[lionhearted]

> SPAM.

False. Carefully chosen, hand-transcribed, edited-for-brevity excerpt of a relevant and obscure book, with a particular quote bolded.

> There's even an affiliate link at the bottom

I've had 40,000 unique visitors in the last four months, and I've had $0 in Amazon commissions. Does it mess credibility up? I'm tempted to cancel the damn thing, if anyone buys from the link I get like 20 cents or whatever. I thought Amazon commissions would maybe help me pick up a free book every month or two, but they've done no such thing. I should ask other bloggers if they've made anything from Amazon on book recommendations - even a very small credibility hit isn't worth the 40 cents or whatever.

[pbhjpbhj]

My Amazon links make about 1/1000th of that my Google links make; my Google links pay enough to cover costs on my blog and buy me a meal out a couple of times a year.

Admittedly ad placement is part of this but I've used Amazon book links where there are large amounts of people coming to a site with a particular interest - I've researched and picked out good books for that interest but nearly nobody bites (or Amazon aff links are not working?!).

[lionhearted]

Thanks for this, very useful info. I've been gunshy about Google, because I want everything on my page to be something I endorse, and I don't want Scientology or activist groups or make money online scams getting onto my site when I talk about religion or government or wealth.

But yes, Amazon hasn't performed for me, and I've tried to make it work. Short, snappy posts with Amazon link - nothing. Extremely long, detailed posts with obscure but really good books - nothing. For a while, I thought I'd be patient with it, but it's almost to the point where it's not worth the screen real estate.

Anyway, thanks for the insight. I wanted to drop you a line but no info in your profile - email me?

[pbhjpbhj]

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