S&F Joins The Amazon Associates Program (Administrative Note)

For the past twelve years or so we've been dealing with Amazon almost exclusively to fill all our online shopping needs and only rarely find that we have to go shopping elsewhere for what we're after. It's no accident, then, that just about every product we link to in our posts is a product sold by Amazon.

We like to think we're fairly sharp in matters of commerce even though we tend to turn up our nose at matters commercial, so it came to us as a rather late slap-upside-the-forehead to realize that Amazon would actually pay us a "referral fee" for any purchase resulting directly from a click on any of those links ("directly" meaning the purchase of a product during the Amazon "session" initiated by a click on an S&F link to that product which "session" ends once the clicker leaves the Amazon site), but can do so only if Amazon knows that S&F was responsible for the link (Duh!).

Well, from now on, they will. We've just joined the Amazon Associates program, and so every purchase that results directly from a click on an embedded Amazon link in an S&F post will put much needed filthy lucre in our bank account to help support S&F. We've also added to our left sidebar an Amazon "widget" displaying all Amazon products linked to recently on S&F. A purchase made as a direct result of a click on any of the items listed in the widget also puts filthy lucre in our bank account in the exact same way as does a purchase made as a direct result of a click on an embedded Amazon link in an S&F post.

We think it all a quite neat and, for our readers, a thoroughly unobtrusive, even helpful, way to handle this business.

We make note of all the above not only for your information, but as full disclosure to the FTC as per this recent FTC ruling.

We're nothing if not meticulous in matters legal.