Archive for the ‘Amazon’ Category
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Now we’re getting into the fun, legally-tricky aspect of digital books. Eligible Amazon Kindle books can now be loaned to individuals, one time, for a period of 14 days. This borrowee does not even need to own a Kindle. They can use any free Kindle reading application for either the PC, MAC, iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry. The lender is unable to read the book during this loan period.
Not all e-books are lendable. That right is left up to the book publisher. And you will see “Lending: Enabled” on those specified books. This is very cool, but expecting a friend to read any length book in 14 days seems a bit unfriendly. All in all, however, this a very cool step forward in our digital pirate-free future.
Tags: amazon-kindle, android, blackberry, ipad, iphone, lending-enabled, mac, mobile-marketing, pc
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Friday, April 15th, 2011
Amazon is the real deal. The ultimate Internet success story. Starting slow, and changing media infrastructure altogether. So, what are they up to now? Well, if you look at some recent job listings, it looks like Amazon is looking to branch into online display advertising.
I immediately jump to Amazon’s recommendation engine, the fact that it always knows what other books I’m probably interested in – based on my previous purchases and current browsing activity. But, they’re already doing that. So, what’s this? Using that information for other retailers? But they’d have to be really careful there, wouldn’t they? Because what advertisers could they partner with that sell things that Amazon doesn’t?
Tags: advertising-on-google, Amazon, online-display-advertising, recommendation-engine, Search-Engine-Optimization
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Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Amazon Cloud has been getting some great press coverage lately – particularly geared toward its Cloud Player music service. Yet, I don’t think this is the interesting news story.
How about the fact that Amazon is offering 25 GB of free cloud storage? Sure, music is a great use of this. But so is everything else! USB drives have officially replaced CD and DVD burning. But now the cloud takes away the need for the USB. This is exciting. This is the news story.
Not the idea that I should start buying my digital music through Amazon rather than iTunes, which I’ve been using for years now. Yeah, I guess I could move these files over to Amazon’s cloud, but that’s work. Maybe Apple will come out with their own soon enough. And until then, Amazon’s Cloud is still the only free 25 GB cloud out there.
That’s newsworthy.
Tags: Amazon-Cloud, cloud-storage, digital-music, internet-consulting, internet-marketing-company, itunes
Posted in Amazon, cloud-computing | Comments Off
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
I actually didn’t see this coming. An off-site non-proprietary app store. This is really interesting.
Because Amazon is online shopping. That’s where you buy most everything else. So why wouldn’t you buy your apps there? After all, for those of us who still prefer navigating on a bigger screen, it’s easier to find new apps. And with Amazon’s App Store, I can purchase an app and have it automatically start loading on my mobile device. It’s seamless. So, why would I learn a new retailer? The Android App Store. The Apple App Store. No, I’m already at Amazon for everything else.
Is this a sign that Amazon has officially Walmart’d the Web?
But just in case this convenience isn’t enough to get those already sold on the propretiary app stores, Amazon is also releasing original content as well, including Angry Birds Rio for the Android device. Yeah, that ought to do it.
Tags: amazon-app-store, android, angry-birds-rio, Apple, mobile-marketing, walmart, website-promotion-services
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Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Now, video on demand from Amazon isn’t new. You’ve been able to stream television shows and movies from Amazon for a while now, a la carte, or by season. But that’s not the same thing, and not really a direct Netflix competitor. Until now.
Amazon has launched Amazon Prime, an unlimited, commercial-free, on-demand streaming provider of movies and television. A yearly subscription costs $79. Wait, Amazon Prime? I thought that’s what they called the membership where you get unlimited free 2-day shipping with your orders. Yup. That’s the one. For those people, this is a completely free bonus. For new customers, the shipping might act as that “bonus”.
Now, this on-demand access to 5,000 movies and shows is only a part of Amazon’s 90,000 offering collection of Instant Video. And doesn’t really compare to Netflix’s online streaming catalog. But, there’s a competitor in the making here. And it’s exciting.
Tags: Amazon, amazon-prime, internet-marketing-consulting, netflix, on-demand-video
Posted in Amazon, Digital Video | Comments Off
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Do you trust Amazon reviews? Sometimes it’s hard to know if you should. The idea of crowdsourcing recommendations is an amazing one. It’s so amazing that every business has a vested interest in gaming the system.
And you can tell when a book has 3 recommendations, all that feel like they came off the book jacket themselves, that it’s probably the author and his friends doing that. And you’ve probably also spotted the opposite – people dogging competitive products. Getting those same people to write negative reviews about the products your competitors offer.
But there’s a new tactic that’s becoming more widespread lately. The subtle plug. Referencing your product within a related product’s review. “I liked this product, but I actually ended up going with X”. This is a powerful testimonial. False or not. And scammers are starting to take advantage of it. We’ll see if Amazon acts, or can even figure out how to?
Tags: amazon-reviews, internet-marketing, website-promotion-services
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Monday, February 21st, 2011
Recently, Amazon and Netflix were rated numbers one and two in terms of e-tail customer satisfaction, by ACSI customer satisfaction scores.
Many have editorialized why these online companies are able to top customer satisfaction rankings year after year. Is it the seamless service? The low pricing? Those are definitely great ways to keep customers satisfied.
But what else do these two juggernauts have in common? They have everything. If your hardware store doesn’t carry something, check Amazon. If Blockbuster doesn’t carry your favorite movie, Netflix will.
Amazon and Netflix never disappoint, because they never say “no.” And we are always left satisfied.
Tags: acsi, Amazon, customer-satisfaction, internet-consultant, netflix
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Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Amazon has released “Kindle Singles” for your e-reader. Now, you’re going to see a lot of press about how this is a travesty for the written word. The notion that we are becoming online junkies – the laziest generation of all time. Heck, I even joked about it in the headline.
But, it’s far from the truth. It’s simply that the standard book length we’re accustomed to evolved from market forces. In order to make book publishing and distribution costs make sense, books had to cost $20. And therefore, had to be at least a couple hundred pages long.
But the e-reader changes that game. Just like iTunes did. Now, more than ever, album singles are the most popular format of music purchases. But it wasn’t practical to sell physical CD singles for $0.99. Production costs didn’t add up. But just like CD singles gave us the best music at a discount price, here’s to hoping Kindle Singles do the same for books.
Tags: Amazon, amazon-kindle, internet-marketing, internet-marketing-company, kindle-singles
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Friday, January 28th, 2011
Living Social jumped into the spotlight last week with a $20 for $10 Amazon gift certificate group-coupon promotion that blew Groupon’s en masse GAP experiment last year out of the water.
Is Living Social a real Groupon threat, or a flash in the pan? Well, here’s one reason Living Social did so well with this promotion. They have a very specific sharing motivation. After you purchase the deal, and share the link to your friends via social media channels, if 3 of your friends purchase the deal via your link, your deal is free.
This is huge. Not only are the deals great, but the idea of getting it for free? Now, Groupon has been experimenting with this as well. Giving specific cash benefits for spreading the good news of good news. But the “share with 3, get 1 free” idea is so straightforward and do-able, Living Social might have found their way in the door.
And Groupon may be sweating giving up that $6 billion deal.
Tags: Amazon, GAP, groupon, living-social, local-business-advertising, social-media-marketing
Posted in Amazon, local advertising, Social Media | Comments Off
Monday, January 10th, 2011
As Netflix, Amazon and iTunes continue to dominate the online movie streaming market, you would think that new players would simply see the mountain as too big.
Yet, Sears and Kmart have just launched their own online movie streaming service called Alphaline Entertainment. Get it? Alpha. Because the movies come out “comparatively first”, at least the day they’re released on TV.
I don’t mean to make fun. It just seems incredulous to think of this newcomer making even a small dent in the market. Now, Sears and Kmart are partnering with Sonic Solutions’ RoxioNow platform to get into electronic devices, like Blu-ray players, mobile phones, TVs and more. But it just seems like they’re a little late to the game, doesn’t it? And with $3.99 movie rentals, they’re not giving their customers a good enough reason to switch.
Tags: alphaline-entertainment, Amazon, internet-consulting, itunes, kmart, mobile-marketing, netflix, online-movie-streaming, roxionow, Sears, sonic-solutions
Posted in Amazon, mobile-marketing | Comments Off
