June 14, 2005
Hi, Dad, I got you a Vietnam flashback
As you are no doubt aware, I am a participant in the thingy where, if people click through Amazon links on my site and then buy stuff, I get a teensy kickback. (Of course, just like one can't tickle oneself, I am not allowed to click through my own links and get a kickback from what I buy, which is unfortunate, because I buy a lot of CDs and DVDs and whatnot, so I try to rotate through my friends' blog and click through their Amazon links, when I remember.)
Anyway, one thing that the Amazon Associates program has started to do is to send out e-mails alerting members to deals they might want to highlight on their websites. These deals are invariably kind of...niche-oriented. For instance, last night I received an e-mail from Amazon telling me that, among other items, the Brass Eagle paintball gun would make a delightful last-minute Father's Day gift.
Well, actually, they call it a "paintball marker" (I guess so they don't have the bad PR of being perceived as selling guns). I find that a particularly risible euphemism for some reason, though. It conjures up simultaneous images of guys in camo trying to sneak up on each other and scribble on their faces with a Sharpie, and someone thinking to himself, "Hmm...how can I mark my lunch bag so that people won't steal my food from the refrigerator at work? I know -- I'll shoot a paintball at it."
Anyway, I don't need a paintball gun because I already have a full arsenal of them; you know that we're paintball crazy at Conde Nast.
Posted by Francis at 08:23 AMUm... I buy Amazon stuff through my own links all the time. Just double-checked, and, yep, already been credited for $1.32 for my last order. If you're saying there's something in the terms of use that forbids this, well, I applaud your ethics -- but they don't check.
Posted by: radosh at June 17, 2005 10:57 AMEthics? Oh please. Of course I tried using my own links to buy stuff when I first signed up, but then at the end of the quarter, they deducted the commission for things I had bought myself.
Posted by: Francis at June 17, 2005 11:13 AM