Over the course of the past few years, I must have received a few dozen letters from people suggesting that I try to incorporate advertising into MM.com. I suspect that they were thinking that if I was making some money with the site, I might be more inclined to do a decent job. Or, maybe they were just thinking that at least ads would take up some space that would otherwise be filled with my self-indulgent, often paranoid drivel… At any rate, I’d thought about it over the years, and always came to the same conclusion — the presence of ads wouldn’t enhance the overall experience that I’m looking to create here at MM.com. I had thought, however, that it might be neat if I could somehow work something out with Amazon so that if I linked to something that they were selling that I could make a few cents on resulting sales, and perhaps even generate enough each year to pay for the hosting of this site.
Well, when I was stuck here at the coffee shop yesterday afternoon, unable to work on my scripts (because I’d forgotten to install Word on my new laptop), I got on-line and filled out an application to join the Amazon affiliate program. And, just now, I got the word from Amazon that MM.com passed the test. (Apparently they decided that my readership was reliable enough, and that my references to “ball shaving,” “monkey taints,” and the “ejaculation ray” didn’t in themselves constitute a complete lack of merit.) So, I am now happy to announce that anytime you follow a link from this site to a product for sale at Amazon, and then buy that item, I will get a very small cut. More importantly, I wanted to let you know that from now on any suggestions that I make should be viewed with a great deal of suspicion. (I will push the boundaries, but hopefully not too far.)
So, if you see me hawking something like “State of Fear,” the new Michael Crichton bullshit bestseller about the big lie of global warming and it’s proponents, the environmental terrorists, please do me a favor and put together a posse to hunt me down and remove my blogging hand.
If, however, you find me suggesting that you purchase truly great things, like the new Daniel Johnston album “The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered,” or Brian Wilson’s long awaited “Smile,” do yourself (and me) a favor, and buy it immediately.
I love you all so very much… I don’t think I say that often enough, but I really do.