Re:Ask HN: Projects that don't make you money but you're doi...
by imsd on Friday August 11, 2017 @03:38PM
(#14993404)
One idea could be to partner with publishers and maybe 10% of the time a user opens a new tab, the book placement is sponsored. Charge based on impressions, click-throughs, or by some other arrangement.
For users, it keeps the tool free and ideally—if the sponsored placements are good—introduces them to cool new books.
From the short time I was on Amazon, the lion's share of my affiliate revenue came from items other than books that were purchased using cookies that my app had set.
Without those non-book items, I would've made very, very little money (e.g., ~$5 instead of ~$300).
Books don't cost very much, but Persian rugs do! And there aren't many other booksellers out there who also sell Persian rugs...