In the last few minutes Blogger.com has flipped the switch on a new way for Blogger blogs to be monetized from within their system – an integration with Amazon Associates program. Expect an official announcement from Blogger/Google shortly on this new partnership (update: here it is) – but in the mean time, here’s the scoop.
Previously the ‘monetize’ tab on the back end of Blogger blogs only had options to set up AdSense – but today you can now do the same with Amazon.
If you’re a Blogger.com blogger log into your blog – click the monetize tab and choose Amazon Associates. Here’s what you’ll see:
You can either set up a new Amazon Associates account if you don’t have one or login with your existing one.
WIth it enabled you can enable a product finder in your blog editor which will enable you to add Amazon links and/or images as you’re posting blog posts.
I’ve only just tested it but it all seems pretty seamless and I’m sure for those wanting to make money from a Blogger blog it’ll be an appreciated new feature – particularly in the hottest buying season of the year.
It’s also an interesting story on the front that two major online players – Google and Amazon – are working together on this. It makes sense for it but as far as I know it’s the first time the two have done anything on this scale. It’ll be interesting to see if the partnership leads to any other areas of their empires.
Super awesome! But I’m using wordpress.org, and 15% is not that enticing… although I might get on with Amazon if they enable this option on wordpress too
Now will google deduct any percentage from the sales through google blogs? there must be some thing for Google in it but will they deduct from publisher side or take percentage of commission from Amazon for sales?
Sohail – no I don’t think there’s any kick back for Google. It’s just a feature that will make their platform a little more attractive for some and as a result is good for their business.
Love this! I’ve already been using Amazon Associates on my blog for a number of months now, and I’ve been using Adsense on my blog for a couple of years. What I wonder is what benefits, if any, there are to using Blogger’s integration versus simply copying and pasting code into an HTML widget
Those two tagging up could be pretty interesting. Like everybody else, I am can’t wait to see what’s to come.
This is definitely a huge step in blogging. It doesn’t affect me, since I use WordPress, but there are many out there who for this will become a part of their lives. It’s interesting to see how Blogger is slowly catching up to WordPress.
So now a wave of spammy “product review” blogs will appear on Blogger.com with lots of Amazon affiliate links.
It would be nice to see this type of thing go live with WordPress as well. But I don’t think that will ever be the case, will it? What do you think?
@Sohail – We are not affecting the blogger’s referral rate at all (and I made sure to mention that in our blog post: http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/12/blogger-integrates-with-amazon.html)
@Rob Zepeda: The benefit is simplicity/speed: you can search the product catalog from within the post editor without leaving the page or having to copy/paste anything.
@Paul No, we’ve been hard at work combatting spam and believe that we’ve drastically reduced the % of pageviews on Blogger that are spammy. (But if you come across any, feel free to let me know – rklau -at- google.com.)
Looking forward to other comments/reactions, glad to hear several people are excited about this!
URL to blog post is:
http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/12/blogger-integrates-with-amazon.html
Comment above included the closing parenthesis, sorry.
@Rick – your efforts are applauded. I guess in that case the wave will just be non-spammy product review sites ;-)
I guarantee a lot of people will be trying out a few niche-focussed blogs of that nature to see if a few easy dollars can be made.
Wow – and to think if I had waited a couple of days I wouldn’t have had to figure out where to paste that code! I’ve just started as an Amazon associate and now I look forward to exploring it further.
Thanks for the post!
This is a beautiful thing. Sure wish they’d do this with Word press too!
Awesome! I love it…I can’t wait to go test it out! That’s why I love reading blogs….a person can learn so much and quickly.
The Amazon associate program is also something I’ve been meaning to look into and just never got around to it. This post has most definitely motivated me to get on it.
Ooooooooohh, sparkly!
As one of the remaining dorks still using blogger (sporadically) AND making nine cents a month off Amazon — this is a very slick new feature. Truly!
Sounds like a good deal. Now if Google could somehow force people to buy stuff it would be even better. ;)
Interesting development. If only Amazon could be persuaded to combine their .com and their .co.uk affiliate programs that would be even better. Still using Blogger and happy to continue to do so at present, so I will play with this feature and see how it works.
Awesome. More ways for bloggers to make money. It just gets better and better.
Well well well lol. google is getting more greedy(ok kidding). I just started with blogger 2 weeks ago for another blog I did try to put amazon on it, but couldn’t figure out how to do it so now I can yippie lol. Thanks google and amazon. Not going to put my blogger blog on here yet until I add more stuff to it, nly have one post so far shhh. lol.
Tony
Hey here is a problem I face. Zemanta content recommendations overlaps with amazon affiliates suggestions. Any one facing the same?
Guess clitches will be clitches for now. I tried three times to put my amazon id on blogger just keeps saying error. Will try again tommorrow.
My advice to blogger users? Stop using blogger.
Seems like this feature is long overdue to me.
That’s Great News for blogger.com users, Blogger going great in last couple of year.
Hi Folks,
A slightly different take on this.
I’ve used Amazon for 7 years and, while it’s easy to setup, you need to sell a ton of stuff to make any return. Remember, you only get 6-8% commission.
To make $100, you’ll need to sell $1200 or more.
Darren broke out his Amazon figures there a while back (can’t find the link, apologies) but when you consider the oceans of traffic PB gets, it puts the sales into perspective.
If you’re willing to work this hard to make $100, I’d suggest developing your own products instead. That way you get 100%. 3 or 4 sales and you’re there!
That’s just me. Maybe I’ve overlooked something.
Hope this feature is also available in wordpress.com users. Though wordpress.com doesn’t support any ads, which is also its best feature for many, still they can add this for the people interested
Hey that’s pretty nifty and appears to work very easily with blogger. Another reason why blogger is a great choice for complete newbies with blogging.
Would love to see something similar for wordpress as others have stated.
Great to see blogger getting competitive with wordpress ;)
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
It is a great news for me since i have one blog in blogger. I always look possibility to integrate amazon with my blog and now, i can do it easily.
Thanks for sharing. This will absolutely make it easy to put the amazon associates link on the blogspot blog.
Yes, this is good news from Blogger.com users, but also and from you Darren, finally wrote something for Blogger.com :)
Since we are talking for Blogger.com, let me share my blog, its all about Blogger templates, which most of bloggers looking for every day :)
Blogger Templates: http://www.deluxetemplates.net/
Well, this partnership remains to be seen, but no harm to try it and see if it gives the results everybody expects…lots of commission from Amazon plus Adsense earnings as the added salt. Happy Chrsitmas to All!
no harm to try.
Doing something is better then doing nothing.
I have just installed it. let me see what I get !!!
Perfect opportunity for me, I am using a few blogger.com blogs, and now I will have easy-to-use option to make some affiliate sales.
This is really great, I don’t have to login to amazon affiliate to copy images and links anymore. It saves a lot of time. ^_^
Hi Darren Yes I have seen this features on my blogspot blog, so is it valuable for us?
Finally Blogger.com made a big move after upgrade some features in blogspot. Nice reivew Darren, if you don’t post this then I will don’t know anything.
Darren is also earning money from Blogger, cool. :-)
I have been reading about amazon affiliate program for a while. From my reading I notice that Amazon don’t allow Malaysian to be their affiliate. But sometimes I found people say yes. So I think this new feature don’t give any benefit to Malaysia blogger.
This is very useful feature.Thanks for sharing.
This will be great since I have also wanted Amazon on my blog, too.
Thanks for the information.
Sounds cool, but I’m not going to leave WordPress anytime soon. WordPress gives me a sense of control and flexibility. :-)
This makes a lot of sense. Amazon and Google don’t actively compete with each other, so there’s really not a reason for them not to work together.
I suspect that Amazon is paying Google a few bucks for the integration … and why not? There’s value for Amazon – folks at Blogger are going to be more likely to link to them and less likely to link to their competitors.
This looks like it will save a lot of time. Thanks for sharing.
By Google making new developments for the Blogger platform, I wonder if this should signal bloggers who use Blogger (like myself at the moment) that it will be here to stay or at least will be available to current bloggers for a long time to come.
It’s too early to tell but it seems that Google would not put much work into enhancing features of Blogger if they planned to do away with it in the next few years or so.
Darren,
I wonder what your thoughts are regarding this new deal with Google and Amazon and whether it will affect the stability for Blogger.com blogs for better or for worse.
Very nice indeed, but I hope more advance feature in the future. Not just limited to the link and one image in product finder but more choices like customer review, more images and etc. This will really help amazon associates a lot..
Wow… And I just not noticing it have amazon asociate while I’m using blogger.. Thanks for your information ^^
I was excited to try this, but was disappointed to find that it works with Blogger’s updated editor. I would love to use the updated editor (totally lusting for that back arrow), but as far as I can tell, the old editor does not allow you to link to an image, something I do regularly, so I am stuck with the classic editor and it’s limited set of features.
If anyone knows a way around this, please share!
Now adsense is giving competition to themselves by their own decision. I am sure google is going to make good amount of money and for Amazon it was always win win situation for them.
Many thanks for the heads up, Darren. What does your crystal ball say about WordPress? P. :)
Another vote for WordPress.org sites!
I been finding Amazon’s “link to this page” tool very useful when blogging but this integration is way better.
At the moment it is just for amazon.com and I wonder if it will be available for amazon in other countries in the future.