Full Disclosure
Unless my world goes horribly wrong in the next few days, I will be posting the long-awaited “One Page Strategic Plan” next week. There has been much interest expressed in this and I’m pleased that I was able to get permission to post it publicly.
One of the conditions for posting I was given was citing a particular book that provided much of the foundational thinking that went into the plan. The book in question is fairly well known in business and entrepreneurial circles and even if the One Page Strategic Plan doesn’t work for you, you may find the book itself to be an invaluable tool.
I’m sure I’m making more of this than is necessary; perhaps even creating an issue where there is none, but I tend to error on the side of too much information so bear with me.
It’s customary when citing, reviewing or recommending a book, to provide a link that you can easily click to purchase the book. That’s called “instant gratification” and is one of the 7 Wonders of the Web. Starting with next week’s post, the book links I provide will be what’s known as an Affiliate Link.
What does that mean?
Basically, if you were to click the link I provide it will take you directly to the book’s page on Amazon. If you were to then purchase the book, I would receive a small commission. How small? Well, Amazon’s model depends on how many actual purchases are made from the traffic you send them, but at the lowest level where I will be operating it works out to about 4% of the basic cost (excluding S&H, gift wrapping, etc.). So if you were to follow a link and buy a $30 book, DCO would rake in a little over a dollar.
Why am I adding Affiliate Links?
The primary reason is simple self-education. Many of the IT entrepreneurs I work with operate online; friends and family consider me somewhat of an expert in online networking and marketing, and one of my personal goals for 2009 is to start an online business. So it makes sense to develop more than just a passing understanding of affiliate marketing. Since I’m a believer in “learning through doing”, this blog seems to be a obvious place to gain an understanding of the basic ins and outs of these links.
What will I do with the money?
First of all, let’s put this in perspective. You’re not reading Pulitzer Prize winning stuff here on DCO and I have no illusions about becoming the next Huffington Post. This blog is a way to express myself on topics of interest, hopefully add value to my readers, and potentially create a community discussion around the topics of entrepreneurship and excellence. Not to mention have a little fun. While any reasonably well-written and maintained blog will see it’s readership grow over time, I don’t anticipate, nor is it my goal, to make this blog a “business”.
That being said, as I will only be discussing high value, high quality books on this blog, I’m sure there will be some click-throughs here and there resulting in some purchases. My intent would be to use income from the affiliate program to purchase “resources” of interest to this site that I might not purchase otherwise. One example might be an online leadership assessment program. I’ve run across several over the last year, all requiring a modest charge to use. Most of them come off as scams, but there have been a couple I thought would have been interesting to purchase, evaluate, and report back to you.
Am I making more out of this than necessary?
I sure hope so, but it would have felt weird using the links without explaining them up front.
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