I just logged into Amazon Associates just now and found that they’ve done a redesign of their Associates area and have added a very handy new feature for Amazon Associates publishers.
It’s called ‘Site Stripe’ and essentially it allows you to create affiliate links as you surf Amazon. It’s a little grey stripe that appears at the top of any Amazon.com page that allows you to link to that page, add a product to an aStore, see your Earnings Summary, See ‘what’s New’, go to a discussion board or see ‘settings’.
Here’s how it looks (click to enlarge):
Click links and you are taken to an Associates area relevant to the selection that you make.
This is going to be really handy for Amazon affiliates that link to a lot of products on Amazon – it’ll save flipping between Amazon pages and Associates back end pages and should speed up the process and remove a few steps in the process.
When you log into the back end of Amazon Associates you can set up the settings for this feature by clicking the ‘Links and Banners’ tab and then clicking the ‘Learn More’ button in the ‘Site Stripe’ section. Here you can turn Site Stripe on and off as well as selecting which features you want in the stripe.
Good to see they finally redesigned that site. I used to use Amazon affiliates, but had stopped due to the “clunkiness” of the website. Will be checking it out, and maybe putting it to use again. Thanks for the info.
Matt
I caught the news of the stripe yesterday and nearly flipped! I link to cell phones often, and I’ve been annoyed lately as certain unlocked models will show up through the site search that I simply can’t find when using the Associates product link builder. This site stripe is AWESOME for solving that problem.
Interesting post. But I am not interested in Amazon or any Affiliate program. Still, thanks for this.
Darren,
Thanks for the heads up. This will make it a LOT easier to link to Amazon products. No more having a bunch of tabs open! Kudos to Amazon.
Jeff
2Lincolns.com
Thanks for sharing this. It will make it a lot easier.
Thanks for the heads up! I’m going to check this out tongiht!
This sounds like a great upgrade! When I’m ready to start using this service, I think it will be much easier. Thanks.
I’ve tried being an affilitate for Amazon but it just didn’t work out. For some reason my experience is that people don’t click on the links.
I buy from Amazon all of the time, but have never gotten to their site from a link.
This has always been the most frustrating part of including amazon links – now you can surf one site (the online store) for the right page and link. Thumbs up to Amazon this is a vastly improved functionality for bloggers! I’m sure it will improve Amazon’s exposure too!
I noticed this new feature last night and I already love it. It’s really going to save a lot time by not having to paste ASINs into the link builder. And it’s also a great way to keep your aStore products up to date. Nice work Amazon.
That’s great! It will really save a lot of time for those quick links. I’d often be too lazy to login and go through the steps to get a link. In retrospect, it’s kinda hard to imagine them not doing this before. But like everything, it’s much easier to look in the pass then the future ;)
This is a good thing for amazon affiliates, I noticed this the other night and I already have marked out lots of useful books and resource links to easily link to, plus the layout of the control panel is just great too.
The more I think about it, the more I just might focus my efforts for the amazon promotions more on quite a few of my blogs.
This is amazing and saves me a lot of time. I put hundreds of amazon links on already without it though. I have used it and it saves you an incredible amount of time.
Glad to hear they’ve done something useful. Generally, Amazon Affils seems to introduce a new problem with every problem they address in redesigns.
I love amazon.com …so handy but poor in tracking.
Easy to install.
How profitable is Amazon these days? I used them for years on an old blog but gave up when my revenue streams dried up with them.
The new look of face book is ok and great.
Parker T
http://retirementsketch.com
Thanks for sharing this.
Nice! That will save me some time. Now I just need to get better about adding links when I talk about something Amazon sells. I’ve been getting slowly better about this, and I do see a difference in my Amazon stats.
thanks a lot for sharing this darren.
I’m new to amazon.
Looking forward to reading more about amazon on your blog ;-)
About time, I think most of us would say. And having spent the last evening putting some top 10 lists together, I’d say its cut the time required in half.
The only issue I have is that its difficult to go back two pages once you’ve hit that ‘get link’ option, so I simply right-clicked off the main search page to individual pages to ensure I didn’t lose the search page.
Overall, a big improvement though, and one which will help any associate build links much more quickly.
For those of you who have had little success with Amazon in regard to direct sales, don’t forget that if a user gets to amazon via your referral, you still get a commission on any sale even if its not the page you referred them to (so long as they don’t leave the site completely) – I’ve made more money from incidental amazon sales (direct them to say a book page and they then go and buy a memory card) than actual sales of the item I linked to.
This is just what Amazon needed to make it truly useable! Thanks so much for pointing it out, Darren – I’d been logged in there twice today and entirely failed to notice the Site Stripe!
Thanks for the new information!
Wow! That’s great. I haven’t checked my amazon affiliate account in a while. This will definitely help for creating those affiliate links.
I’ve always thought Amazon was a bit confusing for affiliate marketers in the first place. Maybe this is a step in a new direction.
Is this new change really a big deal? would it help anyone generate more sales? It might make things more user friendly but at the end of the day its how you market it. Whether amazon or microsoft.
I love the new change!
I think this is really useful step forward and will help Amazon Associates a lot, but I still feel that the whole way that the Associates website is structured makes it hard for affiliates to find what they really want and need to sell products for Amazon successfully!
Cool post and VERYinformative. I have been doing the regular store but this little tool adds so much ease and convenience. Thanks for sharing it!
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Very nice information. Thanks for this. I stopped to say that your blog is very well written .. :)
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
I really liked your blog! Definely I Stumble UP the blog post ! Great Blog indeed ;)
Hi Darren,
I’ve been using amazon gadget to my blog and the ads are nice. But I’ve been having trouble getting people to click at it. It appears that if people would like to buy something from amazon, they would rather go to the website to get it.
I think impulse buying and books don’t go hand in hand.
Nash