The Official Amazon Associates Blog

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Graphics

We just wanted to pass on that we recently updated our Harry Potter graphics to reflect the official cover art.  You can see a sample above.

For those of you that already placed the graphics on your site, those have been automatically updated to reflect the changes.  For those of you that have not downloaded them, you are welcome to do so in Associates Central at Build Links-->Banner Links-->Harry Potter.

-Sean, Associates Product Marketing Manager

Referral Fees on Amazon.com Gift Certificates Extended

The Associates program has extended the opportunity for you to earn referral fees on Gift Certificates. For full details and where to find banner graphics to promote Gift Certificates, please read our post announcing that Associates are eligible to earn referral fees on Amazon Gift Certificates. If this policy changes, we'll be sure to let you know.

- Sean, Associates Product Marketing Manager

Context Links Beta - You Create the Content. We'll Link It.

The Amazon Associates program is thrilled to announce a Beta release of Context Links!

Context Links are a quick and convenient way to add links to your website and monetize your content. Context Links automatically identify and link relevant phrases within your page content to Amazon products, unlocking new ad inventory and saving you the time from having to manually create links.  You can add the links to your pages in minutes, and we provide a wealth of options to customize how they are displayed.

You create the content. We'll link it.

Who Should Use Context Links?
Context Links are for people looking for an easy way to generate money from the content they write. Bloggers, review sites, and people that have archived pages that are currently not monetized are excellent candidates for Context Links.

Why Should I Use Context Links?
Earn Additional Referral Fees - By identifying and linking relevant phrases in your content, Context Links will unlock new advertising inventory, thereby providing the opportunity to earn incremental referral fees.

Convenience – Embed a piece of code on your page one time and automatically monetize future content. This saves you the time from having to manually create Text Links.

Delight Your Site Visitors – Context Links provide your site visitors links to relevant products on Amazon.com, and the interactive preview functionality allows them to view these products in the context of your website without having to leave it.

Why Launch with a Beta?
We want your feedback.  We have just completed a closed Beta, and we are proud of the results.  An open Beta will allow us to gather more feedback that will be instrumental as we continue to improve Context Links.

How do Context Links Work?
After you embed one simple piece of code on your pages, Context Links will identify and link contextually relevant phrases within your content to Amazon.com products. If you enable the preview functionality your site visitors will see a preview of an Amazon.com product relevant to the phrase we selected. Clicking on the link will send your site visitors to the product detail page on Amazon.com, and you will earn referral fees just as you would with any link you hand-picked.

Setting up Context Links for your website is quick and easy. Simply:

1. Visit Associates Central->Build Links->Context Links
2. Specify the maximum number of links you'd like on each page
3. Optionally customize the display of the links with a couple clicks
4. Copy/paste the generated code into your pages

Can I Customize the Links?
Yes, we have provided numerous customization options for Context Links allowing you to control:

• the number of links on each page
• which portion of the page will be linked
• which Amazon product categories are linked
• the matching of exact product names only
• if preview windows will appear when your site visitors hover over the links, and the style of those windows
• the options of single underline, dashed underline, and double underline link formats to indicate to your site visitors that they are Context Links
  

Where Can I See Context Links In Action?
Here are a couple of links to sites using Context Links::

• Cat Fanciers
  
• Classical.net

Log in to Associates Central or join the Associates program to try Context Links today, and let us know what you think. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

-Sean, Associates Product Marketing Manager

aStore Tracking Update

We recently changed the way clicks are being tagged and reported for aStore. This explains the recent drop in clicks Associates using aStores have observed in the Associates Central reports.

Until recently every visit to and click within an aStore was reported as a click in Associates Central. So, if a user visited the first page of your aStore, then visited a product detail page, placed the item into the cart, and proceeded to checkout on Amazon.com your aStore reports would show four total clicks for one order.

All other Associates links are tracked as clicks and tagged only if a user comes via your referrals to the Amazon website.  In order to maintain consistency across the different Associates tools we have updated the aStore tracking to follow the same approach.

So, an aStore "click" will now be reported whenever one of your site visitors is referred to Amazon through either adding something to the aStore cart and proceeding to checkout or by visiting Amazon.com via one of the links embedded in the store (such as the "new and used" link, the search link, etc.).

Therefore you can expect a drop in the number of clicks showing up in your reports, but you should also see an increase in the conversion percentage.

Here are some more details on how aStore tagging is implemented to enable tracking of the two different customer behaviors listed in the Link type reports in Associate Central.

A) Purchase through aStore (Link code = sb2)
When a customer visits your aStore and clicks on the "Proceed to Checkout" button, all items in his/her aStore cart get added to the Amazon.com cart tagged your Associates ID. There are two possibilities here if the customer does not complete the purchase at that time:
1. The customer proceeds to checkout, logs in to Amazon.com and decides not to complete the transaction at that moment. In this case, the items will be saved in the cart for 90 days.  If the customer completes the transaction within 90 days, the referring associate will be paid.
2. If the customer proceeds to checkout from the aStore but does not log into Amazon.com, his/her cart will be saved for seven days. If the customer visits Amazon within seven days, he/she will be asked to enter his/her credentials and we will display items added from aStore within the Amazon cart. If the user subsequently logs in, items will be saved for another 90 days and the referring Associate will get credited whenever the transaction is completed.

B) Referral from aStore (Link code = sb1)
If customers visit your aStore and click on any link within the aStore to go to Amazon.com, their session is tagged with your Associates ID. If the customer adds a product to his/her Amazon.com cart within 24 hrs, the referring Associate will be credited when the transaction is completed. This is the same as any other link type.  For further details, please refer to the Amazon.com Associates Operating Agreement.

We realize this creates a gap in tracking the traffic to and within your aStores, and our aStore team is actively exploring ways to enhance the reporting functionality.  We'll keep you posted as things change.

- Sean, Amazon Associates Product Marketing Manager

- Rajat, aStore Product Manager

Amazon Associates Program Wins Award

The Amazon Associate Program has been awarded the Exceptional Merchant award at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards show that took place on Monday, January 22, 2007.

All of us working in the Associates Program are really pleased to get the recognition - we know this is the product of hard work from a large number of people over the last 10 years. We also take this as motivation for the year ahead - we've got interesting things in the pipeline and we look forward to delivering these innovations to you as well as improving on the quality of our service and support.

Big thanks to the Affiliate Summit organizers and to our associates who nominated us for the award.

Woody
Associates Tech Product & Program Manager

Harry Potter Pre-Orders for Associates

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca!  Speculation continues as to which character will die in the seventh and final chapter of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series, and your site visitors will surely want to find out.

The publishers, Scholastic in the U.S. and Raincoast in Canada, have announced a release date of July 21, 2007.  Visit the detail pages on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca for complete details on the book and our Pre-Order Price Guarantee.

Harry Potter releases are a major event here at Amazon, and the popularity of the book makes it a great opportunity for Associates to capitalize on the pre-order buzz.  In order to assist you in making your site visitors aware of the opportunity to pre-order the book we have created graphics and banners in a number of sizes.  You can download them from Associates Central under Build Links-->Banners (login required).  And if you aren't already part of the Amazon Associates affiliate prorgram, the release of Harry Potter is a great reason to join!

Below are the pre-order links that you can place on your site.  Simply replace the parameter "your-assoc-id-20" in them with your own Amazon.com or Amazon.ca Associate ID.

U.S. Associates
Standard http://www.amazon.com/dp/0545010225/?tag=your-assoc-id-20
Deluxe http://www.amazon.com/dp/0545029376/?tag=your-assoc-id-20

Canadian Associates
Children http://www.amazon.ca/dp/1551929767/?tag=your-assoc-id-20
Adults
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/1551929783/?tag=your-assoc-id-20

In the coming months Amazon.com will have many events and site features leading up to the release date.  Stay tuned for more news as it happens!

- Sean, Amazon Associates Product Marketing Manager

Announcing Monthly Payments for 2007!

As we wrap up 2006 we have some great news for 2007!  Beginning January 1, 2007, standard Amazon Associates payments will be monthly instead of quarterly, paid approximately 60 days after the end of each month. For example, referral fees earned in January will be paid at the end of March, and payment of referral fees earned in February will be paid at the end of April. As part of this change, referral fee tiers will be adjusted to reflect monthly instead of quarterly item quantities (click the thumbnail to view the chart):

One other reminder - if you are still on the Classic Payment Plan (4% flat referral fees) and interested in potentially earning these higher fees, you can easily change your fee structure.

Also, we encourage you to update your payment method to direct deposit (EFT) or Amazon.com Gift Certificates to avoid check processing fees.

And, of course, this is a great reason to join the Amazon Associates program if you're not already participating!

New Omakase Feature - Discount Stickers

Today we launched a new feature that displays discount stickers on product images in Omakase ads.  These stickers show the percentage that Amazon.com's price has been discounted from the regular list price for Amazon products.  Amazon.com customers appreciate this added information, and we believe your site visitors will as well.  This feature was requested by many Associates worldwide, and we thought it was a great idea.

This feature has been applied to all active Omakase ads on the bottom right corner of the product images where the discount is greater than 10%.  We have enabled current Omakase users to turn this feature off by going to the Build Links page for Omakase and selecting the “Remove Discount Sticker” pulldown from the Amazon Discount menu option.

For our readers that are not familiar with Omakase, the links uniquely combine information on each site visitor's taste, your Web site's content, and historical trends to generate relevant ads.  We have placed an Omakase ad at the bottom of this post.

And remember that all items referred through Omakase Links between November 14, 2006 and December 31, 2006 earn an extra 4% (up to $500 per Associate). Omakase - Leave it up to us!

Gift Certificates Now Eligible for Associates Referral Fees

The Amazon Associates team is thrilled to announce that Associates are now eligible to earn referral fees on Amazon.com Gift Certificates, and just in time for the holidays!

Amazon.com Gift Certificates are redeemable for millions of items on Amazon.com, making them the perfect gift.  They can be sent via email, an e-card or on paper through the mail.  When visitors to your site want to purchase a gift for someone but are unsure exactly what to get, Amazon.com Gift Certificates are ideal.  Visit Amazon.com to learn more about Amazon.com Gift Certificates.

Through December 31, 2006 Associates can earn 6% on all gift certificate referrals.  This promotion will last through December 31, 2006, and current Associates can learn all the details of the offer, download banners, and learn how to build links to gift certificates by visiting Associates Central (Associates login required).  Of course, if you are not a current Associate this is a great reason to join the program as it allows you to present your site visitors another gift option for the holidays.

Announcing the Launch of Three New Tools and Q4 Premiums!

The Amazon Associates team today announced the launch of three tools for website owners: aStore, Omakase, and Product Previews.  Plus, as a celebration of the products coming out of Beta with expanded feature sets, we are offering an extra 4% premium on items referred through aStore or Omakase through the end of the year (details below).

aStore - aCommerce for your site, in minutes
aStore gives you the power to create professional online stores for your website complete with checkout on Amazon.com.  No programming is required to build your aStores, and they can be live on your site in minutes.

Because aStore is a dedicated shopping area for your site, it is a great complementary addition to your other advertising and affiliate monetization options. Delight your site visitors through your unique selection of recommended products and categories and the features of Amazon.com you have chosen including Customer Reviews, Listmania, and more.

For those of you familiar with the Beta release of aStore, we have added functionality that allows you to now:

• Build and maintain multiple aStores under one Associate ID
• Create custom categories containing products from multiple Amazon categories
• Create multiple instances of individual Amazon categories
• Specify products to feature on Category and Subcategory pages
• Populate products to categories using Amazon.com Listmania lists

Please visit Associates Central or join the Associates program today to build an aStore for each of your sites!

Omakase - Leave it up to us!
Omakase links uniquely combine information on each site visitor's taste, your Web site's content, and historical trends to generate relevant ads. With simple, yet powerful, customization options, Omakase lets you automatically display relevant Amazon.com product ads that complement your Web site design. Learn more and check out some of the new advanced options on our Omakase page in Associates Central.

Product Previews - Enhance. Hover. Expand.
Product Previews provide valuable product information through a cool window into Amazon.com that appears when your site visitors hover over an enhanced link. Product Previews keep interested visitors on your site until they're ready to purchase from Amazon.com without taking up additional valuable real estate. Check out our Product Previews page in Associates Central to learn more about this great feature and see it in action.

Earn Double the Base Rate using aStore and Omakase!
Between November 14, 2006 and December 31, 2006 you can earn up to $1,000 in additional referral fees using Omakase and aStore! During that time the Associates program will pay an additional 4% for units referred via Omakase or aStore (up to a maximum of $500 from each offering per Associate).

As always, we welcome your feedback on the tools and program via the Associates discussion boards.

In the coming weeks we'll be featuring interesting implementations of the above features on this blog and in other areas of Associates Central.  If you these tools have made an impact on your business or you have used them in an interesting way on your site, let us know by emailing us or posting it on the discussion boards.

You can read the full Amazon Associates press release here.