In the past year I’ve done a 180 degree pivot. I quit my full time job, I ditched social media, and I began working on projects that I’ve wanted to work on for years. I’m reading more than ever, I’m weight lifting again, and I’m slowly getting my life in order.
In all this time there’s still been one thing that I’ve maintained and that’s made me feel guilty and that’s my support of Amazon.com. It’s not that I’ve been a vocal supporter of the organization but rather that I’ve supported it with my wallet, that I’ve helped a man—sickeningly rich and who ultimately has the monetary power to change nations but does nothing of the sort—become even richer not through inaction but action; I’ve continued purchasing from Amazon, and I’ve continued linking out to Amazon products from my blogs.
When you’re out on your own without a steady paycheck every little helps, right?
The truth is “every little” is very little, and give Amazon’s rampant enshittification, with the platform further pulling access to data affiliates have historically used to improve the content on their blogs, well it frankly no longer seems worth it. Of the hundreds, possibly thousands of affiliate links I’ve shared over the years, in total I only make between $10 and $25 a month. From ebook purchases it’s the same.
That’s what? A cheap dinner out each month? Frankly for the extra time I put into finding those links and for the support I’m tacitly giving Bezos, well it’s simply not worth it. In light of this I’ll slowly be switching out all affiliate links on my websites to either bookshop.org (a B Corp founded by Andy Hunter), or another site owned by someone other than a corporate automaton. You can find my Bookshop.org shop page here. As with Amazon, for each book you purchase on it I earn a small commission. The difference is that ultimately you’re supporting smaller, independent book stores and not corporate giants like Amazon. I’ll be making all my link changes over the course of the next few months. Of course, for now this is my only solution for books. I’ll figure out what to do about dive gear over on Scuba Scribbles and about my KDP books, though most of them are low-content books and could be printed in bulk by someone else. One of the days I’ll get my own ecommerce shop up.
Perhaps when I was younger I’d have been more capable of thinking more selfishly but at this point in my life, when it’s more important than ever to ensure I’m putting my money where my mouth is, I’d prefer to help bolster the businesses that put more money in the hands of the individual. And, I’d rather my ten dollars a month go somewhere that doesn’t make me feel gross.
