New *amazon invocation
As part of our effort to help VideoSift survive and thrive, we've created a way for people to link to Amazon items that are related to a particular post.
Use it when there is something that you'd like to recommend to other Sifters- music, movies, books or other products.
It works like this- find an Amazon product that relates to a particular video post and invoke it in a VideoSift comment thusly (for example):
*amazon=http://www.amazon.com/Sparrow-Mary-Doria-Russell/dp/0449912558
Amazon makes pretty ugly URLs, but don't worry - your invocation comment will be whisked away to the top of the post and converted to a thumbnail and link for the particular product.
VideoSift gets a little dosh for every purchase made through the link - so it's a great way to support the community and possibly find something good. You can see what it looks like on this blog post here.
Some other things to note:
- The *amazon invocation is available from the rank of silver star.
- multiple *amazon invocations may be used on a single post.
- *amazon works on video, sift talk, poll, and blog posts
- make sure that the Amazon link is related to either the post topic or a discussion that's happening in the post
- don't put anything else in the comment, or it won't work
- do not assign any product that is inappropriate for the post or your *amazon privileges may be revoked
[EDIT]
We just added a new post listing of any type of post that has any Amazon items associated with it. You can find it here: http://amazon.videosift.com We figured some people might be interested in seeing what items have been associated with what posts.
Use it when there is something that you'd like to recommend to other Sifters- music, movies, books or other products.
It works like this- find an Amazon product that relates to a particular video post and invoke it in a VideoSift comment thusly (for example):
*amazon=http://www.amazon.com/Sparrow-Mary-Doria-Russell/dp/0449912558
Amazon makes pretty ugly URLs, but don't worry - your invocation comment will be whisked away to the top of the post and converted to a thumbnail and link for the particular product.
VideoSift gets a little dosh for every purchase made through the link - so it's a great way to support the community and possibly find something good. You can see what it looks like on this blog post here.
Some other things to note:
- The *amazon invocation is available from the rank of silver star.
- multiple *amazon invocations may be used on a single post.
- *amazon works on video, sift talk, poll, and blog posts
- make sure that the Amazon link is related to either the post topic or a discussion that's happening in the post
- don't put anything else in the comment, or it won't work
- do not assign any product that is inappropriate for the post or your *amazon privileges may be revoked
[EDIT]
We just added a new post listing of any type of post that has any Amazon items associated with it. You can find it here: http://amazon.videosift.com We figured some people might be interested in seeing what items have been associated with what posts.
32 Comments
therealblankman*amazon
therealblankmanDoes nae work
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
^Have to give it an equal sign and a URL. Or are you joshing? I'll try one.
lesserfoolBravo Dag, this sounds like a good balance of content and additional revenue for a healthy Videosift. How about some transparency on who is upvoting these ads?
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
^That's a good idea- maybe we could show who voted by a hover on the vote count.
gwiz665Interesting.
OrnthoronBrilliant feature! Not only can it help the Sift stay afloat, it can also be a useful tool when you find for instance good new music on the sift, something that happens to me frequently. I'm gonna go over and add amazon links to all my music vids, and I hope you will too.
deputydog*torrent
deputydogjust joking of course. 'tis a great idea, and it looks good. i shall use it often.
gorillamanExcellent.
DeanoOnly amazon.com or can I specify amazon.co.uk as well?
blankfist*amazon=asscrack
That looks like I'm dissing the amazon thing. I am not. I was just testing the boundaries.
eric3579I think this will work well for dvds, music, books and maybe video games.
mauz15Wonderful wonderful wonderful idea.
HaldaugGreat feature, now can you stop spamming my member profile? It's a bit annoying to have sifty post a confirmation to my profile every time I use the invocation.
gwiz665I think there might be a bug, because peggedbea couldn't invoke it on her own http://www.videosift.com/video/They-Might-Be-Giants-Bloodmobile while I could copy her comment and it worked?
videosiftbannedme>> ^Deano:
Only amazon.com or can I specify amazon.co.uk as well?
I tried putting an Amazon.co.uk tag on this video twice to link it to the DVD, but the posts just disappeared. Don't think co.uk is supported yet(?).
blankfistWhy not also make amazon.videosift.com a link to the complete amazon site where people can make any purchase they want?
I buy stuff from Amazon all the time, and I'd be more than happy to do so and give VS a kick back.
lucky760Good call, blankfist. I think that's a brilliant idea. http://amazon.videosift.com is now available and can display either all posts with Amazon items or just all Amazon items themselves!
In fact, it's such a significant change I'll start a new ST about it.
cybrbeastI assume lucky did all the coding to make a script to retrieve the Amazon listing and then format it nicely for the Sift. Great job lucky!
cybrbeastBrowsing through http://amazon.videosift.com/?sel=items&sort&pg=1 I can see mauz15 doing a heck of a lot of Amazon work
KrupoI'm already having fun with it... http://www.videosift.com/video/Trainspotting-The-Sex-Scenes
Now the obvious question: can there be a function to "batch invoke" the same links placed on one post (i.e. the one above) and move it to another (i.e., another Trainspotting clip)? Or is it better for the Sift to keep it manual to avoid (accidental?) link-spams and encourage more careful judgment? I wonder.
Regardless, *quality addition to the Sift!
(BTW, the .uk and .ca international flavours are definitely something that'll have to be considered down the road, as technology permits, I imagine...)
siftbotAwarding dag with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by Krupo.
rottenseedI stand by amazoning "everyone poops"
maatcMaybe from now on we could all try to do our amazon purchases through VideoSift?
As in: Find what you want on amazon first, find a relevant post on vs, add the link, then click&buy...
And is there any way to make it work for amazon.de links as well lucky?
>> ^videosiftbannedme:
>> ^Deano:
Only amazon.com or can I specify amazon.co.uk as well?
I tried putting an Amazon.co.uk tag on this video twice to link it to the DVD, but the posts just disappeared. Don't think co.uk is supported yet(?).
maatcOh and also I noticed that you can´t invoke multiple * amazon links in one comment.
Would be great if that worked (especially on those "What are you reading?" or "What are your Top 5 books?" SiftTalk posts...
lucky760Good call, maatc.
That's a very interesting idea.
We don't really have full details about how this system works, but it looks like only amazon.com will work properly, unfortunately.
Only one invocation is possible per comment because it's a very tricky invocation that required some hacking of siftbot's innards.
gwiz665BUG: We can keep voting on them. Refresh, and vote again.
CrakeIt seems the amazon voting buttons don't lock if I refresh the page after I've voted?
I may have snuck in an illicit extra vote or two for Diamond Age...
Update: this bug also breaks the voting-record-tooltip for all the other amazon items on the page being viewed.
lucky760The voting bug has been fixed. Sorry for the hiccup.
spoco2This is a truly great idea. Providing people with easy ways to purchase interesting stuff (so useful), and the sift gets paid (so profitable).
Brilliant.
Love it
kronosposeidonOne thing: I don't need a message from Siftbot every time I successfully use the *amazon invocation. Is there any way to stop that?
Discuss...
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