Buying Things

[DzM]

Hi!

This is a subject a little awkward to bring up. It's like talking about religion or politics, only it makes me a bit more squeamish. What is it? Moneys!

While this site has been (and always will be) free for you to use, it's not free for me to run. My various expenses, not counting my time itself, are more than my monthly cable or telephone bills. I've tried various things as fund raisers with various levels of success (the t-shirts from 2006 paid for about four months of expenses - Thank You!), but ultimately scrapped those ideas as being too much of an administrative problem.

So here's what I'm doing now: Affiliate Programs! Yay! When you buy the thiongs you want to buy anyway, but you do it through the links on this site, then a portion of the proceeds (I assume this comes from the store's profit margins, not the band's) is used to help cover expenses here.

How do you find these links? Great question! You'll slowly see them showing up on various pages that seem to warrant them (e.g. a lyrics page being pointed to a place to buy the album), but there's ALSO a shopping/filthy lucre page now:


http://www.pogues.com/shopping.html


You can also go directly to the music section of the various Amazon geographic outlets here:

• Germany
• France
• Japan
• UK
• Canada
• USA

Those in the USA (US issued credit card, and a US based mail address) cans also buy a surprisingly large number of Pogues (and others) tracks in MP3 format. Prices are comparable with iTunes ($.99/song, $9.99/album), the tracks are encoded at 256k variable bit rate (read: "High Quality Encoding"), and the tracks are all in non-DRM-encumbered MP3 format. That's really fricken cool, and I'd encourage you to buy from these instead of iTunes based on that alone. The kick-back is much higher on these too, so if you just want the tracks and don't care about a physical artifact, buy these:

Amazon MP3

I really dislike sites that have PayPal links all over them saying "Please donate," and I loathe sites with advertising all over them. I'm hoping that this ends up being a good compromise between Pay-For-Everything-Myself and Deriving-Benefit-From-Purchases-Already-Taking-Place without turning into Tacky-As-Hell.

Thanks for your cooperation, and thanks for your support!

[philipchevron]

Yay!! New opportunities for Shopping!!

[DzM]

Yay!! New opportunities for Shopping!!

Yay! Finally, somewhere to spend all that money people have surely been saving up!

I don't think I heard tales of them throwing wadded up $100 bills at the guitarist recently, so I figure they must be looking for something else to do with them.

[lesh]

I suppose a bake sale over the intertubes would be a bit problematic, wouldn't it?

[DzM]

I suppose a bake sale over the intertubes would be a bit problematic, wouldn't it?

The frosting tends to clog teh tubes.

[rumsodomyandthelash]

Great way of doing it DZM- i will order the new box set through it , as you say I'm gonna buy it anyway

[firehazard]

Good idea, DzM. And (not having tried it yet), I assume the Amazon link could be used to buy non-Pogues-related goodies too?

[DzM]

Good idea, DzM. And (not having tried it yet), I assume the Amazon link could be used to buy non-Pogues-related goodies too?

I'm not positive.

I think that if you follow one of those links, then navigate away to some other item and buy it instead, that Medusa still gets a cut.

I'm also led to believe that if you use the "1-Click Chopping" button then Medusa gets no cut at all.

[Clash Cadillac]

Good idea, DzM. And (not having tried it yet), I assume the Amazon link could be used to buy non-Pogues-related goodies too?

I'm not positive.

I think that if you follow one of those links, then navigate away to some other item and buy it instead, that Medusa still gets a cut.

I'm also led to believe that if you use the "1-Click Chopping" button then Medusa gets no cut at all.

Anyway to test this? Do you get some kind of itemized statement from Amazon etc...

If it benefits Medusa I will make a concerted effort to direct all purchases through these links.

[DzM]

Good idea, DzM. And (not having tried it yet), I assume the Amazon link could be used to buy non-Pogues-related goodies too?

I'm not positive.

I think that if you follow one of those links, then navigate away to some other item and buy it instead, that Medusa still gets a cut.

I'm also led to believe that if you use the "1-Click Chopping" button then Medusa gets no cut at all.

Anyway to test this? Do you get some kind of itemized statement from Amazon etc...

If it benefits Medusa I will make a concerted effort to direct all purchases through these links.

Here's the result of Actual Research:

Referral fees are earned on any qualifying items placed in a customer's Shopping Cart within 24 hours of their arrival at Amazon.com via your Associates link. However, this 24-hour window closes once the customer submits his order or reenters Amazon.com through another Associate's link. Once the window is closed, you will not earn referral fees on any subsequent purchases. However, if the customer then returns to Amazon.com through one of your Associates links, this opens a new 24-hour window.

It is of course possible that a customer may arrive at Amazon.com via your Associates link, add an item to his Shopping Cart, and then leave Amazon.com without placing an order. As long as the item was added to the customer's Shopping Cart during this 24-hour window, you will still earn a referral fee if the order is placed before the Shopping Cart expires (usually after 90 days). The referral fee will not be credited to your Associates account until the customer has purchased the item, accepted delivery, and remitted full payment to Amazon.com.

I read this as "any qualifying item added to a shopping cart within 24 hours of having come to Amazon via one of your links."

I fully encourage all of you to begin purchasing computers and refrigerators at Amazon after following a link to the Box Set from Medusa.

[philipchevron]

Good idea, DzM. And (not having tried it yet), I assume the Amazon link could be used to buy non-Pogues-related goodies too?

I'm not positive.

I think that if you follow one of those links, then navigate away to some other item and buy it instead, that Medusa still gets a cut.

I'm also led to believe that if you use the "1-Click Chopping" button then Medusa gets no cut at all.

Anyway to test this? Do you get some kind of itemized statement from Amazon etc...

If it benefits Medusa I will make a concerted effort to direct all purchases through these links.

Here's the result of Actual Research:

Referral fees are earned on any qualifying items placed in a customer's Shopping Cart within 24 hours of their arrival at Amazon.com via your Associates link. However, this 24-hour window closes once the customer submits his order or reenters Amazon.com through another Associate's link. Once the window is closed, you will not earn referral fees on any subsequent purchases. However, if the customer then returns to Amazon.com through one of your Associates links, this opens a new 24-hour window.

It is of course possible that a customer may arrive at Amazon.com via your Associates link, add an item to his Shopping Cart, and then leave Amazon.com without placing an order. As long as the item was added to the customer's Shopping Cart during this 24-hour window, you will still earn a referral fee if the order is placed before the Shopping Cart expires (usually after 90 days). The referral fee will not be credited to your Associates account until the customer has purchased the item, accepted delivery, and remitted full payment to Amazon.com.

I read this as "any qualifying item added to a shopping cart within 24 hours of having come to Amazon via one of your links."

I fully encourage all of you to begin purchasing computers and refrigerators at Amazon after following a link to the Box Set from Medusa.

Quite, although I have to say it would be helpful if the so-called Associates link had an easily accessible place on Medusa, to save the inevitable frustrating Search for the link in the future.

[DzM]

Quite, although I have to say it would be helpful if the so-called Associates link had an easily accessible place on Medusa, to save the inevitable frustrating Search for the link in the future.

I'm working on it.

For now, here's a high-level link that can be used to take you to the music section at the various Amazon geographies:

• Germany
• France
• Japan
• UK
• Canada
• USA

[philipchevron]

Quite, although I have to say it would be helpful if the so-called Associates link had an easily accessible place on Medusa, to save the inevitable frustrating Search for the link in the future.

I'm working on it.

But we knew that

[DzM]

Quite, although I have to say it would be helpful if the so-called Associates link had an easily accessible place on Medusa, to save the inevitable frustrating Search for the link in the future.

I'm working on it.

But we knew that

That either means I'm predictably industrious, or predictably behind on all kinds of things I've committed to.

See the top post for common linkage. A shill link should appear in the footer of all pages soon.

[meowhouse]

I don't really need more stuff but if you have a direct paypal deposit link I'd donate.

I'll also keep you in mind for the future. Unfortunately I've just done a ton of shopping on Amazon and I'm about through for the time being.