The short answer is that it is a shortening of Amazon Affiliate Link - except that, of course, it isn't because the 'f' and the 'L' are the wrong way around!

The long story is this.

Shortly before writing AmALfi I read the Strugatsky brothers 'sci-fi' classic Monday Begins on Saturday. The story's main character, Sasha, spends time living in a place called Lohuchil. The full name for this place being the Log Hut on Chicken Legs... You see what they did there?

It's not, in fact, uncommon for names to be created like this ^{[citation needed]}, but this name was bouncing around in my mind around the time I came up with the idea of an Android app to create Amazon Affiliate Links based on sharing an Amazon page or item with the app.

Probably because of the who LoHuChiL thing my mind shortened this to AmAfLi. So close, but the name Amalfi - the name of a region of Italy - sounds so much better and, with some capitalisation to indicate the transposing of a couple of letters, makes for a nice abstract sounding name.

Does the app have anything to do with the Amalfi region - nothing more than the above. However, as a nod to the region, if you open the main menu in the app on a suitably hi-res device you will notice a kind of curved shape at the top of the menu. This design element serves no purpose other than to look good - it is a tracing of the Amalfi coastline.

AmALfi is a tool for members of the Amazon™ Associates affiliate scheme.

AmALfi does not have its own account for you to join, but to be able to use AmALfi you must be a member of the Amazon™ Associates scheme for the region that you wish to promote.

To join Amazon™ Associates you need to sign up to the scheme on the appropriate Amazon site. For example to join Amazon™ Associates for India, you would visit https://affiliate-program.amazon.in/, or if you want to promote products from amazon.com you would visit https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ to sign up.

You can find 'Join' links to all current Amazon™ Associates regions in AmALFi's 'Manage Associate Tracking IDs' page, or you can find links to the scheme at the bottom of the Amazon front page for whichever region you wish to join.

We won't address the philosophical question here other than to say that you need to know your target audience and seek out products that will appeal to them.

The practical / technical, though, we will adress...

There are a number of ways that you can find products you wish to promote. You can use:

• the official Amazon™ app,
• any Amazon™ website. or
• AmALfi's built in browser.

AmALFi was designed right from the start to integrate with both the Amazon™ app and international websites, but we added browser functionality to the app to make finding products an integrated part of using AmALfi. (Note that this built in browser is limited to browsing Amazon™ websites only and cannot be used as a general web browser.)

When you find a product in the Amazon™ app, or almost any page on an Amazon™ website, you simply share that page with AmALfi and AmALfi does the rest.

When using AmALfi's built in browser you simply need to tap the 'Instant Link' button on the bottom right of the screen to create your link.

AmALfi doesn't have a product finder or product search function simply because the best Amazon™ product finder already exists - the Amazon™ app and websites.

The Amazon™ app and websites already know you. They already know their other customers and therefore they know your target audience. Through its big data, Amazon™ can make far better product suggestions than a third party app ever could.

By integrating with the Amazon™ app and websites AmALFi can leverage that world class product targetting to generate links that will earn you revenue.

This is the most commonly posted issue in our app reviews, yet it is not a bug.

AmALfi uses the Bitly link shortening system - the same system that Amazon™ uses to create short links. This is how we are able to create amzn.to short links, just the same as Amazon™ does. (And why AmALfi's short links comply with Amazon's terms & conditions!)

Bitly allows AmALfi a large quota of new short links each calendar month. At busy times, however, this new link quota can be exhausted before the end of the month. This quota of new links is shared between all AmALfi users on a first-come-first-served basis if they do not have a Pro upgrade and have not selected to use their own Bitly account.

When this happens AmALfi will display an error saying that no more short links can be created at this time.

A new quota of new short links will begin on the folowing first of the month at which point AmALfi will resume creating short links as before.

If you are a heavy user of AmALfi and rely on short links then you are encouraged to consider upgrading to AmALfi Pro as this will allow you to use your own Bitly account (free or paid) to create short links.

Using your own Bitly account in AmALfi works exactly the same as using the built in Bitly account, but you are subject to your own quota and also have access to your link analytics etc via your Bitly dashboard. Your short links will still be created with the amzn.to domain.

We've added a guide to our How To page explaining how to set up AmALfi Pro to use your own Bitly account.

So, you have used AmALfi to create some affiliate links, but when you go to your Amazon™ Associates account you either see no clicks on these links or no purchases...

There are a few reasons this can happen and they are all due to incorrect use of AmALfi or because Amazon™ has detected potential fraud.

1. eMail address entered instead of Associate Tracking i.d.
   This one is incredibly common. Your Associate tracking i.d. IS NOT your email address.
   If you have already signed up for the Amazon™ Associates scheme you will have been assigned a default associate tracking id. This is always in the same format - a string of characters followed by a hypen and two digits, for example

   amalfiapp-20

   .
   The last two digits of the tracking i.d. are region dependent, for example in the USA and Canada associate tracking i.d.s end with

   -20

   whereas in most of Europe they end with

   -21

   .
   It is also possible to add additional associate tracking i.d.s to your Amazon&trade Associate's account, but these will all follow the same format and end in the same digits if they are for the same region.
   If you have not already signed up to the Amazon™ Associates Programme, then there are links to each Amazon™ region's affiliate sign-up page next to each tracking i.d. box in AmALfi's tracking i.d.s page.
2. Incomplete Associate Tracking i.d. entered
   You must enter the FULL Associate i.d. into AmALfi's i.d.s page - including the hyphen and digits at the end. Without this AmALfi will create invalid links. Amazon™ will not track sales or clicks from incomplete tracking i.d.s.
3. Links posted on a website that is not linked to your account
   When setting up your Amazon™ Associates account you are asked to enter the URLs/addresses of the websites on which you intend to post your affiliate links. Links posted to any other website may not be tracked by Amazon™ as they want to ensure that a) the links were posted by you and not just copied and pasted onto another site by someone else and b) that affiliate links are only posted on sites that meet their suitability criteria.
4. Links in emails or SMS/text/IM/WhatsApp etc messages
   Links in emails, or person to person messages such as SMS, Skype, WhatsApp etc are not allowed by Amazon™'s Asscoiates programme terms and conditions. Linsk must be published in what they consider a public, online place. Links posted to systems such as those listed here, or other similar systems, may not be tracked by Amazon.
5. Buying from your own links
   It is incredible how many people have not read Amazon™'s terms and conditions for participating in the Associates Programme.
   You are not allowed to purchase from your own affiliate links. If you do you will not earn commission, clicks may not be tracked and, as you are breaching the terms and conditions of the programme Amazon™ are likely to throw you out of the programme!
   This also applies to family purchasing from your affiliate links. Amazon™ do not reveal how they track this and exactly what they consider to be a member of your family/household, but if you are caught doing this do not expect Amazon™ to be lenient.

Other than the above, there is no reason that links created with AmALfi will not be tracked by Amazon™ and earn you commission. We have taken great care to ensure that links created with AmALfi are either identical to those created through Amazon™'s own Associates Central website or, in some cases, are actaully more efficient by removing some redundant text.

In short, if your links are not being tracked then it is almost certainly due to an incorrect tracking i.d. having been entered or Amazon™'s terms and conditions being breached in some way. For clarity, these links would not be tracked by Amazon™ regardless of how you created them and you would not earn commission from them. i.e. this is not a problem with AmALfi.

Finally, always remember that you can always check the validity of links created with AmALfi using the official Amazon™ link checker in Asscoiates Central. Simply log into your Associates account and choose 'Link Check'. See How do I know I can trust links created by AmALfi? below for more info.

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The following is an experimental tool for finding your Associate i.d. - it is currently in development and testing:

If you have upgrade to AmALfi Pro but you are still seeing the message that short links cannot be created due to AmALfi's short links quota having been exhausted, then it is likely that you have not configured AmALfi to use your own Bitly account.

Upgrading to AmALfi Pro does not automatically give you the ability to create more short links. The Pro upgrade gives you the ability to configure AmALfi to use your own Bitly account and using your own Bitly account gives you access to your own quota of new short links.

You can find full details of how to configure AmALfi to use your own Bitly account here.

Using your own Bitly account works just the same as using AmALfi's built in short link quota, but as well as getting your own dedicated quota you can manage your own links and access various link analytics.

The short answer is yes.

If you upgrade to AmALfi Pro and configure Amalfi to use use your own Bitly account, then any short links you create with AmALFi will still be created as amzn.to links.

For clarity, they will NOT be created as bit.ly links.

When using your own Bitly account with AmALFi the links created wil look exactly the same as if you had created them in Amazon™ Associates Central or using AmALfi's built in link shortening.

AmALFi is an unofficial app and Amazon™ do not endorse third party apps such as AmALfi.

That said, we believe AmALfi has come as close to an endorsement as it is possible to get: "It sounds like your app is unlikely to cause any problems.". Hardly a glowing endorsement, but here's the full story.

Back in August 2019 we were contacted by Amazon's™ Legal Counsel. They asked us to remove AmALfi from Google Play as they were concerned that the app encourage Associates to break the scheme's rules. We immediately complied and entered into a conversation to ascertain precisely what they were concerned about.

When we asked for clarification, however, they were not forthcoming. After a number of exchanged emails where we explained the changes we were making to allay their concerns - basically adding various warning messages and making the link preview screens less interactive to prevent self-buying - we received the following response.

While they expressly stated that they never endorse third party apps, we can safely say that Amazon™ are aware of AmALfi and do not consider it a problem.

So, AmALfi is unofficial but, once we made those minor changes to the app, Amazon™ seemed satisfied that it does not encourage misuse of their platform and does not mislead users.

As such AmALfi was relisted on Google Play on September 27th 2019 and has been available since without any further complaint from Amazon™. Then again, now that they understand that AmALfi makes it quicker and easier for Associates to drive sales to Amazon™ sites, why would they complain?

This one is asked a lot... and to be honest we understand why - there are a lot of unscrupulous app developers out there, which is why we have made AmALfi as transparent as possible.

You have a few options for testing the links to ensure that they are what they say they are.

Amazon's™ own test tool

The best way to check any links is to use Amazon's™ Link Check tool on the Associates Central website - just log in to your Associates account as normal and you'll find it under the Tools menu.

Why do we not provide a link to this test tool? Well, if AmALfi was creating dodgy links, then we'd just create a dodgy test tool that told you that the links weren't dodgy! By using Amazon's™ own tool you are using a link tester that you know is trust worthy.

AmALfi's built in tests

Once you are happy that AmALfi isn't trying to cheat you, we still recommend that you test links through the built in link test buttons to ensure that created links are taking you to the correct page or product on the correct Amazon™ site.

The built in test tools are an internal 'link preview' browser that will quickly confirm that the link targets the correct destination. From this link preview page you can also open the link in any web browser installed on your device to further confirm correct operation of your links.

AmALFi Pro is an optional upgrade to AmALfi with adiitional features for professional or heavy users.

Additional features include:

• Create official amzn.to short links using your own Bitly account.
  This enables you to manage your short links quota and view link analytics in your Bitly account dashboard.
  These Bitly analytics allow you to monitor and analyse clicks on your amzn.to short links completely independently of Amazon™!
• Create new links from existing amzn.to short links.
• The option to customise the fixed text that can be included with every copied or shared link. (e.g. "Check out this great new product I found on Amazon...")

You are welcome to continue to use AmALfi for free, but if you require these extra features you can easily and securely upgrade via the in-app purchase.