Small Business Saturday

How very apropos that the tenth anniversary of TOP should fall on "Small Business Saturday." Running a small website is, indeed, the twenty-teens version of the quintessential small business.

Some hopefully helpful links:

Amazon US
Amazon U.K.
Amazon Germany
Amazon Canada
The Book Depository
B&H Photo-Video
Adorama
Lynda.com

Please buy something for yourself or someone! It helps us out.

(Note that anything you choose and buy on a linked visit helps TOP; anything already in your cart or on a Wishlist doesn't.)

Thanks, and good Saturday to ya.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Khürt L. Williams: This...this is NOT what Small Business Saturday is about. Really? Really?"

Mike replies: It certainly is! What am I if not a small camera store and book store? And, occasionally, art gallery?

Think of me as a small retailer and the above-linked entities as my wholesalers. When you go into a little independent bricks-and-mortar camera store, you don't think they're in the back room making the cameras and lenses they sell all by themselves, do you? They're retailing cameras made by large companies and wholesaled by company reps, in return for a small share of the profit. That's what I do. Same with a small independent bookstore or tiny art gallery.

I'm just a small retailer with an online storefront rather than a small bricks-and-mortar storefront, is all. "Same difference," as the kids used to say.

Comments

[Joe B]

Say it ain't so Mike. Its small business Saturday and you feature Amazon, BandH, Adorama so folks can shop on line? I think you have missed the point.

[No, I haven't. Affiliate income from those vendors supports thousands of small businesses and tens of thousands of people, of whom I am one. Think of me as a small retailer and those vendors as the wholesalers. How is that different from a small bricks-and-mortar store? They, too, are small retailers and have their larger suppliers. --Mike]

[David Miller]

Happy anniversary Mike and TOP!

In as much as I don't need a lot of Stuff, try to patronize my local camera store, and my bookshelves are already bulging, I'm afraid TOP doesn't earn much in the way of commissions from me. I try to give my support through a voluntary paid subscription — it clicks over automatically and painlessly through Paypal every three months, and I feel as if I'm doing my share to help pay for a journal that gives me great pleasure, lots to think about, and more than a little useful information and opinion .

As a steadfast curmudgeon who doesn't like to be told what to do, I'm particularly pleased that the subscription is voluntary. I hope many others are inspired to support TOP in this fashion.

(This, as they used to say, is an "unsolicited endorsement".)

[MarkB]

I was going to wait until Cyber Monday to do a little Amazonian shopping, but your link was there today, and so were some deals. When my son unwraps his quad-rotor helicopter (with built-in camera!), he'll probably say something like "gee, how can I use this to tell a story about the human condition?" (Well, maybe...)

[PaddyC]

Happy Birthday ToP. And congrats Mike. I will be subscribing this week to ToP. Don't know why on earth I haven't already. Best darn photoblog on the planet.

(nice looking kitchen btw)

[Dennis Dunkerson]

Sorry Mike, but I think this particular made-up event was started by American Express. They have a web page on it and proclaim the beneficiaries to be "small, local businesses." Your day is coming, Cyber Monday!!

This is beginning to remind me of the debate over whether Hasselblad cameras could be DSLRs.

Anyway, Happy Birthday. I will add your birthday gift to my Cyber Monday order. Today I am going to the local hardware store.

[Khürt L. Williams]

So where can I buy TOP stuff -- stuff your make yourself -- Amazon?

Shopping at Amazon is not the same as shopping from you. This is despicable.

[Well, do you get paid for the work you do for a living? And do you read my writing for free?

Seems to me if you don't like one way I request you to pay for my work, then you should pay for it another way. So perhaps you should subscribe, and send me $6 every now and then. I'm not forcing anybody to buy anything from Amazon. --Mike]

[Alessandra]

Mike, I really need a link to Amazon.it.
Please?

[I guess I could try. It's not easy to set up because everything is in Italian and I don't speak Italian. --Mike]

[Wayne]

I would say TOP is definitely a business.And a small one at that. I will try to remember your links. Unfortunately, the same thing that drives your business, WWW, has turned me into a spontaneous buyer. I can't help myself. I am liable to click anywhere.....and at any time.

I will try. My heart is in it.