Monstrous Vermin

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Sterility

I hate pests. Up until yesterday or the day before, I followed someone on Twitter who made book recommendations and linked to items for sale on Amazon. I have nothing against being an Amazon affiliate, obviously, as I am one myself. What does bother me is when folks use any sort of hard sell, pressure, or guilt as tactics to convince you to buy through their affiliate links. A simple link that announces you’re an Amazon affiliate and thanks you for buying books through your site is absolutely fine, and I might even be encouraged to help you out. A direct message sent to all your followers encouraging people to buy through your site and guilting said followers by mentioning selling through Amazon is a part time job for you, well, that’s just wrong. Times are hard, and I don’t begrudge folks trying to earn a buck, but it’s not the first time this person has used this tactic, and frankly the value of the book recommendations isn’t worth it to me. If I buy anything through an affiliate, it should be because I want to, and perhaps because they’ve made it easy for me. One thing you’ll never have to worry about me doing is pressuring or guilting anyone into buying books I link to through my Amazon affiliate code. I do, of course, thank you if you do. It helps keep me in books. But it’s just wrong for anyone to send a message to all their followers or all the folks in their email address book or Facebook friends asking that folks buy through you. Don’t you think? Or am I just touchy?

photo credit: Furryscaly


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4 thoughts on “Monstrous Vermin

  1. I agree with you. And that bug freaked me out when it popped up in my Google Reader. I had the exact same brain response I have when a real bug appears out of nowhere.

  2. I don't think you are being touchy. I think what gets me (I see this on Etsy all the time) is that sometimes people go on and on about their hardships to try to guilt people into buying from them. That just feels icky to me. Who doesn't want to make extra bucks right? Those tactics just don't work for me either. I love supporting my friends and such but I don't want to feel guilted into doing anything!

    1. I wondered if I were just being touchy because so many folks tweeted in support, and I only noticed two tweets critical of the hard sell. However, who knows how many folks just unfollowed like I did without making an issue of it on Twitter?

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