Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to donate to charities while on Amazon

Just out of curiosity - if a charity has an affiliate account, won't they get like 4%+ of the purchase? (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/land...)

This chrome extension is really cool, and good for just forgetting to use charity affiliate links, but if your charity has an affiliate account that's the best way to do it right?

Re: Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to donate to charities while on Amazon

#6

Post by ZanderEarth32 » Mon, Nov 11, 2013, 10:09 PM UTC

Neat idea. I did something similar except it was meant to support your favorite podcasts or websites through Amazon Affiliate sales and I didn't build a plugin, I used an existing one in a different way.

http://tortillasinbed.com/post/60098833373/spreading-the-lov...

Re: Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to donate to charities while on Amazon

#7

Post by kcorbitt » Mon, Nov 11, 2013, 10:10 PM UTC

This is a great cause. Just one concern: I understand the desire to quantify the difference you're making in the world, but seeing the counter that (currently) says "66 redirects have been made with this extension!" actually influenced me to not install the extension. It seems like the implementation of that could easily leak the list of things I look at on Amazon to you or others, and it shouldn't need to "phone home" like that to function as an extension. If you remove that you'll have another happy giver. :)

Re: Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to donate to charities while on Amazon

#8

Post by stp-ip » Mon, Nov 11, 2013, 10:13 PM UTC

josephjrobison wrote: post #5

Just out of curiosity - if a charity has an affiliate account, won't they get like 4%+ of the purchase? ( https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/land... ) This chrome extension is really cool, and good for just forgetting to use charity affiliate links, but if your charity has an affiliate account that's the best way to do it right?

4-10% actually. And there were projects actually using these percentages to donate to good causes, till Amazon burned them and copied the idea to make it more financially positive for them 4-10% vs 0.5%.

Re: Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to donate to charities while on Amazon

#9

Post by stp-ip » Mon, Nov 11, 2013, 10:14 PM UTC

jhaimson wrote: post #4

MichaelTieso wrote: post #3

I'm guessing this affects affiliate redirects, right?

Yes, this will also redirect affiliate links

I don't want to discourage you, but socialvest.us and aflattr.com both did redirect via affiliate links and were burned from Amazon.

Re: Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to donate to charities while on Amazon

#10

Post by fudged71 » Mon, Nov 11, 2013, 10:19 PM UTC

stp-ip wrote: post #9

jhaimson wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this will also redirect affiliate links

I don't want to discourage you, but socialvest.us and aflattr.com both did redirect via affiliate links and were burned from Amazon.

And it absolutely makes sense.

Amazon isn't just giving out free money. Affiliates are meant to drive traffic to the Amazon website. This service doesn't seem to do that.