It's a matter of volume. Remember a couple of weeks ago when we had that spate of 40-odd Dorchester/Leisure freebies which were Kindle-only on top of the "regular" new free books offerings and that pushed just that single day's worth of posts to about 3 pages back?

Now imagine that, but for book "deals" which aren't even free, and may just happen to be books which are low-priced backlist at under $5 regularly. And given the way these things seem to work, they'd probably all be Kindle-tagged deals, which would inevitably lead to more complaints by non Kindle-users who'll have a harder time finding deals for their own readers.

Perhaps it could be dealt with by having a separate sub-forum just for the freebies, and let people post what they will as "bargains", so that posters looking for either in particular will be able to quickly zero in.

Eh, apparently most people who use affiliate links (and also those who try their hand at various forms of spam) do it as a spare-time supplementary thing anyway. It doesn't really take that much time to pick a random low-priced book and stick a link-tag on it, any more than it does to Send To All on an email list one got of via the pyramid marketing scheme that is apparently new spam recruitment.

It won't pay the rent, but as I mentioned, it might just pay for a few new shiny Kindles With Special Offers.

Only if they're less Kindle-centric! :p

That's why I want separate threads that lists the device/store in the subject line. So I can find the ones I'm looking for among the large crowd of Kindle deals and freebies.

I thought there was already a "deal" rule that the price couldn't be a permanent thing -- it had to be some kind of time-dependent deal. So the flood of constantly 2.99 books scenario is already prohibited (and presumably dealt with without our seeing it) by moderation.

Less Kindle-centric would be nice. B&N has an affiliate program, too. But I'm not going to spend all my day to help Strangers on the Internet if I can't be allowed to put out a tip jar. :p

I'd perfectly support a split between "free" and "under $5" if the forum got THAT busy. I'm doubtful of Worst Case Scenarios, though. Not for a buck a day payoff. Most people are not going to commit that time and effort for a Get Rich Quick scheme that won't.

this whole thing is giving me a headache!!! :P

Now koland has a thread. I want to start one too, if all the cool kids are doing it. :p

Ya'll will subscribe to MY affiliate link thread, right? I'll stock it with koland's and arcadata's finds. I'll use their links directly, so they'll get the tip, but this will put all the finds in one place for everyone to easily find. (If only we had a forum for that...) :D

Sadly, there are enough hucksters out there to attract these folk -- they charge them money for "webmalls" and to sign them up as affiliates in places (assuming they actually do so - would you give your SS and bank info to a place selling you a website?). Over on some affiliate forums, you see them show up daily, having spent anywhere from a few hundreds to thousands of dollars (all of which is, of course, wasted). :smack:

Most eventually accept that the average affiliate at Amazon earns in the 10's of dollars/month and to get a sustained >$100/month account can take a very long time (about the same is true at Adsense, which works well for some sites and not well at all for others). Very, very few sites make enough to consider it a 'day job', especially not for any length of time.

You can, with a bit of effort (and if you don't mind getting a 1099 at year end), make enough to keep you in ebooks (although, for many, only if you include the free ones you turn up as part of your pay :rofl: ).

It's not a big deal, really, to not post aff tags. Although what I've seen in other forums that changed their formats (or actively discouraged other's tags) is that, over time, the communities shrank and eventually only authors self-promoting (or cross promoting) started to dominate (usually, until they too were banned).

I do think the mega threads will get to be a problem (it's one reason I start a new one for Kindle in that forum, each month, and was asked to do one for the nook, although it's thread never got nearly as long).

I will - we can trade tips (umm... wait, I can't SUGGEST that, but that doesn't mean we can't, right?)

Maybe every cool kid needs their own forum? sub-forum? then, they could add threads for each device ...... and we can all read a few dozen forums to keep up, of course.

In the meantime, I should do some real work today (rather than goofing off while listening to an audiobook).

Well, at the end, I hope people who don't like aff link fell good, because I think that a lot of people is going to be more uncomfortable with this. Anyway, subscription it is.

Already there are several duplicate titles listed in the "Affiliates" threads.

I think we should all start one. :D
I want to be popular. :p

In all seriousness, are the mods reading this and do they care about our feewings? Best I can tell, there's been no green text since the "No Author Self-Promotions in the Deals Forums" announcement. :(

That's what actually puzzles me the most about this announcement. Unless the moderators plan to allow for duplicate threads, they've created a lot of extra work for themselves. What self-respecting moderator team does that?

My 2 cents here... I fully agree with Catlady.

FWIW :ditto: So far I haven't read any post that is jumping-up-and-down happy about this change. And not that the Powers that Be owe us an explanation, but I'm a little surprised that they are this silent. I'm assuming that there is a good reason for the change, but I sure can't figure out what it is :blink:

Bergette

The only issue I've had was when Arcdata flooded the forum making hard to see other new posts. The affiliate links where never an issue. I knew they existed. I just didn't care. If others can make some extra money that way, more power to them. It's not coming out of my pocket. If it was, then I would have something to say.

Actually no, we've currently got no formal rules about what manner of "deals" may be posted in the Deals forum proper (besides no self-promo). There are rules in the monthly threads in the individual reader forums, but there's nothing stopping someone from posting, say, Subterranean Press sf/fantasy novellas regularly priced at $4.99 as a bargain (which, for sf/f fans they are, compared to the $35 SP charges for the limited-edtion hardcover versions of the same titles, and DRM-free, too) right here in the main.

Or, for that matter, considering this popular educational Kindle title a steal considering you'd save a full $1,558 off the print edition price (not to mention the added-value entertainment from reading the reviews!)

Not to mention it can sometimes be pretty hard to tell what's a time-limited promotional price and what may be merely be a permanent markdown for some titles, given the way Amazon likes to calculate the "Your Savings" percentage from the highest print-equivalent cost rather than whatever the regular digital list price may be.

Anyway, I think we've only got two mods handling stuff which pops up in this forum and they've likely got their hands full changing the thread titles to include more stores and sorting out the self-promo and off-topic stuff.

If the mod team as a whole wants to set some ground rules in place to make their jobs easier in the future by requiring bargain posters to declare any possible financial benefit they might get from their links to stave off possible complaints and just plain deleting any repeat offenders who end up not following the posting guidelines, I've no objection.

Most spammy schemes seem to be pyramids anyway, relying on newbie suckers to provide the actual payoff rather than any actual purchases from real customers. The real problem is that people keep falling for it, so if we happen to be unlucky enough to wind up getting one of those over on MR, while they'll probably eventually learn better, in the meantime they'll probably be very annoying and then once they get sick of it, someone else will show up to take their place and the cycle begins anew... :rolleyes:

MR posters are generally pretty nice about reposting at least the free books whenever they find them. The bargain-hunters may have to look a bit harder, but we'll probably still have the freebies and coupons available, even if they're not immediately posted practically the moment they're out, the way we're lucky enough to get now.

I agree that the megathreads are likely going to end up an issue with duplication and having to follow extra threads just to see what's available (and clutter, if a bunch of people end up starting them up for fun and maybe-profit).

Again, I think that individual threads/posts as usual with a simple disclaimer before the links begin (because aside from the sigs turned off consideration, some of the bargain posts can end up being pretty long if there's a bunch at once) should be enough to declare a poster's possible financial interest, for those MR-goers who sensitive to such.

I hope the mod team will be able to resolve people's assorted concerns in a way that's reasonably fair and convenient for everyone who's expressed them.