Amazon Ad Link Generator add-in for Excel

I've recently completed another addin for Excel. This one generates affiliate links for Amazon.com products, for webmasters and bloggers who use Amazon Associates to generate income from their websites.

Creating Amazon links by hand is hard work, and after months of doing it this way, I thought there must be a better way. This add-in lets you choose from a variety of options, including nofollowing links, having links open in a new window, and picking the size of the image.

The interface is straightforward, but you will need some knowledge of HTML to understand what some of the terms mean. Here's a screenshot:

Special thanks to Dick Kusleika from Daily Dose of Excel for testing it out and suggesting improvements.

Amazon Ad Link Generator Add-In – Excel 2003-2010 version

To install the add-in, open the zip archive and run the executable. The addin is installed automatically. You must have an Amazon Associates ID in order to use the add-in; if you don't have one, visit their site (link is at the top of this post) and create one first.

Once installed, there will be a new item on your Data Menu: Amazon Ad Link Generator. If you use Excel 2007 or higher, go to the AddIns tab. Select it to open the form and begin link building. At minimum you will need to enter title, ISBN and your affiliate ID before you can generate the HTML code. Here's a sample of the completed form.

So far I'm up to seven Excel add-ins, is that a record?

I'm also producing a Java version of the add-in, for those of you inclined to use the code outside of Excel. It will be a Java class with a GUI interface, just like the add-in. It will produce the code in a textbox and will not use Excel at all. Most of it has been written already, but further testing is needed.