Amazon launches a widget program with seven variations
Amazon.com Inc. is in on the hottest trend in online retail marketing: widgets. But it’s not just a widget program, it’s several.
Widgets are small web applications that allow consumers to link to web sites from their blogs, their social network profiles and their own web sites. Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, today launched Amazon Widgets, which are free to consumers and allow them to earn money from sales at Amazon.com by joining Amazon’s affiliate marketing program.
Users download widget applications from retailers and then can populate them with products and their comments about those products. When a shopper clicks on a widget and buys the particular product, the operator of the web site, blog or social network profile that hosted the widget earns a commission.
Amazon’s seven widgets include:
- Slideshow: Presents images from the Amazon product selection as a slideshow.
- My Favorites: Users can recommend and commenting on products.
- Wish List: Just what the name says it is.
- Product Cloud: Product Clouds display in a cloud or cluster product titles that are relevant to the content of the page, with the most popular product bolded.
- Amazon Unbox Video Previewer: Shows movie studio and TV network previews for videos available from the Amazon Unbox video download service.
"Bloggers and active online social networkers have asked us for a fun and interesting way to display Amazon products on their pages as a way to showcase their favorite things. With Amazon Widgets, they can now do this and make money at the same time," says Sean McMullan, manager, Amazon Associates.
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