Stores
I set this page up for my own convenience, but you're welcome to use it. The idea here is that whenever I make a purchase through a store that has an affiliates-type program, such as Amazon.com or Booksense.com, I may as well try to have a percentage of that sale given to a person or organization that wants it. So here are a couple of links, each of which garners a couple of pennies for an affiliate when you make a purchase.
Why don't I ask people to rack up bounties for my own affiliate account? Because (a) like I said, I set this page up for my own use, and Amazon.com doesn't give you bounties for your own purchases, and (b) I'd rather your purchases support these sites than my yarn fund.
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Booksense.com
Doesn't offer Amazon.com's discounts, but each purchase supports not just the affiliate--both of which here are nonprofit organizations--but also an independent bookstore of your choice. -
Amazon.com
Please see notes below on working the Amazon system.-
Knitter's Review
(knittersreview)- Bookstore (direct product links; 15% referral bounty)
- Amazon.com home (~5% bounty)
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Dervala.net
(dervalanet-20)- Reading (direct product links; 15% referral bounty)
- Amazon.com home (~5% bounty)
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Todd Dominey's What Do I Know
(whatdoiknow06-20)- Library (direct product links; 15% referral bounty)
- Amazon.com home (~5% bounty)
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Jeffrey Zeldman
(jeffreyzeldmanprA)- Publications (direct product links; 15% referral bounty)
- Amazon.com home (~5% bounty)
- More assorted referral codes:
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Knitter's Review
Working the Amazon.com Referral System
Amazon.com offers not one but two complex schedules of referral bounties, and while I'm sure the above affiliates will be happy to get any bounty at all for your purchases, you may as well understand how to maximize the gift. Here's what to keep in mind when you play this game (paraphrased from the FAQ):
- 24-hour window: Once you click an affiliated link to get to Amazon.com, anything you place in your cart will be credited to that affiliate during the next 24 hours or until you go click someone else's affiliate link.
- Affiliation sticks to products: When you click a link through Affiliate A and place an item in your cart, that credit sticks to the item permanently (not just for 24 hours). If you later click through Affiliate B's link and add an item to your cart, the bounty for the second product will be credited to Affiliate B. So by filling your cart carefully, you can help multiple friends and qualify for Super Saver shipping.
- Referral bounty depends on when you click "buy": Unless an affiliate generates a lot of referrals to Amazon.com per month, they'll probably get about a 5% bounty on referrals. They get a whopping 15%, however, if you click a link from their site directly to a specific item and click "buy" on the very first product page you're shown at Amazon.com. If you follow a direct link, click around Amazon.com, and then go back to place the item in your cart, the affiliate only gets 5%. So to maximize an affiliate's bounty, (1) use specific product links from the affiliate's site whenever possible, and (2) add the product to your cart when you're first shown it at Amazon.com. You can always do comparison shopping later and remove the item if you change your mind. I typically leave stuff in my cart for weeks before buying it.
So that said, if you want to give someone the maximum bounty on your purchase, the thing to do is type the direct URL into your browser, then click "buy" on the first page. A typical direct URL would be:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/variablex/variabley
where variablex = the ISBN or ASIN of the product you want (e.g., 0141439513) and variabley = the affiliate code of the site you want to give the bounty to (e.g., dervalanet-20). If I had a real web host that allowed me to use PHP or something, I'd write a form to roll these URLs for you. But I don't. Maybe someone less ghetto would care to offer this service? Now go shop!
Last updated 12.16.2006
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