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I usually hate pages that try to monetize via related affiliate links but this looks so genuinely useful and transports such a positive, down-to-earth and user-

by aw3c2 9y ago

I usually hate pages that try to monetize via related affiliate links but this looks so genuinely useful and transports such a positive, down-to-earth and user-friendly vibe that I just love it. Well done!

bsilvereagle 9y ago
What user-friendly alternative do you propose to affiliate links? I'd rather have a link that I choose to click than ads and third party analytics loaded. On my handful of pages donate buttons don't convert. Affiliate links are the best way I've found to cover hosting costs while respecting my visitors bandwidth and privacy.
- aw3c2 9y ago
  I did not mean it like that. Most pages where I see affiliate links only exist to serve those. This one seems like a genuine website created for good, not to make money.
kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
Why? I can understand review-spam kind of blogs where people just write a shitty review filled with affiliate links but there are tonnes of pages that do a good job at creating content and try to monetize a bit via affiliate links. People hate ads, people hate tracking, hardly anyone pays subscriptions fees, and now if you hate even affiliate links, it comes across more as hating the fact that people are trying to make money from the content they have spent hours creating.
- justin66 9y ago
  I am reminded of the time a poster here on HN threadcrapped [0] simply to post a non-affiliate link to an item mentioned in an article. His stated belief was that the article itself (or its author) was not worthy of an affiliate commission but the item mentioned in the article itself was of legitimate interest, and so he went out of his way to make sure readers could investigate the item mentioned in the article without giving affiliate credit. All I can figure regarding the poster's true motivations in that thread is that there is some small percentage of the population that still gets syphilis, and some much smaller percentage that lets it go untreated, and some small percentage of the people in the tertiary stage of syphilis must post on HN... [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13285587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13285587
- rdiddly 9y ago
  Kind of correct. Probably it's only because I still remember the old "non-monetized" internet, but I just don't get the line of thought that posting some stuff on the web means everybody owes you a living. Lest we forget, those who want to make money from the internet are the more recent arrivals, and (especially at the time when it happened and I was young & idealistic) I found them to be like the crass uninvited guests who show up late and ruin the party (while thinking they actually turned a lame party awesome). Before they arrived, "the party" was full of useful sites like this, run by people for the simple love of whatever-it-was. The amateur internet, I suppose you'd call it. The reason this is a breath of fresh air is because it simply is what it is (not in the trying-to-assuage-my-disappointment sense, but in the no-deceptive-obfuscation sense) and in that way hearkens back to that era and doesn't bear the stench of today's typical swindles, schemes, and dubious offers. Yet it takes advantage of some of today's design tools/ideas and is a better quality experience than a lot of sites "back in the day." Mind you, I don't begrudge anyone what they're doing, even if it's commercial, but the time you spent creating "content" may be worth something to someone, or maybe not. When you demand compensation, the bar is higher.
  - kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
    >> "that posting some stuff on the web means everybody owes you a living." You don't owe them a living, but specifically acting to rob them of a living that they are trying to earn without getting in your way (affiliate links or non intrusive ads or such) moves from idealistic to dickish. New inventions or changes give rise to new paradigms, and with new paradigms come new ways to earn money or in general exchange goods and services.
    - rdiddly 9y ago
      Nobody said a thing about acting to rob anybody of anything. If you're trying to reopen the ad-blocking debate, I'm not really interested in that. I'm saying and I believe the grandparent is saying, sites with those features are to varying degrees less-good, precisely because of those features. Since I'm under no obligation to funnel myself into that site, I'll tend to ignore it, and I'm more likely to ignore it the less value it actually offers. (And the net value it offers, does decrease because of ads and adtech tactics.) In my case I'm also saying, commerce itself is basically boring; I can find it anywhere. I believe your use of the word "rob" is inappropriate since you can't be robbed of something you don't own. (My attention, the content of my web browser, etc.)
- aw3c2 9y ago
  I should have said something along those lines rather. Affiliate links are quite nice IF they are just a late addition and not the whole purpose of a site. This site seems genuine!
npmaps 9y ago
Thanks for the feedback! I've struggled quite a bit with figuring out how to best earn some income to cover my hosting fees (and ideally earn something more for all the work I've put into it). I experimented with Adsense but felt the ads were too intrusive and slowed down my page loading speed, and I didn't want to hurt the user experience. So I took a crack at creating some merchandise and using affiliate links, hoping that they integrate seamlessly and don't feel tacked on. I'm open to your alternative suggestions, however, if you think it feels like overkill (though I'm pretty dead-set against any donation buttons). I appreciate your kind words as well! And thanks to OP for submitting my site.

by aw3c2 9y ago

bsilvereagle 9y ago

What user-friendly alternative do you propose to affiliate links? I'd rather have a link that I choose to click than ads and third party analytics loaded. On my handful of pages donate buttons don't convert. Affiliate links are the best way I've found to cover hosting costs while respecting my visitors bandwidth and privacy.

aw3c2 9y ago
I did not mean it like that. Most pages where I see affiliate links only exist to serve those. This one seems like a genuine website created for good, not to make money.

kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago

Why? I can understand review-spam kind of blogs where people just write a shitty review filled with affiliate links but there are tonnes of pages that do a good job at creating content and try to monetize a bit via affiliate links. People hate ads, people hate tracking, hardly anyone pays subscriptions fees, and now if you hate even affiliate links, it comes across more as hating the fact that people are trying to make money from the content they have spent hours creating.

justin66 9y ago
I am reminded of the time a poster here on HN threadcrapped [0] simply to post a non-affiliate link to an item mentioned in an article. His stated belief was that the article itself (or its author) was not worthy of an affiliate commission but the item mentioned in the article itself was of legitimate interest, and so he went out of his way to make sure readers could investigate the item mentioned in the article without giving affiliate credit. All I can figure regarding the poster's true motivations in that thread is that there is some small percentage of the population that still gets syphilis, and some much smaller percentage that lets it go untreated, and some small percentage of the people in the tertiary stage of syphilis must post on HN... [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13285587 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13285587
rdiddly 9y ago
Kind of correct. Probably it's only because I still remember the old "non-monetized" internet, but I just don't get the line of thought that posting some stuff on the web means everybody owes you a living. Lest we forget, those who want to make money from the internet are the more recent arrivals, and (especially at the time when it happened and I was young & idealistic) I found them to be like the crass uninvited guests who show up late and ruin the party (while thinking they actually turned a lame party awesome). Before they arrived, "the party" was full of useful sites like this, run by people for the simple love of whatever-it-was. The amateur internet, I suppose you'd call it. The reason this is a breath of fresh air is because it simply is what it is (not in the trying-to-assuage-my-disappointment sense, but in the no-deceptive-obfuscation sense) and in that way hearkens back to that era and doesn't bear the stench of today's typical swindles, schemes, and dubious offers. Yet it takes advantage of some of today's design tools/ideas and is a better quality experience than a lot of sites "back in the day." Mind you, I don't begrudge anyone what they're doing, even if it's commercial, but the time you spent creating "content" may be worth something to someone, or maybe not. When you demand compensation, the bar is higher.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
  >> "that posting some stuff on the web means everybody owes you a living." You don't owe them a living, but specifically acting to rob them of a living that they are trying to earn without getting in your way (affiliate links or non intrusive ads or such) moves from idealistic to dickish. New inventions or changes give rise to new paradigms, and with new paradigms come new ways to earn money or in general exchange goods and services.
  - rdiddly 9y ago
    Nobody said a thing about acting to rob anybody of anything. If you're trying to reopen the ad-blocking debate, I'm not really interested in that. I'm saying and I believe the grandparent is saying, sites with those features are to varying degrees less-good, precisely because of those features. Since I'm under no obligation to funnel myself into that site, I'll tend to ignore it, and I'm more likely to ignore it the less value it actually offers. (And the net value it offers, does decrease because of ads and adtech tactics.) In my case I'm also saying, commerce itself is basically boring; I can find it anywhere. I believe your use of the word "rob" is inappropriate since you can't be robbed of something you don't own. (My attention, the content of my web browser, etc.)
aw3c2 9y ago
I should have said something along those lines rather. Affiliate links are quite nice IF they are just a late addition and not the whole purpose of a site. This site seems genuine!

npmaps 9y ago

Thanks for the feedback! I've struggled quite a bit with figuring out how to best earn some income to cover my hosting fees (and ideally earn something more for all the work I've put into it). I experimented with Adsense but felt the ads were too intrusive and slowed down my page loading speed, and I didn't want to hurt the user experience. So I took a crack at creating some merchandise and using affiliate links, hoping that they integrate seamlessly and don't feel tacked on. I'm open to your alternative suggestions, however, if you think it feels like overkill (though I'm pretty dead-set against any donation buttons). I appreciate your kind words as well! And thanks to OP for submitting my site.