Help with adding a Product via a link, please!
I have always added my Products via a keyword search but I have been asked to add a couple of products via links instead.
I am not sure whether my being in the UK makes a difference but should I be adding links from Amazon.com or from Amazon UK? I know that most of my traffic still comes from the States but I get traffic from here too!
Also could someone please talk me through the process as I don't seem to be able to do it correctly.
Thank you.I would go to amazon.com and look for a worthwhile product there using the sites search tools and exploring related keywords.
HP's keyword searchs are not always accurate.
On Amazon you can check the buyer ratings and reviews to pick something that really does the job.
If you reccomend something that you have not fully explored you can end up doing your readers a disservice.After reading all of the posts here, I only have this comment: Why does HP want to make things so difficult for the writers here who are not tech savvy? Why not just allow us to continue using capsules? It is very clear to me that you earn more from capsules than links because they are more noticeable, bigger and have product photos on them. So why change things up? It seems like a lot of work for people to go back and change their capsules to links, especially if they have a good number of them. I don't like this idea and do not feel it is productive. There are too many opportunities for error and financial loss.
+1
Why not change the capsule so it's more subtle, and that way we an keep using it?How in the world do you make a capsule more subtle? I mean, when you place it on a hub, what comes up is what Amazon sends. We are told to use wide photos, etc, to meet mobile requirements, which is what I do with the ads, so what are we supposed to do?
You'll notice that what you see on Amazon capsules is not quite the same as what you see when you add an Amazon product to your blog. That's because HubPages has styled it to suit.
Some time ago they made the Buy Now button bigger - now they've made it smaller again. They could get rid of the button altogether and make the product name clickable. If they get rid of the keyword search altogether and make us choose a specific product (which is clearly what they want us to do), then they could allow us to edit the product name.
The great thing about that is that it would change everyone's existing Amazon capsules.I always choose specific products, but why would I want to edit the product name? How would all of this change everybody's capsules and in what way?
The reason HubPages doesn't want us to use capsules is because they're too in-your-face.
I'm saying, rather than snipping capsules and then letting us add them back as links, which is what they seem to be doing, they could just change the design of the capsules so they are less in-your-face, and that would solve their problem in one fell swoop for everyone.
Haven't you noticed that sometimes, Amazon's product titles are unnecessarily long, because the sellr is trying to get in as many keywords as possible (which could be seen as spammy). If we could edit the product name we could fix those ourselves.Using text links solves that problem because we can make the anchor text anything we want to override long product titles used by Amazon and make the link more to the point.
In some cases text links work better than capsules, as long as they are used properly and with the right anchor text. (Anchor text must clearly let the reader know where the link will take them. This is a requirement for submitting your hub for consideration for a niche site.)
An example of what? If you mean an example of how to phrase the anchor text to clearly tell the reader what the link brings them to, just think in terms of telling them that - and put it into the anchor.
An example of what this should look like. I am totally lost here, although it may seem simple to you guys. For example, If I am touting a product would I name it, highlight it, search for it in Amazon, add the Amazon URL in the link box or what? Need a visual here. It's how I learn!
That is exactly how I learn and I tried to copy the screen but the pop-up box will not print the box, only the page behind it.
This is a bit against the rules, but my "PrtSc" button does copy the pop-up box, so I've done a visual for you. Let's hope this link survives long enough for you to read it!
https://marisawright.wordpress.com/2016 … -hubpages/Thanks, Marisa, that is exactly what I needed. I don't see the page as you do. I have never seen any products as they are displayed in the box below the My Hubs Amazon and Hubs block. It would have been very simple if I had.
I don't see the highlighted words appear in the search box after the pop-up box opens but if I double click the line I see a history on that search line of items which I have searched for beginning with the letters G - because I was looking for a Gertie Ball presumably. If I type in another letter I get other products and the search remains static as I said before with a blue line around it and I never see any products displayed as you have them on your link below the three blocks.Thanks for posting this, Marisa. I hope it remains because it was extremely helpful. The only thing I didn't see was where you would type in the name of a product that was not already listed. I assume there is a blank space in that little box for dong so? Visuals are always so helpful, and, again, I must say that your work is SO beautifully done. Wish I had your talent!
TT2 if your product is not showing. Just copy the exact Product Name from Amazon and paste it in the box that says: Or, search for links about...
That's it, your product will show there. click it and save.
Marisa already explained this. You do not use the Amazon URL. The system does that for you. Leave the URL field at the top alone. Don't put anything in that field when setting up an Amazon text link. You just enter the product ID of the item you want, see it below in the box, click on that item, and then click save the capsule (Not the save in the box).
I only did that because she asked if I could I do an ordinary link. I can, I have some on my Butterfly hub. I thought she meant on the same pop-up box URL line but when I woke up this morning I realized that she meant an ordinary link from the link button if I I were creating an ordinary link on a hub Now, that was stupid! I was too fixated on the silly pop-up box which I have been trying to sort out. Turns out though after seeing her example that I have never seen a product image or the products displayed on the pop-up box like that. It would have been simple but I don't get any product images or links as are displayed on her page. What I have been seeing is a history of things which is below the search box, not the box under the HubPages Amazon Hubs where her products appear. On my computer they don't appear at all, hence my reason for thinking the page was static. It would have been so simple if they did.
Now I really am confused, sallybea. When you make an ordinary link, you DO use the same pop-up box - you paste the link into the URL line at the top. I don't know any other way to do it.
You could go into the HTML and link out directly as well. But I doubt that's the other option many hubbers use.
That is incorrect for the purpose of creating Amazon affiliate links. You need to let the system control the 60/40 rule.
If you override that by hard coding the link in the HTML I am sure that is against terms of service. In addition, if you do that with just a URL pointing to the product, you won't get revenue from it anyway.
When done with the link tool (chain icon) then the system automatically puts the right link in the HTML with your affiliate id and HubPages' affiliate id on a 60/40 bases.My statement is in regard to the other hubbers comment of saying that there is a possibility of including a regular link another way. For Amazon Links the only way is to get through the amazon option once you click the chain.
This thread is about adding product links, not regular links. See the title.
Exactly Glenn and one hubber brought up the question of adding links other ways. If you read the previous replies
I use the Capsules Link on the right-hand side of a Hub when I am writing it and insert a Link from there. I don't use the Amazon Link. Goodness, this is hard when you are self-taught and don't have the terminology required to explain my actions. Of course, I could be doing that wrong too! I just know now that my Amazon Link is not working correctly like yours.
Aha! That's how you were doing the links the other way lol. I was wondering what the other way is. The links capsule is usually used when you want to link to external sources, usually as references or further reading. Since it's basically a list of links - you have the option to add a short description describing each link.
You live and Learn.
Just had an email from Matt and he asked if I was using an extension to my browser - such as Grammarly. I was. He suggested disabling it. It seems it could have been the thing causing the problem.
I can't do without Grammarly so I am just going to have to remember to use a different browser for my links until HubPages can give us a decent spell, grammar checker.Or if you are using Chrome and you don't want to disable the extension every time and have Grammarly while you write articles, there's a quick turnaround to this.
Write in a normal browser, but when you want to add amazon links (do this after writing your article) go incognito: Hit control+shift+N all at the same time. Grammarly will not be active in this browser window. Sign into your hubpages account and work from there. Probably a better option than using two different browsers.
This is an example of anchor text (selected by hub editors) leading to an Amazon sales page:
'This particular model has a fourteen-foot pole'. (yes that whole phrase, lol)
No mention of the site you are being sent to.
Other anchor text includes the product name, but no mention of Amazon.
This is not good.Yeah, true. They say to do this when you submit a hub for a niche site, but the actual complete rule is vague. You don't really need to say where it's going as long as you say what to expect. Thanks for showing that example Will. TT2 had asked for an example.
lead me to one of your articles where you've done this so I can see what you are talking about, OK?
You know I can't post a link to my own hubs. But if you want to see an example, go to my profile, select the filter for "autos" and go to the one about car maintenance. I have a text link to Amazon in that hub.
Where was it stated that HP wanted us to use links instead of Amazon capsules and when was this info put out?
I don't think a policy has been announced, but the advice has been handed out on the forums several times now. Also as you can see, Sallybea has been told to make some capsules into links.
There was a whole thread somewhere where we were questioning that advice, because it seemed to some people (including me) that text links are deceptive: readers know when they click on an Amazon capsule that they're going to Amazon, but if they click on a text link they don't, and they might not like it.
HubPages doesn't seem to worry too much about that. Where I've put a text link in, I do try to mention Amazon (e.g. "you can find several products on Amazon, my favourite being this Capezio one".
I had some capsules snipped for the new sites, and added them back as links with no problems.I have numerous hubs on the niche sites that have Amazon capsules. In one instance, the team took all four in one of my main articles and made them into links. I asked permission to change two of the links back to capsules, and they let me do it. I also have capsules in several other niche articles that have been permitted to stay on them, but I will add that many of my articles have no products at all. A bit confusing, dontcha think?
I don't see why. Maybe you misunderstood what I was saying.
As you have experienced yourself, HubPages is ENCOURAGING people to use links rather than capsules. No one is saying you MUST use links instead of capsules.I just hate when they do that...it's makes things so confusing! I'm just going to continue to use capsules...much easier.
I think the point is, you can use several Amazon links in a Hub but you'll only get away with a few Amazon capsules. That's the attraction of learning to use the links.
Since I don't show many products, I can live with just a few. I get what you're saying, but I don't like the link idea so have to go with what I've been doing.
You should be adding the links using HubPages' tool and that will add links to Amazon.com
When the box comes up to add the link, look down at the bottom and you'll see the option to search Amazon.If you want to earn from Hub Pages ad program, it has to be Amazon com It's possible to manually add a product link from Amazon UK but you won't benefit from the sale. To add a working link (as Marisa says) use the hub tool as follows.
1. Open edit mode for the text capsule in which you want the link to appear.
2. Highlight one or two key words where you want your reader to click. (For example the brand name of the product you are recommending.)
3. Within the edit capsule the menu symbols of an unbroken chain and a broken chain will now be visible.
4. Click on the unbroken chain symbol and this will bring up a box with Amazon com suggestions. Either choose one of these or insert your own url in the top box.
5. Then save the edit.
If you change your mind, go through the same steps but click on the broken chain symbol and the link will be removed.I went to Amazon.com and found the exact product I want, copied the URL and put it into the top line of the page and did a search. The line changes to a few words and I saved it. I check the link but it goes to a HubPage which is all about HubPages and not the product I selected. What am I missing?
Let's try again.
You've found the perfect product on Amazon.
Now write a few words about it on your Hub. Highlight the words you want to turn into a link. In the box that pops up, click on the Amazon tab. You'll see suggestions from HubPages. Ignore those and put either the product number or the product name in the Search box. You should see your chosen product come up in the Amazon section. Click on the one you want and save.The pop-up block which I get after highlighting the text is unresponsive. If I click on the Amazon button in the middle and search using keywords the page does nothing. I don't get one suggestion, zilch!
If I try putting the URL into the top of the page and save it, the page appears unresponsive but I save it anyway and when I check there is a blue link but it is not an Amazon link. The link goes back to the same HubPage page over and over again. It is a page which just has a few old questions on it.
I find it simple to use an Amazon module so I am wondering if it is a site problem.
On the bottom of the page, I see a pale white line which has javascript written on it, as if the page is trying to search.
Are you putting in the url of your chosen amazon product page?
(or maybe you are putting in the url of your hub page instead and that's what is causing the problem)?Yes putting in the URL of the Product I chose. I clicked on it, copied it and pasted it into the top line where it says URL and then saved! Though to be honest the page gave no indication that anything was being saved.
The hub page which comes up is not my page, it is just a random page with some old questions on it.I'm sort of getting an idea of the confusion. Here are the stages:
Open the text capsule where you want to add an Amazon text link
Select the text that you want to link from (this will be the anchor text)
Click the link symbol in the text capsule edit menu
You will get a choice of links that can be added: 'My Hubs' 'Amazon' or 'Hubs'.
Click on 'Amazon' it will do a keyword search of Amazon for you and produce a selection of related products
You can chose from the list (this is not a great feature) or better still you can add the Amazon link you have already found by judicious selection on amazon.com to the topline, URL field box (the full URL of the page on amazon that you want to link to)
Hit save on the link feature
Then hit save on the text capsule
Until you close the text capule the amazon link will not work.
Best of luck.
Sleep time for me, so I won't be able to help any further. If that was any help at all...lol.You are trying to put the product in the wrong place.
You do not paste anything in the URL box. If you do that, your affiliate code will not be added so you won't earn from it.
Underneath where you are pasting the URL, you'll see three choices - click on the Amazon tab and you should see some suggested Amazon products. If none of them is suitable, enter the name of the product in the Search box above. If I remember rightly, you can enter the product CODE into the search box and that works too.
Then just click on the product that comes up in the bottom section and click "save".HI Marisa,
Could I ask you to please explain why the URL box there if it is not meant to be used for this purpose? Is there something I should be adding in that line?
If I click on the Amazon button and do a search no products I never get any to appear in the Blank area below the Hub My Hubs and Amazon Button.line as someone suggested I should!
The only products I see are the ones which when I double click the search bar show up as a history of my searches. Not all the products are related to my current search. I can click one and it will appear in the search bar with an orange background.
If I click the save it still does not produce a link on the saved Edit.
I check the edited hub but the anchor word is exactly as it was before, not a link.OK, Sallybea, let's see if I can explain.
The URL bar is there so that you can add links to other sites. That's the main reason most people create links, so that's why it appears at the top.
If you want to create a link to Amazon, though, you want to earn money from that link, and that means HubPages needs to add an affiliate code to it. That's why you have to add the link in a special way, using the lower section.
So - when you highlight a word, click on the chain icon and the link box pops up, you can see the word you highlighted in the Search box, right (and just to be clear, we are talking about the Search box inside the link box, not the search bar on HubPages or on your browser)?
Now click on the Amazon tab in the centre and you should see some suggested results based on your highlighted word. If none of them is suitable, type a product name into the Search box - and again, I mean the search box inside the box, not the search bar on HP or in your browser.Thanks for pointing out the problem with Amazon text links, Marisa. They really do need a simpler system if hubbers are going to use them effectively.
I assumed it was a robust way of getting properly functioning links and once you were in the Amazon tab it created the correct links automatically in the style of the Amazon capsules.
I need to go and eliminate the false links I created yesterday while trying to use it, then forgot about. Before I get banned, lol.I'm obviously explaining this very badly, Will. I'm not sure why people feel it's a problem.
You highlight the words, click on the chain icon and the box pops up, Click on "Amazon".
You should immediately see a list of products produced from your link text. If one of those suits, just click on it and click Save.
In most cases, as you point out, that won't be good enough so you need to find the product you want - which you do by pasting the exact product name into the search box. That will produce a list of products under the "Amazon" tab, one of which will probably be the one you want. Click on it and hit Save.
Done.I get the fix but it is too complex for everyday use especially by newbies and the non-technical. I'm used to getting amazon links from amazon or using the capsules here and they do not need any thought. Getting usable text links of the exact products you want to display should be similarly intuitive.
But Will, I'm not suggesting a "fix", I'm just explaining how it works normally!
I'm still not quite sure why you didn't realise that you couldn't just paste the Amazon URL into the URL field. It has always been obvious to me that section is for creating ordinary links, and the bottom section is for making other kinds of links, and that they're separate.To work properly this feature would allow you to go to amazon get your page URL there and drop it into the URL field in the text link dialogue, Anything less than that functionality will be tripping up more people than it helps.
As soon as you select 'Amazon' over 'my hubs' or 'hubs' everything should be orientated to making it hard to go wrong when adding amazon affliate links.
Anyway, my brain is currently in good working order and I should be doing something useful before it returns to normal, lol...NO NO NO. Read my comment I left 30 minutes ago. You don't copy the URL. Marisa was right about that. And her explanation was perfect. Just follow it.
I think you need to reread my earlier comments.
I understand how the feature works but is is unhelpful on several levels. The keyword feature will not give you the best results but newbies will assume it does.
The URL field is not designed to create affilate links even when you choose 'amazon' over 'hubs'.
It needs to be made more inuitive.You're right about the keyword feature not being so great. That's why it's best to do the search in Amazon and then just copy and paste the item's ASIN or ISBN code into the search box of the link tool.
As for the URL, I think I see your point. What you are saying is that the Amazon capsule can parse the URL and take out just the ASIN or ISBN code, and that doesn't work in the link tool.
Okay! I see your point. I never ran into that since I just plug in the item code. But if you feel it is an issue, report it as a bug.Well, it's not a bug it is just non-intuitve and confusing for many. As evidenced by this thread.
I don't know if two people constitute "many", it would be interesting to know how many other people have misunderstood it.
Why don't you simply call Sally, Lobobrandon, Beth and me stupid and be done with it, lol.
Will to be frank I never mixed it up. I always knew that the URL box was for URL's and not Amazon links. The thing I explained was that there was a HP bug that even after I searched for a product the way I explained earlier and Marisa multiple times on this thread, it still entered HP's affiliate code.
There is no way that I entered this onto the URL section, because before yesterday I never even cared to check out what HP's affiliate ID was. And so, it's not possible that I entered it directly.
But I totally get your point when you say it could be confusing. To me it was simple, since for Amazon once you click the Amazon tab whatever is below it is "for Amazon" above is a normal URL which was there earlier.
But if you and a few others on this thread have got it mixed up, and you guys are some of the best here, I'm damn sure there are tens or hundreds of other hubbers mixing this up as well. Just that those people are not here on the forums. Or have not yet come across this issue, since they are not updating hubs to replace capsules with text based links - yet.
Anyway now that everyone here on this thread knows how it works, I see no point in further discussing it. Too much work would have to go into play to get rid of the URL bar once Amazon is selected, and I bet HP has better work to do with the time, right now
P.S: And no one should be called stupid for mixing up stuff lol. Marisa was just pointing out the way it works and this thread was kind of confusing with everyone saying they got it and at the same time wasn't sure why it was that way.
But when you click "My Hubs" or "Hubs", you don't then go and find the URL and paste it into the URL field, do you? You select from the list that comes up in that section, or use the Search function to get the one you want to come up. So why would you think the Amazon section, in the same area, would work differently?
Will, The link tool in the text capsule works fine and I think it is indeed very robust with what it does.
As Marisa explained, it is used for two purposes. It can be used to create "anchor text" that links to any site, or it can be used to make an "anchor text" that goes to an Amazon product.
I think that Marisa explained it very well. Just remember that we get 60% of the impressions and HubPages gets 40%. When you create the product link using the Amazon tab, the system properly functions this way. But if you hard code a URL to Amazon, you (and HubPages) will miss out on getting any revenue from a sale.
Remember that the URL field is just used when you want to link to another site (or another page on HubPages). It's not for the purpose of creating affiliate links.
Marisa, thank you. I think you have done a great job of explaining it. I always like to know how a thing works and why it should be done that way. I never mind putting my question forward even if it makes me look 'stupid' and helps someone else in the process.
I still can't get it to work which makes me think there is a bug or it is my computer!
We do need to make sure that everyone understands how it should be done otherwise there are going to be a whole lot of duff links out there with people not earning what they should be.
I do appreciate all the help that everyone has given me.What are you seeing once you do it as Marisa says? Why do you think it's not working. Is it not linking or are you not finding your product.
lobobrandon
Could not reply to your response on Grammarly below but thank you for the tip regarding Grammarly. Matt from Hubpages is looking into fixing the bug, He contacted me again this evening so all looking good.
I reckon the only mistake you are making is not hitting 'done editing' before trying out the link you have made.
You see something like this in edit mode:
amazon:B000XX7V2S
You see this after hitting 'done editing':
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X … cctXXXX-20Can you explain again how exactly it isn't working?
What I mean is, can you tell me:
- what words are you highlighting in your Hub?
- when you click on the chain icon and the pop-up box comes up, are those words already in the search box? (if not, you haven't highlighted them properly, you need to go back and try again)
- if the words are already in the search box, click on the Amazon button. Can you see products listed below? It should at least say "no items found". If it's blank there is something wrong.
- assuming you can see some products and they're not suitable, what happens when you type the name of the product you want (NOT the URL) into the search box inside the pop-up box and hit 'Search'?
We will get to the bottom of this yet!Can you explain again how exactly it isn't working?
What I mean is, can you tell me:
- what words are you highlighting in your Hub?
The Product is a Gertie Ball. I am highlight that word on my Hub. There are some on Amazon.com
- when you click on the chain icon and the pop-up box comes up, are those words already in the search box? (if not, you haven't highlighted them properly, you need to go back and try again)
No, the words don't appear in the search box, they only appear if I double click the space where one would type in Gertie Ball to do a search. The only Items I see are some previous searches. Two of them I can click on and they will appear in the box bordered in orange as if they were a link.
- if the words are already in the search box, click on the Amazon button. Can you see products listed below? It should at least say "no items found". If it's blank there is something wrong.
When I click on the Amazon button I have never seen any products there. It is blank and remains blank.
- assuming you can see some products and they're not suitable, what happens when you type the name of the product you want (NOT the URL) into the search box inside the pop-up box and hit 'Search'?
When I do a search for the product the page does nothing except the search box has a blue line around it. I don't find any products even though I know they are on Amazon.
We will get to the bottom of this yet!So, you mean the search box inside the pop-up box, right? If you've highlighted the words "Gertie Ball" and those words don't appear automatically in the search box, then you haven't highlighted the words properly. Maybe you're highlighting them, but as you click the chain icon, the highlight disappears. That happens to me sometimes.
You need to get that step working before anything else can work.
Have you tried making an ordinary link using the chain icon, e.g. try linking to another website (any one will do) by pasting in the URL in the URL box. See if that works. If not, then it is definitely something to do with the way you're highlighting the text - or something strange in your browser settings..Yes. I did try making an ordinary link my own Webpage but the link defaulted back to a page on HubPages instead which is not what I asked it to do.
I have noticed that if I click on the Amazon box you told me I should select on the pop-up box, that if I highlight one of the items in the search box drop down section, that the box I selected reverts back to the HubPages one next to it and does not stay on the Amazon block.
Should this happen or should it stay on the Amazon box which I selected before?
I have definitely selected the box correctly on the edit page but once I have finished doing what I have been told to do in the pop-up box, it never saves the link. At least in the URL box. I can save a link even if it is not the right one.
I still think the page is unresponsive. I would have thought that it should at least tell you if the item had been saved!
I am seriously thinking of giving up on this until staff can take a look at it.
I did email them a couple of days ago but have not had a response so far and they have not chipped in here.
It is really hard to explain all of this without giving you a visual and I can't print screen the pop-up box because it will only copy the page behind the pop-up box.Since the system is working perfectly for Glen, me and Lobobrandon (and I think for Will as well, now he's understood it), I am pretty sure it's not something HubPages can help you with. There's nothing wrong with the system.
I'm confused because on the one hand, you say you can make an ordinary link by pasting in the URL, but in the next sentence, you say you can't link to your own webpage. Can you clarify?
Let me have a think about this.
I think we can say that we did our best. She is either not hitting save in the link dialogue, not closing the text capsule before trying the link, or she is putting the amazon URL where the page address should go.
Marisa - You're a star. Thank you!
I didn't know that bit about your affiliate link not being added if you added the url instead of the product number. I've just checked some of my links and am now in the process of going through all my hubs to correct them so that I am earning from them all.
Thank you once again.
BethThanks for making the issue clear.
If it is true, the whole system is broken.
I will go check.
edit:
Ran out of time. There seems to be multiple ways of messing up and in ten minutes I could not find a secure way of making sure a text link would give me a cut of the earnings.
It would help if we knew what a successful (earning) affiliate link should look like.
I reckon this is pure HP: hxxps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/BXXXXY7V2S/?tag=hubpages-vig-20
My personal identifier link is probaly this: hxxps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/BXXXY7V2S/?tag=hubacct2XXX-20
where the X's were once real characters...Hi All
Thanks for all your suggestions. I am at this stage.
I selected the text I wanted to link to the product and the box opened. I clicked amazon and by double clicking in the search box, I was able to see some of the product suggestions. I clicked the item which I wanted to add and clicked search and writing was bordered in orange. The search box now has a little blue line around it but no matter what I do I cannot save it. The page is unresponsive. If I go back to the edit page I have not made a link.
Incidentally, where do I find a product number on Amazon to do a search? I tried that to by using the number on the end of one of the suggestions but it does not search either.You clicked on the item you wanted, so why did you click search? You've already found it. All you had to do was click save.
Does this explain that while I'm getting plenty of clicks, I'm now getting almost no orders, I wonder?
Okay something very strange has happened. Thanks SheilaMilne for giving me the link to this post.
I have 2 hubs with text based amazon links.
One was changed by Editors - Working at 50% Hub Pages and 50% Me from the 10 times that I loaded the page. It has 3 text links. One time all 3 are HP and the next time all 3 were mine. This happened alternatively all of the 10 times. I made sure there were no other visits going to the page at the time it was tested.
- NO ISSUES ABOVE -
One was changed by me -
This has 2 amazon text links. One of them was 100% HP code and another fluctuated at a little more than 50% me. 3 of the 5 times was my link. I was wondering why it was happening, so I went to edit mode and edited the text link.
The 100% HP one showed as:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/XXXX/?tag=hubpages-HPTAG-20
The one that was alternating at the usual 60-40 rule showed as: AMAZON:B003UHVVX0 (Under URL)
I do not know why one of them defaulted to show the HP tag as the URL whereas the other is right. I added them both the same way as far as I know. Anyway, I proceeded to correct this issue:
I edited the faulty link and went to the Amazon Tab and clicked on the product I wanted. I did not enter the ISBN directly and it showed up fine as AMAZON: XXX under URL. And now it works fine.
CONCLUSION:
Make sure the URL shows as AMAZON:XXX and nothing else do not enter your tracking or HP tracking code or edit it if you see anything else showing.
At one time on a single hub all tracking codes are either HP or yours.
They do work at the 60-40 rule.
I'm sure HP had no idea this may have happened on some products. So go ahead and check your highest trafficked/ highest amazon earning hubs.
Since I had no clue what the tracking ID of HP (Never bothered to check) was there is no way that I entered it by mistake. It was a system error or sorts.Given that we are being forced more and more towards a text link system it seems to me some changes need to be made in the way they are created.
Once a hubber has selected the Amazon option in the link dialogue it should be very hard to make a mistake. You should certainly be able to enter the URL of the amazon page you want to link to or the product's ISBN number directly somewhere and get a legitimate affiliate link that earns for you as well as HP.There's another way though. Not a way you'd say is "easy" or "quick".
Highlight the text > Select Amazon > Then there's a search option. Copy the exact product name and hit search. You get the product you want. Alternatively the ISBN works too. I prefer the ISBN way.
Just tried it with pasting the link with just the amazon domain root and ISBN and it doesn't work. Just Name and ISBN for now.Lobobrandon, that's exactly the method I was describing. Not sure what's so hard about it.
No clue
And sorry to restate it but I didn't read the previous replies hehe.
I did think of using an amazon capsule to get the link and then pasting the link directly.
Need to get beyond this, lol.
I have a very simple requirement of any Amazon link - I want to be able to verify that it includes my Amazon ID.
I don't want to have to guess whether or not it does and/or lose all income to HubPages because something has been done incorrectly.
The only way a content system like this works well is if there is total transparency.It will have your Amazon affiliate ID 60% of the time and HubPages' affiliate ID 40% of the time.
But can I see this - in a completely transparent way?
I just tested the "embed the link in test" method - and that's very definitely not what I see.
What I see is "amazon:productcode" - that is NOT verifiable. (By which I mean when I include an Amazon link on my own websites I can check the code for the account that it's linked to and the tracking ID)
What HubPages in effect says is "trust us" - and frankly I think it can much better at encouraging that trust!Mark, If you don't trust it, you can verify it by looking at the HTML of your hub.
Most browsers have a feature that lets you view the HTML. In addition, most browsers show the URL at the bottom of the page when you hover your mouse over the link. You can use either method. In either case you will see either your affiliate code or HubPages' affiliate code attached to the URL.
If you refresh the page and look at it again you will again see one or the other code. If you continue repeating this by refreshing and looking at the URL of the link several times, you will notice that your ID is used 60% of the time and HubPages' code the other 40%. They are honest about that. I actually had done this test a long time ago.
This may be a stupid question but do you have to check the box that states it's an affiliate link or do you just search for the product and save only.
That check-box that specifies it's an affiliate link is only for the purpose of entering a URL to link to another site. But in the case of Amazon, you do not use the URL field. You just use the section below the Amazon tab after you click that tab.
The attraction of HP is that writers do not need to know anything technical. You never need to have seen a line of code or even know what a CMS (content management system) is, even though you are using one.
The current affiliate text link system just doesn't pass the basic test of ease of use.I have lost all spellcheck functionality on HP which seems to be down to enabling Googles 'suggest a spelling' feature. That feature is actually better than HP's spell checker but it seems a number of addons/external services have an impact on software here. Will clear the cache at some point.
There is still an issue around ease of use with text link creator.Hello miss Sallybea. Did you try turning your computer off and then turn it on. Sometimes, the programs need to be downloaded. Adding a new program can fix your problem. They sale them on eBay or in an office's suppliers.
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