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2006-08-02
Amazon.com announced today in in their associates-only web pages that they were releasing a new "beta" program called Omakase links. The links will combine data from Amazon's associate & customer databases as well as context information from the hosting web page to choose products the customer is most likely to be interested in.
I'm sure the Amazon Associates' forum is all a-twitter with opinions about why these links are a bad thing. (Those guys are never right.)
I don't really know. I'm too busy deploying them everywhere I can. Unfortunately, the links rely on javascript, so I can't use them here, but maybe if enough people ask Gil (nicely), they'll be featured as part of the Amazon module someday.
There's been a lot of buzz around Squidoo about The Long Tail which says, in a nutshell : "Baskin-Robbins has those other 28 flavors because not everybody wants vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry."
Seems a little obvious to me, but I've been an Amazon Associate for years, and I could easily be "too close to the problem." Your mileage may vary.
My point is that these new links sound like a great way to present targeted information to those elusive niche-market buyers.
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 07/26/2008)
According to Amazon.com :
"Omakase Links let Associates automatically feature products that visitors to the page are most likely to buy. With Omakase Links you do not need to chose [sic] which product, product line or even keyword that best fits a page. Our algorithms will optimize product offerings based on what the Associate has been successful with in the past; what that user has been interested in; as well as what the site is about. Omakase Links - leave it up to us! At present we are offering Omakase Links as a BETA to our Associates."
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I've never quite been sure what distinguishes a blog from a regular webpage. Timeliness seems to have something to do with it, but that doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule.
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