Pretty Please

So, what's this...?

Every now and then (not very often recently) I try to remind people that TOP exists mainly because you support us by using our affiliate links to B&H Photo and Amazon.

You can always find the links here.

It's important to emphasize that when you do this you don't pay anything extra for the goods you buy. It's a profit-sharing arrangement—if we refer someone (you) to B&H Photo or Amazon, they share a little bit of their profit with us. You pay exactly the same for your goods either way.

Here's the way it works for the two sites:

For us to get credit for something you buy from AMAZON, you either a) go to Amazon from here or b) bookmark the appropriate URL (again, found on our links page) and use it as your own regular link from your own computer. BUT even if you use our links, we only get credit for things you both put into your cart and also purchase during that same discrete visit to Amazon. We don't get credit for anything purchased from your Wish List or anything that was already in your cart. Within those restrictions, TOP is credited for most things you buy from any department of Amazon*.

With B&H Photo it's different. You can't bookmark that link; with them you have to go directly from our site to theirs, using either a link in a post or by clicking on the B&H ad that's at the upper right-hand corner of every page on TOP. And, again, things that are already stored in your cart don't count.

Anyway, there's no obligation, of course, to help us this way. But it seems like a zero-pain, win-win-win situation to me: you win because you get to help TOP continue to exist and not spend any (extra) money to do it; the vendors win because our readers become their customers; and I win, well, because it's how I get paid for what I do all day.

We do make money in other ways, but the links are by far the most important.

So if you wouldn't mind, could you try to remember to use 'em, for stuff you're buying anyway? Pretty please?

So that's what this is. It's a pretty please...

...with a cherry on TOP. (Groan.)

(And: thanks very much!)

Mike

*Amazon pays us slightly more than B&H does. But there are variances for different kinds of products; we get very little for computers, but a lot for software; a lot for Kindles but not for Kindle books. The other consideration is that at Amazon, our overall percentage for everything goes up with the total number of items ordered by everyone; so, even very small items (lens caps, a $2 used book, etc.) that get credited to us end up helping more than you'd think, even if the direct income from them is very little.

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Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Henry Posner, B&H Photo Video: "B&H is glad to have an affiliate relationship with this site and we're grateful for the many customers who come from here to our site to shop. Thank you all. I've asked our affiliate people if there's a way for a customer to come from here, put an item in a wishlist, buy it later and still have the affiliate get his due. I am not certain it's possible, but if it is I will encourage implementation."

Comments

[Will Frostmill]

Thanks for stating the exact rules there, Mike. I'm a little disappointed that some of my wishlist purchases didn't help you out. Perhaps I should go back to using bookmarks instead.

Amazon benefits a great deal from things held in the cart, and from wishlists: you couldn't ask for better metrics on consumer intent short of purchases. I wonder why they would create an incentive for users to hide data from them? (Probably because this is a rare use-case.0

Will

[Bill Mitchell]

Mike, I try to always use your link, but sometimes it gets a little complicated. I hope you got credit for the Canon 60D I just bought from B&H, but I'm not sure....
Wonder if I acted too hastily, and should have waited for the Pentax K-5 report?

[Russ]

Stupid ol' Amazon refuses to ship camera gear to New Zealand though, even though B&H and Adorama and others do so quite successfully.

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

I use them every time! Promise. Got my Epson 4880 from B&H that way this September! Have a beer on me!

[Jim Weekes]

Mike,

Thanks to TOP I am now in the market for a K-5. There is a link on the DxO post that links to the Pentax site. Do you get the same credit from Pentax or should I go to amazon and/or B&H? They have a slightly better price.

Thanks, Jim Weekes

[Mike Johnston]

Jim,
No, I don't get anything from Pentax site sales, but Pentax is a direct advertiser (as you can see if you visit the actual TOP site web page) so I felt like I should link to them too. Any support of Pentax helps TOP too, but indirectly....

Mike

[Gary Wilson]

This weekend I ordered a Pentax K5 through your site as all my purchases do go through Amazon or B&H via your links. After all, the assurances needed to make that purchase were as a result of your efforts in bringing such awareness of this camera. That has been the case with all my other purchases, as in the case of Pentax, Canon and Panasonic bodies and lenses. Thanks too for the entertaining style in which you convincingly make the case.

[Mike Johnston]

Bill,
Perfect example...your purchase of a D60 resulted in a $38.37 contribution to TOP! For which, many thanks.

And if you consider that it's reasonable to pay for TOP about what you would pay for a magazine subscription (because that's more or less what it is), then you've paid for the equivalent of a two-year subscription. All without paying anything extra for your camera. Like I say, a "win" all around.

Mike

P.S. I find the D60 very tempting too.

[Mike Johnston]

Gary,
Looks like your K-5 purchase included a $48 contribution to TOP. That's very big for me, so, big thanks back at you. We actually sell relatively few cameras through the links...a day with a camera sale is always a good day. Most purchases are more like, say, $17 filter for which I will get $1.15. but when enough people do that, it adds up.

Mike

[DrDom]

And I thought it was a 'bite of the cherry' pun coming up... Hope you shortly see the benefit of my splurge on posh French saucepans and distress purchase of a new UPS last month

[Dalen Muster]

When I'm ready to buy the K5 as well as the x100, I'll be sure to start from this site. It's on my calendar;-)

[Chris May]

Mike,

Is there a way to renew the quarterly voluntary subscription that was handled through PayPal?

[Awake]

You may want to make the reminder part of your signature, so it appears on every post. I just bought from Amazon yesterday, and had no clue that you had ties to it. Banner / side ads are invisible to us internet old-timers... they just don't register on the screen even if they are there.

[Reid]

Mike,

Any chance of a similar arrangement with KEH? I was buying used gear the other day and thought of you...

[Royston]

Ok so the sequence of actions is:
1) Do research
2) Settle on a product
3) Get approval from my wife
4) Come here and and click on the Amazon/B&H link
5) Purchase product

Hey I am all for this, but #3 is a problem!!lol

[Mike Johnston]

"Mike, Is there a way to renew the quarterly voluntary subscription that was handled through PayPal?"

Chris,
I'm working on that. I'll let you know.

Thanks,

Mike

[Avi]

Thanks for the reminder. It's an easy thing to do and equally easy to forget.

[Wolfgang]

Hmmm... I *do* have an account at amazon US, and bought a Kindle there for my wife. Other than that, I'd love to buy at amazon DE, and still support your site - because most items from amazon US can't be sold to me (tax and import laws I guess)

I'm jealous sometimes when I see than an Olympus lens which costs 500€ here would be 350€ bought at B&H, but all the legal and shipping adds up to 500 again. Maybe one day I'll fly over and invest the difference in an airplane ticket ;-)

cheers,
Wolfgang

[Loïc Lacombe]

Could you be affiliated to amazon.fr?
I sometimes buys books on amazon.co.uk, but hey, I am french and I mostly buy stuff on the french website.

[Paul Mc Cann]

In Ireland we have to exceed a set limit to get free postage so I tend to put books in the wish list or cart and then place an order for the lot when I'v built up sufficient. So in future I'll just have to take them out of the basket and off the wish list before I order them. Right ?

Sworthit

Paul Mc Cann

[RobG]

Abject apologies, Oh Great White Master...

Oops... sorry Mike. I bought some books from the Big A last week, forgot all about your links and deals. They were photo books recommended by you, too.

All I can do is beg your forgiveness and promise to do better next week, when I get a few more (shame about the shipping to the Antipodes, but ahh well, that's the price for living in Paradise).

For myself, I have no problem at all with being reminded about your Amazon and B&H ties - I read the site, I like the site, I don't object to supporting the site (and if I could find a way to talk to an actual real life person at PayPal, I'd even send you a subscription, but seeing at it seems to be run by a telephone answering service, I can't sort out the mess they have made of it. Meh, it's why I love cash).

[John Brewton]

As someone who has a book on Amazon, and I'm sure John Camp would agree, Amazon has a lot of headroom to pay for referrals as they pay less than the publisher.

[Mike Johnston]

Loïc,
As I explained on the links page, I applied repeatedly to Amazon France but was turned down. I really don't understand it either....

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Mike

[Friedrich]

That cherry looks like an apple photoshopped onto a cherry stem to me :)

[Cyril]

"I applied repeatedly to Amazon France but was turned down."

Is this a language issue? E.g. do they ask you to provide some additional information in French?

Or simply some obscure administrative regulation from amazon.fr?

If it's a language thing, I'm sure some of your french-speaking readers could help. I for one would be happy to help communicate with these guys if you think that may help...

[Mike Johnston]

No, with some work I was able to successfully get an affiliation to Amazon Japan, although the language issue did put an end to it. I really don't know why I was turned down. That was several years ago, however--I should probably try again. I'll put it on the zillion-item "to-do" list. :-)

Mike

[Rick Keir]

This is actually very helpful! I want sites like TOP to get the referral fee, and it's useful to know what I have to do to make sure that happens.

[Jonathan]

Just bought a monitor at B&H, I hope the link worked.

[Chuck Albertson]

Michael,

You need to ask it like Harvey Keitel did in "Pulp Fiction."

[Mike Johnston]

Chuck,
I hate to admit this, but I never saw "Pulp Fiction."

Mike the Videophobe

[J.]

Lovely cherry :).
Thanks for the reminder - I've bookmarked your Amazonlink page now. Actually it's quite practical to have the US, UK and DE links together, because I always visit them all to work out the best deal, what with currency conversion and shipping costs.
Bought some books today, but they had nothing at all to do with photography (one of them is supposed to have some very good food photo's, though). Hope that still generates the referral fee.

[Clay Olmstead]

I'm hoping it works the other way: I can put items on my wish list, then come back to TOP, put the item in my basket and complete the purchase - right?

[Clay Olmstead]

Let me rephrase that:

I assume it works the other way, right? I can put items on my wish list, come back to TOP, click through to Amazon or B & H, move the item from my wish list to the basket, complete the purchase and you get the credit?

[Mike Johnston]

Clay,
It's not actually easy for me to get the real story. I've had to struggle to figure out what works and what doesn't by tracking sales people tell me about, trying to contact Amazon, etc. I *think* you're right that everything you PUT IN YOUR CART during a shopping trip that originated at TOP will result in a credit to me (as long as you actually purchase it during the same visit to Amazon). But I'm just not absolutely sure of the arcana of how exactly every permutation works.

I do know that if you already have items 1-3 in your cart and you go to Amazon from TOP and then add item 4 to your cart and purchase all four items, I will get credit for item 4 but not items 1-3.

I guess the thinking is that I did not refer those sales--those were things you already intended to buy from Amazon.

The part that seems not quite fair to me is that if you go to Amazon from TOP and put an item in your cart, then leave Amazon, then come back to Amazon AGAIN from TOP, and buy the item, I still don't get credit for it--even though you put it in your cart during a shopping trip that originated from TOP. That much, I've been told by Amazon. In that case, I arguably DID refer the sale, but still am not credited with it.

Clear as mud, eh?

Mike

[robert e]

Now I'm confused. If Clay goes through your links and buys stuff that's already in his wishlist, does TOP get credit or not?

[Nigel]

Excellent timing for a reminder, coming so soon after the K5 launch.
That, the improvement in sensor, the 'butter shutter' and the current rebate in the UK, got me pushing the button.

Now all I have to do is work out how to pay for it.

:-)

[Andreas Friedl]

Good to know how the system works. Clicking through your link, I just ordered a Canon 60D for my son, who is an aspiring photography and videography fiend. This will be his Christmas, birthday, high school graduation (I hope) present and inheritance.
Cheers,
Andreas