Affiliate Links Not Working
Hi All. I've been with WA for 5 weeks and have accomplished what I would have thought impossible. The training program is excellent, clearly aimed at helping the layperson get a website up and running quickly and efficiently. The support from the student body is outstanding. I have however experienced a number of technical glitches, all have eventually been ironed out by Tech Support, with the notable critical exception of Affiliate Links. I have followed the video instructions to the letter but still Amazon and ShareAsale links refuse to work. The WA link works perfectly.
I spent a week trying to resolve this with Amazon, they answered one e-mail asking me to de-link and try again. I did, no joy. So I emailed them again. And again. And they ignored me both times. I tried live chat and got "Britani" who was clueless. She suggested it must be a problem with my website or hosting service.
So, I've been trying to resolve this with Tech Support here at WA. In fairness, they always get back even if it takes a day or 2 and I've been offline for 2 days due to illness. But their latest instructions were in tech-speak - if I could understand that, I wouldn't be a student here, now would I?
Has anyone else had this problem? Has anyone any ideas as to how I can fix this? Affiliate marketing doesn't work without functional links and banners!
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I was just having the same problem, but I have now figured it out..you need to be in the "edit" mode on your individual page. Hope this helps Good Luck..Susan
December 25th, 14 days into my second month at WA and I still can't get ANY affiliate links EXCEPT W.A.'s to work. Frustration is starting to bite big time. I can't believe something so simple is causing me such an issue! I've e-mailed Amazon. Again. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll answer.
Thanks Labman and Maudman for your help so far, I have appreciated it. I've followed your instructions, still no joy. If I can't get this resolved by the time my next WA billing cycle comes around, I'm considering just paying a professional to get my site sorted out. I'm chucking lots of time at this and it's just not working. It's a shame because WA's training really is first rate and allowed me to accomplish a stunning amount seriously quickly, but that quick progress is being eroded because I've been spinning my wheels on this critical basic point for weeks now. My site is starting to get traffic but my links are dead. I don't want to to pull traffic to a site that doesn't work properly. Slow answers from Tech Support are a weak spot for WA, I'm still waiting for their response. It's the only area in which W.A. could improve.
Hope everyone is having a great time with their families and friends today.
All the best to my fellow students! Ken.
Thanks MaudMan, I greatly appreciate your advice and thanks for checking my site out! I'll look at Labman's video again, must have missed something obvious.
It looks like you've diagnosed the problem - me pasting the whole block of code rather than just the bit starting with "http://", but that's what the WA instruction videos show - when you've found the link you want, click on the highlight or copy button and paste the lot. It worked for the WA affiliate link. I'm doing a nightshift, so just a quick check in. I'll have a crack with fresh eyes tomorrow and let you know how I get on.
Thanks again!
Ken.
When you paste the entire code, it puts the Amazon box in as an iftrame. Many of the sites that visit have an adblocker active. These look for iframes and determine that they are ads and block them.
This effectively removes your amazon link from their view. Not the outcome you want. Using the trick I provide in the video gets around the problem and displays your ad.
Ya, the trick is understanding where to paste the URL or the block of code. If you're just using the URL, as with your WA affiliate link, then you can paste it into the link tool in the Visual editor. But if pasting a whole block of code that includes an iframe, tracking info, etc, then you have to paste it "behind the scenes" in the Text editor.
Good luck! Let us know if you need more help after you're able to watch the video again.
Thanks Labman. Yes, I've been approved, got passwords and all that jazz. It all looks Kosher but just won't work. Thank you for the links, I'm off to check them out now. Much appreciated. Ken.
As Carson says, first make sure you have been approved by the Affiliate Programs.
I haven't done a video on Share-a-Sale but here is one on Amazon that might be useful for you. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/amazon-links-adding-and-editing-your-amazon-links
Here is a general affiliate link tutorial as well. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/creating-links
Amazon links have worked for me, but you first have to be an affiliate with Amazon, then log into your Amazon Account, and select from Menu, the type of link eg. widget and link it to your website
Hi gracesystem, thanks for the reply. i am an approved affiliate at Amazon, it looks like the flaw is at their end. I'm having the same problem with ShareAsale too. I'll let you know what happens!
Ken, my two questions are:
1 - Where are the broken links? Can you please provide us with the URL so we can have a look?
2 - Are you APPROVED at Amazon associates?
3 - Are you APPROVED at shareasale?
We can definitely help you out but we need some examples of where you're having trouble. You can paste the links to the problematic pages here, or within the hosting support ticket.
In the future, I'd suggest asking for help within the community as you have here before asking for technical support. You'll get a lot more help and many people can help out and help you troubleshoot the issue.
Carson
Hi Carson, Thanks for getting back to me.
In answer to your questions, my URL is www.decubituscare.com
The links that don't work are under the "Useful Links" tab.
And yes, I have been approved at Amazon and ShareAsale.
Tech Support asked me to send a screenshot of the broken link but I haven't got the first idea of how to do that. I can take a screenshot but don't know how to send it to them.
Thanks for your help.
Ken.
Also, I'd recommend doing a search here on WA for "adding amazon affiliate links" or something like that. This video might help -- https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/adding-natural-amazon-text-links
Hi Ken: Can you post a link to a page where you've tried to add affiliate links that are not working?
Hi MaudMan. http://decubituscare.com/useful-links is where the broken links can be found. Sorry, don't know how to make that a link in this chat box (like the link in your reply - how did you do that? I'm extremely new at all of this.) Thanks for that link to the training video by the way. I'm following all the steps correctly, so I think it must be an Amazon issue, although I now have the same problem with ShareAsale. Sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you. All the best and thanks again! Ken.
Thanks Ken. Lucky for us, WA automatically converts URL's to hyperlinks when we paste them in here. :)
I looked at your Useful Links page and I see what you mean. It appears you are trying to paste entire blocks of HTML code from Amazon and/or Share-a-Sale into the hyperlink tool, rather than just using the actual affiliate URL only (ie. the part that starts with "http://")
The code you are trying to paste into the hyperlink tool will only work correctly when pasted in on the "Text" tab of your Wordpress editor.
Hopefully you had a chance to watch the video Labman provided the other day because that very clearly demonstrates the difference between using full HTML code vs just the affiliate URL. He did a nice job on that video!
I know this stuff can be confusing if you've never done it before. But just think how far you've come in only 5 weeks! And great job so far on the site, and on your Foot Float invention -- that is quite incredible!
Oh, I also wanted to mention... You might want to edit your Privacy Policy page. There are still several references to "decubituscare.siterubix.com". And just a suggestion, but you might want to use an email address on your domain instead of gmail.com. :)
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https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/amazon-links-adding-and-editing-your-amazon-links