May Earnings
June 4th, 2010May earnings came to a total of $911.85. Many thanks to all cash contributors and to those of you who conducted business via Cryptogon affiliate links.
There must be a few dozen of you who are clicking through to Amazon via Cryptogon. It’s amazing how the commissions, from even the smallest purchases, add up. Thanks for remembering to do that.
There remains, however, some confusion about how Cryptogon receives commissions from Amazon. It seems that the more expert someone is with computers, the more questions there are about how the Amazon thing works. If you are one of the several people out there who want to be sure that “it” will work: Simply scroll down the Cryptogon main page and, along the right sidebar at the bottom, you will see Begin Amazon Session. Click the link to your local Amazon. From there, whatever you order will result in a commission payment to Cryptogon. (Of course, clicking any of the other things that you can click on Cryptogon to reach Amazon will continue to work as usual.)
Here’s a question that comes up about twice per week:
I don’t see your affiliate code once I’m on Amazon. Will my purchase still pay you a commission?
Yes. Once you’re on Amazon, they track the session. The URL is meaningless once you’re there. The session, though, must start via Cryptogon, which leads us to the next issue…
Sometimes, more often than you might imagine, people want to create their own Amazon links using the Cryptogon affiliate code without actually starting the session from Cryptogon. I actually tested this with someone and we found out that it definitely doesn’t work. If you want the commission to go to Cryptogon, make sure that your Amazon session starts via Cryptogon.
99% of you should ignore what follows:
I’ve lost commissions because some Cryptogon users are running what they feel are security hardened browsers. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please, don’t be paranoid about your purchases not counting toward commissions. They almost certainly did. This is only directed to people who are using cookie and script management plugins and/or some browser security settings.
Here’s the simple solution to make sure that the sale will result in a commission for Cryptogon:
Run some stock/virgin/unmodified browser, go to Cryptogon, click on the link to the company that you wish to conduct your business with and complete the transaction as normal. This way, you don’t have to mess with the settings on your “secure” rig.
I hope this doesn’t cause more confusion than it clears up. Perhaps we can finally draw a line under this one and call it RESOLVED. In any event, again, thank you for helping to keep Cryptogon open.
Ah curses – I had set up a bookmark to Amazon with the referrer code, meaning you probably got nothing for any of my purchases in the last 6 months. Argh 🙁
Could you set up on the site somewhere a little page with just the amazon referrer links? That way I can just bookmark that and simply click through whenever I’m going to Amazon.
interesting info re the amazon affiliate code.
i know we have discussed this in the past, but it makes me feel really bad when i scroll down to the “begin amazon session” links and see there is a link for all of them except jp. we are not huge amazon users, but our household would still probably spend $1,000-$2,000 a year at amazon.co.jp, so not having some commission directed to cryptogon seems such a waste. maybe sometime in the future there will be a way…i can only hope.
@tochigi
Amazon Japan offers two payment methods for affiliates: Gift certificates for use only at amazon.co.jp and bank transfer to Japanese banks.
That’s it.
In other words, there’s no way for me to get paid.
But thanks for trying!
sorta OT, Kevin, but do you have an Amazon wish list of books, or would you consider compiling a list, including ranking them by desirability? children’s books included, natch.
Hi Pookie,
I haven’t created an Amazon wishlist because I thought it would be pretty presumptuous of me to list items and then put people in the awkward position of having to shell out a lot extra for shipping because we’re in NZ. I think the wishlist concept is great. I often use it on other site that have them. For U.S. based folks, shipping is free on most things.
Children’s books… 😉