The Official Amazon Associates Blog

Apple Leopard OS

The Amazon.com Software team wanted me to pass along that Apple's new Leopard Operating System is being released tomorrow, October 26th.  To link directly to Leopard, simply substitute your Associates ID in this link format:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FK88JK/?tag=YourAssociatesID

If you have a site about technology you will definitely want to stay up-to-date with Amazon.com's Software team by reading their blog, where they have info on Leopard and other Software products available on Amazon.com.

-Sean, Amazon Associates Program

Amazon.com Textbooks

It's hard for us to believe as well, but back-to-school shopping season is already in full swing.  Amazon.com's Textbook Store is offering spectacular savings on textbooks for your site visitors, and you can earn up to 8.5% by promoting them on your site.

New Textbooks:  For a limited time only, your site visitors can save up to 30% on over 100,000 new textbooks. They'll also receive Free 2-Day Shipping on orders of $200 or more of eligible titles, and Prime members receive a $20 promotional certificate to be used for a future purchase.

Used Textbooks: To offer your site visitors even bigger savings, direct them to our Used Textbooks store to save up to 90% off the list price of millions of used listings. All used textbook purchases are backed by our A-Z Guarantee.

You have several options for linking to the Amazon.com Textbook Store.

1.    Link to our textbooks store by substituting your Associates ID into the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=465600&tag=YourAssociatesID-20

2.  Use our Textbooks banner graphics such as the one below located in Associates Central under Build Links->Banner Links->Textbooks. 

3.  Build links to specific textbooks in Associates Central using Product Links or Text Links.

4.  Build a back-to-school themed aStore to showcase popular textbooks and supplementary materials.

-Sean, Associates Product Marketing Manager

$3 New Grocery Customer Bonus

The Amazon Associates Team is pleased to announce a new promotion for Amazon Associates. Through July 31, 2007, when you refer a new customer to the Amazon Grocery category, you will earn an extra $3.  These can be entirely new Amazon.com customers or current Amazon.com customers that have never purchased items from Amazon Grocery.

Why market Amazon Grocery products to your customers?  Amazon Grocery offers over 22,000 non-perishable items including some of your favorite brands, shipped to your door, just like any other Amazon.com purchase.  We've also recently introduced the Subscribe and Save program, which is a great way to save money on items you use routinely.  Your visitor can sign up for routine convenient delivery of products such as coffee pods, shampoo, laundry detergent and diapers and receive a 15% discount off Amazon's already low prices and free shipping on these items.

Get started today!  Amazon Grocery banners such as the one above  are available at Associates Central->Build Links->Banner Links->Grocery.  You can also build direct product links by linking to your favorite grocery items and then recommending your visitors also sign up for Subscribe and Save.

Since this is a promotion, we will be uploading the data on new customers you have referred at the end of the month.  The data will be available on your Payment History in Associates Central .  All grocery products you refer will also earn referral fees up to 8.5%.

-Sean, Associates Product Marketing Manager

Mac OS X Leopard Pre-Orders

Our Software team wanted to let you know that Amazon.com is one of the few retailers where you can reserve your copy of Apple's latest and greatest operating system  Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard. Amazon.com's Pre-Order Price Guarantee applies, so customers can order with confidence knowing that they'll get the lowest price offered when the operating system ships in October. 

To link to the product on Amazon.com, use the following:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FK88JK/?tag=YourAssociatesID

-Sean, Associates Product Marketing Manager
-The Amazon.com Software Team
    

UnSpun by Amazon

Have you heard of UnSpun by Amazon?  It's an interactive community site that endeavors to provide tools to reach a community consensus around ranking lists.  Among the lists you can view and rank are topics such as "Most Beautiful View Spots in Seattle" and "Favorite South Park Character."  And if there is a topic you'd like to rank, you can also create your own list.

The UnSpun team wanted me to pass on word that they're now offering a great widget to put these UnSpun lists directly on your sites and blogs.  You can show community rankings on any existing topic or one you create yourself by displaying simply copying and pasting a line of HTML code, much like you would for Associates' links.  Your readers will then be able to vote on their favorites.

Below is an example of one of their more popular lists how you might embed an UnSpun widget in a blog post or on your site.  Feel free to give OK Computer a bump!

One final note: Associates will not receive referral fees for traffic sent to UnSpun that subsequently visit Amazon.  We are working with them to best identify how they can work with Associates, but in the meantime this is a great way to add interesting content to your site.  Have fun!

-Sean, Associates Product Marketing

-Matt, UnSpun Product Manager

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

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.