Not relevant for the Amazon links?

Today I discovered the little new tool Amazon has put in place to let you make more money through your weblog. I know I should not use beta-tools when they are just out, but I could not resist the temptation. The first reviews were pretty raving and when you see the new system working, 'cool' would be an understatement. Here is a website where it works.

What context links does is providing you links to Amazon-products that are connected with relevant text in your weblog. Installing the little script was easy enough for me and then I waited for the things to come. And I waited, waited. Actually, nothing has happened up to now. I just assume now that I have no Amazon relevant text. So when I start to write even funnier than I did, talking about Snow White or other popular Disney figures, or about Dummies among Investors, you know I'm testing the Amazon system. Will let you know if I make money on this. But the first enthusiasm is over.

Update: I might have found an explanation. According to messages on the Amazon forum IE6 and IE7 (which I use), do not display the Amazon links: typically a beta-problem. Firefox does, but I cannot get back to Firefox easy for some technical reasons.

Adding some new ad toys

I have been adding what is called Amazon context links. In stead of adding every now and then boxes that refer to relevant books, Amazon now offers to do it all by themselves. Not sure how it works, and also not sure whether this is more or less a nuisance than the old system. Please let me know if you have problems with it. It should take online marketing a step further.

Amazon keeps on refusing my business

I got little feedback on my complaint that Amazon was no longer shipping their books to China. One person actually used my weblog to order a book that I could not get.
So, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, I tried it again, on different addresses and always I got this message. Seems that I have to ship the books to people who might take it along in their luggage when they come to China.

Has Amazon stopped shipping to China?

I'm not really reading a lot of books compared to the past. Mostly I would pick them up at airports, at least that was the case before I could get online in airports and airplanes. But every now and then I would order some at Amazon, especially since a few of the organizations I work for would send me Amazon gift certificates. I still had a US$ worth of vouchers laying around and I thought this was a good opportunity to order The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression and a few others.

Not so. Putting the books in my Amazon-cart was no problem, but when I wanted to check-out, the Amazon computer said they would not ship to my address. No explanation given. By accident I discover at the bottom of the site they now have a China-agent: Joyo.com. They only offer Chinese books, including one I wanted to buy, but I would prefer to order it in the English language, German or Dutch, but rather not Chinese.

I started to write an angry email to the Amazon customer service, but my email was refused. Not because of foul language (although I'm ready to use that now), but because I have not order number. Now that was exactly my problem.

Anyway: similar problems out there, and perhaps solutions too?