Is MeFi a member of Amazon Rewards?

June 8, 2006 2:48 PM

When posting reference links to Amazon for books & such, does a click-through result in some pittance flowing back to Number 1? In other words, is Metafilter a member of Amazon Rewards? If not, there is no benefit of using an amazon.com link vs. for example a bn.com or powells.com .
posted by Rash to MetaFilter-Related at 2:48 PM (19 comments total)

If you mouseover an Amazon link, you can see that the site is programmed to do a referral for Mefi. So you're golden. :)
posted by sugarfish at 2:53 PM on June 8, 2006

From ze faq: Why is there a referral code on the Amazon link in that post?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:00 PM on June 8, 2006

Here's some discussion.

There have been a few threads on this topic. Searching for "amazon" reveals them.
posted by kosem at 3:00 PM on June 8, 2006

How I understand it is that click-through alone will not give anything to the MeFi acct, but click0through and purchase will pay a meager commission. Is this correct?
posted by raedyn at 3:42 PM on June 8, 2006

Yep.
posted by danb at 3:55 PM on June 8, 2006

Do you make much from it Matt, if it's ok to ask?
posted by fire&wings at 3:58 PM on June 8, 2006

Yeah, it's done pretty well. Every three months amazon gives me a gift cert for the proceeds and so far I've bought a couple small camera lenses with it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:05 PM on June 8, 2006

Cool. It could be a real winner if something like a recommendations/review section of metafilter was introduced.
posted by fire&wings at 4:28 PM on June 8, 2006

Cool. It could be a real winner if something like a recommendations/review section of metafilter was introduced.

Bleh, that would be super-irritating. At least to me.
posted by delmoi at 5:33 PM on June 8, 2006

I've been thinking about the reviews site and I looked at code I had already written and realized the great thing about hinging reviews of stuff at Amazon is that I can let you search for the item, then have one big comment-sized box to write your review. Then after saving it, I can pull up images of the item in several sizes, current best price, avg amazon review, # of pages in book/# of tracks on CD/length of movie, etc. In the end you get this richly detailed, nice looking review all from a few paragraphs in a box.

Breaking it out of Amazon to anything would mean no images, not much info, and a lot more work for the reviewer to add all the metadata by hand.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:43 PM on June 8, 2006

I would find that (tight integration with a shoppping mall) extremely distasteful. That said, I realize I'm pretty far out into the lunatic fringe when it comes to matters of commercialization.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:01 PM on June 8, 2006

I once saw stavros punch an off-duty bookseller on general principle.
posted by cortex at 7:19 PM on June 8, 2006

I'd do it again, too!

*makes angry face*
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:39 PM on June 8, 2006

And you would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for that darn Cortex.
posted by SenshiNeko at 8:48 PM on June 8, 2006

So you're not planning on implementing a Powell's option? As I've said, it can be more lucrative. (4% v 7.5% commission)
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:15 PM on June 8, 2006

As big a fan as I am of Powell's (PDX REPRZENT etc), I think the question is about what links people are already providing. Matt isn't taking a link to (book, movie, etc) and automagically generating an amazon link—he's just throwing in his mefi referral code to the amazon links people post already.

So while supporting the Powell's thing might be a good idea, it's not really an issue if there's 100 Amazon links for every Powell's link, neh?

Someone correct me if my axioms are wrong. I'm piloting a two-engine aeropresumption, here.
posted by cortex at 10:17 PM on June 8, 2006

It could be a real winner if something like a recommendations/review section of metafilter was introduced.

I just tried this new drink called "Pepsi Blue", and ahm' tellin' ya, it was GREAT! 10/10!
posted by slater at 12:04 AM on June 9, 2006

Where values for 'Pepsi Blue' include great works of music and literature....
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:37 AM on June 9, 2006

anotherpanacea, nothing that anybody talks about is any good. It's in the rules.
posted by cortex at 6:28 AM on June 9, 2006