Category Archives: Ask Jo

Ask Jo: Commission and More

Every so often questions and comments come from readers that I think others would like to hear my response to. That’s when I feature them on the blog. This is one of those days… I’m working on some follow-up questions today.

Last week I had a couple of questions from you after I posted about Kathy from Cotton Cabin asking why I provided Amazon links for people in my blog posts (Find that post HERE), particularly for quilt books…like this current favorite of mine Scrap School. You can find it HERE.

I explained that if you click the link up above that I provided for the Scrap School book, and end up purchasing the book, Amazon pays me a small commission. Something like 4%. You don’t pay anything more for the book. It’s called an affiliate link and it’s great for bloggers like me.

The commission is a way that we can keep the costs of having a blog down and not require people to pay for content and give away free patterns.

Now if you click on the link above and end up deciding, “No, I’m not going to buy the book but while I’m here, I am going to get my nephew a birthday present”, Amazon will give me the commission on the birthday gift you buy.

Christy asked:
“Hi Jo! Do you only get commissions on items you recommend and provide a link for? Today I ordered a vacuum. I started Amazon from one of your links, do you get credit for that too?”

Kit asked a similar question:
“? so if I enter Amazon through your blog, and then shop for something unrelated (ie, vitamins), will you still get credit for my purchase?
… or do you need to be directly linked to the product purchased? It’s a learning curve thing!!”

The answers are YES! As long as you start at my blog and then go to Amazon, regardless of what you buy, vacuum cleaners, office chairs, a book, vitamins, or anything else you can think of, Amazon does pay me that commission on whatever it is. It is VERY helpful to me and the pennies do add up.

If you go to the right-hand column of the blog, this explanation and Amazon ad are there…You can click that anytime and go and shop. I really appreciate it when you do.

The next question is unrelated. I don’t have a clue on how to answer this as I’ve never heard of it. Can any of you help Jane with this question?
She writes: Continue reading →

Ask Jo: Amazon and Quilting Books

33 Replies

Every so often questions and comments come from readers that I think others would like to hear my response to. That’s when I feature them on the blog. This is one of those days…

I’m only tackling one question today. Here goes…

Kathy Regan commented:
“As the owner of a quilt shop in the area, I’m very saddened that you choose to send people to Amazon to purchase books. Is there a reason that you need to do that?”

There is a reason I need to do that. I’ve addressed a very similar group of questions before in an “Ask Jo” segment. You can find that blog post HERE. If you want to know a little more about the ins and outs of blogging, that is a great post to read.

This question is slightly different so I’ll explain a little more specifically related to quilt shops.

First off let me again explain this…as I said in the other blog post, I am a small business just like quilt shops are small businesses. I need to support myself. I need that more than ever now since Kramer passed away and I’m on my own. Every bit that comes in helps me get by and make a living. I get a commission from Amazon if you buy something from them if you go there through the links on the blog.

I’ve been working with Amazon since 2007 and they have always been great to me. Let’s get into this a little deeper. When you buy something from Amazon, if you use a link from my blog, I get a small tiny commission. So for example when I did the post about things I loved from Amazon, if you bought the popcorn popper, ( Find it HERE)

Amazon paid me something like 4% (I’m not sure of the current percentage) of the cost of the popper. You didn’t pay any extra for the popper. Amazon gives that commission to me more or less as an advertising fee because you likely wouldn’t have bought the popper had you not heard how much I love mine. Some of you, like me before I bought mine, didn’t know the microwave popcorn popper existed.

Now when it comes to quilting books…I recently showed you Carver’s quilt.

I explained that I used Lori Holt’s book Spelling Bee. I added this Find it HERE with a link to Amazon. Anyone who saw that link was welcome to do whatever they wanted with the link.

Many of you already have the book and like me, haven’t made a single thing from it and after seeing my quilt finish, might pull it out and make one. Some of you are going to go to your local quilt and see if they have it. Some of you might go right to Amazon and purchase it. Some of you don’t like the quilt and have no reason to make it or purchase the book.

For those of you who did buy the book from Amazon…the small commission money I get from Amazon is so appreciated. When I use the commission money to buy things with it, I often tell you about it.

This year I bought new scooters for the childcare kiddos with the Amazon commission money.

Then when I saw that the younger kids needed scooters their size, I used some of the money for them.

Everyone has their own free will to purchase quilt books or anything else from whomever they please. I am not forcing anyone to buy from Amazon. It is always there as an option though.

I also put those links in as I didn’t previously do that and I would be bombarded with people who wanted to know where to get the book as their local quilt shop didn’t have it. For me, it’s easier all around to put the information out there and let people do with it whatever they please.

I have been complimented by many blog readers that I give more information and more links than other bloggers and they really appreciate that.

I don’t want people to think… Continue reading →

Ask Jo: Question on the Halloween Quilt

22 Replies

Hello…
Thanks so much for the wonderful response to our Halloween quilt, Halloween Hoopla, that is published in the current, October 2021 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.

I’ve gotten quite a few questions related to the quilt so I thought I would get to them all.

First off…from Laura K:
“I absolutely love this pattern. Where can I purchase it?”

The quilt pattern is in the current issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. This issue.

For me, our Walmart and our grocery store regularly stock this magazine.

Next up…the packages of Halloween fabric. Remember I had 13 of these bags…

Remember they were all filled with Halloween fabric… Continue reading →

Ask Jo: Scrap Management

21 Replies

Hello, and welcome to another edition of “Ask Jo”. I get many comments and questions from all sorts of places, the comment section here, Youtube, email, and from our Facebook group. Sometimes I think others of you might want to know the answers as well so I answer them here on the blog. Today I’m tackling a question from Cindy about fabric storage and use.

Cindy asked:
“Hello, I just ordered the book scrap school, and I have a couple of questions regarding your technique. Do you have an Accuquilt machine or do you cut your pieces by hand? Do you have such a large precut stash that you just can pick out your reds, your blues, or do you pick your color for the block and then cut it out? Do you separate your size of squares by colors or do you just have one box for all 2-inch squares etc, with colors all mixed together? don’t have a lot of pre-cut stash, though I a huge stash of mostly fat quarters. Only recently have I started buying larger pieces. I don’t want to die with all this fabric. Postage costs so much otherwise lots would be coming to you. Maybe I should take a road trip, lol… I am excited to receive the book. I pray for you and your family often Jo. You have given so many of us joy and love for your family. ”

Cindy’s question came in after I showed this…my County Fair quilt. Right now it’s only shown with the center finished.