Showing posts with label gourmet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gourmet. Show all posts

Monday, February 09, 2009

Valentine's Day Gifts by Category

I actually found Amazon's Valentine's Gift Guides more confusing than helpful, but maybe that's just me. You should look at the main pages (in large type below) as they do have handy links based on price ranges. Beyond this most of the links aren't really recommendations, but just links to Amazon's main category pages. I used to refer to these as "top-level" categories, but that is no longer accurate. What distinguishes these "main" pages is that they contain a lot of extra navigational links and editorial content, which you may or may not be interested in. The subcategory pages are less verbose, and are compiled "on the fly" from Amazon's database.

If you are looking for actual suggestions, I believe I have included all of those pages in the links below. Some of them are a new page format (at least it's new to me.) There are a number of subcategories included on "tabs" across the top of the page. I've included the direct links separated by a colon and slashes. These pages seem to load pretty fast, so I think it's an improvement even if it might be confusing at first.

Amazon's gift suggestions tend to have a holiday-specific theme. If that isn't what you are looking for, You might be better served by the gift guides for girlfriends or wives or the gift guides for boyfriends or husbands. These and more can be found on the (generic) gift guide page.

Valentine's Gifts for Her



Valentine's Gifts for Him


Gifts For Yourself


Gift Ideas in Automotive

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Friday, February 06, 2009

Earth's Best Organic Baby Food @ Amazon.com

Grocery prices are outrageous, and Amazon.com is as susceptible to as anyone to price increases. But their extensive line of non-perishable groceries include a lot of products that may not be available in smaller markets, and they may be cheaper than the same items in large urban centers. This is especially true when you include transportation costs, since most items qualify for free shipping on orders over $25.

In spite of the competitive nature of the grocery business, I'm sure many people could save time and money by having Amazon deliver their groceries. I think the problem is that too many people just don't realize that the service is available. Even fewer realize that they can save an additional 15% and automatically qualifiy for free shipping with the Subscribe and Save program.

This is definitely a niche marketing proposition. Unfortunately Amazon doesn't ship any variety of Hormel Spam to Hawaii where it is very popular and shipping costs are high. We'll be featuring more products as our geographically diverse customer base brings the hidden values to our attention.

Today we're featuring Earth's Best Organic Baby Food, a great product line that may not be available in many local stores, and you can save another 15% by entering the coupon code EARTHBE3 at checkout on many selected items through February. Hover your mouse over the product name for current pricing, or click to go straight to the page. You can also click on the "aStore" links for a faster-loading "Amazon Lite" page. Here are just a few of the popular products available:

1st Sweet Potato (24)aStore
1st Pears (24)aStore
1st Peas (24)aStore
1st Carrots (24)aStore
1st Bananas (24)aStore
2nd Antioxidant Variety Pack (12)aStore
2nd Country Gourmet Meals Pack (12)aStore
2nd Dinner Variety Pack (12)aStore
2nd Fruit Variety Pack (12)aStore
2nd Vegetable Variety Pack (12)aStore
2nd Seasonal Harvest Variety Pack (12)aStore
2nd Strained Pear Mango (12)aStore
2nd Plum/Banana/Rice (24)aStore
2nd Beef Carrots & Corn (12)aStore
2nd Chicken Tomato Pasta (12)aStore
2nd Banana Apricot Mixed Grain (24)aStore
Sesame Street (Toddler) Organic Crunchin' Crackers (6)aStore
Toddler Snackin' Fruit Hearts Blueberry (12)aStore
Toddler Sunny Days Snack Bars, Apple (6)aStore
Sesame Street (Toddler) Organic Cookies, Oatmeal Cinnamon (6)aStore
Tots Cereal Bars, Strawberry (6)aStore
Tots Cereal Bar, Strawberry Banana (6)aStore
Tots Apple Peach Banana JuiceaStore
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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Popular Grocery Items @ Amazon.com

This is the one of a series of quick articles on popular products from Amazon.com. Of course, the most obvious measure of popularity is Amazon sales rank, the default listing order of Amazon's aStores. That order is already represented in the search engine listings, at least in theory. These items are ones that I have actually sold.

The idea here is that these items are popular enough that someone would buy them, but not so popular that they are widely listed elsewhere. Though this approach may seem wildly random, it is very likely that if someone bought these before, someone else might want to buy them in the future. Perhaps they are just what you're looking for!

Gourmet Items

Grocery Items

Obviously, these categories aren't doing as well as I might have hoped. Is it because people don't want to buy non-perishable grocery items online? Few people know that these categories exist? Other Associiates are doing a MUCH better job promoting them?

Maybe, but I've generally found that sales correlate more or less directly to the number of products listed in the major search engines. Let's take a quick snapshot so we can come back later and see how these items are being indexed:

GroceryGourmet
Yahoo! (47)Yahoo! (108)
MSN Live (783)MSN Live (687)
Google (0)Google (0)
Ask (0)Ask (0)
Well! That explains a lot! Apparently, Google and Ask don't find us worthy. I suppose turn-about is fair play then?

Popular Brands

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Sunday, March 09, 2008

How Google Sees My Site(s) - II

Google isn't necessarily the best search engine; in fact I'd rate it third out of a field of four. Nonetheless, a recent survey showed that Google accounted for 58% of all the searches performed on the Internet. Obviously, Google's opinion is important to any webmaster whose goal is to attract viewers to their content. The following Amazon.com products are those that Google believes are the most "significant" ones listed in my Amazon aStores.

Google's idea of significance isn't necessarily mine -- or yours. My goal is to help shoppers find what they're looking for -- a task which should correlate pretty well with sales (which, of course, is my real goal.) Google's evaluation is based on a number of mostly irrelevant data, which produces some fairly odd results. (Similar results can be found with Live Search and Yahoo! )

Here are a couple hundred products Google thinks you'll be interested in. Frankly, none of them have been big sellers for me, but that could change. In any case, I've placed them into the appropriate subcategory aStores, which should help customers and indexing 'bots alike.

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Growing Mushrooms

The recent popularity of Mycelium Running by mycologist Paul Stamets has set off a flurry of activity around here. Suddenly, the idea of cultivating mushrooms, specifically Morels has gone from "crazy," to "logical," and is rapidly approaching "imperative." Swell.

Mushrooms require consistently moist conditions and deep mulch, so growing them fits right in with raising worms, but that's another story. The important point is that cultivating fungi is consistant with the practice of organic gardening, and a great human-scale method of carbon sequestration. Given that mushroom varieties other than the common Agaricus bisporus are typically gourmet items, cultivating these valued delicacies is a practical way to put some variety into your cooking, or possibly even starting a sideline business.

By all accounts, the two "must have" books for mushroom cultivation are Stamets' Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms and Mushroom Cultivator: A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home (with J. S. Chilton). That being said, there is every possibility that you can get acceptable results with far less research. Your local agricultural extension office should have some basic materials, and after all you are just facilitating a natural process. Just as anybody can put some seeds in the ground and enjoy a beginner's gardening experience, there's a good chance that you can put down some appropriate wood chip mulch or log, (see 100 Edible Mushrooms), get a mushroom kit, and stand back!

Now obviously the more you know the better your results will be, but don't let an obsessive desire for immediate perfection become an obstacle to getting started! The worst that can happen is that you'll have to start from scratch and try again. You might also be interested in:





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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Amazon.com's Gifts For One Who Has Everything

Amazon.com publishes a series of gift guides, which change over time and may even disappear altogether. These snapshots are an excellent indication of what products are popular on any given day. While the content of the guide may vary, these unique gifts should be around for a long time...

  1. Bliss All You Need Is Glove Set Kit
  2. 3 Row White, Bronze & Champagne Dyed Freshwater Cultured Pearl Necklace, 19"
  3. 101 Things to Do Before You Die
  4. Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition
  5. Oxford Atlas of the World, 14th Edition
  6. Panasonic TH-50PX60U 50" Plasma HDTV
  7. La Crosse Technology WT-5120U Projection Alarm Clock with Outdoor Temperature
  8. Geoff & Drew's Winter Warmer With Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brownies, Coffee & More
  9. MoGo Mouse, Wireless 2-button Bluetooth Mouse (Gray)
  10. Back to Basics TEM500 Egg-and-Muffin 2-Slice Toaster and Egg Poacher
  11. iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac Robotic Vacuum, Red
  12. SmartShopper® Grocery List Organizer, Model SS101
  13. Twin Peaks - The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series)
  14. World of Shakespeare: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library)
  15. 4 Person Deluxe Backpack Emergency Survival Kit
  16. hairdo from Jessica Simpson and Ken Paves 23" Vibralite Synthetic Clip-In Extension, Wavy, Dark Chocolate
  17. Salter 1450 Digital Nutrional Scale for Dry and Liquid Measure
  18. ShurTrax LW-0048 All Weather Traction Aid for Compact Pickup Trucks/SUVs
  19. Coffee Break Gift Box - Gourmet Food Gift Basket
  20. Cellboost IP1 Disposable Battery/Charger for "Dockable" iPods
  21. Food & Wine
  22. OXO Good Grips Mango Splitter
  23. Xantrex Powerpack 600 Watt Jumpstarter, Power Inverter and Backup Power Source
  24. Tivoli Audio iSongBook Portable Music System for iPod
  25. Singing Coach Unlimited
  26. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
  27. VIOlight VS100 Toothbrush Sanitizer and Storage System
  28. Alfi Basic Thermal Carafe, Azure Blue
  29. Marpac Sleep Mate 980
  30. VXI BlueParrott B100 Wireless Headset System for Corded/Cordless Phones and Bluetooth Cell Phones
  31. Fake Security Camera w/ Motion Detection Sensor & Activation Light - No Wiring Necessary
  32. Droll Yankees YF Flipper Bird Feeder
  33. APC BIOPOD Biometric Password Manager (USB)
  34. Jonathan Product Beauty Water Shower Purification System(TM)
  35. Canon EOS 30D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens
  36. Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder 2 Plus Digital Video Recorder
  37. Nokia N80 Internet Edition Silver Phone (Unlocked)
  38. Pepper Pad 3 Handheld Web Computer (Black)
  39. Wagan Heated Seat Cushion
  40. Acer AL2216Wbd 22" LCD Monitor - Black
  41. Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse
  42. Sausage/ Salami Trio Gift Pack
  43. SeaBear Hors d'oeuvres: WILD Nova Style Smoked Sockeye
  44. 14k Yellow Gold Freshwater Cultured Pearl, Peridot, and Blue Topaz Drop Necklace, 17"
  45. 1980's Tong Xing Green Beeng Cha Tea Leaves - Vintage Pu-erh Teas
  46. MANGROOMER Do-It-Yourself Electric Back Hair Shaver
  47. 14k White Gold Coated Blue Topaz and Diamond Bracelet
  48. Juice Multi-Battery Charger Kit
  49. iTouchless DLX Forever Last Flashlight, No Battery Needed
  50. Obus Forme Sound Therapy Relaxation System
  51. Victorinox SwissMemory 2 GB (Translucent Ruby)
  52. Trio of Cheeses Kissed with Alcohol (2.9 Pound) by igourmet.com
  53. 14k Yellow Gold Textured Drop Necklace, 16"
  54. 14k Yellow Gold Link Bracelet, 7.5"
  55. Omaha Steaks The Festival
  56. Sunforce 44444 12Volt 400Watt Wind Generator
  57. Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini
  58. Harold and Maude

Featured Brands

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Amazon Widget Links

Amazon.com provides a number of innovative methods for linking to their product pages based on the content of a page, a visitor's Amazon browsing history, and other factors. Several of these "widgets" can be seen in the left-hand margin of this page.

That is, they can be seen by typical web-browsers that have javascript, and in some cases cookies, enabled. Web spiders ignore them completely. That's a shame.

To correct this, herewith is a hodge-podge of popular Amazon products gleaned from these Amazon widgets:

Apparel

Books

DVD

Electronics

Magazines

Music

Photography

More

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Amazon.com's Most Popular Gifts: Gourmet Foods

Amazon's "most gifted" Gourmet Foods are heavy on gift basket assortments, which leads to having more brands than items. I wouldn't have thought to look for some of these items under Gourmet Foods rather than Groceries, but I suppose some of the nostalgic candies are at least "afficianado" items! Hey, who knew you could get Peeps other than around Easter?

Amazon.com publishes a series of gift guides, which change over time and may even disappear altogether. These snapshots are an excellent indication of what products are popular on any given day. While the content of the guide may vary, these Gourmet Foods should be around for a long time...

  1. Starbucks Assortment
  2. Thinking Of You
  3. Soup's On
  4. Grand Ghirardelli Chocolate Gift Basket
  5. Godiva Gold Ballotins on Amazon.com
  6. Godiva Signature Truffles on Amazon.com
  7. Haribo Gummi Candy Gold-Bears, 5-Pound Bag
  8. Ghirardelli Assortment
  9. Fireworks Popcorn & Seasoning Set
  10. Grand Edition Gourmet Food Gift Basket - Medium
  11. Holiday Sale - 2.2 Pounds of Chocolate Truffles - French Truffles - Holiday Chocolates - Christmas Candy
  12. 50's Decade Box Gift Basket - Classic 50's Candy
  13. Pick Of The Season Grand Gourmet Food Gift Basket with Smoked Salmon - Large
  14. The Connoisseur
  15. Nostalgic Candy Assortment Gift Box
  16. Godiva Seasonal Ballotins on Amazon.com
  17. Godiva Dark Chocolate on Amazon.com
  18. Leonidas Belgian Chocolates Dark Chocolates Assortment - Truffles, Pralinés, Fresh Butter Creams - Signature Ballotin
  19. Leonidas Belgian Chocolates General Assortment - Truffles, Pralinés, Fresh Butter Creams - Signature Ballotin
  20. Godiva Cocoa on Amazon.com
  21. 1940's Retro Candy Gift Box
  22. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Tower
  23. Sweet Success Gourmet Gift Tower - Gourmet Food Gift Basket
  24. Godiva Chocolate: 19-pc. Birthday Gold Ballotin Gift Box
  25. A Cut Above
  26. Omaha Steaks Cheesecake Sampler, (1) 10 Inch
  27. 1980's Retro Candy Gift Box
  28. Popcorn for a Movie Gift Box
  29. Old-Fashioned Holiday Cookies (1 lb) - Wisconsin Cheeseman
  30. -FREE STANDARD SHIPPING!- Alaska Smokehouse JUMBO Smoked Salmon 3 Pack!
  31. Godiva Biscuit Gifts on Amazon.com
  32. Taste of Italy
  33. Breakfast in Bed
  34. Geoff & Drew's Signature Chocolate Blue Box of 8 Fresh Baked Brownies
  35. Sweet Harvest Sampler
  36. Tidings of Joy Christmas Gift Basket ~ Holiday Medium of Small, Medium or Large
  37. 6 and 7 oz. Filet Mignon
  38. igourmet's Favorites - 8 Cheese Sampler (4 Pound) by igourmet.com
  39. Clearbrook Farms California Apricot Preserves
  40. Sweet Harvest Fruit & Nut Collection
  41. Fancy Nut Platter
  42. Aloha Island 100% Estate Kona Coffee
  43. Leonidas Belgian Chocolates: 1 lb Fall Ballotin
  44. "Nana's Cookie Sampler" filled with 2.25 Pounds of Nana's Gourmet Cookies
  45. Godiva Party Favors on Amazon.com
  46. Happy Birthday Cake Gift Tote - Gourmet Food Gift Basket
  47. Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares Holiday Gift Tin with Bow, 20 Chocolate Squares
  48. Ketchikan Gift Basket

Featured Brands & Vendors

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