For almost 3 years now, I’ve put my heart and soul into making In Third Person the best gaming blog it could be. I poured in hundreds of hours of time into this blog back when the site was lucky to get a few dozen readers a month. Since those early days, In Third Person has grown into a site that serves thousands of visitors a month that also has a growing fan-base. Thank you readers for your on-going support.
In 2012, I’m looking to making the entire In Third Person experience better for you. One of those improvements is live now, which is the ability for you to shop on for gaming stuff In Third Person thanks to Amazon.com.
Now that In Third Person is an official Amazon Associate, you’ll have access to the following new features:
In Third Person Online Store
The In Third Person official online store features games and gaming-related products handpicked by me. The product selection will be heavily slanted towards products that I personally recommend. You can access this at any time through the top navigation. If you’re interested in seeing certain games make an appearance, I’d definitely consider including it. Currently, there’s a section for my picks, upcoming releases, fighsticks and a Girlfriend Gaming section for Steff’s picks. I will definitely rotate the stock and revise the sections over time, so it’s definitely worth a look.
Jett’s Picks Widget
Along the right hand side of every page is a widget with a few of my picks. Clicking on the product links takes you directly their respective product pages on Amazon. As with the store, these will be handpicked by me and updated often. At the bottom is also a link to the store.
In-Post Product Links
Where applicable, In Third Person posts will have an Amazon link to the game(s) mentioned in posts. Right now, I’m thinking of keeping these at the bottom of posts after you’ve read the content. From there you can decide if the game you just read about is worth your hard earned dollars.
What’s in this for you?
Amazon is the most popular and one of the most trusted online retailers, period. It’s also a very popular online destination for video game shopping. I would not be surprised if most In Third Person readers had an Amazon account or have bought video games from Amazon before. If you’re on In Third Person, you see a game in the store or read about a game on the site, you’ll have the option to quickly purchase it without really going anywhere. You also get the warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that you helped support In Third Person. ❤
Depending on how well this initiative goes, I may be able to invest more into the site in the future. Contests? Website redesign? Better produced video content? These and more, in theory, could come closer to reality with the site moving in this direction.
(Not exactly what’s in it for me)
What’s in this for me?
Might as well address the elephant in the room now. Yes, implementing Amazon is a means for this site to generate some money. Enough to quit my day job? I’m not holding my breath. I’m not implementing this as a means of getting rich, but rather as a means to compensate for the countless number of hours spent and some of the financial expenses I’ve spent maintaining this site.
Does this mean I’m selling out? Not by a long shot. I know what got this site here in the first place, and it wasn’t money. The content will not degrade in quality or disappear with this change. I think that if this is implemented correctly, the Amazon presence will make things better for both of us. Instead of seeing random banner ads everywhere, I can control what you see and the context you see it in so that it’s a meaningful feature.
I’m really excited to see where we go with this and go with the site in 2012. What do you think about having Amazon on the site? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
In Third Person 