Google-owned Blogger has added a new revenue generation option: direct integration with Amazon Associates to search Amazon’s product catalog and add links to products where Bloggers can earn commissions when their readers buy products they recommend.

"Making it easy for our Associates to advertise relevant content on their websites is the foundation of the Amazon Associates program. Our goal is to help our Associates earn the trust of their followers by giving them the tools to search through the millions of products on Amazon and select those that are most relevant to their audience," says Dave Cotter, General Manager of the Amazon Associates Program. "If you’re a Blogger and you’re writing about the new Michael Crichton book, ‘Pirate Latitudes,’ you simply highlight the text you want linked to Amazon, click on ‘Go’ in the Amazon Product Finder, and click ‘Insert link.’ Setting up Associates links to Amazon and earning referral fees is now that easy."

"This is something that Bloggers of all shapes and sizes will benefit from as they look for ways to add compelling content to their blogs and make money," said Rick Klau, Product Manager for Blogger. "Our goal is to do more than simply give our bloggers the easiest tools in the market for creating blogs, it’s to make Blogger the easiest platform for bloggers to make money on. This integration is a testament to that commitment."

The timing of this partnership is somewhat interesting, as the FTC’s guidelines about disclosure recently went into effect. Klau does make it a point to encourage openness, however.

"A quick note about trust: affiliate programs work well when readers trust you," he says. "You should avoid promoting products simply because of the referral fee you might earn — readers may lose some of that trust if they sense your posts exist solely to make you money. You may also want to disclose to your readers that you will earn a commission on their purchase — some readers even prefer knowing that you benefit from their business."

Amazon Associates integration is not the only way Blogger offers its users to make money. Blogger has a "Monetize" tab in the Blogger app. Users can use AdSense of course, and they recently added AdSense for Feeds as an option.

By Chris Crum at WebProNews.com