Create a Clean URL Amazon Link

What is a clean URL link and how do you make one?

When someone asks you for the buy link to your book, do you go to Amazon, click on your book, then copy the URL that appears in the address bar?

If so, you're probably giving them a very long that may break when someone tries to cut and paste it into a document or into a browser address bar.

(This article reprints at least once a year to help new authors.)

Example

The link below resulted from clicking the cover for Still The One in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section that appears on every book page.

Then when the page for Still The One opened, I copied the link as it appeared in the browser address bar. This is what it looked like:

http://www.amazon.com/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=158W5YVPQ6JV5T1BTC6H

Of everything you see in the link above, only this much is actually the direct link to the book's webpage on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/

The rest of that long link:

ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=158W5YVPQ6JV5T1BTC6H

is referral code that tells Amazon where you found the book.

When asked for the book's buy link, authors should give the book's direct link, called a clean link or clean URL.

Professionals always give the shortest, cleanest link possible.

How to Clean Up a Link

Even thought a long rambling link will get you to the book—eventually—it takes longer for a webpage to open when you're using a long link tricked out with referral code.

Why give a potential reader such an awkward link? Clean it up. It's easy to do.

Look at the link. See the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)?

Everything sold on Amazon has this ASIN, a 10 character alphabetical/numerical identifying number.

The ASIN is immediately followed by  a forward slash mark. Everything after that forward slash mark is referral code and can be deleted.

In the case of Still The One, the ASIN is B005062SLS/ (see the forward slash mark at the end of the ASIN?).  Everything after the forward slash is referral code that can be deleted.

This clean, direct link to the book's webpage is what you give if someone wants a buy link:

http://www.amazon.com/Still-The-One-Romantic-Comedy-ebook/dp/B005062SLS/

Make It Even Shorter

You can shorten that clean link though. A much shorter Amazon link is created by doing away with www and abbreviating Amazon as AMZN and omitting everything beyond .com except the ASIN.

Formula for short clean link for an Amazon product: http://amzn.com/+the ASIN.

That gives us a clean short link: http://amzn.com/B005062SLS for my romantic comedy, Still The One.

But, Wait, There's More

It's possible to get an even shorter, clean link for any Amazon Product and make it a link that's good at any Kindle store in the world.

Simply set up a Booklinker account and create links for your book. It's so easy.

For Still The One, this link would be: http://getbook.at/Still-The-One.

What To Know About Booklinker

With Booklinker, you can personalize the link and also make the beginning part of it say: "get book" or "my book."

Booklinker is part of the Amazon world and works only to create links for Amazon stores.

You can upgrade Booklinker to GeniusLink, but then it goes from free to paid. Once you upgrade, you can't go back to the free level.

Booklinker won't create a link from a URL that contains referral code so be sure you clean up the URL before using Booklinker.

Also, Booklinker does not currently support the shortened "amzn.to" format.

Takeaway Truth

Short links are infinitely easier to work with, and links made with Booklinker can bring you more sales from foreign Kindle shops. Try it!

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