Amazon is apparently looking into the feasibility of starting their own ad network like Adsense. They’ve been contacting select members of their associates programs, including myself, asking if we’d like to be beta testers. The way they want the beta test to work is to give you a special code for Amazon’s Keywords Recommends banners (the banners that you feed a keyword to and they show related products) and have this special code then show these new ads 50% of the time.
When I first heard about this I thought it’d be Amazon product listings displayed in an Adsense-like way and I figured it’d analyze your content for for products to serve, but they’d be Amazon products. Turns out I was wrong, they want their own contextual advertising network.
On the phone last night it was explained to me that this is more or less an Adsense clone, meaning third party sponsored links, not Amazon links. It is known that Amazon currently get’s sponsored links for their own sites from Google, but apparently they wish to take out the middleman and break out on their own. The fact is that while Amazon has a high gross revenue, they have really thin profit margins, whereas Google and even eBay have much better profit margins. So I think there is probably a little bit of business jealousy at work here, and rightly so. Amazon realizes that if they want to compete as a major Internet destination, not just an ecommerce site, they need to capture a larger chunk of the online advertising revenue. It’s kinda funny, 5 years ago people were speaking about the death of online advertising, and now its huge.
So anyways, if they go through with this, then once MSN’s AdCenter program is launched, and Yahoo’s Publisher Network goes out of beta, that’ll give us publishers 4 choices in this area and choice is never a bad thing.
Consequently I do not know if they’re having much luck finding beta testers. For obvious reasons you cannot co-serve their ads with those from Adsense, so for testing you really need to find a high traffic site that is willing to forgo Adsense revenue. Originally their deadline for signing up for the beta was the 31st of January, then they called me last night, past the deadline, and asked me to join still (but I again turned them down because Adsense is just too profitable for me, and with Adsense’s exclusivity requirements I’d have to forgo using them to be in this test). They also previously offered a $50 bonus for everyone who signs up, and that bonus is now $100.
Keep your eyes open for more developments.
February 4th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
[…] From Chris Beasly’s blog on Sitepoint. On the phone last night it was explained to me that this is more or less an Adsense clone, meaning third party sponsored links, not Amazon links. It is known that Amazon currently get’s sponsored links for their own sites from Google, but apparently they wish to take out the middleman and break out on their own. […]
February 4th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
I have to say that I hope the competition drives the services higher.
I think it would be nice to have an Amazon service more like Chitika, as it certainly would work in their case.
February 4th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
And oh I bet it would be a US-Publisher only BETA like Yahoo… :rolleyes:
February 5th, 2006 at 6:17 am
[…] Could it be? Sitepoint.com blog has said they’ve been invited in the beta test of the new Amazon-Sense. It would be interesting because Amazon.com sells everything you can imagine. I would like to see how it goes because it could be a good replacement for Chitika if the ads are revelant. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 7:33 am
[…] Chris Beasley’s blog at sitepoint […]
February 5th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
[…] While I’m on the online advertising beat, a post to Site-Point claims that Amazon is planning to get into the contextual advertising game and has a beta program already running. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
[…] Es gibt Berichte und Gerüchte, das Amazon ein Konkurrenz-Produkt zu AdSense plant. Demnach soll Amazon derzeit unter seinen Affiliates Interessierte für einen Beta-Test suchen. Wie Sitepoint berichtet soll es sich dabei aber nicht einfach um kontextbasierte Werbung für Amazon handeln, sondern um einen wirklichen direkten AdWordsAdSense-Konkurrenten über den auch ganz normal geworben werden kann. Dieses Produkt sollte dann auch dazu dienen um die kontextbasierte Werbung auf den Amazon-Seiten zu beliefern, derzeit greift man dort noch auf Google zurück. Genauso wird es wohl bei der Amazon-Suchmaschine A9 laufen. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Beasley turns down AmazonSense twice
According to Chris Beasley, Amazon is cooking up their own Adsense-clone and offered him the chance to get into the early testing. He turned them down twice:
On the phone last night it was explained to me that this is more or less an Adsense clone, me…
February 5th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
[…] Wie Sitepoint berichtet, plant Amazon scheinbar eine Alternative zu Google Adsense, allerdings nicht wie zuerst angenommen reine kontextbezogene Werbung von Amazon Produkten sondern um ein richtiges Netzwerk auf dem Kunden wie bei Google Adwords Werbung schlaten können. Das ganze wird dann wohl auch auf der Amazon Suchmaschine A9 laufen. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Amazon to Go Head to Head with Google AdSense?
Amazon is looking into launching a competing network to Google AdSense, according to Chris Beasley at SitePoint. Apparently, Amazon has been contacting select Amazon Associates about being beta testers of this new contextual advertising network. This c…
February 5th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
[…] According to internet publisher Chris Beasley, Amazon are contacting partners for beta-testing a new contextual advertising network. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
It seems to me, that at Amazon.com there will be no problems with advertising platforms, and it will not show free-of-charge social advertising like a Google
February 5th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
[…] Chris Beasley exposed on Sitepoint blog, that Amazon have contacted him and come other Amazon publishers asking if they’d like to be beta testers in Amazon’s Adsense-like program. According to him, ads in Amazon contextual ad program would be third party sponsored links, not Amazon’s own produc ads. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Amazon Creating A Contextual Ad Product?
There is speculation in the blogosphere that Amazon is tossing around the idea of starting its own program similar to Google Adsense. Chris Beasley explains the situation best by saying: It is known that Amazon currently get’s sponsored links for
February 5th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
[…] Amazon got a lot of negative press last week for spending too much on the research efforts, while not improving the margins on their core business. Chris Beasley over at SitePoint retells the conversation he had with Amazon reps regarding their new contextual ad network. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
[…] Chris Beasley is talking about a new beta program that Amazon is starting that appears to be a new, direct competitor to AdSense. Amazon has been contacting some members of their associates program and asking them to join the beta test. This means there will soon be four major players, Google, Yahoo, MSN and Amazon competing for publishers. As I have always said I think this competition among them is great for publishers. Competition will force the ad networks to add more features and keep reasonable payouts. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
[…] According to Chris Beasly of SitePoint, Amazon.com is ready to launch their own contextual ad service. That may sound like a Chitika way of advertisement with amazon.com products but it is claimed that amazon want to be the new contexual ads network. Chris says: On the phone last night it was explained to me that this is more or less an Adsense clone, meaning third party sponsored links, not Amazon links. It is known that Amazon currently get’s sponsored links for their own sites from Google, but apparently they wish to take out the middleman and break out on their own. The fact is that while Amazon has a high gross revenue, they have really thin profit margins, whereas Google and even eBay have much better profit margins. So I think there is probably a little bit of business jealousy at work here, and rightly so. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
What’s with all the pointless trackback posts as comments?
February 5th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
[…] 5th, 2006 and is filed under News Brief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently notallowed. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
[…] Rob Hof points to Chris Beasley’s post at SitePoint - Amazon-Sense? Amazon is apparently looking into the feasibility of starting their own ad network like Adsense. They’ve been contacting select members of their associates programs, including myself, asking if we’d like to be beta testers. … When I first heard about this I thought it’d be Amazon product listings displayed in an Adsense-like way and I figured it’d analyze your content for for products to serve, but they’d be Amazon products. Turns out I was wrong, they want their own contextual advertising network. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
That will be awesome. Most affiliate shops will turn into using these. Would be interesting to play with.
February 6th, 2006 at 12:03 am
[…] The speculation/news of an Amazon ad network is pretty interesting. I would definitely like to see what Amazon does in this space, and particularly what support they might lend to the developer community. I’d guess that a bunch of people will be watching to see what Amazon does here. Explore posts in the same categories: Web […]
February 6th, 2006 at 12:17 am
[…] Sitepoint reports that amazon is getting ready to beta test an adsense-like program. Not to promote its own products but to actually feature third party advertisers. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 3:31 am
[…] Chris Beasley at Sitepoint is reporting that he has been invited by Amazon to join an Adsense-like affiliate network– this is an advertising network that would display third party, contextual ads, not just Amazon products. Definitely an interesting development worth watching. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 4:04 am
La entrada de Amazon a la Publicidad Contextual
Algunos rumores indican que Amazon estaría por entrar al mercado de la Publicidad Contextual y hacerle competencia al programa Adsense de Google.
Amazon ha estado contactando a algunos miembors de su programa de afiliiados para que se inscriban en…
February 6th, 2006 at 5:30 am
[…] Source: Sitepoint. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 6:03 am
One thing comes to mind. A nightmare, a big one. We’ll have pages filled with four different types of ads. I get sick when I see four google AdSense on one page. When I think of Yahoo ads I get shivers…
February 6th, 2006 at 8:24 am
[…] Amazon plant angeblich ein eigenes AdSense Programm (Banner auf Webseiten, die sich am Inhalt orientieren und passende Werbung einzublenden versuchen), Sitepoint.com: On the phone last night it was explained to me that this is more or less an Adsense clone, meaning third party sponsored links, not Amazon links. It is known that Amazon currently get’s sponsored links for their own sites from Google, but apparently they wish to take out the middleman and break out on their own. The fact is that while Amazon has a high gross revenue, they have really thin profit margins, whereas Google and even eBay have much better profit margins. So I think there is probably a little bit of business jealousy at work here, and rightly so. Amazon realizes that if they want to compete as a major Internet destination, not just an ecommerce site, they need to capture a larger chunk of the online advertising revenue. It’s kinda funny, 5 years ago people were speaking about the death of online advertising, and now its huge. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 8:49 am
wtf someone misconfigured his bots.. badly
February 6th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Not likely
February 6th, 2006 at 9:08 am
[…] La noticia del fin de semana en cuanto a publicidad en Internet ha sido sin duda los comentarios de Chris Beasley en este artículo de Sitepoint, denominado Amazon-Sense. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Publicidad tipo Adsense de Amazon
La noticia del fin de semana en cuanto a publicidad en Internet ha sido sin duda los comentarios de Chris Beasley en este artículo de Sitepoint, denominado Amazon-Sense.
Según Chris, Amazon está contactando a algunos beta-testers para probar un nu…
February 6th, 2006 at 9:58 am
[…] It appears that Amazon are planning to launch a contextual advertising network much like Google’s AdSense. At first you’d be forgiven in thinking that this means they will have ad blocks to pick products from their own portfolio to display in a contextual manner, but no, they actually plan on entering the advertising arena. Obviously they are keen to tap into a little bit more of that “long thin tail” of Web 2.0 revenue. Chris Beasley’s blog at sitepoint | Sylita Thomas’ blog Comments » […]
February 6th, 2006 at 11:06 am
[…] Check out the speculation here. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
[…] De momento ha contactado con un grupo selecto de sus afiliados incluyendo a Chris Beasley de SitePoint preguntando si no les importaria formar parte de los beta testers. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Don’t know why they won’t let you post on the same page as AdSense ads. YPN and Adsense don’t have the same restriction. I have skyscrapers from both Gooogle and Yahoo! on the same page, and the ads are very different. Not a problem.
February 6th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Actually Joe, they do have those restrictions. If you haven’t gotten into trouble posting Adsense & YPN ads on the same page it is simply because they haven’t caught you yet.
I cannot speak for Google, Yahoo, or Amazon, but I think the reason for those clauses is that they know advertisers use multiple programs and they also know advertisers don’t always want their ad appearing twice on the same page. So by requiring you to only use one contextual ad network per page they can affirmatively state to their advertisers that such a thing will not occur.
The ads are also similar in appearance and they don’t want people to confuse who is providing what….and believe me… if people believe a flashing banner than tells them they’ve won a cruise, then I think its reasonable to assume that people could have a hard time telling Adsense and say YPN ads apart.
February 6th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
[…] My first thought was that an Adsense type of ads service with Amazon product catalog in it, for example if you write something about Ajax, an Ajax book will appear on the Amazon ads. But base on what Chis Beasly wrote over at SitePoint, that is not the case. It seems that Amazon want to build it’s own advertising network with third party links in it. Personally though, I would prefer if Amazon did a contextual advertising base on their product catalog. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
[…] Will the market support another AdSense-killer? Initially, I thought it would be a contextual version of their Amazon Associates affiliate system. After reading Chris Beasley’s post , it became clear that it was going to be an AdSense clone offering third party sponsored links. The cynic in me says it won’t work. The sponsored links system works on a site when you are able to gather people actively searching for products and services. To bring advertisers on board, A9 will have to prove that it’s search traffic is worth the investment. Right now, A9 isn’t even on the radar for most searchers. If people aren’t using A9, it will be hard to convince existing Google AdWords and Y!SM advertisers to divert part of their marketing budgets to A9. […]
February 6th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
What is up with all the comments that are just quotes?
February 6th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
…guess its not really moderated.
February 6th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
It has to do with how SitePoint handles trackbacks. Most wordpress based blogs list comments and trackbacks in different places. SitePoint lists them together.
February 7th, 2006 at 2:25 am
[…] (Quoted: SitePoint Blogs » Amazon-Sense? Via .) […]
February 7th, 2006 at 3:19 am
[…] Chris Beasley writes about Amazon-Sense. While there are no details announced yet, this may be good news for Pinoy publishers. […]
February 7th, 2006 at 8:42 am
[…] Source: SitePoint Blog […]
February 7th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
[…] Mehr dazu bei Sitepoint […]
February 7th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
[…] Chris Beasley (Aspen) at Site Point has the scoop on a new contextual advertising service that Amazon is working on, which would be somewhat of a competitor to Google AdWords and Yahoo Publisher Network. Instead of some cheesey new vehicle to deliver Amazon.com product links via their Amazon Associates Affiliate Program, Chris says that Amazon is working on actually setting up a true advertising network. […]
February 7th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
[…] Just reading WebPro News and saw that Amazon has been searching for beta testers … read the article at SitePoint. I had really thought that MSN would be the next big contextual advertiser to make a name for itself. But it appears Amazon is dipping its toe in. Has anyone been asked to join their beta testing team? Is it just for the US like Yahoo is currently running. And just as a personal gripe… when are they going to take International Publishers?? - well I am curious you know […]
February 7th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Webpronews is featuring this in the e-newsletter with a link to here.
If Amazon wanted to recruit major players like Chris for beta testing they should have offered a guarantee on revenue for your site. If it works these guys would be talking it up big time and it would take off quickly.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
You might also wish to check out Advolution (”the benefits of pay-per-click… without the actual pay-per-click”)
February 7th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
[…] I ran across a post in Chris Beasley’s blog today about the new player in the contextual-ad market, and it’s not who you would have expected. Not at all. Amazon.com is making their play for a share of the AdSense crowd, and while it’s a titillating story the big question remains: Can they make it work? […]
February 7th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
[…] Chris Beasley a SitePoint Forum Advisor received a request from Amazon to Beta their new technology. Read his post below. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2006/02/04/amazon-sense/ […]
February 8th, 2006 at 1:50 am
Amazon to Compete with AdSense? Hmmmm…
According to Chris Beasley at Sitepoint, Amazon is beta testing a new contextual advertising platform for publishers to go head-to-head with Google’s AdSense. He explains that the new program will serve third party text ads (and not just Amazon produc…
February 8th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
AmazonSense
Grazie a Massimo Russo arrivo al blog di Chris Beasley che ci parla di un secondo vero e proprio competitor…
February 8th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Do they still accept applications for the beta? I’d love to try it.
February 8th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
[…] The news about Amazon’s ad aspirations broke when Website Publisher founder Chris Beasley blogged about being chatted up by the massive online retailer to take part in their test. […]
February 9th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Amazon pe piata advertisingului contextual
Desi toata lumea se astepta ca MSN sa fie urmatorul jucator important, Amazon intra pe piata advertisungului online contextual si a inceput deja testarile beta cu ajutorul a catorva asociati. Incearca Amazon sa fura din clientela lui Google si Yahoo?
March 10th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
[…] Chris Beasley at Sitepoint reveals that Amazon, the world’s largest online bookstore, is interested in starting their own ad network similar to Adsense. It’s not what you think: contextual ads to serve up Amazon’s own products. They intend to “clone” Adsense. This test is only being offered to a few hand-picked sites by Amazon. […]
March 14th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
I’m not an American publisher, my site is hosted in Texas but I live in Australia. I was just invited to participate.
And can someone explain how “Hello buyers” ended up as a moderator approved comment here?
April 1st, 2006 at 4:44 pm
try this Free one for ebay sense..
place ebay item lists on web site or personal blog and earn money.
http://www.iourl.com
April 8th, 2006 at 4:49 am
Oh my god, I never heard about Amazon starting up their own contextual ad program. That will make 4 right? Msn, Yahoo, Google, and Amazon.
Sheesh….are we heading towards contextual ad blindness ;-)
Brent
April 8th, 2006 at 10:25 am
[…] A number of people are reporting that Amazon is planning to launch a contextual advertising network much like Google’s AdSense.Those contextual Ads will not be strict for Amazon products only, but also will be up for sale like all other advertising networks. […]
April 11th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
aaasasasasasasas
April 21st, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Hey,
We have developed a web search engine that uses a contextual ads technology showing Amazon-only products.
http://yws.tictap.com
We intend to make this technology free since it was built on top of Yahoo’s and Amazon’s API and code.
May 26th, 2006 at 7:18 am
FAO: Chris Beasley
Hail,
I am sorry I spoke out of turn big fella - you’re in charge of your little empire - and that is fair enough; it obviously pumps your nads and, I’ve seen the photo, you probably need the action. Just joking kidder.
But can you take all my posts off your website? I only ask because you removed my signature, which made me think about the fact that, in theory, (and I realise you almost certainly are not deranged enough to be arsed - but then there is that last post or two - pheweee!)you could alter my posts; as I have intellectual copyright, I ask respectfully that you remove them.
Cheers Big Man,
Bandini.
May 26th, 2006 at 7:19 am
Oh that is the literature-online forum - the oppression and religion thread etc.
Ta, Large lad.
June 1st, 2006 at 11:46 am
tictap.com looks cool. But yahoo api only allow 5000 calls per ip per day…
How you guys handle this?
Tien-Chih Wang
June 5th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
[…] A number of people are reporting that Amazon is planning to launch a contextual advertising network much like Google���s AdSense. Those contextual Ads will not be strict for Amazon products only, but also will be up for sale like all other advertising networks. […]
July 7th, 2006 at 5:27 am
[…] Amazon-Sense […]
July 25th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
[…] When I was blogging for SitePoint I broke the news about “Amazon Sense” or rather Amazon wanting to compete with Adsense with a similar program, it got like a billion trackbacks and I really wish I had broke the news here instead. I had been contacted about joining a beta program for testing ads which would be run similar to Adsense and include ads from Amazon.com, but also eventually third parties. I had to decline this beta because one of their requirements was that you could not use it and Adsense at the same time. […]
January 4th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
I was just checking out the different values of keywords and did you know the word “adsense” is worth $11.92 http://www.symbiotic.com/resources/A/Ad/Adsense.html
Jen
President of
August 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
i am trying to join in the google adsense but it has a payment procedure…