If HTML was allowed on the booksources page this would be fairly easy to implement. The Amazon affiliates code accepts ISBNs and I once modified the book source page on a wiki I run to use Amazon Affiliates. I believe that, while this is an unproven revenue resource, it would be good to trial it as Wikipedia has grown much in traffic and it would not cause much of a bother if it was carefully integrated with the current booksources page.
On 15/05/07, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 5/15/07, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
So why are we leaving this money on the table again?
I think the current ISBN search interface is unlikely to ever generate significant revenue. I had to edit my Monobook.js to even make Amazon.com the default redirect (which I do because of the reviews, not the purchasing option).
But a nice AJAX interface that, among other things, makes it trivial to purchase books (or see reviews) from your preferred seller with a single click could be worth building, as soon as we have the developer resources to devote to it. With some clever UI design, users would be able to change their settings easily, and the defaults could be based on the most common preferences. Why AJAX? Because not all ISBNs are valid, and it may be necessary to perform an on-the-fly database lookup.
Generally speaking, affiliate programs that are
- connected to _useful_ features
- not exclusive
- not specific to a single product, website or service
- made transparent to the reader
- with reader preferences defining visibility
seem like a reasonable source of funds.
Peace & Love, Erik
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