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Posted by Manuel Lemos on 07/01/65 11:17
Hello,
on 05/27/2005 11:50 PM Ryan A said the following:
>>>I have requested the free test several times and it was very useful
>>>because it brought my attention to aspects that I was not considering,
>>>some related to PHP in specific and other related to Internet in
> general.
>>>fair enough, you could have given him the link the the page directly
>>>_without_
>>>your affiliate add on code, but since you did tack your aff code on, I
>>think
>>>you should have mentioned it
>>That would be irrelevant because nothing changes for the anybody that
>>follows the link with or without the aff code. The service is still free
>>and the service is the same.
>
> Not really, the service is still the same... true,
> but what happens if he decides to buy one more scan (49$) from that site or
> decides to buy a 1 month scanning option ($119) or 1 year scanning ($899)?
> Does a little birdie get 35% (recurring) of that?
Read my phrase again: nothing changes for anybody that follows the link,
whether or not anybody gains from any referrals.
That means that if a person that follows the link that I suggested buys
$1000 worth of services or goods, he would still pay $1000 if the link
did not contain my referral id.
I am sure that you that it happens that way, but the way you are putting
you are confusing other people reading the thread by making them believe
that the price would be different if I were to get any commissions. That
is false. The price and the service are the same for any user.
> ---------
> If I am acting with malice as you suggest just because I did not mention
> that the URL contained my affiliate id, what would you say about the PHP
> group that lists a pile of books in Amazon linked with their affiliate
> id but they do not mention that fact anywhere in their pages?
>
> http://www.php.net/books.php
> ----------
> Ummm..... this is whats written on the page:
> "If you buy the book using the links on this page, you are helping to
> support PHP development! "
> Lucky for me, English is my mother tongue but I think even if it was'nt and
> my IQ was quite a bit lower
> I would still the idea that if I buy a book using one of those links the
> site was gaining from it.
> Why? because they are being open,decent AND honest about it, see the
> "If you buy the book using the links .....you are helping to support...."
> parts?
You are not being serious and you are only acting with bias against me,
as nowhere in that page it says that when you use those links, the PHP
Group (I suppose) may earn 15% on commissions of books sold for their
referrals to Amazon.
If I just go in that page or some other page that lists PHP books, pick
the ISBN a book of Rasmus Lerdorf (the creator of PHP) and buy it
directly in Amazon or somewhere else, I am sure I will be helping PHP
development somehow, but the PHP Group would not get a cent for the
referral.
Still, the links in those pages use the PHP Group Amazon affiliate ID,
like the link I suggested before includes my affiliate ID. The books
page omits the actual way it "helps PHP development" and the affiliate
ID are hidden in HTML, unlike my message that was in plain text (I do
not post in HTML ever).
For me, of course there is nothing wrong on the PHP Group help
themselves making money with referrals. My point is that it is pretty
common to not distract people with the details of who gets what with
referrals because it does not change anything for who follows a link
with our without the referral id. The price and the service is the same.
What matters is who wants free help can get free help even if that help
provides some benefit to the person that is providing it. If a person
that gets free help does not like that whoever provides the help
benefits from that too, that person is just being ungrateful and so does
not deserve to be helped.
> Nobody is pointing fingers at you because you want to make money, EVERYONE
That is all you did!
>>>you challenged my credibility by distorting the facts. Of course
>>>that bugs me because for 8 years I have been participating in PHP
>>>mailing lists helping people leading to solutions to the problems that
>>>they pose, and your attitude is misleading people into believing that I
>>>am not helping them.
>
> Cool, just one question..... everytime you "help" someone are you helping
> yourself
> too like the way you tried to help Andy?
>
> Have you noticed some of the guys here who unselfishly answer something
> like:
> "I see what the problem is, use this code instead <code here> and replace
> this <code here>
> and try reading about this function here <url here>"
>
> Now, _thats_ unselfishly helping someone...no gain for the helper except
> that warm feeling
> and a clear concience....maybe even a good nights sleep.
>
Don't be ridiculous! Everybody gains something when he helps somebody on
these lists. Sometimes people just feel good for being helpful (think
for instance of Richard Lynch), other times people actually gain
reputation and are contracted to provide paid jobs (think for instance
of Chris Shifflet), some may even gain money indirectly from commission
referrals (think of the PHP Group with the books page), etc.. You can
think of me of anybody that may benefit of helping in any of the cases
(although currently I am not for hire for any jobs).
Therefore, there is not really such thing of being "unselfish" here.
Everybody gains some satisfaction for being helpful here. You would be
fooling yourself if you believe otherwise.
My point above is that I dedicate full time to the PHP community
professionally. Maybe you don't know what I do exactly for a living (I
will let you figure it out as your home work), but all my time is taken
with all the PHP related projects that I work on and at least hundreds
of thousands of users benefit.
But I cannot dedicate full time to PHP projects unless it provides means
to sustain myself and my family. So, if I come here and spend quite some
time to help others, I need to justify to myself that time that I have
to take for my regular (paid) work. That does not happen often, but if I
posted a link with an affiliate id, is because I am (vaguely) justifying
the time that I spent doing it. I am not hiding that, nor I am not
ashamed because it is not a crime, by the contrary, I am helping
somebody providing exactly the information that he asked, regardless if
doing it that way I will ever benefit from it.
--
Regards,
Manuel Lemos
PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
http://www.phpclasses.org/
PHP Reviews - Reviews of PHP books and other products
http://www.phpclasses.org/reviews/
Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generator
http://www.meta-language.net/metastorage.html
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