Honesty Check: Why This Blog (and others) Link to Amazon

Abraham Piper at Twenty-Two Words recently commented on why bloggers link to Amazon:

Why bloggers link to Amazon so much…other than that Amazon is cheap and has everything.

Whenever I link to Amazon, then you click and buy something, I make money. This is true for almost every serious blogger.

He’s right. And I thought I would take the time and opportunity that Abraham’s post gives, to do an honesty check for my own blogging.

If you notice the credits at the bottom of this blog’s header, you will see that I am in association with Westminster Bookstore, Monergism Books, and yes, Amazon.com. If you follow links to learn more about books or to purchase them, I usually try to have my referral code in the link. So visiting their site or purchasing from it (depending on which site it is), can result in a modest amount of compensation to me for providing the link.

I also highlight special offers in my Odds N’ Ends section, and in the past had trumpeted a music club where if you signed up for it, I would get some free CDs for sending you their way.

I think that this is all fair and above board. I spend time blogging, and take the time to point you to other sites for deals or books or whatever. And based on the amount of traffic I send their way, I get a small something out of it.

To be very honest about this, I have not received all that much back from these sites. I did get a lot of “free CDs” but I had to still pay 4 bucks or more for shipping. From Amazon, I have made just over $100 total compensation from two years of linking to Amazon. Now that I have purchased my own site, I’m paying almost that much each year to maintain it. I have yet to meet the threshold for receiving compensation from the other stores (which would be in gift certificates).

Another compensation for my blogging, of late, has been free books. And with this I try to be above board as well. I ask publishers for books, and promise to review them. I ask for books I am already interested in. I then review them, with no promise of a positive or glowing review. The nature of my review pertains to my real honest assessment of the book. I also am careful to mention in my review that I got the book from the publisher.

If you are a blogger, I encourage you to take advantage of these means to get compensated. This will help you stick to your blog, and in my case, it keeps my nose in good books. Bringing in a small amount of income or saving yourself from spending a bit more than you would otherwise for books, is an honest venture. And blogging can and should be an honorable hobby.

And for those of you who enjoy reading this blog and others like it, I would ask you to understand about the occaasional links to Amazon and other sites. I try to keep the advertisement as low key as possible. And I am not in blogging to make money, anyway. But if you’d like to support me and this site, I’d love it if you use these links when you shop for books or other purchases. Many thanks for your readership.