Amazon have launched a new handy Video Widget that will interest many bloggers wanting to combine the use of video and the Amazon Affiliate program.
The widget allows you to make a video and then upload it to Amazon to be hosted where you can add little pop-up product links and pictures that appear throughout the video.
You can choose which products appear and then time the product appearances to the moment in the video that you mention the product you’re talking about.
This video widget will be most effective when you’re reviewing products and I think could convert well.
Here’s a quick video that I just made – excuse the quality of the video (it’s jumpy and out of sync). It’s not Amazon’s hosting but is my fault as my laptop was doing too many things at once as I recorded it.
The video was shot in 1 minute and it only took me 3 minutes to upload and a further 2 to add the products. Not bad for 6 minutes work.
wow that cool so now i have to say good bye to youtube ;)
Looks pretty good. I’ve been thinking of getting into video blogging so maybe this will be a good incentive. :)
Well isn’t that just handy. It wasn’t quite as obtrusive as I thought it would be either. As a reviewer, I think this is something I will definitely look into more. Thanks for the heads up!
Thank you for posting, I have been considering going with Amazon as an affiliate. Appreciate the post as always..
This is really cool!
The ads are actually not as disturbing as I expected while reading your post.
With those ads popping out at the right time, it gives me the feeling of watching a TV-Shopping channel.
But I think the ads disappear to fast, If you want to look at them you have to be pretty quick, one second longer should be enough thought.
Can you set the time an ad is displayed yourself?
If Amazon would offer a way to browse hosted videos as well, Amazon could even become a competitor for Youtube, since this is a very promising feature that could become very popular among bloggers and other people.
I think this will be a jump start for most bloggers etc etc. Having a personalized ad I think always wins out over no personal promotion.
“You are the Blogger. You are the Spokesperson to your readers.” Show them via video that you uses a product and have links to it inside the video.
I wonder how this will work on social sites like myspace, etc that allow you to embed video. will they not allow it? because it’s an ad that they aren’t making money from?
I can bet myspace will block this in the future.
Hi Darren, the video takes a minute to be visualized under the post, as if it were really heavy, I do not know if it depends on my connection or from Amazon.
Follow up on my first comment… yes myspace blocks the use of clicking on the links… the video plays however the links don’t work
I would be interested to see how many video posts you do like this, and if this system becomes one of your top income earners. Seems like an effective way to offer products in a non threatening way, but who knows?
Thanks
Thanks Darren for new useful information..
Looks like it could be a winner for your photography school. Have to think of ways to use it on my travel site.
It’s an interesting option for amazon associates. Will be interested to get feedback from users to see how conversions rate go.
that would be great for review websites. Not half bad, that’s for sure.
Wow, kudos to Amazon. That is a GREAT idea.
I actually find the pop ups to be distracting and quite annoying. So distracting that it deters from the content of the video.
If they were smaller and static perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad.
When I first read about Amazon video widgets I thought it was going to be some boring videos that just showed products.
Very glad to be proved wrong. This is cool!
Now I need to just get myself a web cam / camcorder..
Actually the service is only available in the US. I checked my German affiliate account and there is no video widget available.
Really nice. As jorge said, it’s a really great feature for a review site, but i guess it could work for “normal” bloggers as well. Don’t take up any space on your site either.
Staale
VikingBlogger.com
For a review site, fine, but otherwise I’d find that annoying.
Lovely concept, although I don’t hope this’ll result in seeing blogs all over to begin flooding themselves with videos like this.
And Darren, in case the problogger thing ever begins to fail I’m sure you’ll be getting a lot of applications for serving as a door-to-door pen salesman ;-).
I think it’s a great idea.
You can review products and make affiliate commissions at the same time.
BTW, nice video.
Generally speaking, what amazon does with this is great. It could have a lot of uses. As a short example I could imagine a guy that does video guitar lessons online where he could mention favourite guitar, favourite strings, amplifiers and so forth.
However, it also has disadvantages. As we all have seen in the video above, this “thing” can become annoying. Well, everything can become annoying if it’s too much, isn’t it ?
I think it can be a useful tool if used properly but only time will tell.
Whoa.. Amazon also give video widget…
Good.
Very interesting concept – certainly something worth considering!
Finally, the ability to place relevant overlay ads in video. I’m a little surprised that it came from Amazon but it makes a lot of sense. The affiliate program from Amazon is great and they continue to improve it with great features like this one.
This is quite interesting. They have a well thought of video as well. Let’s see now this performs.
Interesting concept, but don’t think I’ll have much use for it. I still haven’t used any video in my blog yet, and don’t really have any plans for it. Besides, the only reviews with links to Amazon that I put on my blog are for books and movies…not sure how well a video review would work for those.
This is very cool. They seem to be coming out with a lot of new widgets latley. I wonder what is next?
Neat idea but how much money can you possibly make on this? Only when somebody orders one of the items on the video correct? Seems kind of all over the place to have a pen sale at one point and then a seinfeld cd sale right after? NO?
I just watched the video and it ended with no ad but rather an Amazon message ‘Sorry, Product information is currently unavailable.’
I may have just bought this space age pen….we’ll never know…
its cool vedio blogging i was just waiting for it. if used properly it can be worthfull.
This is an excellent post and I enjoyed your little video. Do you know if it is possible to upload your videos to Youtube? Are there restrictions with where these videos ads/widgets can be placed?
It sounds well but i think it is time consuming.
I can’t watch video….whats problems with connection internet
Um, I like it :)
Not sure just where I want to use it yet though.