Last month I joined the Amazon affiliates program and posted an Amazon ad on all of the blog pages. These are Amazon’s smart ads. I don’t pick the items that appear; Amazon picks the items algorithmically based on my site content and which ads get clicked.
I’ve noticed that some of the items that show up in the ads are from my Amazon wish list. Others are products I’ve linked to from the blog or mentioned on the blog.
Now I want to see if I can steer the ads in a certain direction. You’ll be seeing some My Little Ponies content for the next week or so. Why My Little Ponies? Because it’s so totally different than the guns and flashlights type content on the site that I’ll know for sure when I see the effects.
Keep an eye on the Google ads, too. Google is amazing at contextual advertising: supplying ads that match the content of the page they’re on. I’ll bet Google starts showing My Little Ponies ads before Amazon.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a rollerskate party to attend.
P.S. I use Joost de Valk’s Amazon Auto Affiliate Linker plug-in for WordPress. It automatically adds my Amazon affiliate ID to any Amazon items I link. Obviously you can add that affiliate information manually for new posts. What’s great about the plug-in is that it adds the affiliate information to any Amazon links I’ve posted on the blog over the past six years. Valk has other great WordPress plug-ins and information.
UPDATE: Less than two hours after I published this Amazon started showing My Little Pony on this post’s archive page. They even beat Google Adwords to the punch. Amazon for the win.
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ZOMG PONIES
‘Amazon picks the items algorithmically based on my site content and which ads get clicked’
or, if you’re an amazon customer, it generates them based on past orders.
SayUncle´s last blog post..Taxonomy of Modern Dangers
In that case I know what Natalie’s getting for her birthday in June. Heh.
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Did you do something to deserve the “cheap Mexican insurance” ads, or did I? I was a little relieved to see they were ads for insurance on rental cars in Mexico, but still wtf?
How do you say “my little pony” in Spanish?
Those are BlogAds. They’re not auto-generated. The ad buyer paid for space for that same ad for a full month.
Someone looking to place those ads decided this site was a good place of it, possibly because of the travel content. Hard to say.
Les Jones´s last blog post..Because, like, who doesn’t totally love My Little Pony?