New Amazon initiatives

Amazon.com has two new options for affiliates which seem to me to be worth exploring:

1. Omakase Links (beta)

Omakase - leave it up to us! Omakase links will show an Associate's visitors what they're most likely to buy based on Amazon's unique understanding of the site, the user, and the page itself. To create Omakase links, simply modify the template and appearance elements below and copy the resulting code on to your page. Then leave the rest to Omakase!

See the Omakase FAQ (http://associates.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/help/t21/) for more information about the Omakase link including details on how to customize the look and feel of Omakase links.


The major question I have about Omakase is whether or not it violates the AdSense TOS if they appear on the same pages. I'm trying to get more information about that.

2. aStore (beta)

What is aStore?
aStore by Amazon is a new Associates product that gives you the power to create a professional online store, in minutes and without the need for programming skills, that can be embedded within or linked to from your website.

Feature Amazon Products
Create a dedicated shopping area on your website in minutes.

Keep visitors on your site longer as they shop
Select the Amazon products to feature
Include all Amazon products, or display only the categories you choose
Customize your store's look and feel


Offer a Shopping Cart
Gain the trust of your customers with a professional online store, without ever writing any code

Offer a shopping cart for multiple item purchases
Check out on Amazon.com, the most trusted store online

Show Product Details
Excite and inform your customers with robust product details, reviews and information from Amazon.com

Informative product descriptions
Amazon Editor product reviews
Recommended products
Up-to-date product information
Listmania, themed product lists from Amazon.com customers


Log in to your Amzon affiliates account for more information.

I've got an aStore up on one of my sites, it's very easy to use and looks pretty decent: http://www.superstockhemis.com/forums/store.php

Isn't this something like what noppid has on his site as well? I think so...

Similar - a bit more targeted and you get to specify which books you want featured - plus the visitor then has access to the entire Amazon site and products inventory.

I have it installed as http://astore.amazon.com/psychlinks05-20

I've just emailed AdSense about whether the Amazon Omakase ads would be considered a violation of their TOS. I'll update this thread when I hear Back from them.

My free product is a general bookstore OHS.

I made my own to sell tageted stuff (all products by keywords I choose) and it's doing real well for me.

With the advent of this stuff, lower payouts and shorter coookies, Amazon may do better. But, now any joe blow can do amazon and the competition will get bigger.

I'm sure you know I'm not criticizing your product, noppid. I had all but dumped Amazon as an affiliate because I didn't think it was returning enough to justify the page or server space.

My point in posting this was to highlight these two new programs. I'm willing to give them a shot for the short term before i completely walk away from Amazon.

A few years ago, I used to get small dividends from Amazon. In the past couple of years, I've seen almost nothing from them.

The book store had a purpose when it was made and it was not to sell books. It was written for it's intended purpose, which was not to sell books. No offense taken.

That's why I made a targeted product/Book store for myself. I'm doing well with amazon. I suspect those using product stores are as well.

Don't sweat it.

Just received this email from Adsense:

Hello David,

Thanks for your concern regarding the use of Amazon Omakase ads.

You'll be happy to hear that, according to our program policies, Amazon
Omakase ads may be displayed on the same page as Google ads on your site.

In general, AdSense program policy does not permit Google ads to be
published on the same page as other contextually-targeted ads. You can
review this, and all Google AdSense program policies, at
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies.

For additional questions, I'd encourage you to visit the AdSense Help
Center (http://www.google.com/adsense_help), our complete resource center
for all AdSense topics. Alternatively, feel free to post your question on
the forum just for AdSense publishers: the AdSense Help Group
(http://groups.google.com/group/adsense-help).

Sincerely,

Dave
The Google AdSense Team

----------------
To access the Google AdSense home page or to log in to your account,
please visit: https://www.google.com/adsense

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
From: "Dr. David Baxter" <djbaxter@psychlinks.ca>
Subject: Other
Date: Sat, 09 Sep 2006 16:10:01 -0000

The AdSense TOS permits ads from other sources provided they are
non-contextual. In the past, I contacted you specifically about Amazon.com
ads and was informed that they do not violate the AdSense TOS.

However, I notice that Amazon.com now has a new beta program call Omakase:


""Omakase links will show an Associate's visitors what they're most likely
to buy based on Amazon's unique understanding of the site, the user, and
the page itself."

See: Omakase FAQ at
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/help/t21/

Does this violate the AdSense TOS if such banners appear on the same pages
as AdSense?


Language: en
AdSenseLocale: en_US
Name: Dr. David Baxter
URL: http://www.psychlinks.ca
topic: Other

This is good news

Indeed, I didn't liked to put all my eggs in one basket.

I just may have to think about this myself...

Got the email about the Amazon aStore a couple of weeks ago and I planning on adding it to my forum as well, as a means of generating Income, I figure it can't hurt at all, and it appears to look pretty good as well.

I added the Amazon links. I like the images in them better than google text banners in 468x60 format.

-Raymond

I think I want to do it too, i just need to read carefully, and what if the google ads are the competition for the amazon books, at least on my site. I don't know, Minstrel. Is it easy to become their affiliate?
Ok, I don't want a store, it didn't work out for me with the other one, but maybe to feauture a book or a dvd, like the admin does here, i probably could learn how to do it.

I think minstrel's on walkabout. I tried this for a very short while, but had hassles getting relevant results. However it was a while ago and it might have improved.

Getting into the program was no big deal at all, and from memory I read some discussion that settled having the Amazon and Google "contextual" services on the same page was not an issue. I'd keep them spatially seperate though.

I've given up on the aStore, it wasn't as configurable as I had hoped. I wound up just writing my own store for a site, much easier and I can configure it how I want. Nice and easy to do with php5. ;-)

I'm using the Omakase links on one of my sites, not very much clicks on those.

I kept getting a book come up with a front cover picture of a crotch close-up of a man in jockstrap. Totally inappropriate for my site. And try as I might I couldn't filter the damn thing out.

So it was goodbye to Omakase for me.