This is about joining up to Amazon Associates so that when you read and review a book on your site, and another reader links to the book from your site, you get something for it. It’s called an affiliate link.

If it sounds too good to be true, there are strict rules – and it’s worth reading up on them so you don’t slip up, but I can’t see how the potential for helping others choose a book and earning a penny from it (I don’t know how much you earn, as I’m not an associate – yet) is a bad thing.

How to do a link to a book:

This needs to happen after you join up, but using your affiliate link on the book you review on your website means that a person who clicks on that link and buys the book within a certain time adds to your affiliate income.

Don’t take my word for it – go over and have a look. There are different options for earning commissions.

Why am I saying this? I just read a review on a blog site, and tried to find a link to the book because I liked what she had to say about it. There was no link, either to book or author, so I had to go to Amazon and look up both to find the book. This is an annoyance because it means work for me – and no commission for the person who wrote the review. If there’d been a link, either affiliate or not, it would be a one-click path to the book, and the commission (for an affiliate).

And, no, I’m not associated with Amazon in any way. I get nothing out of this except wanting to make it easy on myself when I’m looking for something to read, and hoping there are people out there who want to make use of the time they put into reviewing and posting who’d also like to earn a commission.

I think it makes sense, don’t you?

If you review books, why not make use of something designed to help both parties and become an affiliate, especially if you’re already have an Amazon account?