Jan, I took this out of today's WSJ. I thought it was cute.
<When Amazon.com Inc. invited anyone with a Web site to become an "affiliated bookstore," the Internet-based seller of books got lots of new business -- and some headaches. Since the affiliate program started in 1996, some 90,000 entities have agreed to put Amazon's logo on their Web pages, and to steer potential book buyers to Amazon. These affiliates, who join at no cost, include Web sites for cat lovers, travelers and fans of the author Marianne Williamson. Once affiliates are on board, they collect rebates of 5% to 15% on books ordered through their sites, while Amazon takes care of shipping and credit-card billing.
As the affiliates program has grown, though, Amazon has noticed some suspicious ordering patterns. Certain Web sites don't order many books, and when they do, all the orders go to one address, or keep getting billed to the same credit card. The implication: individual book buyers are turning themselves into "virtual bookstores" so they can get a deeper discount. In effect, Peter Jones becomes Jones's House of Books. "We're policing that," an Amazon spokesman says. "We do drop people from the affiliates program." He won't provide an exact count of evictions to date, but says: "The human mind is very creative. We need to make sure we're just as creative in spotting these sorts of abuses."> |
