Friends and readers,
As you've likely noticed, a good deal of what I do over here is talk about things and products that I like and that I find helpful. Usually these are baby/child related items, but not always. More than once, you've probably also heard (read) me singing my praises of Amazon. This is a genuine affinity for the site, but it turns out there's also a way for me to get some perks for that. God bless America.
For a short trial period, I've signed up to become an Amazon Associate. Any time a blog reader ("you") buys anything on Amazon via a link from this blog, the blogess ("I") get a (very small) percentage cut. I am trying this out for a little bit to see if it generates anything meaningful for me. As "maternity leave" has slowly but surely morphed into "unemployment," it made sense to me to see if I could monetize something I am already doing anyway. So that I can use the proceeds to fund my Amazon habit. Ah, there's the rub.
For right now, nothing over here should really change, but I thought it was the ethical thing to do to disclose the new setup. Here's how it works:
When I write my posts where I mention products (such as the "favorite things" posts), the links will point to Amazon if the product is available on Amazon. If it's not, I'll link to wherever it is. You can click through the Amazon link, which has a magic code embedded in it that lets Amazon know that you came to their site from my blog. If you purchase something--ANYTHING--I get a percentage of that.
Good things to know:
My content won't change.
I do not get compensated to review any specific items, nor to recommend them. I get paid whether you buy the item I've linked to or any other item on the entire site. So there is no incentive for me to recommend one item over any other.
Anything I mention will be a genuine mention of a product I have found on my own, heard about, or tried. It will be just like things have been up until now in terms of what I'm writing about. Especially when it comes to buying products for my baby, I do a lot of research--online and off--before I choose an item. Sometimes I make the right call, and sometimes I don't. You can benefit from that legwork. Or you can just use my link to a baby toy to purchase a lawnmower or whatever and I'll be like "great!".
In other words, there's no pay for play. I'm not nearly that influential. I'm also not going to suddenly start writing a lot of product-heavy posts. We'll still be mostly all about pictures of babies, first birthday parties, and my neurotic fear of creepy crawly house pests.
What you see won't change.
I don't want to put banners or ads on the blog, mostly because I think that is tacky and looks bad. It's not like I'm trying to make this an actual income stream. And let's be honest: I think I only have like 20 readers. So I'm well aware of the scale here.
All it means is that I have to put my links up in a special way so they have the magic code embedded in them. You'll still see them the same way: as text or image links. If I didn't tell you I was doing this, you'd probably never know.
So there you have it. To review:
1. You click a product link in a post I've written (from the 5 Month Faves post forward. As of now, I'm not going to go back and change all the links in past posts. I am lazy like that).
2. If it takes you to Amazon, hooray!
3. Buy anything you want on Amazon. It can be the product to which I linked, or not.
4. I get $
5. I like you more
Let me know if you have questions or encounter problems. It may be that this isn't worth it in the end and I shut it down, or it might also be a nice little rewards program. We shall see.
xo
Boots
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