Re: This advert
Ed Henderson (biged@SCOUTER.COM)
Tue, 6 Jul 1999 23:32:43 -0500
Amazon.com does have an affiliate program for other web sites. Basically,
anyone with a web site can enter into an agreement with Amazon.com, go
through and pick out books appropriate to their own site traffic visitor
interests. Anytime someone visiting your site picks one of your featured
books (there is no real limit to what you can feature) you are then
transported to Amazon.com's site. You can (depending on the title) get
anywhere from a 5 - 15 commission on the books that were bought that were
clicked on through your web site.
For a small unit web site that is going to be visited by a few hundred
people a year, it is probably not worth the effort. I know of several
comprehensive Scouting web sites that have joined the Amazon program
(NetCommish & MacScouter come to mind). No one is getting rich off of
these sites but they do in fact often feature books that you can't get from
the national scout catalog and they can be a small source of income to help
defray the many costs of operating a information heavy web site. Without
investing a significant among of money on software and equipment (like
SCOUTER.com has done with the http://catalog.scouter.com/ site, it is one
of the few things a webmaster can do to generate some income for their own
site. Another advantage is that the books & other items selected are done
so by the Webmasters themselves and are almost always on topic and of
interest to the site's visitors.
A good example is the book:
Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero by "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt
It is not in the official BSA Catalog, yet it is part of the suggested
reading for every Wood Badge course. Many Scout Shops don't have any idea
where to get the book (although many do carry it as they are able to order
it Wholesale from the 1-800-SCOUTER Catalog).
If someone were to go to the Barnes & Noble web site to look up this
particular book only shows up as Out of Print and the cheapest "rare &
used" book listing when I just checked was over $55.00.
Of course the book is available at SCOUTER.com at:
http://catalog.scouter.com/specials/1515.htm
You can however, support your favorite Scouting web site by ordering the
book from there directly. Michael Bowman (for example) operates the
NetCommish Web site at:
http://members.aol.com/netcommish/.
He has a bookstore there and you can order that same Baden Powell book from
his site
http://members.aol.com/bvrbooks/bp.html
By clicking on:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0963432001/professorbeavertA/002-40
10486-7612433
Amazon says it can take 4-6 weeks but often they have this particular book
in stock and it ships immediately (I know, I am the one that send it to
them). It needs to be understood that Amazon handles all of the customer
service, shipping, billing, etc. The Scouting web site and their webmaster
are not involved and should not be contacted for billing or shipping
questions.
YIS,
Ed Henderson
1-800-SCOUTER Catalog Mgr.
