Re: Blogging != Job

04 Feb, 2026

Hey Old Man,

I find it funny that that sounds pejorative, but I don't know how else to address you.

I like you. I found your article because I'm subscribed to your feed.

I highly doubt I played a factor in inspiring your post, but *looks around at my header and the Ko-fi button on the homepage* I felt convicted.

Why I use affiliate links.

First, I wanna explain myself.

As a self-published author, my 'job' on the internet is selling books. Amazon is the de facto outlet. Though, I'd like to deal with them as little as possible. Being an affiliate with Bookshop.org lets me sell books (sort of) outside of Amazon while compensating for being nonexclusive with Amazon.

Once I set up an affiliate account, and posted the required disclosures, I figured I might as well have fun with it. The prospect of being an affiliate of Bookshop.org, inspired me to review and share what I'm reading. The idea of making a couple extra bucks to cover the cost of my domain motivated me to start a fun new project of focusing on curation.

I kinda think/thought simply providing an optional link to buy the thing I'm talking about was harmless and occasionally helpful.

Why I think I'm done with all that.

But, you're right.

Affiliate links and tip buttons are crap.

I don't like them. So why am I using them?

If someone talks about something I want to buy, I'm going to find things myself and avoid their link if they have one.

People are capable of making their own purchasing decisions. My links aren't helpful.

I'm not, and never have been, sure how I feel about tipping buttons economically. In a simple sense though, they're ugly.

I've justified a tip button and affiliate links by viewing this not really as a blog, but as a 'professional' author site.

That's just dumb crap I let myself listen to from the grifty types in the greed of my youth.

I think it's time to let go of that nonsense.

I haven't decided how much of the past I'm going to change. Going forward, I'll still link to Bookshop.org I think, but I'm not going to make them affiliate links.