The whole point of MakerManifest is that you set up your affiliate programs once and stop thinking about them. This walkthrough shows where that setup lives, how your gear list links get tagged, and how to make mkr.ms short links with your own custom codes.
Add Your Amazon Tag and Other Networks
Start with your Amazon Associates tag. After that you can add rules for other networks: eBay, AWIN, Impact and Howl are all covered in the video. Each rule tells MakerManifest how to tag links for that program, so you are not hand-editing URLs every time you add a product to a list.
The Catch-All Rule and Automatic Tagging
There is also a catch-all rule for links that do not match one of your specific networks. Links are tagged at click time, which means the tagging happens when someone actually clicks through rather than being baked into the URL when you saved the product.
Links That Already Have a Tag
Sometimes you paste a link that already carries an affiliate tag. The video covers what happens in that case, so it is worth watching that section before you import a pile of old links.
Short Links With Custom Codes
MakerManifest creates mkr.ms short links, and you can pick a custom code instead of a random one. That matters on video: a short link you can say out loud is one a viewer can actually type in later. You can also edit a short link's destination afterward, so if a product page changes you fix it once and every description that uses that link keeps working.
Recorded on a Demo Account
Everything in the video is on a demo account, so the tags and links shown are examples, not real ones.
If you are new to MakerManifest, start with getting started with your first gear list. If a lot of your clicks come from outside the U.S., the next step is earning from international Amazon clicks. To see which of your links people actually click, read about click analytics. I also wrote up how I use MakerManifest for my own YouTube gear lists. If you are comparing this to Geniuslink, Bitly or Pretty Links, the difference is that the affiliate rules and short links live in the same place as your gear lists.
More short how-tos on the VARØ Industries YouTube channel.