Monday, September 17, 2007

My Top-Level aStores

Google has frequently stated that there is no "sandbox" for new websites, but Google Engineer and frequent source of Google SEO information Matt Cutts reveals that there are anti-spam measures that would seem like a sandbox for some pages.

Whether you consider that to be splitting hairs or not, it seems clear that a width-first deployment of my new aStores will be better received by Googlebot than a depth-first approach. (Probably not in time for Christmas, though.)

In any case, here are my current "top-level" aStores. Many are just stubs -- one top-level category only -- as I post this, although I am immediately beginning to add second-level categories, so you may find considerably more depth reading this now.

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Mysteries & Thrillers (All Authors)

While the Mystery and Thriller genres have always been popular favorites, critical acclaim has, with a few notable exceptions largely eluded these authors. Mickey Spillane, author of the Mike Hammer Series, summarized the situation pretty well when he said, "I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends."

This is a large category, and I may try to divide it into separate "Mystery" and "Thriller" categories in the future, but since most mysteries are thrilling, and many thrillers are mysterious such a split would necessarily be somewhat arbitrary, and for now, at least they remain lumped together as Amazon has them.

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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Classic Literature & Fiction By Author

Here are some recent additions to my new "Author Mania" aStore (in association with Amazon.com.) Amazon features browsable categories for some authors, which is probably a remnant of earlier versions of the Amazon site. "Other" authors are located only through keyword searching, which more gives less relevant, even humorous results.

American Literature Classics (All Authors)

How does Amazon decide who is an "American Classic" author? It's just an educated guess, but the list seems to be a close copy of the CLEP American Literature list.

British Literature Classics (All Authors)

How does Amazon decide who is an "British Classic" author? It's just an educated guess, but the list seems to be a close copy of the CLEP English Literature list.

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Friday, September 07, 2007

Action Figures and Toy Figure Playsets

I confess that I am a pre-G.I. Joe relic, and I had no idea that action figures had become such a big part of the toy scene. Anyway, here are some of the categories that Amazon.com has buried within their pages:

Action Figures
  • Action Figures: Statues, Maquettes, & Busts

      • So what's the difference between "Action Figures" and "Toy Figures?" It's not entirely clear. Amazon frequently creates categories that overlap. Whether it is a matter of emphasizing certain products by giving them more virtual "shelf space," or that they intend to differentiate the categories later is anybody's guess. In any case, we're featuring both of these categories as a matter of completeness.

      Toy Figures & Playsets
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