate products into the content. There are several types available, and we will go through each now.

Adding a simple text link to a product is the easiest way of embedding Amazon links into your content.

Firstly, it is necessary to obtain the article (ASIN) or book (ISBN) number from the Amazon product page for the product you wish to promote. You can find this by visiting the corresponding Amazon product page and identifying the code in the page URL:

how to embed amazon affiliate link wordpress

Alternatively, the ASIN / ISBN also appears in the Amazon product description:

how to embed amazon affiliate link wordpress step 2

Next, create a shortcode as per the following, incorporating the ASIN/ISBN you just identified:

[amazon link=”B00THKEKEQ” /]

This shortcode can then be embedded wherever you want it in your content. It will appear to visitors as a product link with the title of the item taken directly from Amazon:

xample of embedded shortcode

Please note that “This is an Amazon link generated with a shortcode” won’t appear as it is just sample text I used to create the post!

Embedding a Product Box

Alternatively, you can add a product box to your content for a more significant visual impact. In this case, the shortcode to use is:

[amazon box=”B00THKEKEQ” /]

It will give a box containing details of the product like so:

how to embed amazon affiliate link product box wordpress

Embedding a List of Best Sellers

It is also possible to display a bestseller list. The shortcode is again straightforward, although now you need to specify how many items you wish to include in the list:

[amazon bestseller=”B00THKEKEQ″ items=”2″]

In this case, only the top two best sellers will appear. If you want to display a different quantity, it is simply a matter of adjusting the items=”2” part of the code.

It is an example of the two-item bestseller list created by the shortcode mentioned above:

how to embed amazon affiliate link list of best sellers

Previously, it was also possible to embed the list of best-selling products using ‘browse nodes.’ These are numeric codes used to identify product categories. There are tens of thousands of product categories on Amazon, each assigned with its own unique browse node ID.

However, we will not discuss browse nodes at length here because Amazon has stopped supporting them in the current version of their AP.

Embedding a List of New Releases

A further display option is new releases from a particular category. To do this, use the following shortcode format:

[amazon new=”B00THKEKEQ”  items=”2″/]

It is a typical output visitors will see from that shortcode:

how to embed amazon affiliate link list of new releases

Step 6: Embed Amazon Products in Your Widget Areas

AAWP bundles three widgets for adding Amazon affiliate products into the widget areas of your site. Depending on what your theme permits, these can include the sidebar, header, or footer.

To add the widgets, go to your WordPress admin dashboard and select ‘Appearance’ and then ‘Widgets’ in the left-hand menu:

how to embed amazon products in your widget areas

You will now see all the widget areas available to you. Click the ‘+’ on the widget area where you want the products to appear. In my case, I have selected the main sidebar. In the popup window, type AAWP. You will then see the AAWP widgets that are available:

how to embed amazon products in your widget areas step 2

Next, click on the widget you require – the corresponding input form for configuring that particular widget will appear:

how to embed amazon products in your widget areas step 3
how to embed amazon products in your widget areas step 4
how to embed amazon products in your widget areas step 5

Simply enter the necessary details into the form and hit ‘Update’ to save it.

Depending on the widget you chose, frontend users will then see something like this in the widget area where the widget was placed:

how to embed amazon products in your widget areas step 6

AAWP has many other options and configurations, including product comparison tables, templates, etc. – we have only touched on the basic features here to get you started.

For full details of what AAWP can do, check out the plugin website, where you will also find detailed documentation that includes a Beginner’s Guide with an informative video walkthrough.

Conclusion

The Amazon Associates program seems daunting to beginners, particularly given the numerous hoops the company makes applicants jump through when signing up for it. However, despite reducing commissions, it can still be very lucrative. Furthermore, Amazon does place a wide range of tools at your disposal to help you (and, ultimately, them) succeed.

When you first start with Amazon Associates, manually adding products is a great way to navigate and understand the system’s complexities. However, switching to a plugin, later on will help you keep a better grip on things, mainly if you are promoting lots of products.

Please be aware that aside from AAWP, other plugins are available to help insert Amazon affiliate links into your WordPress content. To read about some of them, please go to the WPLift article “14 Best Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugins in 2022.”

A team of WordPress experts that love to test out new WordPress related software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes.