Amazon.com and JLCM

[MTapley]

I think it's not much of a marriage. It annoys me a little to see the little amazon windows in my daily fix of JLCM.
I do appreciate the intention to promote other stuff Joe may have liked in the past few days. Not necessarily movies, not necessarily recent, not necessarily related to the review... But I should think there's a way to do that without sticking those annoying things in the middle of the review.

A (hypothetical) penny for your (hypothetical) thoughts.

[joerules]

I'm grateful for the feedback, and would like to know what everyone else thinks. But how closely were you looking at it? The picks are related directly to the reviews. I made a point to do so, to make sure they weren't arbitrary. This isn't just stuff I've been into in the past few days, every pick is inspired by the releases of the previous weekend.

There have been two times that the box has ben in the actual review. Every other time it's been in the subcategories. Is this really very distracting?

[gerbo321]

I don't mind it. Sometimes I even click on them, and I practically never click on ads.

[MTapley]

I see the link really. And I see the intention. And the comments are always appreciated. It's just...I don't know - a bit of a nuisance. On the other hand, maybe I should just ignore them. They don't make me foam at the mouth really.
Whatever the case, in the subcategories is better.

[mlsterben]

I never see it thanks to NoScript.

[opie301]

I guess I've gotten used to it. It's off to the side, like a picture or something. I tend to just read around it and don't really notice it anymore. I had to go back and take a look just to see where it was placed in the latest review.

I don't think I managed to help at all with that commentary. I guess my point is that it doesn't bother me in the least, but it doesn't provide any additional value to the site for me either.

[joerules]

That post pleases and depresses me. I never intended for the ads to be a distraction but I definitely was looking at them as a way to expand on the review - show recomendations without a recomendation section, which is why I leave comments with most of the picks.

I also thought it would be a nice way to sort of legitimize the reviews a little. It's better to have ads I control rather than ones that could be for anythign right? And Amzon is pretty popular and respected.

I certianly don't do it for the money because there really is none. I really just look at it as a way to link you guys to stuff related to the reviews that I thinkis cool.

[mailer daemon]

Just to add another opinion, I'm totally cool with them.

[opie301]

I certianly don't do it for the money because there really is none. I really just look at it as a way to link you guys to stuff related to the reviews that I thinkis cool.

I understand that, and I guess there's value there in terms of enhancing the review, but I don't think it's being utilized correctly.

Your intention is to have the Amazon box reflect some of your thoughts and point us toward other interesting and related items. But despite your intent, it doesn't say any of that. Even though I know what you're trying to accomplish, it looks like an ad to me. And my instinct to ignore advertising is pretty well developed.

I know you don't want to add more words/sections to the review, but it might be a more effective tool if you occasionally mentioned the Amazon box, and why you chose the items that you did, in your review. Then it gets tied into the review as a whole, rather than just standing alone and anonymously off to the side.

[joerules]

That makes a lot of sense. Part of me was nervous about mentioning the big pink elephant on the side of the review, but there's no shame in it. Thanks for the feedback guys.