TUTORIAL: Customizing a Picture to a clickable Affiliate Link

Using the Customizable Banner - TUTORIAL

Fall, Harvest and Halloween

I've had requests asking about another tutorial for linking your unique tracking code to a picture.
This presented a number of problems, not the least of which was how to do a tutorial on making it pretty simple, given that there are so many applications out there that use links and banners (blogs, websites, emails, newsletters, smart phones, etc and most are coded in all sort of ways and personalized methods).

So this is what I've come up with. It's not unlike the Text Link tutorial, just with pictures.
We'll start by recreating the above "Fall, Harvest and Halloween" Theme Link & Banner.

1. Decide which particular page on  Touch of Europe you want to link to. For instance "Halloween & Fall" products at http://www.touchofeurope.net/linens/Halloween.html
2. Log into your www.CJ.com Account. If you are not our affiliate yet, click here to securely sign up.
3.  Click on the tab that says "Get Links"
4.  Locate, at the top of that page, the "SEARCH" Advertisers (in a drop down box), with a blank typing box.
5.  Change the drop down to "LINKS" and in the blank search box, type 10818210 then click on 'find'
6.  When the search is complete, you'll be looking at our customizable 250x250 pixel BANNER link for Touch of Europe 
7. On the far right of the link information, you'll see a "get HTML" link

Now in the window that pops up, you'll be changing a few things

1. Where it says "Image URL", you will enter the URL of the image you want to show as your banner. In this example, we used an image of :-
   
   Pumpkin Antiqua Ephemera Luncheon Or Cocktail Napkinsby looking at the product and clicking on the enlarged image, copying the URL destination and getting the following link to paste.
   
   http://www.touchofeurope.net/mm5/graphics/00000001/ppd-006507-(2)-lg.jpg
   
   
2. in the "Destination URL" where you currently see http://www.touchofeurope.net you'll change it to the page you want it to direct to... in our example " http://www.touchofeurope.net/linens/Halloween.html "
3. Next, click the button labeled "Update Link Code" to the upper left of the code. DO NOT do this after the next steps or you will lose your customized wording.
4. OPTIONAL : to customize the "Alt Text" when you hover over the image (Currently says Touch of Europe), do the following.
   In the code in the box after you've hit the "Update Link Code", locate the words "Touch of Europe" between the " and " symbols at the end of the code. Very carefully erase the words Touch of Europe (not the parenthesis), then type in what you would like it to show, in this case you might choose Halloween, Fall & Harvest (Hover your cursor over the below image and you will see).
5. Copy your resulting code (without updating the link code again), then just past it to your website, newsletter, email or blog HTML like you do with any other code.

Your result will be the following example picture below as a clickable affiliate link coded to give you credit for sales, which you can add a caption or editorial to :-

:Fall, Harvest & Halloween Luxury ! :

OPTIONAL and Creative.
You can use the Customizable Text Link (see tutorial) to add a coded clickable caption (as seen above, but not in the first example at the top of this blog post), to really build the commission linking capability of your display.

If you want to add words to the image itself, rather than caption or editorial, you will need to do this in a photo editing program and host the image yourself (changing the image Url in the code accordingly in Step 1. above), OR on a limited basis, you can ask me to do this for you. I am happy to do this by adding some small basic text and host a picture or two, as time allows, but don't hesitate to ask !


I know it all sounds complicated, but these are about the most powerful tools you can have as an affiliate. These options offer endless combinations and possibilities that you can customize to your own unique style and that of your site, blog, newsletter or email.


Once you've done it a few times, it becomes second nature.... lol, it did for me in researching how to do all this for you and make my own custom links.

As always, email me or leave any comments/questions on the blog and happy marketing !

CheZ
www.touchofeurope.net - Inspired Design : Affordable Luxury
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