Decisions, decisions
I’ve been an Amazon Associate for many years, which means I’ve gotten a small commission on every Amazon order that comes through a link on this blog.
Years ago I used to make around $6K a year from those links, which is hardly insignificant. But over the years, as people have gotten angrier at various things Amazon has done, that amount has decreased till it now totals about $1K a year. I’ve recently considered quitting the associate program.
But I wonder if it’s really a good idea. A lot of us – and this includes me – use Amazon now and then for convenience. Sometimes, for example, it’s really hard to find a certain product anywhere else. Sometimes there’s time pressure, and Amazon is very efficient that way. And so I figure that, if some of my readers are going to use Amazon anyway for these benefits, why shouldn’t they use this blog to do it and why shouldn’t I earn some money from that process?
So I’m putting up this post to ask your opinion on the matter. I do also get money through contributions, but I’m always dragging my feet on passing the hat, and the Amazon Associate program has long been a nice adjunct.
If it pays for your web hosting cost and site maintenance keep it.
I would keep it if I were you. I have dramatically scaled back my use of Amazon the last three months because of their reprehensible conduct but I still use it for a few items and I have invested too much into Amazon Music just to throw it all away. If you get income from it with little maintenance on your part then keep it.
I’m a bit torn, myself – I wrote enough book and movie reviews early on that I got selected to be an Amazon Vine reviewer; basically, the occasional and sometimes pricy goodie for the price of writing a review about it. An amazing number of things like light and faucet fixtures, kitchen appliances and tools have come our way, items that helped in doing home renovations.
And most of my book sales are through Amazon and the Kindle eBook program, so I’d hate to cut income stream off. (Barnes and Noble is barely viable, and what with the covidiocy last year, in-person events barely happened.)
I’d say that as long as your making something from it — and until something better comes along — stick with it.
Yeah, keep using it.
Stick with it for now. I didn’t know you benefited so I will keep that in mind for now, I want to help, to keep you going with your very helpful contribution to my thinking about things.
Neo;
Sorry for this totally off-topic / not germane post but you REALLY need to look at this;
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2017/march/trump-clinton-debates-gender-reversal.html
Your comments will be most welcome.
I’d say keep it. We buy a lot from Amazon, especially the last year, but I keep forgetting to purchase through your button. I am sorry for that and will come up with a bookmark that leads to your entry point to Amazon. That should make you another $1.50 or so. Ha.
Just a note I saw on Facebook by Gena Vasquez, a film producer I don’t really know. But we shared a good friend who recently died (of Covid, at age 36). In any case, here’s someone else who has an interest in the Gibbs. I’m leaving out a picture of Andy Gibb she posted, etc. Ahe might be interested in what you’ve posted about the music. (Her politics, I believe, are quite different.)
Musical One
13h ·
#MusicHistory #OnThisDay
March 10, 1988 –
Andy Gibb, whose three older brothers are the Bee Gees, dies of heart failure at age 30. Gibb had three #1 hits in the late ’70s, including “I Just Want To Be Your Everything.”
I am happy to hear you are making even that amount. Keep it.
I have to admit I have never ordered through your site, although quite often I link to you for an email newsletter and blog,
I have never purchased through a blog link and I order very often because I am elderly and shopping is not easy for me. I give to a literacy group through Amazon Smile and have been doing so for many years. That is one reason I am shocked to see how much you really make through your link, the donation through the years from Amazon smile to my literacy group is a very small amount considering I order so much through Amazon.
So, I say keep it. And more power to you!
Well, every dime you get paid from the Associate program comes straight out of Amazon revenues and AMZN”s bottom line, so…it is less-beneficial to Amazon for someone to buy via you and the Associate program than it would be for them to buy the same thing from Amazon directly.
Does Barnes & Noble have an Associate program?…if so, they don’t make it obvious on their website. Also, they don’t appear to have a free download of samples. Not impressed with B&N’s marketing.
one thing though … you have to promise to give Bezos a good occasional beat down when applicable.
I’m sure you would anyway.
Neo, I would suggest you keep the Amazon thingy, I don’t order very much but when I do I use your portal, always. My wife gets on to me for using Amazon but we live in a smaller town out of San Antonio and I don’t like driving I-10 into the city. With Amazon I click a few times and wait a day or two and it gets dumped on my front porch which I works for me. I am building out a little Jon Boat to use instead of my 17 ft canoe for fishing and I have been getting bits and pieces through you portal the past few weeks, with free shipping it beats driving 45 minutes and finding out the item I needed is out of stock.
I wish there was something better than Amazon but I keep on using it because it works. That’s my two cents worth.
Your minimal interface with Amazon is not yet a critical moral issue. Though all of us should try to systematically limit the damage Amazon can do.
It is only relatively recently, in terms of years, that the sociopolitical implications, as distinct from the economic implications, or Bezos’ functional monopoly has become clear.
All of these companies are now throwing their weight around, and seemingly intent on fulfilling Marx’s prediction of the eventual immiseration of the working class, and the destruction of personal independency (as Hayek termed it) as part of a deliberate ideological aim, rather than the side effect of commodity capitalism.
It is remarkable how little play Amazon’s theft of worker tips got in the media. Progressives only care about exploited workers when it suits their aims.
I’m with the “keep it” group. As you wrote, there are times I can only find what I need on their site. Going forward I will try to remember to always use your link on those occasions.
This is something I don’t understand: would you be getting a greater financial contribution from my purchases then the charity that I name through the Amazon Smile program? Amazon Smile donates .5% of the purchase, excluding rebates, shipping, etc. If you get more than that then I will buy through your blog and make a cash contribution to my Smile charity (wild bird rehabber) Otherwise I will send you the cash contribution.
Either way, my recommendation is to keep the affiliate program.
During the last five years or so, I’ve rarely used Amazon. When the pandemic struck, my usage spiked a little, but then quickly went back down. After what happened with Parler, I wouldn’t use Amazon again, except in an emergency.
Since I don’t use Amazon, I don’t contribute to your income from Amazon. Neither do I understand how the Associates Program benefits Amazon. It’s clear how the program benefits you, but how does it benefit them? If it benefits Amazon, even slightly, I’d withdraw from the program.
Amazon is such a heavyweight because of their cloud services. They would need millions of neoneos to notice, and even then they would not care. I enjoy buying the occasional thing through your site.
Cornflour:
The only way it might benefit Amazon is if people here, in order to benefit me, use it more than they otherwise would.
Eva Marie:
It varies a bit, but it’s usually 4%.
Thanks. I will act accordingly. BTW, today I received a rhinestone heart necklace with my initial inside (ok that was kind of creepy) and some metal snaps. Both were not ordered, not charged to me, from China and with no order copy inside the packaging.
Since it is confession time, I bought 3 large canisters of UTZ potato sticks @ 3.98 ea, and a nutcracker set, through Amazon this year around Christmas.
I never did buy the wood planer through them.
If you are buying books, shop around first. I was able to get Michael Davies Liturgical Revolution trilogy on the history of the decomposition of the RC liturgy for 69 bucks in a set of 3, new, hard cover reprints, from some traditionalist type publishing house, when the same single titles were being peddled for 50 ea for 2 of, and 30 for another, on Amazon.
Don’t be alarmed. It contains nothing but a harmless virus, tracking, camera, and brain wave activating device.
I’d like to buy more through you. But Amazon doesn’t sell liquor, guns, or really, really high powered lasers.
I’ll try to think of something else we need.
Quit, for Heaven’s sake.
Just do the right thing.
No reason you cannot Pass The Hat more often. $1000 is peanuts!
DNW, that’s why I spray them with hand sanitizer, put them in a lead box immediately and give them away as soon as I can. Mama didn’t raise no fool.
We have tried to use Amazon less and have succeeded to some extent — but we live in the middle of nowhere, with noplace local to shop, and can’t always avoid it. Plus, I am unfortunately addicted to my Kindle. So, I’m glad for the reminder to use your button more often (which I do have bookmarked) and I say keep it, at least for now.
Yes, the Kindle is unmatched. I bought a Nook a year ago (although Barnes and Noble is just as woke as Amazon – only smaller) to give Amazon some competition. But it’s more difficult to use. Plus I usually buy the Audible version as well. That’s not going to change for me. Why shouldn’t this blog get a percentage of those purchases?
Keep it. Obviously I detest our woke techno oligarchs as much as the next person.
There are aspects of the modern world which are kind of magic in a cargo cult kind of way. I get free shipping on orders over $50 *to Hong Kong*. I’ve done the comparisons and still usually works out cheaper than buying locally so the invisible per item markups and exchange rate chicanery making shipping ‘free’ aren’t all that much.
I’ve cut back on my Amazon purchases and try to buy online locally as much as I can. But when there’s time pressure or Amazon has stock and others don’t, it’s a no-brainer.
I sometimes buy from two famous duopolistic photography retailers in NYC who when you really drill down both consider me to be ‘Cattle’ (to be fair, there I am paying Retail! ;P) and not a fully paid up human being. So what? They’re scrupulously honest and prompt to deal with. Same goes for the guys who sell kebabs locally.. Theoretically they should be cutting my throat, but not just yet… and tastes delicious, so take my money!
Bezos sees us as less than bugs. His woke employees want us dead. Most of his woke employees wouldn’t survive the real world meatspace kickoff by 48 hours. Let them sell us the rope if we can’t buy rope elsewhere at a good price.
In other words, Amazon is a Tool (So is Bezos, but that’s another story). Use it wisely to buy the needful things to survive and thrive in the coming winter. But diversify. Diversity is Our Strength. 😛
I forget to use Neo’s button often, although I shop a lot at Amazon. I shipped a few Christmas things to the US from here, and it took months for them to arrive. Amazon is much faster. Also I can’t get many English books here. It is so much better to be able to get anything from Amazon. I’ll try to be better a using your link, Neo.
Keep it. And, I’m with Eva Marie now that I know you will get more than my charity would get through the “smile” program.
While I am shopping at Amazon less, choosing to use local retailers, I do like the Prime Video as we use rabbit ears and I’m able to subscribe to the British channels I like and with Chromecast it is quite convenient. So while I am not on social media (Twitter/Facebook), I am connected to the Leftist bunch via Amazon/Google for sure. I think it is worthwhile for you, especially since many of us are now reminded to go to Neo’s portal.
Off topic–I’m avoiding Amazon as much as possible due to them taking down Parler, and their ownership of WaPo and so on.
But has anyone seen stories on whether Amazon (and/or others like it) are inevitable?
What is the efficiency of Amazon taking orders, bundling items and doing deliveries as compared to many individuals driving around on their own to buy things?
I love small Mom-and-Pop shops but maybe we are just moving past that Age into another Age of large firms. Such that whether it’s Amazon … or Amazon and Walmart … or some other set of firms, the old style independent brick-and-mortar just can’t survive in this day and age.
JimNorCal:
Well this is where the Atlas Shrugged Crowd come face to face with Base Reality, isn’t it?
Then up pop the autistics with ‘True Capitalism has never been tried yet’ arguments :D.
Yep… we’re in a new place we’re all trying to figure out still, and it sure isn’t Small Town Main Street Kansas.
Excluding a full on civil war or societal collapse, I don’t see any way to stop this progress — so the issue becomes how to make Amazon behave like a benevolent government for reasons in its own self-interest rather than how to regulate Amazon — you can’t regulate or tie down a behemoth who can buy all your politicians, judges, and their spear carriers.
Which brings us back to Culture. In a sane culture, oligarchs would cultivate the peasantry (that’s us) so that we were happy little consumers. Said oligarchs would also want a stable currency and stable society so that they could hang on to their however-gotten gains.
Lots of rabbit holes here.. and there would still need to be a good deal of killing to get from A to B, so no panacea.
But genies don’t go back in bottles easily. Not unless all the bottles are smashed and we’re reduced to drinking from puddles.
I think I would recommend keeping it if there is no outlay associated with it. If that’s the case, then it costs no revenue and can only provide a positive commission stream supporting your excellent efforts.
This is aside from the data privacy issues, which as I’m sure everyone here knows, are the real item of interest for Amazon. If it’s free, you are the product. That should be the identifying slogan of the first part of this century.
I use Amazon from time to time. I live on Cape Cod and not near a lot of shopping. Instead of driving 90 minutes round trip I order from Amazon. I never noticed the Amazon link here. I’ll make it a point to use it in the future.
It’s the remembering to use the link that is the problem. Perhaps we all need to go back to our Skinner Boxes for some neural re-wiring.
Keep it. Stand for principle when it can change the outcome, ala Martin Luther, Rosa Parks, etc. Don’t bite your nose, to spite your face.
Zaphod,
Re:”In a sane culture, oligarchs would cultivate the peasantry (that’s us) so that we were happy little consumers. Said oligarchs would also want a stable currency and stable society so that they could hang on to their however-gotten gains.”
That is exactly the desire of the GOPe. Yes, they collaborate with the Left but do so to preserve their gravy train. Not because they desire America’s fundamental transformation. They long ago decided that actually fighting the Left was counter-productive. In that, by the time that a slow march to societal collapse eventuated, they’d likely be long gone. Make no mistake, absent armed rebellion, the democrats will drive America into societal collapse.
Mass. Senator Daniel Webster understood the GOPe leadership well; “There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
They share the rationalization of Mexican bandit Calvera: “If God didn’t want them sheared, He would not have made them sheep.”
I have an Amazon associate license. It sat there unused while the worm turned, and I wouldn’t start using it now. My blog doesn’t generate enough traffic to much matter, anyway. If I had been using it, and it paid me $1k, I’d probably leave it and promote Indy books to support those authors I read on Kindle. Sarah Hoyt has spoken to this aspect of Amazon commerce.
Your continued affiliation would cause me no qualms. I would still visit daily.
Personally, I am dropping Amazon Prime as self-encouragement not to buy from Amazon, I’ll think twice when shipping isn’t “free.” And dropping Kindle Unlimited will, I think, pay the Indy authors more.
I object more to blogspot, which I used until it would actually wake me up at night that I contributed any content to Google. Moving 2,000 posts to WordPress wasn’t trivial, but I sleep better. That’s the real question.
Sure, if you can make money from the association, and it is not too painful, then stay with it.
I reported that I sold my Amazon stock in a fit of snit some time ago. Probably not smart as it was going up. But, then what if Bezo sold some of his, and profited by the fact that I had ‘invested’ in his company? I have not looked to see what it has done recently.
I also gave up Prime. I have used Amazon a few times as the avenue of last resort for something I needed, or wanted.
Amazon was one of the first; but, I have learned that nearly every national company is now virtue signaling for all they are worth. It has reached the stage that it is impossible to cut the ties to all of the Creeps. So, I do business locally to the extent that I can; and grit my teeth when I have to interact with the others.
I used to order a ton of stuff from Amazon because it was so convenient, but no more. I cancelled my Amazon Prime because of their role in getting Parler canceled and I’ve found that ordering from Walmart is almost as good.
What I suggest for those who value Neo’s blog is not to wait for the yearly “Pass the Hat” post, but just set up a monthly contribution for a few bucks. If enough of us did that she wouldn’t need Amazon.
I commented on this under a different topic and stand by that. I would only add it does create a bit of a Hobson’s choice (if I’m using that term correctly).
In that, if one believes that Amazon is engaging in an undesirable practice by banning certain books; the choice is between how much do I value the monetary gain I receive versus the effect on my conscience of possibly sending more business their way.
I say keep it. I live in a rural area. The largest employer in the county is the health care system. The largest private employer is the Kraft paper mill in Port Townsend (the one where Debra Winger worked in ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’). There is not that much local business. For example, there is no place in the county to buy bed sheets. A lot of cannabis places though. And our very own homeless encampment. We sometimes get huge bags of dog food through Amazon, delivered to our post office box.
DNW, Amazon does sell gunsights though, from high end EOTech and Leupold to cheap no-name Chinesium.
Some people use Patreon, or similar, to good end, to make some extra money for their writing habit.
You might consider that, Neo.
It’s a more direct asking, but it’s not a bad way to pick up some extra bucks without having Amazon eat any of it.
I agree… keep it.
But do place a reminder in your calendar to “pass the hat around” occasionally. 🙂
Better the money goes as a commission to you than all of it to them…they’re paying you for the advertising…so keep it…Pecunia non olet.
And most of my book sales are through Amazon and the Kindle eBook program, so I’d hate to cut income stream off.
When I wrote my medical history book nearly 20 years ago, I spent a lot of effort doing my own fulfillment and shipping. I finally turned it over to Amazon’s POD program and I get maybe $40 a month. I also did a Kindle version memoir. Those generate a pittance but people still buy them so it seems worth it to me. I did quit Amazon Prime after the Parler affair. I was one of their oldest customers. It is just too bad to see the megalomania now.
I have found numerous other sources that offer free shipping, some with a minimal order. Get out your spreadsheet and do cost comparisons; you will rarely pay more than 5% more if you shop around. Then make your book marks, so that It is easy to return. Amazon banks on the ease of purchasing and their excellent search function. Clothing is a problem, but since I am retired, I have a whole casual business attire wardrobe that I am wearing out. And I shop Costco and Walmart, being fully aware of the Chinese sourcing. But at least they do not bombard me with missives on structural racism and the like. We changed our bank for the same reason. Basically, if the company commercial website offers me any political or moral statements, I try my best to avoid shopping with them.
Keep it. Amazon is paying you, not the customer who links from your site (well, at least not directly). I still use them but now more actively seek other outlets for my purchases.
I vote to keep it. I, too, order from Amazon as little as possible, but still use it some. Your link lets people support you at no monetary cost to themselves.
Eva Marie and Ira– I contacted Amazon who assured me that we can use Neo’s link *and* Amazon Smile without cutting their contribution to either. Just click Neo’s link first and then go to smile.amazon.com after that.
It’s also nice to make Amazon support causes they don’t agree with, like the Second Amendment Foundation.
Keep it and perhaps add a tip jar using paypal.me? I’d probably end up giving you more on a monthly or quarterly basis than just the one or two times a year you pass the hat.