Sunday, July 19, 2015

Goodbye, Amazon

So, last week I published a post in honor of Prime Day (which wound up kind of sucking), explaining that if people use links on this site, it would help support my blog.

Amazon then emailed me to tell me I'm not allowed to tell people that, and because of that transgression, they closed my affiliate account. I would get that, maybe, except that their affiliate program requires people to post this verbiage in order to be affiliates: 
Presidentress is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.
So, I have to explain to people that I'm using a service that provides advertising fees, but I'm also not allowed to tell people that.

The "helpful" people at Amazon told me I could reapply for a new affiliate account, which I started to do but then their site wasn't working and I was busy. While I waited for it to get working again, I decided I'm not going to bother. Even though I'll continue to spend millions of dollars (exaggeration) through Amazon each year, I'm not going to drive business their way via my blog. I might sign up for some other affiliate service at some point, but in the meantime I'll continue to run this blog out of the goodness of my heart and my compulsive need to discuss things like presidential baked goods. Also, I think Amazon doesn't allow their links on pornographic sites, and what if someday I want to post nude photos of Calvin Coolidge?

I just---literally, 10 minutes ago---got back from a trip to Northeast Ohio, during which I visited four presidential sites, so stay tuned for a post about those as soon as my fury over Amazon dies down.

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