NowTHINK!AboutIt

Avoiding Hackneyed...Making Sense

Add Amazon Affiliate Link To Post Images

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Combine Amazon's link with your image easily.

Amazon Image Links
Made Simple

This article is not about adding Text links. Amazon text links are easy to work with and always have been. Image links are another matter though.

Things are different now, but not so long ago adding Amazon affiliate links to an image required a snip and tuck procedure. It wasn’t so straight forward.

Briefly, you had to copy the standard product page URL, the one everybody sees, not the affiliate URL. You then had to delete a portion of the URL and add your Amazon affiliate code to the end. This code was then added to the media library’s custom URL field before inserting the image.

Sounds a bit wonky but that is the common work-around recommended by bloggers and marketing gurus. A detailed description is provided by Linnea Wilhem here.

This procedure required additional steps to what should have been a very simple procedure. I’m sure Amazon was aware of this round-about-way of adding affiliate code to images and knew that it slowed the process down. Publishers spent more time trying to organize links and less time talking about great prices and products on Amazon.

It effected the bottom line for both.

But, fortunately, all that has changed. Amazon streamlined the process. Working with images is just as simple as working with text. In fact, If anything the process is more streamlined for both.

One Obvious Question

You might wonder why someone would ever go to all this trouble since Amazon has always provided very attractive image links for their products. Their images are always top notch.

The problem was, and I’m not bashing on Amazon, the image links Amazon generated didn’t work nicely with WordPress posts. Text didn’t wrap around the image properly. The images inserted easily but always looked a bit out of place. The text started below the image not adjacent to it.

Inserting additional styling code – added by the webmaster, not Amazon – did make a difference but it still wasn’t right. Several plugins were developed to address the problem but the one I used worked sometimes and sometimes not.

And that’s why the previously mentioned work around became popular.

What’s Changed

So what has changed? Snip and clip are no longer needed. Here’s how it’s done.

Assuming you have an Amazon affiliate account, you’re signed into the account and on the page for the particular product you wish to promote the steps are simple: [Read more…]

Why Develop Your Own Domain Name

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There's no such thing as maintenance and expense free.

A Domain Name
Is
A Website

I started websiting back in 2008 and my first site was a Blogger blog. I knew nothing when I started. I’ve learned a lot since.

When I began, Blogger was free and popular, and seemed like a quick way to start so it made sense to use the Blogger platform. I soon realized it wasn’t that simple. It takes just as much effort to develop a canned website as it does to select and self host your own domain name.

I also realized that it is never entirely yours or what you want.

The domain name I had in mind (thinkaboutit) wasn’t available on Blogger and whatever name I chose was followed by the words blogspot.com anyway. It was never going to be my name.

There were also no names even distantly similar. The domain name I eventually chose, taitoday, was the closest thing I could get. There was no winning!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not badmouthing Blogger. It got me started and I’m thankful for what the experience taught me about domain names and websiting.

After becoming frustrated with the limitations, though, I did a little research and took the plunge.

I’ve also started thinking specifically about domain names and have bought a few. Following are three examples and they are for sale.

  • SplainThat.com ($218.00)
  • AskingNotSaying.com ($202.00)
  • ThinkingNotSaying.com ($197.00)

If you are thinking about starting a website and you find one of these names useful, contact me and we can go from there. Otherwise you can use a site like NameCheap to find and register a name you prefer. Registration and privacy run around $10.00. You can’t find it less expensive than NameCheap.com.

If you’re not sure, following are the options to choose from. [Read more…]

Money Is Inseparably Both Mundane And Spiritual

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A job is either an opportunity or a dungeon

Making And Managing Money
Is Spiritual

Everything is spiritual all the time, even very earthy things, and nothing illustrates that truth as clearly as money, otherwise known as filthy lucre. Let me explain.

When I was a kid my mother always made me wash my hands after handling money. “You never know where it has been” she would say, and over time I learned what she meant. Money is passed from one person to another (clean hands or not), kept in unhygienic places, even falls on the ground and stays in circulation anywhere from 18 months to several years. During that time it never gets washed. I never really understood how filthy money could be, however, till I moved to South Africa and discovered all the places people hid the stuff to keep it away from thieves. I won’t elaborate. You can imagine.

It isn’t difficult to make a spiritual connection here since cleanliness is next to godliness. Right?

But I also learned from an early age that money can be enticing. [Read more…]

“Financial Peace” by Dave Ramsey

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Did you know that most Americans retire on an annual income below $10,000? Better yet, do you know why? If you can’t answer the question not too worry. Dave Ramsey’s book, “Financial Peace,” explains why this happens and tells us how to avoid landing on the wrong side of that statistic.

Financial Peace is a reference book, how-to book and biography all in one. Ramsey gives financial advice based on his personal experience instead of what he learned in a classroom. It’s the best “school of hard knocks” book around and his approach has proven so useful to so many that he presently conducts a nationally syndicated daily call-in radio program, regular seminars and a twelve week training program (Financial Peace University) all dedicated to financial health.

But it wasn’t always great for Dave.

Ramsey was on top of the world or so it seemed before going bankrupt at the age of 26. Following popular trends he used borrowed money to invest in more than $4 million worth of Nashville, TN real estate only to realize that unexpected events can change everything. He learned that “high on the hog” can be synonymous with “brink of disaster.” Jaquars, designer suits and even a good name didn’t help much when the banks called in his loans. [Read more…]

Parable Of The Talents – Making It Happen

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The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) is one passage that places great significance on human productivity. Not activity, not busyness, not even consistency but results. Caution is almost spoken against. If we read this parable properly we get the idea that God is more concerned about the growth we stimulate than He is about the methods used to get there.

In the passage Jesus tells of an investor, the Master, who gives money to three different asset managers. The amount given to each is proportionate to his abilities.

One man receives five thousand dollars, a second receives two thousand and a third receives one thousand and obviously, the intent is for each to increase those monies through investment.

After an appropriate amount of time the Master returns to check on the growth of each account. To his approval, the first two double the original investment to ten thousand and four thousand dollars respectively.

To his dismay, the third gained no increase and the explanation for this failure draws severe criticism from the investor. [Read more…]