Jed had a great idea the other day, so I’ll give him all the credit up front.
The Amazon Affiliate Program Tiny URL Maker
*Gongs sound*
*Loud billowing god-like voice comes down from heaven*
World! I give to you, the TinyAmazonAffiliateURL.
*Squeaky little voice shouts up from a law firm*
(the true name of this program has been changed to protect the fact that I don’t know what it should be)
The Short Story without a Moral
Jed and I (and a zillion other people) use Twitter pretty often, and Jed wanted a way to refer to an Amazon product using an affiliate program, but quickly.
So, alas, I whipped together a very rough program to search for amazon products and with your affiliate number/key, you can not only get the url to the amazon product, but I throw it through the TinyURL hoops and come out with a really short URL that obfuscates (read: hides) the affiliate key.
This little script is useful for a few reasons. First, it’s quick to get a url for affiliate products, and second, you can hide the fact that it’s got an affiliate link on it.
The second reason is a bit more sketchy than the first, but they both serve their purposes. So, without further ado, I give to you the TinyAmazonAffiliateURL. Long name for a tiny url. Go figure.
Now, for your moment of zen. Here’s Jed speaking at his commencement:
HAHAHAHA. Thanks!
No problem Jed. :) Thanks for being so cool. Now everyone knows what I know.
Wow Jed, you’re a great speaker.
D’oh! And the amazon/tinyurl stuff is pretty sweet too.
Thanks Vince. :) Let me know if you use it often and if you have any suggestions for improving it. I’m open to that.
Wow, this is pretty cool – but is there any way you can have it search all of amazon instead of just the specific areas?
-Heather
Heather, I thought about doing that, and it’s possible, it just takes a little longer to run, so I didn’t do it. But, if you beg and plead, I could probably get that to happen. :)
Hi
Is it possible to get a copy of this Amazon TinyUrl script?
Thanks
Sukh
That’s a great question Sukh. I’ll have to think about that. What do you think it’s worth? What would you like to do with it?
By the way, I changed the links in this post to point to a new page dedicated to the script. I’d love for your questions and my subsequent answers (including the one about “Can I get a copy of this script?”) to be over there. Thanks.
And yet, you took the time to drop in your spammy links. Thanks, but you’ve been edited.