Should OZB add its own referal link to Amazon submissions, and use all the money for charity?

AustriaBargain on 03/03/2020 - 13:25

Occurs to me that not allowing referral links on Amazon deals means a lot of money that could be earned over time is not being earned. Of course allowing personal referral links wouldn't work. But what if OZB automatically added its own referral ID to Amazon products, it wouldn't make a difference to the typical user, but all that money could be donated to charity. It could all go to bushfire charity, or HIV research, or anything more worthy of that 4-10% than Amazon Corporation LLC. I don't see how it would even affect the user experience, there wouldn't be extra deals spammed because no one would spam for the sake of charity, right? The money would just slowly build up over time until it can be donated, and be some good PR for OZB.

Poll Options

  • 8
    Yes, charities deserve this money
  • 21
    No, there is too much charity in the world already
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Comments

  • HighAndDry on 03/03/2020 - 13:28
    +10

    No, there is too much charity in the world already

    Lol talk about a loaded poll option.

    It's a "No" from me, but not for this reason - to me, allowing affiliate links takes away OzBargain's impartiality and opens them up to accusations of bias and self-interest (even if all the proceeds are donated, there'd be both reporting expenses and tax benefits).

  • spackbace on 03/03/2020 - 13:33
    +6

    Amazon doesn't have referrals, it has affiliate links. OzBargain uses affiliate links for non-logged in guests, it's what helps keep the site running. This applies to every site with affiliate links.

    and use all the money for charity?

    Getting to this point, no. Otherwise the site would need to find other sources of revenue.

    Scotty does very well for charity donations each year, and certainly does his part.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:affiliate_links

    Affiliate links will only be shown to non-logged-in users.

    OzBargain 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.

    • ThithLord on 03/03/2020 - 14:36
      +3

      Yep - the +$25k or so Scotty donates isn't enough for OP? Crikey

  • scotty on 03/03/2020 - 13:43
    +12

    Please see Affiliate Links on OzBargain. For non-logged in users, we do present them with Amazon affiliate links. The revenue generated from affiliate links & display advertisement are used to pay our staff, run the hosting & other expenses, and run our biannual charity donations. See Charity Donations — we've donated almost $300k over the years. We might want to work on making a good PR on this though…

    As of HighAndDry's point above regarding to impartiality — I want to make it clear that we do prioritise on our impartiality over the advertisers. Yes we have been asked by advertisers numerous times to do the impossibles in the past (for example "taking down this post or risking affiliate relationship") and they normally get ignored or dropped.

    • Switchblade88 on 03/03/2020 - 14:26
      +1

      As an OzBargainer, it makes me very happy to see these opportunities get used - and hence I agree with the OP's intent to capitalise on the affiliate links.

      I'm also very happy that these links are used to fund the site & staff; whilst 'donating to a charity' seems to be everyone's default option for an "unbiased receiver of monies", I'm also acutely aware of business and labour costs (leading into staff's personal costs, like rent, groceries etc).

    • AustriaBargain on 03/03/2020 - 15:57

      I guess I never noticed because I'm always logged in.

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