The last time I wrote about the FTC notice, I was a little frustrated about some changes I was required to make. The short version is that I’m not supposed to let you click on any links which result in payments to myself unless I inform you of that relationship. This, of course, seems fair enough of a request. You may hate what you’re reading here and bristle at the thought of my actually getting paid real money to write this shite.
For this site, the links in question are from the Amazon Affiliate program. This actually adds an extra level of complication in that I’m not entirely sure how it works. In its straightforward implementation it is pretty easy to understand. If I provide a link here that says “buy this great new thing at Amazon” and a bunch of people click on my link and do just that, I get paid a bit for that referral. Easy peasey. However, if my readers don’t buy the think that I was pushing on them but, instead, go on to buy a bunch of other stuff – I might still get some referral money for sending Amazon the business.
So what happens, then, if you’re poking around on my site, click on a link, and end up at Amazon. Then, sick of my dumb ideas, you head over to a more popular site (say, for instance, Instapundit – which actively pitches paid links as a way to contribute to their site). Let’s imagine you enjoy what they do for you and so, unlike your disappointing experience here at et tu, Bluto, you figure you’ll buy some merch and send them a few bucks. But who gets the referral. Do I get paid because you clicked my link first? Does Insty get paid because you clicked theirs right before buying? Is there a “timeout” where one referral gets precedence over another?
Frankly, I have no idea.
And yes, that would kind of piss me off to accidentally pay money to one website when I was fully intending to send some money to another.
The flip side of this coin is that, to this day, I’ve never actually been paid by Amazon… still, going on two years from that original post. This is all fine by me. As I pointed out, my links to products on Amazon are entirely to help illustrate what the book, movie, song, etc. that I’m talking about is all about. I don’t recall ever posting a link as a “hey, go buy this!” and occasionally do the opposite (e.g. this link sends you to Amazon, but don’t buy it there!).
Also, the last time I talked about this, I was speaking with pride about the fact that I’d figured out the WordPress system enough to automate the required notification. This was important. I already had dozens if not hundreds of links through to Amazon and for me to try to go back to find then edit each one seemed like an impossibility. By programmatically inserting my notice I could comply both past and future all at once. Of course, I had very much impressed myself figuring out WordPress enough to actually get the thing working and I wanted to brag about that too.
The problem is that Big Bureaucracy never sleeps. The requirements continue to get a little more strict and a little more detailed as time goes on. I’ve updated my automated stuff to comply with the requirements as I understand them. I’m not sure, however, that it is enough.
Starting a couple of posts ago, I tried to go one better. I’ve now created hover-text for any link that is going to take the surfer through the Amazon Affiliate interface. I was going to do some weird additional character stuff (this is actually suggested in the Amazon notes), but it didn’t feel quite right. I realized that with pop-up text, I could have it look exactly the way I wanted it. Well, most of the time. There are probably various combination of device and browser that will not render pop-ups in a meaningful way. Nonetheless, I am sure it is an improvement but is it enough.
Just in case, I’m working on another variation that’s a little easier in its implementation but, I think, even more prone to getting messed up. I’m trying to highlight Amazon links in a different color (green for money – right?) so that they do stand out more. Next time there is an Affiliate link, I’ll give this a try. If I could programmatically change the color when detecting the appropriate link format, it would be fantastic. A programmed solution, as before, would be entirely backward compatible. This might be beyond me. The colors are done through HTML classes and to add/insert classes probably requires some theme-level programming.
So while I’m doing more and more, there is the obvious downside. Unlike my earlier, automated solution, this is all bit labor intensive. As far as I can tell, WordPress doesn’t provide a non-techie interface to the hover-text widget nor easy, variability for color. This means that I have to not only remember to do it all each time but also get all the steps in the multi-step process correct. I’m bound to mess it up every one in a while. Also, and unlike the automated solution, it will not be retroactive. The new look will only apply to links I provide going forward.
So one of these days I’ll be getting this wrong and, as I said last time, I’m hoping that the consequences will not wind up with me destitute and imprisoned. You’ve got to admit that holding an amateur (and amateurish) blogger personally responsible for poor web page design seems wildly disproportionate, especially for a system that I’ve never actually gotten any use out of. More likely, once Amazon decides I’m not jumping over all the right hurdles, they’ll toss me from the program. This would not be much of a loss (I won’t repeat it…) and part of me wonders if I shouldn’t just quit right now. The thing is, I really like the auto-generate tiny-links that the Amazon Affiliate program generates for me. That, I’m not going to give up until I have to.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/pexels-photo-8113080.jpeg)
How I love bein’ a free man.
Lobo