Selling out to The Man

Community Larp discussion
#1

How would you feel about Diatribe having the Amazon banner ad showed in this post, if it makes NZLARPS some money?

  • Sure, no problem
  • No thanks, it’s ugly
  • No thanks, it’s too commercial
  • No thanks - reason given in post

0 voters

Hey folks,

How would people feel about the Amazon ad below appearing in the Diatribe banner ad rotation?

If it goes up, NZLARPS will get 4% of the sale price of anything you buy after clicking the link (if you buy or put anything in your shopping cart in the next 24 hours after clicking the link). NZLARPS would probably spend the income on larp books for a lending library. If people here deliberately use this link when they’re going to Amazon to buy stuff, we could probably make enough money to buy a few larp-related books each year for the library.

Click the banner - it links to a list of larp books sold on Amazon that I’ve put together, which is an interesting list to read anyhow. I can make changes to the list, would welcome suggestions. We get the 4% whether you buy books from that list or anything else from Amazon. It doesn’t cost you anything extra.

We don’t want to put something up that people are offended by or find contrary to the purposes of Diatribe. Our banners are a bit quiet at the moment, but if lots of local larp banners become available then we’d display them in preference to things like this, either removing this or making it appear less often.

What do you reckon?

#2

I don’t look at banners much anyways. If it stays were it is I have no issue with it as I quite happily ignore it now anyways.

Jared

#3

We choose our placements carefully to make sure they’re relevant and interesting, so it’s usually worth taking notice of them. That’s why we’re specifically wondering about this one.

#4

I actually buy a fair bit from Amazon, close to $1000.00/year so I’d happily come here to link through to them to support NZLarps.

Tigger probably spends at least as much as I do, and I can certainly think of others I could probably convince to click through NZLarps to Amazon.

I think its a great idea.

But do it soon because I’m about to place an order. :slight_smile:

#5

It’s up to Craig if we go ahead, Diatribe is his site.

#6

Actually, I think you can just click the banner in my first post above and make your order it will work.

I set everything up in Amazon as a proof of concept, so I believe it’s operational. AJ has made an order but it hasn’t shown up yet, but the report only shows up to March 26 so I expect when it refreshes I’ll see his order. At the moment all that’s showing up on our associate report is a bunch of click-throughs, but that does seem to indicate it’s working.

If Diatribe decides to go ahead with this banner, what products would people be most interested in acquiring for the lending library?

#7

Let’s do it - the support is pretty overwhelming!

While we’re on the topic, banner ads are given free to local larp projects, so if you’d like one to run just let us know.

#8

Okay, the banner is up and I’ve confirmed that the sales are appearing on our Amazon Associates account.

To anyone who finds the ad too commercial, sorry about the imposition.

If you’re buying stuff from Amazon, please do consider getting there via our banner. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it will raise money to buy some larp books for the lending library.

#9

I’m pleased to report that the ad has already garnered US $9.28 of commission in the few days that it’s been up.

And our referral rate has gone up from 4% to 6% because of the number of items ordered this month (the more that get ordered, the higher our rate).

I’m sure the income won’t be consistently so high, but it’s nice to think the society is already well on the way to being able to afford a first purchase for the lending library.

#10

Crikey! That’s considerably more awesome than I’d expected. Unfortunately I made an Amazon order just before this talk started :frowning:

#11

I made one on Thursday for about $170 USD,
plus I’m drafting an email to all my friends with a link to the banner to click through if they’re making an Amazon order.
Once again - brilliant idea Ryan.

Here’s another thought - if our revenue collection through the link keeps on trucking why not consider buying books or dvds to raffle off as small source of funds for the society.

#12

[quote=“Scotty”]I made one on Thursday for about $170 USD,
plus I’m drafting an email to all my friends with a link to the banner to click through if they’re making an Amazon order.[/quote]

Cool - just make sure to copy the full link from the banner, not just the URL that you land on when you click it.

Do you mean using the credit earned to buy DVDs and raffle them? Or just buying DVDs outright from society funds and raffling them?

I think getting a lending library of the major LARP titles should be a priority for spending the credit earned from the banner. But the raffle could be done completely separately to that from general society funds. I’d probably buy a ticket for a raffle of the Firefly series or something like that.

#13

I’ve got to be honest and say that I don’t see any Amazon ads.

#14

[quote=“Ryan Paddy”][quote=“Scotty”]I made one on Thursday for about $170 USD,
plus I’m drafting an email to all my friends with a link to the banner to click through if they’re making an Amazon order.[/quote]

Cool - just make sure to copy the full link from the banner, not just the URL that you land on when you click it.

Do you mean using the credit earned to buy DVDs and raffle them? Or just buying DVDs outright from society funds and raffling them?

I think getting a lending library of the major LARP titles should be a priority for spending the credit earned from the banner. But the raffle could be done completely separately to that from general society funds. I’d probably buy a ticket for a raffle of the Firefly series or something like that.[/quote]

Yeah, I meant that after we’ve got a lending library established and the options for expanding that library are thining out we could consider spending the earned credit on things to raffle off.
Would the lending library cost? Like $1/week/per item borrowed type of thing?

#15

You might be using the SubSilver template, which we don’t show ads on. By default Diatribe is shown in FSGreen - you can change which one you see under “preferences” in the Profile section.

#16

Sure, we can discuss ideas like that when we get there. Although I think there are related books that might be a priority for the library - see my link below.

The society hasn’t formalised anything for the lending library yet. The committee will discuss it when it’s a bit closer to being a reality, I imagine.

Personally I’d be for giving lending priority to society members, while also making books available to non-members. We would have to at least cover costs, e.g. the cost of mailing, and a small additional cost per week like you suggest might stop people “hogging” a book for too long. Or we could just have a maximum lending time, e.g. two or three weeks. What method would work best is perhaps a topic for another thread, like this one:

diatribe.co.nz/viewtopic.php?t=970

(Note that I suggested it would just be for members there, but I now think members should be given priority but books could be available to non-members too).

#17

A big [color=green]THANK YOU[/color] to everyone who has continued to purchase from Amazon via Diatribe! :wink:

In under three months you’ve purchased 24 items using our Amazon banner and earned NZLARPS $21.54 while costing nobody anything extra (except maybe Amazon, but they can hack it).

It’s not millions, but it’s money for nothing and will be put to good use for the benefit of the New Zealand larp community.

#18

Hey folks - the Amazon banner ad is back up, although you’ll only see it if you’ve changed to the new Nexus style.

It’s a different looking banner, but the same result - click the banner, buy anything from Amazon, and NZLARPS gets 4% of the price tag. It costs you nothing extra.

Or you can click this link to get the same result:

amazon.com/gp/redirect.html? … ative=9325

#19

And don’t have an ad-blocker. Really, I don’t know how people cope without them.

#20

Selective blindness.