Embedding affiliate links in RSS feeds

[Mr Pointy]

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Hi all,

I was going to use some RSS feeds on my site to provide updated news information for users, but of course, my affiliate link doesn’t appear in them & so anyone that clicks on the link will go to the retailers site without any commission for me.

However, I have just discovered that it is possible to embed affiliate links in RSS feeds; I found the following on the Amazon forum which seems to indicate it’s a fairly simple process & was wondering if anyone knows if this can be done to other RSS feeds through a little bit of coding, a software package, or only if the retailer supports it & provides this feature directly?

It's a great way of providing up to date content PLUS affiliate links and I'm hoping it will be something that everyone else knows about & I've only just thought of

“it's pretty simple to embed your associate tag in an RSS feed. Basically, you should just be able to find the feed icon for the feed you want, then right-click it, and select "Copy Link Location." If you paste that into your browser's address bar, or Notepad, it should look like this:

amazon mashups: Newly tagged products at Amazon.com

Now, the numbers on the end are your personal Session ID, and aren't necessary if you want to put this RSS feed on your blog, or publish it anywhere else. So, strip that off the URL like this:

amazon mashups: Newly tagged products at Amazon.com

If you want to embed that feed in a blog, or publish it to a reader with your RSS feed, you just need to add your associate ID (assume it's "tapgoogle") like so:

amazon mashups: Newly tagged products at Amazon.com

(Notice the extra "?tag=tapgoogle" on the end.)

And then, all the links in the RSS feed will automatically have your associate ID attached to them, and you'll get credit for any purchases made using those links.”

[Mr Pointy]

Eureka!!

I think I have it!!

So simple & seems to work beautifully - just a little bit of code & the cookie appears in the browser after an RSS link is clicked on - well chuffed with myself & wanted to share it with anyone who cared lol.