Stacey Carroll and Amazon Affiliates

It's important to note that almost every book link, electronics gizmo, coffee mugs and other products listed on this site is a link directly to Amazon from the Amazon Affiliates Program.  This means that you will be taken to amazon upon clicking the link, and you will be able to purchase that book or another book or item directly from the Amazon website.  If you are unfamiliar with the Amazon affiliate program or any other affiliate program, it also means that staceycarroll.org earns a very small commission from those suggested purchases.  This feature is partially how we keep this site operational.  To ensure these links are relevant with the textual content that is on this site, I try to choose items that would be beneficial, useful or otherwise interesting to writers and authors.

Becoming an Amazon Affiliate

If you've read a little bit on book marketing and earning money as an author, you know that many articles, blog posts and informative texts recommend using affiliate links in order to increase your earnings as an author and an online marketer.  The Amazon Affiliate Program is free to join. However, you will need a bank account if you want to get paid.  When you first join, you will have to make X number of sales within 6 months.  You will also have to maintain some sales in order to stay in the program.  If you ever fail to make sales, Amazon will discontinue your account.  However, you are free to reapply at any time.  If you ever have to reapply to the program, you should know that Amazon does not save your previous information; you will have to enter all your information is if you are a brand new affiliate.

FCC Requirements to Stay Compliant (Legal Stuff)

This is recommended by Amazon in order to stay compliant with the FCC rules and regulations for Advertisements.

Any time you share an affiliate link, it’s important to disclose that to your audience. They will trust you more if you are transparent about where you are directing them and why. To meet the Associate Program's requirements, you must (1) include a legally compliant disclosure with your links and (2) identify yourself on your Site as an Amazon Associate with the language required by the Operating Agreement. This is the sole purpose of this page. To let you know that StaceyCarroll.org is an amazon affiliate site and may contain Amazon affiliate links.

To comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations, your link-level disclosure must be:

1. Clear. A clear disclosure could be as simple as “(paid link)”, “#ad” or “#CommissionsEarned”.

2. Conspicuous. It should be placed near any affiliate link or product review in a location that customers will notice easily. They shouldn’t have to hunt for it.

If you're wondering how to reduce your digital footprint on my site and on every other site you visit, here's some tips.

1. Use DuckDuckGo for your internet searches.  DuckDuckGo automatically inserts a "no track" request to every search.

2. Use the anonymous browsing feature in your web browser.  You may have to dig for it, but it's there.

4. Don't use social media sharing buttons.  The website you are on is not tracking you when you click those, but your social media account knows.  hence sharing...

5. Don't use the social media login options on some websites. Instead, create a separate login. Yes, I know it's a pain in the ass.

About the Cookies Used on These Pages - Because EU

The cookies used on this site are used for functionality and to render google AdsSense ads.

What the cookies here do:

Cookies clearly exempt from consent according to the EU advisory body on data protection- WP29 include:

• user‑input cookies (session-id) such as first‑party cookies to keep track of the user's input when filling online forms, shopping carts, etc., for the duration of a session or persistent cookies limited to a few hours in some cases
• authentication cookies, to identify the user once he has logged in, for the duration of a session
• user‑centric security cookies, used to detect authentication abuses, for a limited persistent duration
• multimedia content player cookies, used to store technical data to play back video or audio content, for the duration of a session
• load‑balancing cookies, for the duration of session
• user‑interface customization cookies such as language or font preferences, for the duration of a session (or slightly longer)
• third‑party social plug‑in content‑sharing cookies, for logged‑in members of a social network.
• Google Ads - We now run google ads on the website. Google tracks you.

And it dismays me that Internet Cookies are not edible, so here's a cookie recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

• 1/2 cup Margarine
• 1/2 cup Butter, Softened
• 1 cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup White Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (more of this)
• 2-1/4 cups Plus 2 Tablespoons, All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon (heaping) Instant Coffee Granules (I never use this)
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Flax Seed, Slightly Crushed With Rolling Pin (I never use this)
• 3/4 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (double this)
• 1 cup (heaping) Milk Chocolate Chips (I never use these)

If you bake, you know how this goes together.  Butter and sugar, then vanilla, then eggs, then everything that isn't chocolate chips.  Then cocolate chips.

For those who don't know, I started my writing career as a freelance, and there are a few differences between being an Indianapolis freelance writer and being a novelist.  One of the biggest is that everything I write as a freelancer is preordered and priced.  Agents, editors and publishers don't send out a list of material they want with prices they are willing to pay.

Freelancer

• 99 percent acceptance rate
• It's all preordered
• It's all prepriced
• There's very little competition
• You become an expert in a lot of different industries
• You become an expert at researching
• You are very good at SEO and social media
• Writing exhausted is a way of life
• There is no such thing as writers block
• Brain fry is real

Novelist

• 97 to 300 percent rejection rate
• The agents, publishers ect did not ask for it
• Submitting blind
• Way more competition
• You don't get paid until you get a book deal
• You may never get a book deal
• Reading all those rejection letters is going to wear you out, regardless of how good your self-esteem is.
• You are going to get really good at determining which rejection letters are real and which ones were copy/paste bulk send