Amazon’s Context Links: In Text Advertising for the Masses

If you've been looking for a new way to monetize your site I've got some exciting news for you. With little fanfare Amazon has launched a new service for it's Associate advertisers. The service, "Context Links Beta," works a lot like Kontera and Intellitext in that it dynamically adds advertisements to your content using JavaScript.

Unlike Kontera and IntelliText, though, Amazon Context Links are actually CPA rather than CPC. You earn revenue when someone makes a purchase on Amazon.com after being referred by your site. Amazon Context Links also offers a much greater range of customization options. After reviewing everything, I'm about 90% certain I'll be switching from Kontera to Context Links this week.

Here's the lowdown as I've seen it.

Basic Customization

Let my start by saying that the range of customization options for Amazon Context Links is wide - you have a lot of choices. In it's basic format Context Links look very familiar. Double underlined text with a pop-up JavaScript windows that display the target item. Sounds familiar right?

While Kontera and Intellitext only offer some basic color options, Amazon makes the entire link customizable. You can change the color, you can use double underlining, single underlining, dashed or even default to your page's stylesheet! That means you can get your dynamically added links look EXACTLY like the ones you added yourself.

More Advanced Options

One of the biggest complains I've seen about Kontera and IntelliText is their use of popup frames. While Amazon does make these available you can turn them off if you wish. I think there are a lot of bloggers out there who will be happy to read that right?

I myself have complained about another aspect of in-text advertising. One thing that really bothers me is the in-exact nature of contextual advertising. Even AdSense is plagued with the occasional off-base recommendation. While I haven't seen this in action yet, Amazon offers you the option of "Match[ing] exact product names" which should lead to more exact matches.

You can also restrict what categories get linked to. Don't want your readers ending up in the "Home & Garden" directory? Simply uncheck that option. If your niche is Video Games you can specifically request links to that category only. If it works accurately this could be a great thing.

If you're at all interested in the new service then head on over to Amazon's Associate program to grab the code. All existing associates appear to be included and new associates will probably be welcome as well.

I'll be testing the service starting today so please keep your eyes open and be sure to share your impressions.