'Net Features : amazon associates

3D @ Amazon and Affiliate Marketing

Administrator — Thu, 20 May 2010 13:50:00 GMT

Success with affiliate marketing requires that you keep your virtual fingers on the pulse of what's hot. Take note - 3D (three-dimensional) technology is on it's way and Amazon is wasting no time with a release of a site dedicated to all things 3D.

Amazon's 3D 101 site offers visitors an opportunity to learn about 3D trend and includes a selection of products spanning several categories that are already 3D-friendly including HDTV's, Blu-ray players, monitors, movies and a bunch of accessories. The site also offers educational videos to help everyone (myself included) understand what it is that we're actually dealing with here and how to all works.

If you're an Amazon Associate and an affiliate marketer with an eye on the future, our reccomendation is to start promoting these products and opportunities as soon as possible.

Amazon Associates Now Integrates With Twitter

Mike Phillips — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Several days ago we wrote about the Amazitter app. The iPhone application lets you browse Amazon products and then post them directly to Twitter from your mobile, while including your Amazon affiliate ID. So, if someone from Twitter clicked on your link and bought the product, you get paid.

Now, Amazon has released their own Twitter integration, direct from your Associates account. It's pretty simple. Log in to your Associates account, find a product, click through to the product description, then click the "Share on Twitter" button (above) from the Site Stripe. You will be directed to Twitter where you enter your login info, then a short link will appear with a product description. You can customize the description. Just like Amazitter, any clicks and earnings go through your Associates account.

This is welcome news to Associates and, of course, to Amazon. Maybe not so much for the Amazitter developers. They do still have a leg up on the mobile part of it all - it's incredibly fast and easy to use the app. Now we'll see if Amazon works on an Associates app of their own.

Amazon Retools Associates

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:14:00 GMT

Amazon Associates will want to pay very close attention to a recent announcement. Amazon will be renaming the Amazon Associate Web Service to the "Product Advertising API" effective immediately, but that's only the beginning.

Most important in the announcement is that affiliates will be forced to migrate to "authenticated services" and will be given a time frame of May 11th to August 15th 20009 to do so. Unauthenticated requests simply won't be processed after that date. This announcement is primarily meant for developers or those that have outsourced their programming when building applications that use the Amazon Associate Web Service.

Authentication is a process for identifying and verifying who is sending a request. For example (this gets a little heady so hang on), the sender (the affiliate) obtains the necessary credentials and send a request with that credential to the recipient (Amazon's Product Advertising API). The recipient then uses the credential to verify the sender actually sent the request, which if they did, the recipient then proceses the request.

Amazon has updated its terms of service to reflect the move to authenticated services

Major Amazon Affiliate Program Change (No More Paid Search)

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:25:00 GMT

In a move that will surely raise the interest (and perhaps ire) of the affiliate industry, Amazon notified its affiliates early this morning that starting May 1st, 2009, they will no longer be paying referral fees to Associates that send users to amazon.com, amazon.ca or endless.com through paid search (keyword bidding) practices.

In addition to not paying referral fees for paid search traffic, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates - a common practice for sending users to Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.

This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada should refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.

Amazon is certainly not the first to prohibit its affiliates from using paid search as a means to drive traffic to listings, but they are without a doubt the biggest name in the industry to do so. The company decided to make the policy change after a review of its advertising resources.

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Amazon Game Downloads - Associate Friendly

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:17:00 GMT

If you're an affiliate marketer and into online gaming, you'll be interested to know that Amazon Associates can now promote game downloads. Amazon added digital game downloads last week and took no time in opening up the offer to their associates.

Amazon is paying 10% commission when customers download games like FishCo, Jewel Quest III and Home Sweet Home 2 to their PCs. There are quite a few titles, more than 600 priced at less than $10.

There is no limit no the number of items on which referral fees are earned, but there is a referral fee cap of $1.50 per unit.

Site Stripe for Amazon Associates

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:51:00 GMT

Amazon has made some significant improvements to Associates Central affiliate dashboard as well as the service itself including (and most noteworthy) the ability for affiliates to build links directly from the Amazon website. Upgrades and enhancements have been a long time coming and one that I personally am happy has officially arrived as we at WM get more involved in offering books from Amazon.

Site Stripe, as the offering has been dubbed, gives Amazon Associates the ability to quickly and easily link to any page on Amazon. The Site Stripe is essentially an "overlay" which appears at the top of every page you visit on Amazon (if you are logged in). To build a link to a page with Site Stripe, Amazon Associates will simply go to the page/product they want to promote and select the "Link To This Page' button on the Site Stripe. Amazon Associates are able to configurefive display settings on the Site Stripe; Link to this Page, Add to aStore, Your Earning Summary, Discussion Boards and What's New.