The Official Amazon Associates Blog

ISBN-13 and Amazon Associates

We've received a lot of questions from Associates regarding ISBN-13; so, we wanted to provide you all some information on the new standard and how you're affected.

The International Standards Organization (ISO) recently approved a change to the length of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) from 10 digits (ISBN-10) to 13 digits (ISBN-13) effective January 1, 2007. We have created an FAQ in Associates Central (login required), but here is a condensed version of some of the information in that FAQ.

Amazon plans to continue using 10-digit ASINs; so, in the future a book's ASIN will be different than its ISBN, just as items in product categories like Electronics or Kitchen may have a manufacturer SKU (stock keeping unit) different than the Amazon ASIN.

How does this affect Associates links to books?
ASINs for existing books will not change.  So, any Associates links to specific books on Amazon will continue to work, and you do not need to update them.

If I know the 13-digit ISBN for a book, can I use that in a Associates Link to Amazon?
No. Associates Product Links must include the 10-digit ASIN of the item. If you know the 13-digit ISBN, you can look up the ASIN by searching for the book in Associates Central or on Amazon.com using the ISBN as your search term. Our Build Links (login required) tool in Associates Central will generate the HTML needed to build the link to Amazon.com.

Is there an automated way to create a Product Link if I have the 13-digit ISBN?
Yes. You can programmatically generate Associates links from 13-digit ISBNs using the E-Commerce Service (ECS) from Amazon Web Services. The ECS ItemLookup function allows you to look up items using an ASIN, international article number (EAN), or other identifiers.  For more information, see the ECS documentation.

VarsityWorld.com Launches VStore

VarsityWorld.com on Tuesday announced the launch of “VStore”, a full service online store featuring products exclusively from Amazon.com. As a new member of the Amazon Associates program and the Amazon Web Services developer community, VarsityWorld.com will be offerings its users the chance to select from millions of Amazon.com products in dozens of categories, complete their transactions on the trusted and secure Amazon.com website, and have their orders fulfilled by Amazon.com.  VarsityWorld.com built its new store using the Amazon E-Commerce Service from Amazon Web Services.

VarsityWorld.com, a division of Varsity Media Group, Inc., offers teenagers and young adults worldwide a safe, clean and interactive online environment where they can interact with friends, download the hottest music, play video games, create personalized pages and more.

We'd like to welcome them to the Associates program and wish them well with VStore!

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.

Amazon.com Magazines Promo

The Amazon.com Magazines category has just started a limited-time, unprecedented sale event in the Magazines store.

Here are the details you can pass on to your site visitors:

• Over 500 magazine subscriptions on Amazon.com will come with a bonus $5 coupon code.
• The magazines featured are many of our top-selling titles such as O: The Oprah Magazine, People, Wired, Lucky, and Mental Floss.
• Your site visitors will receive a $5 code for each magazine title they purchase. So, the more they buy, the more $5 codes they will receive!  Each code will be redeemable on a future Amazon.com purchase.
• This offer is only available to customers who purchase the magazines featured here from November 15, 2006 – January 15, 2007.

To assist you in driving traffic to the Magazines store current Associates may download banner graphics from Associates Central.

Amazon Customers Vote

Are you looking for a great reason to refer your site visitors to Amazon.com?

During the next four weeks, "Amazon Customers Vote" will let customers decide which fantastic deals are offered this holiday season.  Every Thursday, a new set of four extraordinary deals will be announced on the Amazon.com homepage. Some are popular items this holiday season and others are unique products that customers can only find on Amazon.com. These deals go well above traditional holiday discounting, so customers must vote on the one deal they want Amazon.com to offer each week. For week one, customers can vote through next Tuesday (November 21), the deal with the most votes will be announced next Wednesday (November 22), and that deal can be purchased beginning at 11 a.m. PT next Thursday (November 23, Thanksgiving Day) -- the same day the next four deals will be up for voting.

The first week's four deals that are up for voting on the Amazon.com homepage today include:

• 1,000 Xbox 360 core systems, each for $100 (normally $299.99)
• 2,500 Mongoose dual-suspension mountain bikes, each for $30 (normally $139.99)
• 2,000 Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses interactive Genevieve dolls, each for $10 (normally $49.84)
• 2,000 Amazon Prime memberships for $40 (normally $79) and receive a free $100 Amazon.com Toys Store promotional certificate.

All offers are brand-new, top-quality products.  More deals customers can expect to see (with similar quantities) on the Customers Vote ballot during the next four weeks include:

• Portable DVD player
• Elliptical trainer
• One-year subscription of diapers
• 1-carat-weight diamond earrings
• 14-volt cordless drill
• Two-room eight-person family tent
• 26-inch LCD HDTV
• Swiss Army pocket knife
• George Foreman grill

Use the following format to create a link to Customers Vote with your Associate ID:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/holiday/cv/homepage/?tag=associate_id

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.

Toys Promotion

The Amazon.com Toys team is getting a head start on the holidays, and they're hoping you will join them!  Between now and November 12th, when your site visitors spend $100 on Toys at Amazon.com they will receive a $20 gift certificate that can be used on any Amazon.com order placed in the month of December.

 

As Darth Tater can attest, the Toys store has a huge selection of the holiday season's hottest products.  If you would like some ideas on what products to feature on your site, check out the Kids Gift Guides.  Or pop over to our discussion boards to discuss with other Associates how they are ramping up for the holiday season.

Amazon Web Services Featured in Business Week

Many Associates have been using Amazon Web Services via the E-Commerce Service for years to more deeply integrate Amazon's rich content and features into their own sites.  Recently the Web Services team has launched several groundbreaking products that allow developers and Associates that want to build more complex applications to take advantage of the significant investments Amazon has made in its infrastructure including computing power (Amazon EC2), storage (Amazon S3), and processes (Amazon Mechanical Turk).

As Jeff Bezos said in this week's cover story of Business Week, "All the kinds of things you need to build great Web-scale applications are already in the guts of Amazon," says Bezos. "The only difference is, we're now exposing the guts, making [them] available to others."

Jeff is also delivering a keynote address tomorrow at this week's Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco where he will discuss more details about Amazon Web Services.

 

Check out the article; if you'd like to discuss it or Amazon Web Services as they relate to Associates, chime in on the thread we started on the Associates discussion board.

Associate Tip: Create Links While Browsing Amazon.com

If you frequently create text links to Amazon products you'll appreciate this easy way to do so while you're reading about a product on Amazon. The technique described in this post allows you to create a special bookmark in your browser that automatically generates the HTML, with your Associates ID contained, in Associates Central to link to the product you're viewing on Amazon. Bookmarks like this that consist of JavaScript snippets are known as "bookmarklets."

First, you need to create the bookmarklet using the following process:

1. In Internet Explorer, choose Favorites -> Add to Favorites. (In Firefox, choose Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks -> New Bookmark.)
2. Name the bookmark.
3. In the "Create In" box, select the Links folder and click Ok.
4. From the "Links" toolbar, right click on your new bookmark and select "Properties." If the Links toolbar is not visible, you can enable it by choosing View -> Toolbars -> Links.
5. Delete any text in the URL box. Copy the JavaScript snippet below and paste it in the URL box (You may have to copy each line individually, but there shouldn't be any spaces when pasted into the URL box):

javascript:var%20re=/\/([0-9A-Z]{10,10})\//i;if(re.test(location.href
)==true){var%20asin=RegExp.$1;void(win=window.open
('http://associates.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/build-links
/individual/get-html.html
?asin='+asin+'&linkType=static-text'));}

You're now ready to use your new bookmarklet. First, go to Associates Central and log in to your Associates account. Then, go to Amazon.com and start browsing. When you find a product that you want to add to your Web site, just click the bookmark in the Links toolbar. A new window will appear with the HTML you need to link to the product, and it will include your Associates ID. After you've copied the HTML, you can close the window and continue browsing on Amazon.

Do you have other shortcuts or time-saving tips to share? Discuss them on the Associates Discussion Boards or send them to us via email.  We may post them on the blog in the future.