The Official Amazon Associates Blog

Don’t let Halloween sneak up on you and your readers! We are excited to highlight several Halloween themed promotions for you to share. The following promotions all start today so get started now.

Free Shipping on Killer Costumes
Starting today until Oct. 23, get Free Shipping on orders of $25 or more of Halloween costumes and accessories from select sellers in our Costumes Store. Amazon’s Costumes Store makes it easy for you to shop a selection of over 10,000 costumes. From Harry Potter and Batman to Tinkerbell and Snow White, we have costumes for the whole family. We even have costumes to dress up your pet. Find the wigs, masks, hats, shoes and other accessories you need to complete your look all in one place.    

Give Goosebumps with Spooky Music & Movies
Find the best boo! music and spooky sound effects to set the mood for your ghoulish get-together on Amazon MP3's Halloween Music Page. Find more free music, bestselling songs from $.89, and albums for $8.99 or less at Amazon MP3. All songs are compatible with MP3 players, including the iPod®. Plus, remember you get 10% referral fees for all MP3 sales you refer to us!

Once you’ve set the mood, settle in for an evening of horror and thriller films available to watch right now on your Mac or PC, commercial-free. With the latest horror film franchise, Saw, on sale, you can offer your customers their own personal “Sawathonâ€: Buy Saw I, II, III and IV, all for under $30. And check back each week in October for 99-cent movie rentals, all while getting an extra spooky 10% back on referrals. And there is more horror to explore on DVD and Blu-ray in our Halloween sale.

Trick or Treat with Amazon Grocery
Amazon Grocery’s Halloween page is stocked up on all kinds of candy and treats that your trick-or-treaters will love. From now until Oct. 31, save $15 off orders of Nestle and Hershey products of $39 or more. Plus, get free Super Saver Shipping on all orders that total over $25 (after discount). And, of course, you’ll earn up to 8.5% in referral fees on the qualifying items they purchase.

Build Links and Make Money
There are several simple ways for you to earn referral fees on any of the above promotions:

Take advantage of these limited time promotions, but please be sure to remove the links at or before 11:59:59 pm Pacific on the respective end dates when the promotions expire.

You still have until October 31, 2008 to earn $12 for each new Amazon Prime Free Trial member referred via the Amazon Associates program (subject to program terms). Amazon Prime is a popular Amazon.com program that gives its members unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of eligible items. All new members are offered a free trial, allowing them to experience the convenience of shopping with Amazon Prime benefits for an entire month at no charge.

Three Tips for Driving More Amazon Prime Referrals

1. Make Amazon Prime a regular part of your posts by promoting the program in conjunction with products available on Amazon.com. If you’re promoting a product, let your readers know that it’s available with Free Two Day shipping from Amazon Prime.* Include a reference to Amazon Prime with product mentions and you’ll receive a bounty for any signups driven directly through your Amazon Prime links.

Example: “Check out Thomas Friedman’s newly released Hot, Flat and Crowded (available on Amazon.com with Free Two-Day Shipping from Amazon Prime). Great book…â€

2. Write about the Amazon Prime Free Trial offer and about the Amazon Prime program— check out the “What is Amazon Prime?†section below for program highlights. For added relevance, try Amazon Prime yourself and write about your experiences. (An Associate’s personal enrollment in Prime does not qualify for the $12 bounty.)

3. Post Amazon Prime banners on pages where you promote items that can be purchased on Amazon.com.

*Not all products are eligible for Amazon Prime shipping benefits, so please confirm that the product is eligible by looking for Free Two-Day Shipping messaging on the product’s detail page on Amazon.com.

How do I Promote Amazon Prime?

There are two ways to promote Amazon Prime as part of this program:

1) Build a link to the Amazon Prime page, using the link below as your template (just replace your Associate ID):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/extmain.html?ref=prime_assoc_bt&tag=YourIDHere-20

2) Place an Amazon Prime banner graphic on your website including those shown here:

The Associates program is excited to announce the availability of Amazon Video On Demand.  With Amazon Video On Demand, customers can now instantly watch movies and television shows commercial-free on Macs or PCs.  With this new service, you can offer your customers the ability to enjoy instant playback of hit Hollywood movies and the latest TV shows. 

Take advantage of the launch of this popular new Amazon movie & TV streaming service and earn a 10% referral fee on all movies, TV seasons, and TV episodes such as The Office, House and Law & Order.  Leverage Amazon Video On Demand’s Preview Player widget and add movie trailers to your site.  Hit movies and top TV episodes are among the most compelling forms of video on the web with the highest conversion rates.   

To make it even easier for customers to decide to rent or purchase a movie or TV show, the first two minutes of videos automatically play at no charge to customers when they visit the product detail page.   At any time during this 2-minute viewing period, customers can choose to purchase or rent the title to watch it in its entirety, driving higher conversion and increased referral fees for Associates.  TiVo(R) customers can still download movies and TV shows to their TiVo DVR and watch on their TVs as before.

To build a Product Link, simply visit the Product Links page in Associates Central and select "Video On Demand Videos" in the drop down menu. We have also made a number of new general Amazon Video On Demand banner graphics available to you in Associates Central, including those shown below:

Bill Me Later® is a quick and easy way to pay for Amazon.com orders without using a credit card.  Starting today through September 30, buy now and get $5 off purchases of $25 or more using Bill Me Later® payment.  Pay with Bill me Later® and use promo code BMLSAVES at checkout.  Here are a couple banners we’ve created that you can promote on your site:

Take advantage of this limited time promotion, but please be sure to remove the links at or before 11:59:59 pm Pacific on Tuesday, Sept. 30, when the promotion expires.

Learn more here. 

Amazon has several new features in Christian Books to share with you and your customers.  Visit the store to see all we have to offer, and check out a few of the latest highlights:

Save 45% on The Shack:  Read customer and editorial reviews, search inside the book, and save 45% on William Young’s bestselling novel The Shack.  Customers can also browse other top selling Christian titles available at great prices. 

Meet Rob Bell:  Visit the Rob Bell Store to pre-order his new books and DVDs, watch video clips from his popular NOOMA series, and learn more about this author and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church.

Browse Christian Book Award Winners:   Discover this year’s ECPA Christian Book Award and Christy Award winners in our featured booklists.  Sixteen award winning titles are available for 2008, including The Word of Promise: New Testament Audio Bible, which won the distinctive honor of Christian Book of the Year.

To link directly to Christian Books and earn referral fees, just use the following link format and replace "YOUR_ID_HERE-20" with your Associates ID:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/?node=12290&tag=YOUR_ID_HERE-20

Amazon Associates is excited to announce the launch of Widget Source - a new way to create Amazon Widgets in-code.

Until now, the only way for you to create a widget was using the WYSIWYG widget editor. Instead of manually building a large number of widgets tailor-made for each page on your site, with Widget Source you can programmatically place customized widgets throughout your site using simple Javascript code.

Websites with dynamic content can use Widget Source to create highly customized widgets on-the-fly. For example, a web page author can use Widget Source to create a sidebar Carousel widget, and then dynamically change the list of products displayed in the widget depending on the contents of each web page. Showcasing highly relevant products in attractive widget displays has shown to increase user engagement, resulting in higher conversion rates for you.

Widget Source also offers new ways to add and display products. For example, here is a Carousel that showcases search results for the phrase “Wii gear†from the Video Games category:

Learn more and get started.

Starting today through August 29, Blu-ray fans can take advantage of the up to 50% off sale on select Blu-ray titles while supplies last.  This is a great opportunity for your customers to build their Blu-ray libraries from Amazon’s great selection of titles including No Country for Old Men, The Bank Job and The Prestige. Also explore hundreds of titles available in our Blu-ray store, all at least 30% off.

To link directly to the Blu-ray up to 50% off sale page and earn referral fees on the subsequent qualifying purchases, use the following link format, replacing "YOUR_ID_HERE-20" with your Associates ID:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000265211&tag=YOUR_ID_HERE-20

Take advantage of this limited time promotion, but please be sure to remove the links at or before 11:59:59 pm Pacific on Friday, August 29, when the promotion expires.

Last week Amazon announced the launch of the Amazon Green store.  Now we've added even more banners to display to your readers, including Eco-friendly Cleaning Supplies and ENERGY STAR-qualified Office Electronics like those shown here:

With hundreds of green items to choose from, Amazon Green makes it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for.

There are multiple ways to link to promote Amazon Green on your site:

•   To create a text link directly to the Amazon Green homepage and earn referral fees on the subsequent purchase, visit our text links page and enter 'www.amazon.com/green' in the 'link to any page on Amazon.com' search box to get the HTML

•    Visit our banners page and select from one of four Amazon Green themes

Now through August 25, customers can get an extra 20% off already-reduced shoes and handbags sold direct from Amazon.com. That’s up to 75% off original prices. Help customers take advantage of this discount on shoes for women, men, and children, as well as handbags.  Choose from great brands like Nine West, adidas, Clarks, Birkenstock, New Balance, and more!

There are multiple ways to link to promote Amazon Shoes on your site:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/?node=672123011&tag="YOUR_ID_HERE-20"

Take advantage of this limited time promotion, but please be sure to remove the links at or before 11:59:59 pm Pacific on Monday, August 25, when the promotion expires.

Help shoppers discover the benefits of going Green. Visit our banners page and secure custom marketing collateral today.

With hundreds of green items to choose from, Amazon Green makes it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. We offer banners for products in four Amazon Green themes, including:

1.    The Amazon Green program homepage
2.    Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies
3.    ENERGY STAR-qualified Office Electronics
4.    ENERGY STAR-qualified Lighting

There are multiple ways to link to promote Amazon Green on your site:
•    To create a text link directly to the Amazon Green homepage and earn referral fees on the subsequent purchase, visit our text links page and enter 'www.amazon.com/green' in the 'link to any page on Amazon.com' search box to get the HTML.
•    Visit our banners page and select from one of four Amazon Green themes, including those shown below: