Context Links (beta): You Create the Content. We'll Link It.

##Late addition - because of the adoption rate for this product, it may take up to 24 hours for you to start seeing links.  We are working on reducing that time and appreciate your patience.##

Today we would like to announce another great feature now available to all Amazon.co.uk Associates: Context links (beta).

What are Content Links?

Context Links are a quick and convenient way to add links to your website and monetize your content.

After you embed one simple piece of code on your pages, Context Links automatically identify and link relevant phrases within your page content to Amazon products, unlocking new ad inventory and saving you the time from having to manually create links. You can add the links to your pages in minutes, and we provide a wealth of options to customize how they are displayed.

If you enable the preview functionality your site visitors will see a preview for the Amazon.co.uk products relevant to the phrase selected. Clicking on the link will send your site visitors to the product detail page on Amazon.com, and you will earn referral fees when the products are purchased.

The following example from Amazon.de demonstrates how Context Links work:

Visit our Context links page in Associates Central to learn more about this great new feature.

Setting up Context Links for your website is quick and easy. Simply:

1. Visit Associates Central->Build Links->Context Links
2. Specify the maximum number of links you'd like on each page
3. Optionally customize the display of the links with a couple clicks
4. Copy/paste the generated code into your pages

Log in to Associates Central or join the Associates program to try Context Links today and send us your examples of successful applications by clicking on the link “comments” at the bottom of this post. We look forward to featuring your applications of this new technology in our future blog posts!

Comments

[PS3 Player]

Seems like this could save me some effort in creating boring adds and leave more time for playing games.

[pc]

I have encountered a problem with context links. I have them on my blog, and many of my posts have embedded video (YouTube, Google Video etc). If a context link appears in the text just above a video, the pop-up box appears underneath (i.e. is obscured by) the embedded content. I have uploaded a screenshot to demonstrate:

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/904/tammetik8.png

[Toufic]

I have created a special page entitled Souk whic means Bazaar of open market dedicated for advertisements. I, after a long struggle, managed to link words of introduction to context link. The thing is that how to ensure that the visitor will know about the facility in order to click the appropriate word?

[Matt]

@Chris

You could maybe write such a script yourself (google "ip geolocation"). If you can determine the visitor's country of origin, then you could use a simple if statement to display either the UK or US JavaScript.

Matt

[David]

Links do appear randomised. A phrase on one page will be linked but not on another. Links you would expect to appear don't etc. Shame really 'cos I really love this feasture

[UK Associates Team]

We have received a number of comments of this nature for Context Links and Product Previews.

Please remember the following:
- You must have text on the target page.
- Place the code right before the final body tag.
- You need to disable pop-up blockers in your browser.

For more information about Context Links see our FAQ - http://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/gp/associates/network/tips/t16

[Chris]

Yeah well this just plain doesn't work. Nothing at all is displayed.

[uncle wilco]

Great, I noticed them on the amazon.com last week.

I don't suppose there is the possibility so that if the visitor to your site is from the US then the script displays amazon.com content and if they are from Europe its displays amazon.co.uk content???

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The Amazon Associates team comments:
Unfortunately, for now this possibility does not exist.