Marketing Tip: Easy Shortened URLs for Amazon Authors

Amazon has an easy and ‘short’ way to promote your Amazon products. And this isn’t new. Amazon quietly created its own URL shortener for all its products at least three years ago (2009). This move allows Amazon to take better advantage of the popular microblogging service Twitter as well as mobile texting.

How it Works

Authors can now type “amzn.com/” plus a product number (ISBN or ASIN) to create a short URL, without needing sites like tinyurl.com and bit.ly.

For example, when promoting JOOLA: Africa’s Titanic on Twitter, I took the products ASIN number (listed on the product page) and added it to the end of amzn.com. JOOLA: Africa’s Titanic ASIN number (Amazon Standard Identification Number) is B00AM0G3L8 so the shortened URL would be amzn.com/B00AM0G3L8.

I then created a Twitter post and included the shortened URL link:

LE JOOLA capsizes 17 mi. off the African coast. The harrowing true stories and shameful actions of those responsible. amzn.com/B00AM0G3L8

Amazon Wishlists

This technique also works for Amazon Wishlists. Simply type “amzn.com/w/” plus the Wishlist ID number, which is usually located at the end of a person’s Wishlist URL.

Benefits

The primary benefit is on Twitter. With only 140 characters of posting space, using shortened URLS is essential. It is also a great way to cross-promote your other writing in your ebooks.

NOTE: you do not need to add the http://www to the front of the URL. Twitter knows this is a link, and thus saves you 11 more characters.