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Divert the Mighty Amazon and Help Support Phoenix Rising - for Free!

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by Sasha


No, not that one!
Photo: Markg6, Flickr

Amazon.com, Inc.: it’s huge! It’s the biggest online retailer in the world and, weirdly, we can easily divert some of its mighty river of money into Phoenix Rising’s coffers. For free! Free, my friends!

First I’m going to tell you how to do it and then I’m going to tell you why.


How to make Amazon give Phoenix Rising free cash

Amazon pays a whacking 5% to 8% of the price of your purchase to any affiliate site from which you arrive at it, with absolutely no extra cost to you.

Phoenix Rising has affiliate links to the following Amazon stores and clicking on your country’s link will take you straight to your usual Amazon home page (go on, have a go):

Phoenix Rising’s US Amazon Store
Phoenix Rising’s UK Amazon Store
Phoenix Rising’s Canadian Amazon Store
Phoenix Rising’s Deutsches Amazon Speichern
Phoenix Rising Française Amazon Store
Phoenix Rising Españoles Amazon Store

Whatever you buy during that ‘trip’ to the store will benefit Phoenix Rising. Amazon, of course, doesn’t pass on your name or details of what you bought.

To help you remember to use the link, you can drag and drop the weblink for your chosen store onto your bookmarks toolbar (below the web address field in your browser) and it will form a button with the Amazon logo. You can edit the button’s title, if you want, by right-clicking on the button. If you don’t know how to get your bookmarks bar to display with your particular browser, throw that question with your browser’s name into Google.


What’s it worth?

5% to 8%, you’re thinking. That’s worth, erm, a year, that’s... erm...

Hang on, I’ve got my calculator...

Right, then. The average annual spend of a customer on Amazon is now $313, which is about $26 a month. People with ME/CFS might, of course, have a lower income than average but then more of it might be spent online because we can’t get out to the shops as easily so let’s use that figure as a rough guide. The average of 5% and 8% is 6.5% so that annual spend of $313 would be about $20 (£13 , €15) to Phoenix Rising a year.

Phoenix Rising has over 1,000 regular visitors and our newsletter goes out to over 3,000. If just a fraction of us used the affiliate button we’d easily keep Phoenix Rising funded.


Why support Phoenix Rising?

Phoenix Rising costs proper money. Without an income, the lights would go out and you and I would be tipped into the street like drunks at closing time, milling about on the pavement and wondering what happened.

If you’re reading this, you probably read three to four new articles a week that Phoenix Rising has provided to help keep you informed, whether that’s articles on symptoms, treatments, new research, or the charities that are trying to find the answers. You also have access to the forums and all that they provide: companionship, support, information, and the expertise of other members.

Any regular user of Phoenix Rising should support it financially, if they can, even if that’s just to donate the cost of buying a magazine (go here to donate cash). It’s only fair. But if you shop on Amazon, supporting Phoenix Rising isn’t just right, it’s free.

So join me as I leave the moths sleeping peacefully in my wallet and let’s go shopping...



Phoenix Rising is a registered 501 c.(3) non profit. We support ME/CFS and NEID patients through rigorous reporting, reliable information, effective advocacy and the provision of online services which empower patients and help them to cope with their isolation.

There are many ways you can help Phoenix Rising to continue its work. If you feel able to offer your time and talent, we could really use some more authors, proof-readers, fundraisers, technicians etc. and we'd love to expand our Board of Directors. So, if you think you can help then please contact Mark through the Forum.

And don't forget: you can always support our efforts at no cost to yourself as you shop online! To find out more, visit Phoenix Rising’s Donate page by clicking the button below.


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Just bought something small on Amazon and earned around $1.00-$1.50 for Phoenix Rising --- depending on if it was 5% or 8% (is there a way to know this?)

It is worth bookmarking the links above and always access Amazon through the Phoenix Rising shop link (even if not necessarily ending up buying anything and just browsing, it's a good habit to get into ;)). Amazon is very generous in giving up to 8% to charitable causes. It can quickly add up!
 
Just bought something small on Amazon and earned around $1.00-$1.50 for Phoenix Rising --- depending on if it was 5% or 8% (is there a way to know this?)
Thanks Purple. :) The way the commission varies is quite complicated, I'm not sure if there's any way for you to tell, assuming it doesn't say anything on your invoice.

It is worth bookmarking the links above and always access Amazon through the Phoenix Rising shop link (even if not necessarily ending up buying anything and just browsing, it's a good habit to get into ;)). Amazon is very generous in giving up to 8% to charitable causes. It can quickly add up!
Indeed; it's a very generous scheme and a significant source of income for PR.
 
I take then that we might be able to order through the US site maybe??


Occasionally I (in the UK) have ordered stuff from US Amazon that hasn't been available here and of course there are extra shipping charges (there's import duty on some stuff, I believe). But if you're placing an order with an overseas Amazon and you use Phoenix Rising's affiliate link, we'll get the 5-8% cut.

The % that Amazon donates doesn't appear on you invoice so there's no way of knowing exactly how much it is but it's a big whack. I wish I got 5% on my savings!

To my surprise, I've spent about £100 this month on Amazon - £30 on some full-spectrum lightbulbs, £50 on some books that aren't available through the library, £15 on some supplements - all of this stuff health-related, in fact, even the books! So that's £5 to £8 to Phoenix Rising just from me and just this month.

I only use Amazon when it's the cheapest/easiest way to shop (I can't get to the shops, usually) - so none of this is costing me anything.
 
Great artcile Sasha, really makes the case well and I must try harder to use this: as you point out, it could fund PR if everyone used it.

Generally, I get to amazon by searching google uk for something I want to buy, and only go to amazon if it's cheapest. So I don't normally visit amazon directly, which I need to do to benefit Phoenix Rising.

Suggestion
Because I'm lazy (as well as tired) and forgetful, I'd be much more likely to do this - rather than just planning to do this - if there was a visible Amazon button on every PR page. This would both remind me and be a handy button to click to give.

Don't know if it could be built into the PR system directly, or if not I'm pretty sure it could be incorporated into the 'Banner' used to announce new PR articles. You could either use a button for each country, or an image with links for each country's store, eg:

Give Phoenix Rising
5-8% of your spend
amazon-icon.png

USA UK etc

OK, v clunky and I'm sure could be improved on but hope that gives the idea.

Meanwhile I have bookmarked the PR amazon page.
 
Great artcile Sasha, really makes the case well and I must try harder to use this: as you point out, it could fund PR if everyone used it.

Generally, I get to amazon by searching google uk for something I want to buy, and only go to amazon if it's cheapest. So I don't normally visit amazon directly, which I need to do to benefit Phoenix Rising.

Suggestion
Because I'm lazy (as well as tired) and forgetful, I'd be much more likely to do this - rather than just planning to do this - if there was a visible Amazon button on every PR page. This would both remind me and be a handy button to click to give.

Don't know if it could be built into the PR system directly, or if not I'm pretty sure it could be incorporated into the 'Banner' used to announce new PR articles. You could either use a button for each country, or an image with links for each country's store, eg:

Give Phoenix Rising
5-8% of your spend
amazon-icon.png

USA UK etc

OK, v clunky and I'm sure could be improved on but hope that gives the idea.

Meanwhile I have bookmarked the PR amazon page.


Thanks, Simon!

Mark and I have had some discussions about something along the lines of what you suggest but it's another item that's on the backburner until more volunteers come forward - there's a big pile of stuff that needs doing!

Meanwhile, I'm delighted (must get out more) with having the PR Amazon button on my bookmark bar. It's there all the time so if I want to go to Amazon, I don't have to come to the PR site - I just click on the Amazon icon (which I've labelled 'Phoenix Rising') on my bookmark bar.

If you search on Google for some product and end up on Amazon looking at it, if you go away from Amazon and come back to it through our PR link that item will be highly visible in your 'recently looked at' items so you'll easily find it again. Amazon is very good at shoving in front of your face the thing it thinks you're most likely to buy!
 
If you search on Google for some product and end up on Amazon looking at it, if you go away from Amazon and come back to it through our PR link that item will be highly visible in your 'recently looked at' items so you'll easily find it again. Amazon is very good at shoving in front of your face the thing it thinks you're most likely to buy!
That's a really good point/idea, thanks.
 
When I shop through the PR link for Amazon, I don't get any notice that money has been allocated to Phoenix Rising. How can I make sure that the link is actually working?
As far as I know, the only way to check would be to notify us privately of the purchase details and we can check that it shows up on our Amazon Shop account.
 
I mostly use my iPad. What I did was click on the US store link you provided and then bookmarked the page that came up, which was an amazon homepage:
http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=ur2&tag=phoerisi05-20

Do you know if this will work? It has "phoerisi"in the address so it looks like it will.
 
I mostly use my iPad. What I did was click on the US store link you provided and then bookmarked the page that came up, which was an amazon homepage:
http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=ur2&tag=phoerisi05-20

Do you know if this will work? It has "phoerisi"in the address so it looks like it will.
That's exactly the same URL as the original link (in general, you can't be sure that's the case, because it might redirect to another URL and store the codes in cookies, but in this case, clearly it's fine) so yes, that bookmark is fine. Thanks for bookmarking us Justin. :)
 
By the way, Americans and Canadians - which is your big gift-giving day of the year? In the UK it's Xmas (and in most of Europe, I think, with a bit of variation).

Is it Thanksgiving in the US? What about in Canada?

Just wondering when to remind everyone about this Amazon stuff! :cool: