I was scanning through my RSS Reader today and I found an article by Shoemoney talking about having an Amazon Wish List on your Blog.  He talks about having an Amazon wish list instead of the typical “Please Donate” type button on a Blog.  What’s cool about Amazon wish lists is that it allows you to have a list of items people can get you as gifts in a variety of price ranges.

I remember one day I was reading Joe Vitale’s Blog and somewhere along the way he mentioned that he loves Amazon gift cards since he loves books (probably as much as I do).  I thought it was so cool that he had that on his site because I would have loved to get him a gift but what do you get for someone like him when you don’t really know them personally?  So when I saw that he liked Amazon gift cards, I sent him one.

Donating Up Philosophy

I kind of have this philosophy about donating UP.  What I mean by that is that while most people only think about donating to people who are at a lower economical level than themselves, from time to time, I like to also donate to people who are at a higher economical level than me that have touched my life.  I don’t really have a logical reason for this, but it just feels intuitively right to me.

For example, when I first heard about Steve Pavlina and his Blog, I was very impressed by the level of success he was able to have by simply giving away free personal development advice online.  This was long before Blogs like John Chow were popular.  So, I sent him a donation and thanked him for inspiring me to start my own Blog.

Amazon Wish List

One thing I haven’t really had on my Blog was a donate button, and after reading Shoemoney’s article I decided to take his advice and create a list.  It only has a few items in it so far as I still have to do some searching for what I need/want but it’s a start.  Actually, it’s been a lot harder to think of stuff I want than I originally though.  I’m sure more stuff will pop into my head soon enough and I’ll try to add it to my list.

What’s cool about creating the list as well is that it clarifies in my mind what I want, and inspires me to earn more money through my affiliate marketing efforts so I can get some of those things.

It only takes a few minutes to get an Amazon Wish List setup and added to your Blog, and I highly recommend getting one setup.  You never know when someone might feel generous and get you something on your list.

I decided to stick my wish list button in the right hand side column, but I still need to fix the background on it as I don’t like the white background the way it is now.