Guys, I don't know how to bring this up, but it's been on my mind for awhile and now that the Book Depository was mentioned here, I think it might be time to just get it out of my system.
Some of you might know that I'm participating in the Amazon affiliate program, and that if you purchase books through the links I post in the news/main page or the store, a tiny bit of that revenue goes towards gift certificates -> I get a free book now and then from Amazon. Sometimes people ask how they can help with this site, and I always say that participation (here in the forum, writing in the wiki, letting me know about newsworthy Hobb stuff etc) is the best way to help - and then there's those affiliate links, which have sort of worked as a collective "thank you" in my opinion - besides, for the handful of books I've received, I've tried to choose as many related books as possible, so that I've been able to use them to fill in more details to the wiki etc. So it has been a gift that pays back to those who gave it.
Anyway, with a lot of people boycotting Amazon for various reasons (and understandably so), I've been thinking about switching over to/adding the Book Depository affiliate program. They don't give out gift certificates (at least not at this point), instead they pay you a certain percentage of the price of the books bought through your links. I hate to say it, but at this point (being unemployed etc) this might even be a better option for me, because I could use that money directly to pay for the hosting of this site and domain name. I've already made an account for the site at tBD, but since they only allow you to use text links at this point, I can't really build a store or use widgets like with Amazon, so very few people even notice those links when I post them (in the news so far). Basically, at this point if you want to buy something through the Book Depository and make sure I get some pennies out of it and you can't find a link to that book anywhere on this site, you can visit them through http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/?a_aid=theplentynet and then browse & purchase normally. Not very practical, right?
And this brings me to my point (yes, I have one!)
How would you all feel if I started to embed affiliate links to the wiki pages about the books? They would be clearly marked as affiliate campaign links, and tastefully done. Probably a couple of lines under it's own heading between "editions" and "translations" for example (the links usually refer to English language books so I think that might be the most relevant place).
Or how about a banner or a text link somewhere here in the forums? Would that be absolutely horrible and make you run away screaming?
I don't want to turn this site into one of those monsterous places that have blinking banners in every corner. I'm especially hesitant to add ads on the forum and the wiki without hearing everyone's opinion first because they feel more like property of this little community than the rest of the site.
So, I want to hear what you think! Also, if you have any other, better ideas about how to include affiliate links (esp. through the Book Depository), don't hesitate to let me know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay. I decided to put up a "fundraising ticker" here to show you where the BookDepository.co.uk commission are re: next year's hosting costs.
("Year" here means from September to September, btw, so most of 2010 is already covered.)
/dead link
_______________________
March 2014 update
A lot has changed, we've tried out several different affiliate programs, some unsuccessfully and of course book depository is owned by amazon these days. *sigh*
Anyway, here are the current affiliate links you can use to browse and buy books. As before, amazons purchases count towards gift certificates, book depository towards a paypal payment.
* <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&index=books&keywords=robin%20hobb&linkCode=ur2&tag=theplentynet-21">amazon.co.uk</a><img src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=theplentynet-21&l=ur2&o=2" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
* <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=robin%20hobb&linkCode=ur2&tag=theplentynet-20">amazon.com</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=theplentynet-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
* thebookdepository.com http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=ustheplentynet
Some of you might know that I'm participating in the Amazon affiliate program, and that if you purchase books through the links I post in the news/main page or the store, a tiny bit of that revenue goes towards gift certificates -> I get a free book now and then from Amazon. Sometimes people ask how they can help with this site, and I always say that participation (here in the forum, writing in the wiki, letting me know about newsworthy Hobb stuff etc) is the best way to help - and then there's those affiliate links, which have sort of worked as a collective "thank you" in my opinion - besides, for the handful of books I've received, I've tried to choose as many related books as possible, so that I've been able to use them to fill in more details to the wiki etc. So it has been a gift that pays back to those who gave it.
Anyway, with a lot of people boycotting Amazon for various reasons (and understandably so), I've been thinking about switching over to/adding the Book Depository affiliate program. They don't give out gift certificates (at least not at this point), instead they pay you a certain percentage of the price of the books bought through your links. I hate to say it, but at this point (being unemployed etc) this might even be a better option for me, because I could use that money directly to pay for the hosting of this site and domain name. I've already made an account for the site at tBD, but since they only allow you to use text links at this point, I can't really build a store or use widgets like with Amazon, so very few people even notice those links when I post them (in the news so far). Basically, at this point if you want to buy something through the Book Depository and make sure I get some pennies out of it and you can't find a link to that book anywhere on this site, you can visit them through http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/?a_aid=theplentynet and then browse & purchase normally. Not very practical, right?
And this brings me to my point (yes, I have one!)
How would you all feel if I started to embed affiliate links to the wiki pages about the books? They would be clearly marked as affiliate campaign links, and tastefully done. Probably a couple of lines under it's own heading between "editions" and "translations" for example (the links usually refer to English language books so I think that might be the most relevant place).
Or how about a banner or a text link somewhere here in the forums? Would that be absolutely horrible and make you run away screaming?
I don't want to turn this site into one of those monsterous places that have blinking banners in every corner. I'm especially hesitant to add ads on the forum and the wiki without hearing everyone's opinion first because they feel more like property of this little community than the rest of the site.
So, I want to hear what you think! Also, if you have any other, better ideas about how to include affiliate links (esp. through the Book Depository), don't hesitate to let me know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay. I decided to put up a "fundraising ticker" here to show you where the BookDepository.co.uk commission are re: next year's hosting costs.
("Year" here means from September to September, btw, so most of 2010 is already covered.)/dead link
_______________________
March 2014 update
A lot has changed, we've tried out several different affiliate programs, some unsuccessfully and of course book depository is owned by amazon these days. *sigh*
Anyway, here are the current affiliate links you can use to browse and buy books. As before, amazons purchases count towards gift certificates, book depository towards a paypal payment.
* <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&index=books&keywords=robin%20hobb&linkCode=ur2&tag=theplentynet-21">amazon.co.uk</a><img src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=theplentynet-21&l=ur2&o=2" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
* <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=robin%20hobb&linkCode=ur2&tag=theplentynet-20">amazon.com</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=theplentynet-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
* thebookdepository.com http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=ustheplentynet
"Green nubs on the dry sticks of the clematis promised that the appearance of death was not death itself." - Ship of Destiny
), here's a couple of links: 
Amazon offers a lot of different kind of buttons and banners, but either they don't match the height of the BD ones or they blink. 
But yup, this is what I'm planning for the forum - the ads will only be displayed on the index page for now.
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