A single global web link for your ebook can redirect buyers around the world to the local store in their home country where they can buy your book.
If you have ever provided a link to your book on Amazon from your website or tweet or facebook or wherever, you may have faced the problem of which Amazon site to link to.
It’s easy to make a link, you just use the URL: www.amazon.com/dp/ASIN where the ASIN part is the Amazon Standard Identification Number of your book. But this link will take a reader to the amazon.com website only.
If it’s clicked by someone in the UK, for example, they won’t be able to buy your book on amazon.com due to Amazon’s territorial restraints. If they’re really keen on your book, they might go to the amazon.co.uk site and search for it but they’ll probably just give up.
However, there are several firms which offer a service featuring a single link for your book that works out where a person is located and takes them straight to their local Amazon site where they will be able to buy your book.
I have written a detailed post about four of these services before, and you can find the post at It’s ASIN, Four ways to get a global link for your Amazon book. But one of those four firms has recently updated their service substantially and now offers a very sophisticated approach that can be customised.
Genius links close the purchasing gap
The Georiot service now offers a single, fully customizable link called Genius Links to intelligently send each user to the appropriate local storefront for their particular device.
The firm says it has been keeping a close eye on metrics and it became obvious that some types of clicks just don’t result in sales as more devices come online every day and global stores create more storefronts around the world, widening the “Purchasing Gap” between the content being promoted and the customers who want to buy.
With Genius links, you can add a link to a book or other product, or add multiple links (as highlighted)
Genius Links aim to connect customers with the products they want to buy. Previously, you needed to create a unique link to each product in each of the separate storefronts, and then GeoRiot would take care of the translation between countries.
This meant if you had a book in both iTunes and Amazon, you needed a separate link for each store, even if it was the same book. Genius Links eliminate this need for multiple links.
A single Genius Link can be routed differently based on the user’s location, device, operating system and even the date of the click. You no longer have to create multiple links for a single product available in different stores.
By eliminating buying hurdles (such as no iTunes store on Kindles and no Android store for iOS devices), you can improve conversions.
New domain linking
You can set a vanity link with Genius if the vanity link hasn’t already been used, and you can also use the facility to Add Scenarios (highlighted) where various If/If not options can be set to redirect users
Georiot has also moved to a new domain for its linking: geni.us. All previous georiot.co links will still be fully supported but all new links will be created using the geni.us domain. For example: http://geni.us/abc123
If a product isn’t available for a specific device or storefront or you want it to resolve differently based on location, device, or specific date, customers can be sent to the next best option, including YouTube, Spotify, GoodReads, etc. There is a whitelist of allowed external domains.
To get started, add a new iTunes or Amazon product URL to the Link Creator tool, then click on the Target icon, or click to edit any of your existing links to add rules and expand their functionality.
You can try out your links with new testing parameters that let you test the full functionality of your Genius Links. These parameters can be added to the end of the link, and allow you to test your link for any combination of scenarios.
This is a sophisticated linking system covering a wide range of options. I’ve done some initial testing on it and can confirm that it works very well and I hope to be delving further into the options in the near future.
For anyone interested in analytics, the service is a must, but it can also be used as a simple and effective system for straightforward linking by those who aren’t technically inclined.
The service doesn’t charge a fee but works on a click-share agreement, with Georiot keeping up to 15% of the affiliate clicks it helps you earn, outside your link’s country of origin.
Click-share is the process of rerouting a small percentage (up to 15%) of clicks with GeoRiot’s affiliate code instead of the client’s.
GeoRiot says it is committed to ensuring partners are maximizing their affiliate commissions while using the service and it does have a list of rules dictating when and how click-share will occur. More information about click-share can be found on the Georiot Compensation page.
It’s ASIN, Four ways to get a global link for your Amazon book.
