Alas, last week’s Amazonism bleg was pretty much a bust.
Only three people signed up for a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. Regular sales got a brief boost, but have again dropped to below-normal level.
Since you guys have always jumped in when a boost was needed, I have to assume a lot of readers are just too poor or too nervous about the future right now to be buying stuff. Or maybe people are backing off e-commerce because of the NSA/Snowden revelations. (Several commenters who sell on eBay or Amazon mentioned that their sales had plunged, too.) Whatever. That’s the reality.
Several people kindly offered to send $$ contributions, but I turned them down and will shortly explain why.
So I’m just going to say a small handful of things.
1. For the rest of October only …
… if you use this special link (and only that link) and sign up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, you’ll earn me $6. Yes, I’ll get $6 for your free trial, even if you later cancel.
Prime’s a great service. Free, fast shipping, free streaming videos. You’ll like it. If you don’t, cancel.
2. If you use Amazon regularly …
… or even irregularly, please bookmark and always enter the Amazon site via this link. Or any other product link. (But use the other link to sign up for Prime.)
3. I’m not going to do a fundraiser or a personal Christmas bleg this year …
I’ve been intending to do a blog fundraiser since mid-summer. But every time I get ready, somebody else has a greater need. Joel’s eyeballs. Squeaky Wheel’s “spay” operation. Something.
I’ve finally just conceded. Instead of having a year-end fundraiser or a Christmas-giftfest from my Amazon Wish List (which was wonderful fun (you guys were amazing), but which Amazon frowns on), in November I’ll be posting about a couple of other people’s fundraisers and hoping you’ll give to them.
I’m asking for nothing from anybody this Christmas. Others have greater needs.*
But in November I’ll also be posting frequent lists of Amazon items you might be inspired to purchase for the non-me people on your Santa list. 🙂
I’d much rather boost Amazon sales (both at the holidays and everyday) than do blegs. Because that’s a win-win. I get regular extra support for the blog, while you pay nothing extra for your purchases.
—–
* I know you guys. Some of you are going to send me Christmas gifts or contributions, regardless. In that case, a heads-up: I changed my snailing address this year.
What do you receive, Claire, if I order books from Amazon on your link?
I would love to help, but I have no use for Netflix as I am a reader, not a watcher.
My dog and I just took a walkabout on our property and enjoyed our cool autumn day. I hope your day is just as pretty and your dogs enjoy a good run like mine.
I’m sorry, I really am doing a lot of biz with Amazon through your link, so if it’s not showing up let me know???
Thanks, EN and Betsey. I really appreciate it.
EN — I see items, prices, and commissions. I never learn who’s buying what unless somebody tells me what they’ve bought, so I wouldn’t know if something isn’t showing up.
Betsey — The commission I get from Amazon varies both with the price of the individual item and the total number of items ordered through my links during any given month (that’s the total ordered by everybody; not the total ordered by any one person). It may be as little as 4%, but it usually turns out to be about 7%. Some items (like computers and electronics) have a low, fixed commission. But in general 7% is the ballpark figure.
I’m in the UK so buy from amazon.co.uk, is there another way international readers can help you out?
half_pint — Thank you. Glad to have another reader in the UK. Roger, who comments here pretty regularly, is from Wales. It’s probably possible for me to set up a UK Amazon account; I already have a Canadian one. But unless there are a lot of you readers hiding over there, I’m not sure it would bring in enough to meet the minimum threshold for paying commissions.
I’ll look into that. In the meantime you can consider that you’ve helped just by bringing me some good cheer. 🙂
My problem with buying anything for myself is that I don’t have an address to send to, at the moment. I was kinda hoping you’d put your wish list up again this year so maybe I can make up for it that way. This whole year has been a huge transitioning time for me (worse than usual, LOL).
Aw, Claire, that’s pretty unfair. You’ve got my addy, how come I don’t get yours, huh, huh, huh?
naturegirl — Damn, I’m sorry you’re having even a rougher year. I know you’ve had some bad ones already. Unfortunately, I can’t do the Amazon Wish List thing again because Amazon then thinks anybody who bought me something is a “friend or family.” The penalties for that get … interesting.
Terry — Sigh … I WILL privately give my new address to “friends and family.” Soon as I get my act together. And “friends and family” won’t be a narrow category. But I’m not seeking anything from anybody, though I thank you.
Lousy timing. I’ve just spent a bunch and am committed to more for the next several months as I’m getting involved with something, something important, so I’ll be absolutely “flat” for a while.
Bummer.
Funny you should mention it, I actually just made about a $200 order through there (thankfully amazon is pretty discrete)… let me know if it goes through…email me if it doesn’t or you’re not sure what’s mine.
(My buddy’s wife is probably going to start getting pissed, I had no idea that they were going to ship it all in like 7 different packages!)
Jim B. — No problem. I hope your “something” turns out to be fantastic. As for me and those Amazon links, I’m really hoping more for long-term repeated use than insta-results. (That sales are down this month won’t really hurt that much.)
winston — 🙂 Thank you. I’m not sure what you ordered, but I did see several items that struck me as “young guy” stuff.
Amazon earnings were about normal yesterday, with one more person signing up for Prime. Amazon orders were a bit above normal, so thank you all for that. (And to clarify, I get an orders report on all purchased items; that’s followed by an earnings report when items are actually shipped.)
[But in November I’ll also be posting frequent lists of Amazon items you might be inspired to purchase for the non-me people on your Santa list.]
Or for myself. 🙂
Now THAT is something I can use. I don’t use stuff like Amazon Prime because I am trying to simplify my life. I don’t like promotions and coupons and extended warranties and all that other crap. It just gets in the way of what I am trying to do. My brain doesn’t have a lot of spare horsepower to be burning on frills.
However, a suggestion. If you want us to go to amazon through your blog, how about a good obvious link at the top of the page? I did manage to find a tiny text link under “Books, etc.” but it took some searching…
Paul — There IS an Amazon link in a permanently stickied post at the top of the blog. If you only enter the blog through the individual posts (RSS feed or whatever), you wouldn’t see it. But if you enter through the main URL … there it is.
Good point, though. I guess I could add it as a footer to every post. But yikes, that seems so embarrassingly promotional!
Definitely understand what you mean about keeping life — and the brain — uncluttered.
Thanks, Claire. It’s beyond ridiculous at this point. – bright side is if it ever stabilizes I’ll have to buy a lot of new stuff from Amazon (using your link, of course). LOL.
The necessity of your privacy also makes it hard for us “general public” to send you stuff, which I totally understand. At the moment I don’t have vast quantities of “share-ablility” but when I do – I prefer it goes to people I know (or sorta know) more than the complete stranger types. You need some kind of annony (on both ends) tip jar set up, hehe.
Ah, I see it. Well, there are a lot of links on the Backwoods Home blog page, it’s so busy I missed it. Maybe you can use HTML in that stickied post to bold the text or something? Or put a image in it? I agree doing it in every blog post would be kinda crass… 🙂
I’d think about removing the “Musings…” line and the “Want to Comment…” line, as generally extraneous, again just to emphasize the Amazon link. Any way to make the page less busy would be good, but I guess a lot of it is in Dave Duffy’s hand, not yours.
Just signed up. Hope it helps!
Thank you, Bill. You bet it helps!
Signed up, but will probably have to hold off on the big planned order until one or two major accounts pay up. Regardless, support will come soonish.
A.G. — Believe me, I know how that goes, waiting for payments. Sigh.
And no worries. As of yesterday, seven people have signed up for free Amazon Prime trials. Between that and an uptick in regular sales, it’s going to turn out to be a “normal” month.
I’ll need November and early December (the big online shopping times, of course) to be ABnormal — in a good way. But you guys have already rescued October from the pits.
“I have to assume a lot of readers are just too poor or too nervous about the future right now to be buying stuff.”
Or already _have_ Amazon prime.
lelnet — It wasn’t just the Prime signups. It was regular Amazon buying that fell off a cliff. Beginning of October — boom. Weird.
You guys made a nice recovery, though. 🙂 As of yesterday, 10 had signed on for Prime and regular sales were near normal, so between the two the month turned out okay.
Darn, late to the party as usual.
Claire, do you still get a commission if I add something to my Wish List on amazon via an email from amazon that I receive via my regular email; and then purchase later via your link?
Just wondering as that is how a lot of my book/DVD purchases come about.
lwoots — How the wish list relates to Associates links is a bit of a mystery. But if you put something on your wish list using some other link than mine, that purchase will always be credited to the original link that you used.
If you used my link to put the item on the wish list, it might get credited to me, but I’m not sure, as Amazon policies about that have changed over time.
If you’ve already put something on your wish list using some other link, the only way I think you can get the purchase credited to me is to enter Amazon using one of my links, delete whatever item you want from your wish list, then buy the same item.
But this may just be too much hassle and could possibly set off alarms with Amazon (who is unfortunately quick to suspect Associates of dirty dealings and makes unilateral judgments with no chance of appeal).
The wish list is a great feature. I love it. It’s just not known for working well with Associate links.
Thanks for asking, though!