So why am I advertising for Amazon.com?

A feature of my reading list (and other pages where book titles appear) is hyperlinks to Amazon.com, where you can see reviews, read comments from other "regular" people, and buy books online if you want to.

Is this advertising? Yes.

Have I sold out? I don't think so, really.

While I like their services, and I'm happy to shop there on occasion, I have no financial interest in Amazon. If you follow a link, and buy the book from Amazon during that visit, I'll get a small referral fee. If you buy it on a later visit, or if you don't buy it, I won't get anything.

Lately, I've been all set to buy a book after reading a positive review, and have visited Amazon to see what "real" readers have to say. There's almost always one or two negative ones, and it can make me reconsider, and go find (or do) something else. I think that's a tremendously useful service.

They might also help you track down an out-of-print book (as some of my recommendations are). (So might the library!)

I got the idea to do this from a Jakob Nielsen Usability "AlertBox" sidebar on "Affiliates Programs", which he claims are "the most effective Web marketing method." I liked the idea because it's "value-added advertising," not just an annoyance. Something to think about. And hey, it's not like I'm going to get rich off this. I'll be lucky if I ever make the $100 minimum for them to send me a check.

You can go off and search Amazon.com from here if you like:

Search: Enter keywords...
Amazon.com logo

(And I fulfill my obligation to post their logo somewhere on my site.)

Or, you can return to my reading list.

Tom von Alten      tva_∂t_fortboise_⋅_org

http://www.anybrowser.org/

Saturday, 22-Jan-2000 13:39:00 MST
http://fortboise.org/why-amazon.html