I used to use Amazon affiliate links on various websites years ago, but had lost track of what was happening, because I found that people got used to seeing the same old amazon boxes on every website, just as they have grown accustomed to seeing a PayPal donate button. We tune out the images we see all the time.

The other down-side of trying to use Amazon as an affiliate-type programming is that you only get a 24-hour cookie, meaning the purchase has to happen pretty quickly. Most programs out there give you a more leisurely 30 days for your click-ees to make a commitment.

However, Amazon has some nifty new widgets that I think look pretty good, and I’ve been looking again at trying out Amazon as a tool for monetising my blogs. I decided to share them with you in case you either had never used Amazon Affiliates, or had, like me, not looked at them in some time.

Unbox Videos and Slideshow give a moving and active presentation to the Amazon product links. Nicely eye-catching.

I particularly like the Product Cloud. People like this layout of information right now, and are used to clicking on category tag clouds on blogs.  I think My Favorites would be most suitable for a personal blog or a review blog.

Likewise, Wish List might work best on a personal blog. Personally I’m not sure how much time Quick Linker would save someone, since it’s not that difficult to add an amazon link to a website as things stand now. Will have to explore this one.

Search is one I’m not sure how useful it will be. If people want to search amazon, my own feeling is that they’ll just go to amazon and search. If you aren’t familiar with aStores, they’re something Amazon has added to make it incredibly easy for someone to create an entire website shop based around Amazon products. Amazon even hosts the shops. You can see an example here with Cheap-iPods.com .

The Products Link widget isn’t really anything new, although it’s in an easier-to-plug-in format.  Product Preview  and Context Link (below) look promising if you’re interested in advertising Amazon products without actually cluttering up your sidebar with any additional widgets.  I particularly like the Product Preview, because you can decide exactly where and when the adverts appear.

Text Links follows a format similar to Text-Link-Ads, but it leads to a specific destination on Amazon.com

The Omakase, Banner, Recommended Product Links (below), and Search Box (below) widgets look a lot more like traditional Amazon advertizing, but with the ease of an automated widget.

I’d written off Amazon.com as a source of potential income on websites, but these new widgets look quite interesting!

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