As you throw yourself into the seasonal mêléeshopping spree, don't forget that items purchased from Amazon through our Amazon search widget (over on the right sidebar) will help us to keep the server spinning. Thanks!
21 Comments 
Amazon
The Amazon link seems to be missing. I'm using Firefox.
It's right there – using Firefox myself…
I'm guessing Ken's Big Porn paycheck is going towards other uses…
Amazon's rather unpopular in the UK at present. Blamed for killing off most of our bookshops; and now it's been alleged that it pays little or no tax.
If the Amazon widget is invisible to you in Firefox or Chrome, this may be a result of the Ghostery plugin. If you're using that, then click on the ghost icon to the right of the address field, choose "Edit blocking options", and allow Amazon.
Note, too, that Paypal payments directly to ken@popehat.com donated through this interface will also go directly to server costs, with a portion of all donations allocated to a worthy and well-audited free speech charity such as FIRE.
If I want to purchase multiple items, do I need to keep coming through the widget for each one? If I save them in my cart, does it remember them? I want to maximize your referrals, and I don't want to mess it up.
Apparently it was due to AdBlock Plus – after I disabled it for Popehat, the widget appeared.
@Rick H Glad to hear you figured it out. Your follow-up will help anyone else who encounters that problem!
@Agitatertot Volume through our Amazon widget has been low so far. We do not mention it often, so we haven't yet confirmed how it works. This will be the first shopping season in which we (hope to) see higher volume and learn more about its nuances.
Our current understanding is as follows:
(a) if you start your search through the widget and then save to your cart, Popehat's credit will be remembered for the item in the cart for up to 89 days.
(b) if you start your search through the widget, then the Popehat context continues as you shop until one of the following happens: (1) you make a purchase; (2) you click on someone else's affiliate link; (3) 24 hours pass.
Of course, if you use the widget and then purchase, the credit affects Popehat's server account immediately.
PLEASE give us an accounting of the funny things people buy through the affiliate link. Last time it was hilarious. It makes me want to buy something outrageous just to give the everyone here a laugh.
I'm confused by the response from Peter English. Amazon's low prices (and huge inventory) make it a popular choice. How else could it "kill off bookshops"?
As to this notion that people will cooperate with a seller to avoid compulsory donations to random graft, corruption, and waste… Oh, please spare me!
If a WalMart or an Amazon "causes" small, local, individual, character-filled shops to close, it is only because the people who might have chosen those shops have decided to value convenience, selection, price, and consolidation over charm and personal engagement.
If people have chosen to value efficiency over art, protesting against a WalMart or an Amazon misses the point and the target; it's a matter of the human heart.
Protesters who want to see the local, individual, etc., survive should overwhelm the consumers with education and values clarification, not bother the warehouses with meaningless and ineffectual raging at the dying of the light.
I do not know how long this sale will last, but I just snapped up Star Trek The Complete Original Series on DVD for $108.99. Which is about $30 lower than the lowest price it has ever been on Amazon. And I bought it through the Popehat Amazon button.
The quaint book store motif is a tool of playwrights. A buyer is as likely to find a vacant eyed, gum snapping teenage employee in one of those as in Barnes & Noble. The reverse is also true: there are lots of quirky, chatty, esoteric specialists in the big box stores. But why bother with either? Go green and go to your public library.
Please consider a paypal account. I dislike using Amazon: as often as not their shipping times are lousy.
@Frank Paypal may be used to deliver money to any active email address. As noted here, we would be grateful for community support through any vector (including that one)!
The comments to "On Capital" suggest many would gladly use Popehat’s widget to Amazon but doubt their ability to remember to enter Amazon that way. Some said they use an Amazon link on their bookmarks bar, one said he types amazon into the address bar, basically all referenced muscle memory as a stumbling block. I solved the problem by replacing my Amazon bookmark with a Popehat bookmark but it took me a while to learn that Adblock Plus was preventing me from even seeing the widget.
Perhaps Popehat could post a blanket "Feed the Server" monthly (weekly from now until January) with steps for making it happen:
1) Add Popehat to the whitelist of your ad blocking software.
2) Replace your Amazon bookmark with a Popehat bookmark to remember the widget.
3) Reenter Amazon through the Popehat widget after every purchase.
4) If you collect items over a span of days consider putting those items in the ‘save for later’ section of your cart. This way, when you’re ready to purchase, you can hit the item’s link and add it to your cart, ensuring the link to Popehat is fresh. Etc.
Those of us who have read the ‘Feed the Server’ post will skip it but it could be very handy for new readers.
I'm confused. Do I have buy from Amazon.com or will clicking through to my country's regional site still count?
@effemeral Thanks for the ideas. Maybe we should just link to your comment!
@JLA Girl I do not know. In your shoes, I'd click through to Amazon.mycountry and proceed in whatever way seems most convenient.
If you'd like to send me an email (david at popehat dot com) to let me know one of the items you purchased after clicking, I can look for it in the product summary they eventually make available to us. Then we'll both know!
@David
I will endeavour to remember to do so next time I get all "ooooo, shiny" at something from Amazon.ca
(For the record, I'm awaiting my copy of Jim Butcher's Cold Days but I neglected to click over through you guys. Do I at least get props for good taste?)
I'll have to read some Butcher and find out! ;)
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Nov 24, 2012 
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