Why the Amazon ads?

You have almost certainly noticed the various Amazon ads scattered around the website, and are apparently curious as to why they are there.

Obviously, ads provide a way to offset the cost of running a website, and to (hopefully) provide a little pocket money in exchange for the time and effort that I put into this website. But why Amazon, specifically?

In the past, I relied exclusively on Goodle AdSense ads. There was a time that Google made it a point to very tightly focus the ads they showed based upon the content of the website. I felt like this was of great use to visitors, and I hoped to see that with their ads on this site. Also, Google paid for clicks, which was nice.

However, Google chaged their policies, and now, they show you ads mostly related to things you have searched or shopped for, regardless of what the website content might be. You end up seeing the same ads here on this site that you do on a tech blog, car enthusiant forum, etc. I feel like that makes the ads way less effective.

With Amazon, I can control exactly what is shown, and I try to make sure that the ads that you see are only for homebrewing-related items. Now, with that being said...

Don't feel like you ever have to click on an Amazon ad. That's right, I'm not trying to push any merchandise via Amazon ads. Besides, clicks don't do anything for me, anyway. Instead, Amazon pays a commission on anything sold through a click on one of our ads.

But I enjoy BrewUnited, and I'd like to help. Hey, that's fantastic! If you'd like to help, here is my simple request: if you are already planning to shop at Amazon, please click one of our ads to get there. If you're buying homebrew suppies or gear, if you are buying a blu ray player, if you are buying office supplies, whatever... please consider clicking on one of our links to get to Amazon. The pricing will be exactly the same as it would have been had you gone directly to the site; we will simply receive a small referral commission. It doesn't matter what the ads was for that took you to Amazon; any purchases that you make will send a commission to the site.

I would like to sincerely thank you for your support. If you have suggestions on how to improve the ads, or how to improve the site in general, please do not hesitate to send them in!