Money, Books, and Amazon

For some months now, we have been linking a few of our book ads to amazon.com. We recently learned that Amazon would pay VoegelinView a referral fee for sales made as a result of visits from VoegelinView. The University of Missouri Press, which publishes most of the books we advertise, does not object to something that is likely to result in increased sales of their books. We also think that readers who shop online would likely rather deal with Amazon than with individual publishers. Our Board of Advisors has offered encouragement. Since VoegelinView operates at an annual deficit, any income is welcome.

We have made arrangements with Amazon and are now designated a “sales associate.” We are converting our “click-thru” ads to take the reader directly to the page at amazon.com where the book is sold. One other benefit: the referral fee is paid even if the reader buys something other than a book. If you decided to buy a flat screen PC monitor or a home theater TV from Amazon, we would get the fee, providing you got to amazon.com from VoegelinView and made the purchase during the same visit.

So our authors benefit, our publishers benefit, and you help VoegelinView at the same time. It sounds almost too good to be true. It probably is too good to be true. But we will give it a try and see what happens. And please buy your next major appliance at amazon.com after using us as a portal to get there!

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