Another online bookseller offers affiliate programme for schools/PTAs
Howard Lake | 19 January 2003 | News
Amazon has for six years been helping charities and other groups raise funds online by paying them commission for any book sales they can generate for the online bookseller. MeritMarks is another online bookseller offering a similar programme for schools and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs).
MeritMarks will pay 8% on sales of books via its Web site that have been generated by schools and PTAs.
The London-based company asks schools and PTAs to register online and then to promote their service to parents by newsletter, word of mouth, or their Web site.
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Visitors to the online bookshop simply have to quote the school’s ID number and the company keeps track of purchases generated by each school. At the end of each term it sends schools a cheque.
The 8% commission applies to all purchases over £5, but the company does say that it is hoping to increase this to 10%.
Such online affiliate programmes from booksellers are quite common. Amazon.com led the way in 1996, and Amazon.co.uk offers commission rates of 5-15%, depending on whether you list a book title or simply add a book search facility on your charity’s site.
Nevertheless MeritMarks does offer free publicity material appropriate for the schools/PTA market to help participating organisations generate potential purchasers. For example, it offers a pre-prepared newsletter on its School Login page, which automatically contains a school’s ID Number. This can be photocopied, or its content included in schools’ own newsletters to parents.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.