The Online Photographer

Good to know, Mike.

How about B&H? Does the "wish list" carry over?

hmm, did i do that? i just ordered 'south east' by mark steinmetz.

Mike, Sorry to hear about this. Does this apply to B&H? Will make a purchase this evening and will take everything out of cart and reenter to make sure. Thanks for the heads-up. Hope your income jumps up now that
we know.

Marcus

"How about B&H? Does the "wish list" carry over?"

I'm going to have to find out....

Mike

"Let's say that I use your link to Amazon where I add an item into my Wish List. In a subsequent visit to Amazon, (assume that I use your link again) I add the Wish List items to my cart and checkout. Would this work?"

Again, I think I'd better ask specifically, rather than make assumptions. I'll let you know.

Mike

"do you mean venal? (corrupt)."

Rob,
I meant in the sense of greedy. Ironic in any case, I assure you!

Mike

What if I put them in the cart and then remove them from the cart, come here, go there, add them again and purchase?

"What if I put them in the cart and then remove them from the cart, come here, go there, add them again and purchase?"

Tom,
We'd get credit for that. I'm 99% sure.

That's asking an awful lot of people, though....

Mike

> That's asking an awful lot of people, though....

I've done it a couple of times, for the record. :)

They could certainly be a bit more forthcoming about the referer id, confirming it at checkout. I wasn't sure myself when I bought a DA15 lens via Amazon.com a while ago so I deleted and started over with the affiliate link a few times. Hope it came through for you.

The shopping cart is so useful that it seems really quite sneaky and wrong of Amazon to ignore the referral fee for items already in a buyer's cart when those things only got there because of a recommendation from a site like this one.

I've been removing and replacing at checkout time but not because I knew what you've just told us—it's just that I could never remember whether I placed it there when using your Amazon bookmark/link or not. Almost every site seems to point to Amazon these days, sometimes without warning, and the last referrer wins, I assume, when we begin to buy.

Really, this should be very clear and upfront. Each item in your basket should have a small indicator that tells you who the commission fee goes to. They could use a site's favicon as an indicator. It would be fairer all round.

Urgh, I suspected as much because a couple of times I noticed your referrer-code was missing in the address bar. But I did do the going-back-and-adding-again-thing as that inevitably happened when buying more expensive items that I wouldn't just buy on impulse (meaning: they spent some time on the wishlist or in the cart first), and I wanted to be sure you would benefit from it.
At least I now know that was the right way to go about it, and will keep doing it in the future. But I do think that's a serious problem Amazon is willfully ignoring – their webpage is optimized to remember every little move I make when I'm on there, which helps maximizing their profit. So remembering who sent me there for a certain object should be a simple thing to implement, and I'm inclined to think their not doing it is happening on purpose, to avoid actually paying the linked partners (esp. on the pricier stuff), but without anyone noticing it too much.

I have always assumed that what you described as the right method was the way to do it. I suppose it comes from the fact that I build web sites for a living. Never realized that you were recommending something else. Had I realized it I would have said something. I suppose next time you won't mind if I send you a note: "Hey there, you are losing money!"

Sorry to hear of your loss, but rest assured that the little I bought through these links was always credited to you.

-Alberto

Why would you leave things in your cart when you can keep a wish list? Seems much more simple to do it this way.

Build your wish list and, when you want to make a purchase, go to Amazon via the TOP link here, fill your cart from the wish list and check out.

Well, better late than never, they say. At least you caught it during the holiday shopping season.

"if we link to a specific item from here, and then buy several things, do you get the credit for them all?"

Tom,
Yes, I do. In fact sometimes I scan the lists just to see some of the things people are buying--and it really runs the gamut. Everything from a 3/4 size guitar to a halter top, hand cream to a charcoal grill.

Mike

Thanks for the clarification on Amazon, and I'll be waiting for the info on B&H. Living in New York state (for billing purposes,) I sometimes avoid B&H because of the NYS tax rate. Plus, I like Amazon's site better in most respects. However, Amazon has been charging tax for some time now, so that's a wash.

I find this practice from Amazon somewhat disturbing IF it applies to the following scenario:

I always go to Amazon via TOP in that the URL for my favourites link includes the TOP referral code, i.e., it is http://www.amazon.com/?tag=theonlinephot-20 So if I have something in my shopping list from a previous visit using that URL with the referral tag, I would expect that when I check out.

To make it session-based is ludicrous and borders on deceptive, in my opinion. So, I will either start buying via B&H (hoping they do not have the same policy,) or modify my Amazon purchase methods when I really need something B&H doesn't carry, or, simply send some PayPal funds directly, which I think is probably the best option anyway.

Mike, given the time of year that's in it, I'm off to Amazon to buy a bunch of stuff. Since you haven't yet confirmed whether stuff from the wish list gets credited to you, I'll search and add specifically. Can you maybe clarify this, update the "Links" page for future reference and maybe post once again with the definitive situation?

John