Shillings
I was surprised to recently note that iTunes is opening an affiliate program. This puts me in something of a quandry.
On the one hand, I've been thinking about linking to the iTunes Music Store anyway. I'm on record as thinking that iTunes is an awesome application anyway, and the store gives me a place where you can hear 30 legal seconds of the song I'm referring to in my blog. I've only been holding off on that because it only works if you've got iTunes installed, and it's kind of a pisser to fill my blog with links that might or might not work for you.
And if I'm going to do the links, why not get my cut? 5% of all the 99 cent songs that I'm going to sell all my readers is...
not even enough to buy gum.
There's also the issue of becoming a corporate shill. Now, I'm way past my "The Internet Wants To Be Free, Man" days. Try doing some actual tech support for a while, and it'll beat all that pre-bubble idealism right out of you. Anyway, I never really thought of this blog as something I'd even try to make money with. It's just a place to try to make writing back into a habit.
I'm already noticing that I check to see my Google position (first in line if you search "hip deep in pie," thank you very much) and my referrals and even my value on Blogshares for crying out loud. I don't really need to be checking if I've made my very own dime yet, but I know I would.
So, what do you think? You read this thing, you tell me if you even use iTunes, or whether you have an opinion on linking to the store.
(Note: Bloody hell. Did you know that if you draft a post on on Blogger one day, write a different post, and then finish the first one, it's published by date of first draft, not actual publication date? LibraryMan is offended.)
On the one hand, I've been thinking about linking to the iTunes Music Store anyway. I'm on record as thinking that iTunes is an awesome application anyway, and the store gives me a place where you can hear 30 legal seconds of the song I'm referring to in my blog. I've only been holding off on that because it only works if you've got iTunes installed, and it's kind of a pisser to fill my blog with links that might or might not work for you.
And if I'm going to do the links, why not get my cut? 5% of all the 99 cent songs that I'm going to sell all my readers is...
not even enough to buy gum.
There's also the issue of becoming a corporate shill. Now, I'm way past my "The Internet Wants To Be Free, Man" days. Try doing some actual tech support for a while, and it'll beat all that pre-bubble idealism right out of you. Anyway, I never really thought of this blog as something I'd even try to make money with. It's just a place to try to make writing back into a habit.
I'm already noticing that I check to see my Google position (first in line if you search "hip deep in pie," thank you very much) and my referrals and even my value on Blogshares for crying out loud. I don't really need to be checking if I've made my very own dime yet, but I know I would.
So, what do you think? You read this thing, you tell me if you even use iTunes, or whether you have an opinion on linking to the store.
(Note: Bloody hell. Did you know that if you draft a post on on Blogger one day, write a different post, and then finish the first one, it's published by date of first draft, not actual publication date? LibraryMan is offended.)
posted by Joe at 7:06 PM
4 Comments:
To answer your questions, actual and implied:
1) I have and use itunes. Love it!
2) Haven't ever downloaded anything from itunes, though my computer would probably like some more Liza M tunes.
3) 'shill' aspect, varies, I think, depending upon who is reading your site. If you are, say, a faculty member who requires students to check their blog for assignments and other official academic information, and link to itunes or amazon books so as to earn a little side income, then you are, IMHO, a cad and a rougue. Your readers seem to nice folks, friends all, who read your blog because you write well and raise good points.
Conclusion: I wouldn't mind if you became an affiliate, and would still think of you as a swell guy and ref lib extraordinaire.
I suppose there really are 2 issues here; one is the linking to iTunes, the other is the becoming an "affiliate." At this point, I'm leaning towards linking to iTunes anyway, basically for the 30-second samples. The affiliate thing seems like a hoop to jump through, and I'm probably not messing with it for iTunes any more than I would with any other store.
You can change the day/time of posting manually, too.
Hugh,
Does Blogger actually sort by that date? I thought I saw the correct date and time on the post, but it appeared in the middle of the page instead of at the top.
and Reg,
iTunes for Windows seems to work pretty well, in my experience. It's a very faithful port.
Post a Comment
<< Home