Brickset landing page at shop.LEGO.com

 

  • Brickset landing page at shop.LEGO.com

    Posted by Huw, 23 Aug 2012 03:29. Filed under Brickset.

    Brickset landing page at shop.LEGO.com!As I'm sure you already know, when you follow links from Brickset to shop.LEGO.com and then buy something [1], you help keep it online and free for everyone to use

    In recognition of this, LEGO has created a special landing page for Brickset at shop.LEGO.com which you can see if you click on the yellow 'Shop today >' box in the right-hand panel.

    So, please, check it out and get buying... :-)


    [1] Only if you're in USA, Canada or UK, unfortunately. LEGO doesn't operate affiliate schemes in other countries.


    37 comments, latest one posted 9 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Alemas in Germany, 23 Aug 2012 04:02

Well, if this is a page dedicated to Brickset, and not some standard template... Then LEGO is recognising Brickset as a good source of revenue for them! :P

Posted by Mickitat in Germany, 23 Aug 2012 04:03

There very certainly is something like an affiliate scheme in Germany.

Posted by Alemas in Germany, 23 Aug 2012 04:05

@Mickitat: Oh, perfect for me, then! :)

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 04:23

That's a nice touch! Good to see Brickset recognised by Lego.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 04:28

There are affiliate schemes in Germany but LEGO doesn't operate one, unless you know differently...

Posted by TWP in Netherlands, 23 Aug 2012 04:35

So, Brickset get paid by Lego? Where does brickset need the money for? To give Huw the new Lego sets to make those excellent reviews?

Posted by Savage_Steel in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 05:04

That's great Huw! Fabulous that you're being recognised and supported. Might have to do one for you on our little site once we've sorted our our new custom minifigs shop :)

Posted by ChicoCheco in Norway, 23 Aug 2012 05:20

This is a huge milestone. How long did it take from the original webpage idea to get up to here? Congratulations!

Posted by aaclapham in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 05:24

Well done - nice to see LEGO giving your some recognition for all your hard work. People don't realise how much time and money goes into running a successful web site.

Posted by Matthew in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 05:35

TWP: Web hosting, and Huw's time and energy to come up with new features.

Posted by DwarfSleepy in Netherlands, 23 Aug 2012 05:36

@TWP,

there's two ways to look at it:
* Brickset deserves to earn revenue, because it costs money to run (server, bandwidth, Huw's time)
* Brickset deserves to earn revenue, because it provides value (information for lego fans)

Either the money has to come from Huw (his goodness), fans/members (membership fees) or from other sources (advertising, affilate schemes).

I for one am very happy that the "other sources" seem to be working for Brickset/Huw, although I would even be willing to pay a little for this excellent resource.

Posted by MCNwakeboard in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 07:04

Happy to help. This is a great way to suppport the site.

Posted by Legolover9531 in United States, 23 Aug 2012 08:02

When the Haunted House comes out, I'm ordering through here.

Posted by TWP in Netherlands, 23 Aug 2012 09:07

@DwarfSleepy @ Matthew Of course I think brickset deserves money, and I think this way to get money is much better then advertisements. I just thought brickset was always independent, that's all.

Posted by goldfish in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 10:16

Well done. You should be recognised! Not many people outside the immediate Lego group can have possibly done more to promote Lego in the last few years.

Posted by Venunder in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 10:25

Great news for Brickset to get some recognition by Lego.
Keep up the good work everyone. Especially Huw. :)

Posted by yogibara in United States, 23 Aug 2012 10:26

@TWP just because they receive money from Lego doesn't mean they're not independent. Each site benefits from this partnership. There's no conspiracy here. Money makes the world go round, plain and simple.

Posted by Brickarmor in United States, 23 Aug 2012 11:08

So this is like being knighted, right?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 11:23

Thanks to everyone who's provided clarification on this. To be clear, Brickset does not receive money from LEGO and is in no way connected to it other than as an affiliate.

If the site sends users to shop.LEGO.com AND, once there, they buy something THEN, and only then, does Brickset get a small commission. So, if nobody clicks on the links and nobody buys anything, Brickset gets nothing. That's one reason why affiliate marketing is also called performance marketing: The site effectively gets paid for how well it performs in sending traffic of value to LEGO.

Virtually every other LEGO fan site raises funds in this way and it's because this means of funding is avaiable that they exist and are free to use.

Posted by jpetrasich in United States, 23 Aug 2012 11:28

Very cool. But the link/browser behavior is strange. I'm using IE8 and when I click the link, it opens TWO new tabs with the same URL. Is this just a quirk on my machine or does this happen to anyone else?

Posted by DarthZared in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 11:39

Brickset is the best place to get Lego news for any fan. Lego have done great recognising the team's work here and I will continue to read Brickset for a long time to come :)

Posted by Gregorovich in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 12:22

I almost never buy online via S@H. If I do, though, I'll be sure to use the link.

I'm quite curious, though. How does this whole thing work? I don't know much about running websites and whatnot, so I have no idea if they cost money to run, if they earn money and everything else. And how does clicking a link help keep the website free?

A quick explanation would be helpful:)

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 12:26

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing.

Yes, websites cost to run: hosting and bandwidth costs and of course, most of all, time.

Posted by tedward in Canada, 23 Aug 2012 13:19

Just for your info Huw I am not seeing. "the yellow 'Shop today >' box in the right-hand panel."

I'd love to got to S@H and support the site so maybe you could have a look?

Using: Firefox 14.0.1 on an iMac OS10.6.8 with accounts and cookies enabled for both Brickset and LEGO.com.

Posted by TooMuchLEGO in United States, 23 Aug 2012 15:14

I don't see it either...

Posted by aquafreak125 in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 15:31

Well done Brickset! You've done a great job with it Huw and the moderators, this site finally gets the recognition it deserves!

Posted by caperberry in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 16:19

Really cool!

Huw I have a question about affiliate marketing too! About Amazon though. When I buy several sets at once, I follow each link from Brickset and put it in my cart. Then purchase from one of the windows. Am I being too anal? Would you still get the revenue from all those sets if I just clicked one Brickset link and used that window to browse Amazon for the other wanted sets?
Please help,
OCD of London.

Posted by Matthew in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 17:07

^ Yes, you're overdoing it! Once you click on a Brickset affiliate link, Amazon remembers you're supporting Brickset for a certain amount of time (Possibly 24 hours, maybe longer). Unless of course, you click on another link, through a cashback site or another charitable cause. Then it switches to supporting them, even for the items you clicked on through Brickset. It's done by which cause is active at the time of purchase. If you click on 50 different links before buying, only the last one counts.

Posted by caperberry in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 17:49

Great, thanks Matthew!

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 23 Aug 2012 18:17

^ What he said, basically... I'm not sure how long the Amazon cookie window is but it's probably quite short.

Posted by jgrahl in United States, 23 Aug 2012 18:37

very nice

Posted by chowrentoys.com in Canada, 23 Aug 2012 19:28

We don't have a nice landing page on Chowrentoys.com for Brickset but we do actively promote brickset.com on our Facebook page. Chowrentoys.com is affiliated with Brick Set as well. Every time you click "buy from" next to Chowren Toys in the "for sale ->other online retailer" section Brickset get a nice commission. Our payout to Brickset is much better than lego.com or Amazon and we set the cookie window time to 48 hours. We also do something that LEGO and Amazon don't do. We provide LEGO set data info to Brickset whenever we find it missing in the database! Thank you and I hope you give us a visit.

Jason
www.chowrentoys.com

Posted by Erinlyn80 in United States, 23 Aug 2012 20:44

Good to know! I will remove my lego bookmark and go to it through here instead!

Posted by aaclapham in United Kingdom, 24 Aug 2012 03:15

The Amazon cookie length is one day.

Posted by chowrentoys.com in Canada, 24 Aug 2012 13:50

Well done Huw and everyone at Brickset! Congratulations! You certainly deserve this recognition from LEGO for all the hard work you do! You guys are one of the best if not THE BEST LEGO information and fan site. This is why you will always have our support through our affiliate program as well as any information we can provide to help you make Brickset better. People just need to understand just because it if free for you to use it does not mean it is free to run.

Jack
www.chowrentoys.com

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 24 Aug 2012 14:04

Indeed Brickset is supported by a number of affiliates including Chowren Toys. Thanks guys!

Posted by Gregorovich in United Kingdom, 25 Aug 2012 04:43

@Huw - Thanks for the link. That explains a lot, and will help things in future make a lot more sense to me!

Commenting has ended on this article.