Amazon Running New Beta Test for Context

Amazon recently sent out a message to its large list of affiliates inviting them to try out a new beta test of its Context Links system. The idea being that if you copy and paste some code from Amazon onto your Web site or blog, the system will automatically attach links to Amazon products on relevant words from the page.

Amazon has a history of trying to make things easy for its affiliates with “we do it for you” linking, called Omakase and other tools, so I wasn’t surprised when I spoke to Sean McMullan, marketing manager of the associates program for Amazon, and he told me ” We hear from our associates that they like customization options, so we’ve gone out of our way to provide as many customization options as possible in this product.”

“Specific to this beta test it’s another example of us listening to our associates and what they want,” he said. “Context Links are all about providing our associates another way to monetize their content on their page. It’s complementary to what we currently do.”

He told me that the software they are testing now will search Web pages and pick the best things it believes should be linked, and that they don’t have a set date for the beta to come to an end. Still, from all accounts it seems to be working well for folks that have tried it out.