My purchases thru Amazon last year were in the $200 range, and I would like to chime in with one more vote for an Amazon pass-thru link.
As far as supporting indie bookstores, 100% of what I bought last year thru Amazon was shipped from tiny, indie bookstores who use Amazon to market their wares in ways not possible 20 years ago. All of us benefit: the small stores, Amazon, and me. Let’s add one more to the list: SDMB!
It’s the best of all possible worlds.
Thank you. 
Okay, I don’t think anyone answered **Queen Bruin’s **question, which is the same as mine. What the heck is click-through? Is that when particular phrases and words are linked to products?
Bosda, let me use you as an example. Say he was talking about Hunter Thompson, would “Hunter Thompson” become a clickable link to Amazon and the books he’s written?
Pardon me for straying from the good-idea party, but that sounds downright annoying to try to read and respond to threads and posts with multiple links. I don’t understand how the whole board went ape-shit when we got some banner ads, but there seems to be a lot of favorable talk about linking everything to death.
I have no problem with Amazon, and actually like the service, I’m just confused and I haven’t seen a clear explanation of what was suggested.
That’s not what they’re talking about. An Amazon “click-through” is basically a link to Amazon, with some special code that tells Amazon that the link is coming from SDMB. So when you use that link to go to Amazon, Amazon pays the SDMB a percentage of whatever you spend.
The link need not even be in a post - you can bookmark the link and just use it as if it were a normal bookmark to get to Amazon.
What you’re talking about is contextual link advertising, and GOD those are annoying.
EDIT: An example of what you’re talking about is IntelliTXT. Amazon’s referral program, like others have said, looks like the one on Sluggy Freelance
Ah, thank you. Okay, that sound fine to me. I misunderstood.
**Tabby_Cat ** is on target.
It’s a darn good dodge, & would bring in buckets of cash for this site.
Here is some information about Amazon’s associate program: Amazon Sign-In
This page shows the types of links they work with: Amazon Sign-In
Planning a party?
AFAIC I rarely shop through Amazon, but that doesn’t mean I won’t in the future. I certainly plan to renew so whichever plan offers the best outcome for the members is okay with me.
(Also, I love going to indie booksellers but sometimes they just don’t have what I’m lookin g for. Since Amazon isn’t exclusively a bookseller anymore I don’t really see a problem with using both.)
Has any additional thought been given to the Cafe Press store idea?
I want to add my thanks too, Ed. Og only knows the bullshit you have to go thru for us. 
I spend hundreds of bucks on Amazon each year – heck, I recently bought a recumbent exercise bike through them – and would happily bookmark a Dope-affiliated link to there in place of the direct-to-Amazon link I have now.
I also make a goodly number of purchases from indie booksellers through Amazon*; in fact, it’s the first place I go to in search of out-of-print and hard-to-find books now, instead of Bookfinder.com, because one can generally get a lot more information beyond just title and author on Amazon.com.
I spend at least 1000 dollars every year on Amazon. I’d support it.
The SDMB subscription fee would have to get into the triple digits for me to seriously consider not subscribing.
I will pay to post and search.
I will not pay to remove advertisements.
Google is nice because I hardly ever notice them.
Hmm… As much as I love this site I probably will not go out of my way to buy shit from Amazon though the site. For some unknown reason I may avoid it. I tend to.
Make the money however you need to.
Bake sales, fund raisers, bingo, raffle, tiered memberships, advertisements whatever.
Keep the body of the boards clean and fill up the top and bottom with as much adds as you need to. Be an affiliate of 50 sites for all I care. Just keep the site well designed, clean and easy to read.
No avatars and no images.
Easy to read is the key.
Make your money anyway you have to.
This is a great board keep it going.
Just don’t run sidebar ads. I really hate flashing crap all the way down the edge of a page.
Seriously. Between the histrionics that the boards tend toward and Og knows what kind of corporate pressure that TPTB face on a day to day basis it’s a miracle that anyone tends to this at all. I’m glad for any discourse and information between us and them, and I stand behind the idea that greener pastures await us all.
Quote this post as many times as necessary.
You said it all for me fifty-six - and for the silent majority I’m sure.
You never saw that Ford advertisment that covered half the page, did you?
Thanks from me also. I just did a search on amazon.com, and got back 750 hits - which don’t seem to be from the links. As far as I can tell people posting links to books to it through amazon anyway.
Ed, your OP seems to imply that the site is making enough from ads anyway to make an ad-filled no-fee option financially feasible. Am I reading you correctly?
Won’t people simply use ad filtering software to block the ads? Where’s the incentive to subscribe if they can achieve the same result that way?
While it wouldn’t surprise me if Little Ed has no particular desire to milk the cow 'til it’s dry, I would hesitate to impute that motive to the folks who actually own the operation behind this board. Sadly, in modern corporate culture, maximizing profits seems to be the only “ethic” anyone is interested in.
Could we play Solomon here? i.e., provide click-throughs to both Amazon and the indies, or would one or the other insist on exclusivity?
[Side note to ETF: a recumbent excercise bike?? Boy, if that doesn’t sound like an oxymoron. (I can imagine the ads: "Now you, too, can exercise in your sleep! :rolleyes: ) ]