Amazon.com confirms its dipping its toes into online advertising. The retail giant is testing a program to distribute third-party contextual ad links to its network of affiliates.

Though Amazon wont say who is providing the ads, a spokesperson says the retailer and the affiliate will each receive a cut whenever someone clicks through. Similarly to Google AdSense or Yahoo! Publisher Network, the ads are targeted based on the content on the page. The links will appear on the same pages as affiliates links to products on Amazon.

We believe that by working with a third-party to provide Associates with links to relevant Web sites, in addition to products on Amazon, that we can help them make more money from their sites, Andrew Herdener, an Amazon spokesperson, told ClickZ in an e-mail exchange. This will help us maintain long-term relationships with our Associates community that provides an important source of traffic to Amazon sites.

So it appears we may soon have another choice available to pick up a little extra revenue from our websites and blogs, time will tell how profitable it may be.