So I got an email from Amazon.com via the associates network a few days ago:
Dear Amazon Associate:
The Amazon Associates program is thrilled to announce the release of the Context Links Beta!
Context Links are a quick and convenient way to add links to your website and monetize your content. Context Links automatically identify and link relevant phrases within your page content to Amazon products, unlocking new ad inventory and saving you the time from having to manually create links. You can add the links to your pages in minutes, and we provide a wealth of options to customize how they are displayed.
You create the content. We’ll link it.
I decided to give it a try, but if you guys find it annoying, please let me know. Somewhat neat that it scans my page and automatically creates link in text that are already there. Most of them are pretty much on target, but then you get stuff like Kirkland Signature linking to KitchenAid Gourmet Essentials 10-Piece Hard Anodized Cookware Set, which doesn’t even have the phrase Kirkland Signature on the page.
The tool they provide is pretty configurable allowing you to include or exclude the following:
- Logo
- Product Image
- List Price
- Amazon Price
- Customer Rating
and the ability to change to any colors you want. I haven’t played much with the color scheme yet and I’ve left everything at the default.
There is also a setting to “Match exact product names”, which might solve my Kirkland Signature problem, but I’m going to give it a few days to see how it turns out.
You can also set how many links they’re allowed to create per page. By default, the number is 10. I actually think it’s not that bad since the link looks normal and doesn’t blink nor have any animation to draw your eye to it. It does pop up a box with more information when you hover over it, which may get annoying. But we’ll see.