Amazon.co.uk Associates Blog

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates

If people are not sure what to buy someone for Christmas, or need a gift in a hurry, gift certificates are the perfect solution. You will earn a flat 6% referral fee rate on the value of any Gift Certificates referred.

We recommend that you use banner links or text links to promote Gift Certificates on your Web site.

Create your banner links here 

Create your text links here

Even after Amazon.co.uk’s last shipping days for Christmas (December 18th for Free Super Saver Delivery or December 22nd for Express Delivery) you can continue to earn referral fees by promoting the gift certificates. There are many more special days throughout the year and it’s always someone’s birthday!

Amazon.co.uk Associates Success Story Contest Winners

Hello Amazon.co.uk Associates,

Thank you all for your submissions and stories. The Amazon.co.uk Associates team sincerely enjoyed learning about your businesses, your websites and your successes!
Among the many stories we received we chose 3 winners who were selected for the uniqueness of their story, demonstrated best practice and the strength of their implementation:

• In 1st Place and the recipient of a £250 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate goes to www.whatsthattune.co.uk for their story of a website that helps internet users answer a question we have all asked: “What was the song in that commercial?”.

• In 2nd Place and the recipient of a £100 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate goes to www.popularscience.co.uk for their story of a website that provides internet users interested in popular science books with a niche site dedicated to the genre.

• And an Honourable Mention and a £75 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate goes to filleritem.com for their story of a website that helps users get free package and posting for their Amazon order by allowing customers to select a “filler item”.

Many thanks to all those who submitted their success stories.

Sincerely,
Your Amazon.co.uk Associates Team

How to track impressions for Basic Display Product Links and Text Links

Are you looking for an easy way to track impressions of your Basic Display Product Links and Text Links? 

Amazon.co.uk has two, easy to implement options:

Option 1: Track impressions and simultaneously activate Product Previews

To track impressions of your Basic Display Product Links and Text Links while enabling our new Product Preview functionality please follow the instructions below:

Step 1:
In the code below, replace the text "your-assoc-id-21" with your actual Associate store ID.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/link-enhancer?o=2&tag=your-assoc-id-21"> </script> <noscript> <img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/noscript?tag=your-assoc-id-21" alt="" /> </noscript>

Step 2:
Copy the code and paste it at the end of each Web page in which you want to include an impression counter. The Product Preview and impression counter code should be placed at the bottom of your webpage, after the content but before the closing "body" tag.
If you use a Web template, you can paste this script into the "footer" or other end-of-page template, as long as product preview and impression counter code comes after your content and before the final "body" tag.

Step 3:
As soon as you have inserted the HTML code (with your own Associates store ID) on a Web page, we will display the impressions for your Basic Display Product Links and Text Links in Associates Central.

Option 2:  Track impressions without activating Product Previews

To track impressions of your Basic Display Product Links and Text Links without activating any Product Previews, please use the following HTML code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/impression-counter?o=2&tag= your-assoc-id-21"> </script> <noscript> <img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/s/noscript?tag= your-assoc-id-21" alt="" /> </noscript>

Here too, replace the text "your-assoc-id-21" with your actual Associates ID and, as described under Option 1, insert the code at the end of each web page on which you want to include an impression counter.

You can also find the HTML code containing your automatically inserted Associates store ID here in Associates Central.

Please note: Amazon.co.uk will only track impressions for Basic Display Product Links and Text Links for those Web pages on which the impression counter code been inserted.

Optimise your aStore layout with CSS

Associates now benefit from a further option to adapt their aStores to suit varying design requirements.

The aStore Generator now enables you to modify the CSS-files (Cascading Style Sheets) that the Amazon.co.uk aStore uses making it easier to adapt the appearance of your aStore to even more specific design requirements of your website.

Different page elements, such as the home page and product details page, can also be changed by modifying the CSS for each individual page.

You can modify the CSS for your aStore from the following page: Edit CSS. Or you can simply select the “Edit CSS” option when choosing the “Colour and design” of your aStore (Step 2 when creating an aStore )

After selecting the “Edit CSS” option you will be able to modify the CSS for the following pages (elements) for your chosen aStore.

• Global
• Category Page
• Detail Page
• Listmania!
• Search Results
• Shopping Cart

How do I use the Orders Reports to identify products with high potential?

Our Orders Reports combine information about orders, clicks, and conversion to make it easier for you to identify products that are top performers, products that are not as successful, and additional products you might want to promote.

Beyond looking at the absolute number of orders, you can also compare direct-link conversion for products you promote. Orders Reports display, for each product ordered, how many times a customer clicked through to it directly from your site via a Product Link or add-to-cart button, how many orders were placed, and the resulting direct-link conversion. You can also see how many other orders were placed after customers clicked through to other Amazon.co.uk pages.

Just click on the graphic below to see an example of how you can use this information, consider three products in an Orders Report, all of which have three orders:

This Associate is doing a good job of merchandising Product A. Though relatively few people have clicked through to its detail page, 20% of those visitors have gone on to purchase it, a rather high percentage. Since Product A appears to be relevant to this Associate's Web site's visitors and the merchandising information is compelling enough to cause many of them to place an order, the Associate may want to consider promoting it more prominently.

Product B isn't yet living up to its potential. Although the Associate's promotion is generating over three times as many clicks as for Product A, only 4% of those clicks are converting to orders, significantly less than Product A's 20% conversion. The Associate may want to improve Product B's merchandising content, replace it with a similar product that has a higher sales rank or better customer reviews, or simply de-emphasize it.

Finally, Product C is an example of an item with high potential that the Associate might want to begin promoting, or promoting better. No visitors have clicked through to its product detail page from the Associate's site, either because he is not yet linking to it or the link is buried in his site. Nevertheless, three customers have gone on to purchase it after following another of his links to Amazon.co.uk. This indicates an interest in this product among the Associate's visitors, and presents an opportunity for him to generate additional earnings by adding direct links to the product in prominent locations on his site.

Associate Tip: Add Variety to Your Product Links

Many Associates use Enhanced Display Product Links to conveniently display a single product with its image, product name, and up-to-date prices. If you have many repeat visitors to your site and a small amount of space for product promotions, one option to give your visitors more variety is to configure your product links to randomly display one of several products instead of always displaying the same one.

Here's how it works: use the Build Links tools in Associates Central (requires login) to build a product link that features a product you want to display on your site. You can also use the link customisation options to specify preferences like colours. Then modify the resulting HTML to include additional ASINs that may also interest your site visitors. After you paste the modified HTML into your Web site, one of the listed products will be randomly selected for display each time the page loads. To see the product rotation in action, visit this Associates Central Help page (requires login).

Here's a specific example: The HTML below is an Enhanced Display Product link for The Incredibles. (Just substitute your Associates ID for storeid-21).

<iframe src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=storeid-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00075H6CS&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

To modify this link to randomly select from a list of ASINs, first locate the place in the HTML where the initial ASIN is listed. In this case, it says asins=B00075H6CS . Then, add additional ASINs after the initial ASIN, separated by commas. The code below shows how the link would look after modifying it to randomly display either The Incredibles, Cars, Happy Feet, or A Bug's Life.

<iframe src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=storeid-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00075H6CS,B000ENV5WK,B000K7LQSS,B00006JHZZ&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Earn money worldwide with Amazon Associate links and Amazon aStores

Do you operate websites in other countries apart from the United Kingdom? Or do some of your users live outside the English-speaking world? Then utilise the benefits of the Amazon Associates Programme for your geo-targets. With the Amazon Associates Programme you can earn money worldwide and offer your users attractive website content. Simply register now for the country-specific Associates Programme of your choice:

• For English-speaking users in Europe: à Amazon.co.uk Associates Programme 
• For English-speaking users outside Europe: à Amazon.com Associates Program and/or Amazon.ca Program
• For French-speaking users: à Amazon.fr Programme Partenaires and/or Amazon.ca Program
• For German-speaking users: à Amazon.de Partnerprogramm

and even...

• For Japanese-speaking users: à Amazon.co.jp Partnerprogramm

You can incorporate the various Associates Programmes into a single website. Here are two examples of how Amazon Associates have integrated their country-specific Amazon Associates Programmes into their websites using the Amazon aStores as an example.

http://www.episodeworld.com – Integration of various Programmes using country-specific flags in the DVD Store

http://www.hub-uk.com/index.html - Integration of a UK aStore and a USA aStore in “The Kitchen Shop”

Tutorial: Creating manual Associate links to category or subcategory pages

The text link generator available from our Associates Central enables you to create Associate links to a specific web page on Amazon.co.uk. Since we are –once in a while- receiving requests from Associates who want to create their Associate links manually, we have produced the following short guide to creating Associate links to category or sub-category pages on Amazon.co.uk.

Step 1:
First navigate to the category/sub-category which you want to link to on the Amazon.co.uk website.

Step 2:
Identify the Browse Node (category ID/sub-category ID). To do this, proceed as follows:

The address bar of your browser displays the URL for this category/sub-category page. You can identify the Browse Node for your chosen category/sub-category within the URL as follows:

You can always identify a Browse Node in the URL because either,

The suffix browse/-/ appears before the numerical Browse Node followed by the numerical ID (e.g.: browse/-/268021/). In this example the Browse Node is 268021 or 

or

The suffix &node= appears before the numerical ID (e.g.: &node=283926). In this example the Browse Node is 283926

(Note: Each Amazon.co.uk URL can also contain other numerical IDs. However, these are not Browse Nodes.)

Step 3:
Copy the Browse Node for your chosen category/sub-category and paste this into the following URL in place of the parameter [Browse Node]:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=[Browse&tag=your-assoc-id-21&linkCode=ur2 Node]

For example, the Browse Node 283926 would give the Associate link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=283926&tag=your-assoc-id-21&linkCode=ur2

Step 4:
Replace the parameter your-assoc-id-21 with your Associate ID.

How do I create custom reports using XML?

You are an Amazon.co.uk Associate and you want to create custom reports? No problem. Just download the reports data in XML.

XML allows us to define custom tags that can be used to structure information in a consistent way so you can easily interpret it. This will not replace CSV downloads and online report previews.

Reports data contain additional details you can use to analyze your performance more closely. For example, both Earnings and Orders Reports include transaction dates. You could download an entire month of orders data, and graph the daily trends for products that you have been promoting heavily. This may help you determine how frequently to change featured promotions on your site.

XML is not just for software developers! Applications like Excel let you open XML documents in new worksheets and build reusable spreadsheet templates. To learn more, read the Microsoft tutorial about using this feature. But if you are a developer, or have similar expertise, you can use these data files to programmatically generate custom reports.

Innovative Associates application: Suitable Amazon.co.uk products on YouTube videos

An Associate of Amazon.co.jp has created a cool application with the help of Amazon E-Commerce Services (ECS) which we would like present to you. This innovative Associates application enables any Amazon Associate to display suitable Amazon.co.uk (or Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, etc) products on YouTube videos. The process takes just a few minutes and absolutely no programming knowledge is required.

Please see below an example. On top of the video from the band Funker Vogt you find relevant Amazon.co.uk product placements.

How can you use this application as well and earn money with it?

Quite simple. Read on to find out how you can display Amazon products using your own private videos in just a matter of minutes and without any programming knowledge and can earn money for clicks on each product as part of the Amazon.co.uk Associates programme: