Amazon Affiliates Anonymous
Posted December 15th, 2009 by Howard TaylerAs you probably already know, if you shop at Amazon via any link or banner here at Schlock Mercenary, we here at Chez Tayler get somewhere between 3% and 8% of the money you spend. This is money that comes out of Amazon’s marketing overhead. It’s a cost that has already been passed along to consumers.
What you may not know is that there are Amazon affiliates all over the web, and you may find some of them more worthy of your patronage than you find the Tayler clan. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make sure that any time you shop at Amazon, you head to their site by following a link from an affiliate you want to support. That way you know that a small portion of the money you were going to spend anyway goes not to faceless corporation but to the people you want to support.
Your secondary mission: post links to worthy affiliates in the comments below. Don’t post long Amazon links, please. I’ll delete those. No, just post links to safe-for-work websites that have Amazon banners on ‘em. And if you can find sites that contribute their Amazon affiliate receipts to charity, all the better.
Explore posts in the same categories: Advertisers, Blegging, Internet
December 15th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
first, the obligatory link:
http://www.kevincdavis.net/ib/index.html
The Interstellar Bookstore specializes in books about space and science fiction set in space.
Next: please clarify for me how the affiliate program credits you for the sale. If I don’t follow the link, find and save some items in my cart, restart my computer, then return to Amazon via the Schlock affiliate link and make the purchase, do you still get the credit?
December 15th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
@Zinho: IIRC, the affiliate program credits the link used at the beginning of the visit during which the item was carted, not the link used to start the visit during which you checked out. This makes sense, since different sites might recommend items for your cart, and Amazon wants to reward them each appropriately.
In short, you need to use an affiliate link while shopping for this to work.
December 16th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Sorry, but this will forever remain the most worthy affiliate I know of:
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/
I dare any of you to prove me wrong. :)
December 16th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Floresta, a Christian nonprofit organization, reverses deforestation and poverty in the world, by transforming the lives of the rural poor via Community Development, Innovative Agriculture and Forestry, and Credit programs. Started n the Dominican Republic, they are also now working in Haiti, Mexico, and Tanzania. Floresta recipients receive loans, training in sustainable agriculture and reforestation, assistance in community organizing, capacity building, and marketing assistance. Floresta has been pretty hard hit (as have numerous non-profits) by the economic downturn. From their bookstore page there is an Amazon link.
http://floresta.org/bookstore.htm
You can also plant trees in tribute to others if you’d rather do something more directly & want to give a neat Holiday gift. http://floresta.org/store/cards.htm
Thanks to anyone who chooses to help!
(In the interests of full disclosure; the director of Floresta is a relative.)
December 16th, 2009 at 12:55 am
@Froggy59 If I limited this link-fest to sites with which none of us have any personal connection it would be a fairly short list. You’re fine. :-)
December 16th, 2009 at 6:42 am
New York City Anime
http://nyc-anime.com/
Info on anime-related events, clubs, shops, and more in the NYC area.
A fan-run site now in its 12th year.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Sadly you are not affiliated to Amazon.uk so the link does not work for me.
December 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Clown Ministry:
http://www.clown-ministry.com/
Dedicated to the history and performance of clowning, with an emphasis on ministry via clowning.
December 16th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Hi, does the referral work also with foreign versions of amazon? Being in Germany, I usually buy at amazon.de, but I’d be happy to divert a few percents of something i ANYWAY pay to some worthy cause (Schlock is one…)
December 16th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Howard, thanks for the support! The fans of Brooke McEldowney have had the same “shop Amazon locally” sentiment voiced recently on GoComics’ comments pages for Pibgorn.
Amazon affiliate links are on my historical reference sites for 9 Chickweed Lane (http://image66amarillo.com/9cwl/) and Pibgorn (http://image66amarillo.com/pib/). My fellow Schlock/Pib aficionado Fairportfan also has an Amazon store link at http://electronictiger.net/.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
@rnada It does not work with non-US Amazon. I’ve thought about setting that up, but it’s a big pile of paperwork, the links get exponentially more difficult to manage, and the result is not enough additional revenue to justify the work.
December 16th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
I don’t see any Amazon banner on your page, Howard. I use Firefox on a MacIntosh. Is that why?
December 17th, 2009 at 12:20 am
It’s near the bottom on the right. You have to scroll a ways down.
Howard should do something about that. :)
December 17th, 2009 at 2:00 am
I always do my amazon purchases through GUD Magazine (self interest, there). But if anyone’s interested in helping out a small press with their spare change in this manner, that would be lovely. We’ve got one main link, but on each of our issues we also link via books that our contributors have published or been published in.
Just under the link to contributor bios here, for instance:
http://www.gudmagazine.com/vault/4
December 17th, 2009 at 4:09 am
The Classic Toons (http://www.theclassictoons.com/) is a completely mercenary set of transcriptions of Bugs Bunny etc comics.
Have you got the complete set of Bugs Bunny DVDs for your kids (from Amazon)?
;)
December 17th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Port Iris Magazine
http://www.portiris.com
A free online scifi/fantasy webzine and forum. The first issue will be out in March.
BTW, I found Project Wonderful through your site, and I liked the idea of it. However, they denied me an account until I can get more content up.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
http://www.colliesbestiary.com/
Collie writes on whatever strikes her fancy. Some tags from her site: FIRESTARTER, Anthropology, Religion, Techstuff, Ethics, Feminism, Minorities, Book review, Movie review, University papers, Environmentalism, Writing, Master’s program.
In my opinion, the best stuff is under the FIRESTARTER tag. For example, this is the latest:
“Material Girls in the Holidays, or Why Eartha Kitt is sexier than Madonna & Betty Boop combined! ;)”
I’d love to see her write more, and getting folks to comment would certainly encourage her, even (maybe especially) if they disagree.
She’s also sneaky enough to put her Amazon affiliate link right on the front page, where everyone can find it. :)
December 17th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
The Skeptic Society (http://www.skeptic.com/ ) For those of us who are a bit less religulious
December 17th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
This is a charity that makes sure sick kids aren’t bored to death when they are hospitalized. Games, toys, movies… that type of thing. Click on the map to bring up a hospital’s wish list on Amazon, but I don’t know if they get an affiliate cut of the proceeds (they should…).
December 17th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Hello. This is my first posting here but I had to plug someone who is quite worthy to be supported as an Amazon affiliate.
http://www.dancarlin.com/
He has 2 podcast shows that I have enjoyed. The best, IMHO, of the two is his Hardcore History podcasts. Covering such subjects such as the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, The Great Depression, or The Eastern Front in WW2.
He has a Political show as well. However, I have not really scratched the surface of those, to get a feel for him just yet.
December 17th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Bah, I just ordered textbooks on Amazon, right before I viewed your post. GRRRRR