The Associates program is excited to announce the worldwide launch of Amazon Widgets! These new widgets are small, visually dynamic, easily configurable widgets and allow you to feature products from Amazon on blogs, websites and social networking pages. In as little as one minute, you can populate a widget with your favorite Amazon products, your comments about those products, and select from a set of color and layout themes to match both your mood and website. From the music you are listening to, movies you're watching, clothes you're wearing, and even the food you are eating, with earth's biggest selection of products Amazon widgets provide you unlimited options for voicing your tastes. The simple-to-use web interface for building and implementing a widget is at http://widgets.amazon.com, and can also be found through Associates Central.
You have the option to make money with our widgets by joining the Amazon Associates program. Just as with our existing tools, when a visitor to your site clicks on a product in your Amazon Widget and makes a purchase, you can earn up to 10 percent in referral fees from Amazon. With the exception of the Amazon Unbox Video Previewer all of the widgets can also be used without joining the Associates program.
Today we've launched seven new widgets in the Amazon Widgets Gallery, and there are more specialized widgets coming soon. Here are some descriptions and examples:
Slideshow: Pick your favorite images from the Amazon catalog and present them as a stylish slideshow. Showcase favorite CD cover art, present recently read books, or even reveal favorite breakfast cereals. Slideshow also lets users caption the selected images. Here is an example:
My Favorites: Express yourself by recommending and commenting on products from Amazon. This widget lets everyone know how you feel and what you like by showing product images, information and your own comments. Here is an example:
Wish List: Display an Amazon Wish List on a blog or profile page, and let friends, family, and others know what you want. Here is an example:
Product Cloud: Take tag clouds or word clusters one step further by showing Product Clouds. Product Clouds engage site visitors by displaying product titles that are relevant to the content of the page in a cloud or cluster with the most popular product bolded. Site visitors can click on the title to directly visit the product page on Amazon. Here is an example:.
Amazon Unbox Video Previewer: Show movie studio and TV network previews for a wide range of new release and classic movies or television shows available from the Amazon Unbox video download service. Users can select by attributes such as genre which previews they want to show on their web sites. Here is an example:
Quick Linker: By inserting a set of custom HTML tags as you write your content you can quickly link to products on Amazon without having to visit Associates Central to build links. For example, typing <a type="amzn">Harry Potter</a> would link to a Search Results page on Amazon for the term "Harry Potter."
Search: Allow your site visitors to search Amazon directly from your site. You can even have the search results displayed within the widget itself. Here is an example:
So, come and check them out and build one (or several!) for your site at http://widgets.amazon.com. As always, we would love your feedback as well!
