Well, That's Interesting: Google's Blogger Teams With Amazon

"Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates"
Blogger Buzz (December 16, 2009)

"Earlier this year we simplified the process for monetizing your blog by adding a 'Monetize' tab in the Blogger app. We started with AdSense, which allows you to add contextual advertising to your pages; more recently we added AdSense for Feeds to help you generate revenue from the distribution of your blog via RSS and Atom. Today we launched a third option: direct integration with Amazon Associates to search Amazon's product catalog and add links to products that earn you commissions when your readers buy products you recommend.

"With this feature, you can search Amazon directly from the Blogger editor and add pictures and links to Amazon products right into your posts. Your readers will earn you commissions whenever they buy the products you recommend, and if you don't already have an Amazon Associates account, you can sign up for one for free without leaving Blogger.

If you've ever written a blog post about a book, recommended a gadget, or reviewed a toy..."

And so on. It's clearly a promotional announcement: but I'm thinking seriously about using this feature. (And the Blogger-Amazon connection is nothing new: check the date below the release's title.)

I've been signed up with the Amazon affiliate program for some time, but haven't used it very much. First, I don't review - or discuss - all that much that Amazon carries. Nobody's giving me free samples, and I don't have the budget for a lot of unnecessary products. I know: I could order something, look at it, and return the thing for my money back. But I don't operate that way. Besides, even if my ethics would stretch over that sort of cleverness: Sooner or later I'd be caught. I don't know that misusing a guarantee like that is illegal, but I've had a policy of dealing fairly with vendors for decades: and don't intend to change that now.

If this new Blogger service is easy enough to use; and takes maybe three or four minutes, tops, for each review/link: it may be worth the trouble.