Tell Me What You Think...

taz · Post by **taz** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:25 am

Recently our website has grown extensively in the number of hits per day and the total bandwidth used. This couldn't make me more happy as more and more people (significant others even now!) join to talk about Elvis and all things music.

However, to defray some of the mildly increasing costs I wanted to run an idea past everybody and get some opinions. My idea is to have a link to Amazon.com on our website, something that if you were going to order from them anyway you could click on and then use their site as you normally would. This would give our page a percentage of any purchases that you made after clicking that link.

Let me know your thoughts and opinions on this. If you guys feel it would distract in some way from the board than the idea will be shelved.

Thanks,
Taz/Jason

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:33 am

I think it's a good idea. There are a number of other sites I use that have click-throughs to Amazon and it seems to work well.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:35 am

I'm all for it, Taz. Expecting Rain (the excellent Bob Dylan page) does exactly the same thing. Many people on here (myself included) are big amazon.com shoppers so it doesn't seem like a stretch.

pip_52 · Post by **pip_52** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:44 am

I have no problem with it . . .

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:57 am

Oh goody, now I won't have to feel guilty about ordering from amazon instead of othermusic.

A rope leash · Post by **A rope leash** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 9:16 am

Taz -

Will we have to behave?

taz · Post by **taz** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 9:17 am

Have you ever behaved rope?

I don't see anything changing as far as control over board content.

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 9:18 am

Go for it, taz

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:11 am

Taz,

I'm in, that way the board can get some dough to stay afloat....nothing is free forever....

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:24 am

I've got no problems with it in principle. As long as this is not the beginning of corporate whoring of our beloved site eg The Elvis Costello Best Album Cup is brought to you by Warner Brothers

You'd better not start asking about subscription fees either...

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:27 am

Yeah, and every time we mention albums we're going to have to hyperlink them to their respective pages on amazon.com

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:11 am

Count me in Taz - I occasionally order stuff from Amazon and would use it!

I think its wonderful that you take on the responsibility of running this site for us - you the man!

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:15 am

bring it.

Post by **DrSpooky** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 12:38 pm

No one seems to have seen this in the management section so here it goes again.

Taz. I wouldn't be offended by this suggestion, any other affiliate program (no pyramids though), or even if you wanted to setup an account to directly take PayPal donations.

As some of you might know, I run an open source software project and thus am familiar with how people pay their bills giving away softwere.

I know some open source sites go so far that they make the site books public. Some go so far as to have a set of people -- rather than just one -- responsible for monitoring the money and bills. Those sites usually have a page with something like:

ISP Cost per month or year: XXX
money received from Amazon: YYY
donation from person : AAA
anonymous donations: : ZZZ

money in account:

shortage to pay bills this month:
shortage to pay bills for the next year:

If the ISP will offer a discount for paying a few months or year at a time, the board's goal should be to take advantage of that.

I don't know if anyone would buy but it is also possible to use cafepress.com with a logo. The Tribute CD could have shirts. And someone could prepare a few with cases, labels and sell them for enough to pay some costs.

I am not offended by this and properly explained, no one else should be either. This might also help prevent the situation where (sadly) the board patron (you in this case) gets sick, distracted, etc. and can't pay attention to the board or pay its bills. We have seen this happen before and can set things up to prevent it from occurring again.

Sorry to be long winded.

Critically, do you need help paying a few months of bills for the ISP?

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 12:47 pm

I didn't realise you had to pay anything Taz...in that case, do what you need to get as much money as poss...link to all sorts mate, we don't HAVE to click on them.

Amazon is the best seller online anyway...I already gave them a plug on the such unlikely covers thread.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:18 pm

fine idea.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:26 pm

The site could survive on El Vez's purchases alone.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 6:06 pm

Sounds fine to me.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:01 pm

Up the Amazon! (That's an oblique reference to "The Lady Eve"...but suffice it to say, yeah, why not. I never buy anything on line, but still, yeah, why not!)

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 9:06 am

bambooneedle wrote:The site could survive on El Vez's purchases alone.

Have you been cyberstalking me again, Bamboo?

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 11:14 am

expecringrain.com has the same deal going with amazon and that has'nt effected its integrity in any way, so go for it.

taz · Post by **taz** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:20 pm

Thanks everybody, I appreciate all of your support. I'm currently waiting on a notification from Amazon if we 'qualify'...but as I don't think we have any pornography (which I've been meaning to ask why not!!!) or the like I'm sure we'll be fine.

Will have the link up as soon as I get that back from them, but please feel free to let me know if it in any way interferes.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:49 pm

I'm all for this, as I poosted on the, ahem, properly placed item in the MGMT section. Also, please PM me if I can make a direct (if modest) contribution to cover you for interim/old costs. I'd really like to.

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